Photographer Dani Brubaker
Fashion Luca Kingston at The Only Agency
Groomer (Belmont and Antonio) Aika Flores at The Wall Group using Ciele Cosmetics
Groomer (Jalen and Stephen) Simone Kogen at Exclusive Artists using Sisley Paris and Oribe
Writer and Producer Tessa Swantek
Photographer Assistant Hector Prida
Fashion Assistants Viktoria Petrovski and Garrett Blatt
On-Set Producer Jesse Zapatero
Creative Art Direction Tessa Swantek and Melissa Aggrey
Locations Unita Club and Wendy's Place, El Segundo
“[In baseball], if you hit the ball three out of ten times, you’re an All-Star. You’re batting three-hundred. The same goes for acting. [Success rate] could be one out of seventy. You got that one, and that’s all you have to focus on.”
“I treated hockey very selfishly in many ways. I didn't care if we won or lost as long as I performed and played well. I learned that you have to let that go. The more I let go, the more I learned that most things in life can’t be done on your own.”
- STEPHEN KALYN
“Sometimes I’ll think, 'Oh, it's going to end up hurting if I don't get [this role].’ Then I have a twenty-four-hour rule, which comes from sports, too. I let myself sulk and feel like shit for twenty-four hours, and then after that, you just pop back onto the board.”
- BELMONT CAMELI
“[After filming], I was proud that I allowed myself to be like, ‘You know what? You deserve to be here.’ Belmont said, ‘How much does the world have to tell you before you know you’re good at what you're doing?’”
Preview our hour-long cover conversation with the core four of Prime Video's Off Campus below:
Jalen, I know you played basketball; Belmont did wrestling and football; Stephen played hockey; and Antonio played baseball. What did each of you learn about yourself through sports and shared camaraderie?
Jalen: One of my biggest takeaways from basketball is just how important and necessary it is to preserve childlike wonder. Tenacity, growth, and grit are so prevalent in a young kid. If they want something, they're going to go for it, and that is important and rare. That can go away as you get older, because life shuts you down, and you realise that not everybody can be the best. What's stuck with me is a sense of becoming. Nothing’s final. Like with acting, you can stop tomorrow, but it's not going anywhere. You can always come back. Sports seem very final because there’s a winner and a loser, but when you're really in sports, you realise it's more of an internal dialogue with yourself. There is no losing. There's only improvement. That's helped me in acting, too. There are no small parts.
Stephen: I loved hockey because it was the only thing I looked forward to, for a time. It was my own thing. I wasn't great at school. I wasn't great at anything. It was like: show up, play hockey, go home, make people laugh, and call it a day. I treated hockey very selfishly in many ways. I didn't care if we won or lost as long as I performed and played well. I was just looking out for myself and trying to be scouted and brought up by the NHL. I learned that you have to let that go. The more I let go, the more I learned that most things in life can’t be done on your own. I'm not in the position I'm in today because of only myself. My friends, family, and coaches have been part of my journey. One thing that I lacked was confidence on the ice.
Antonio: Stephen lacking confidence?
Stephen: Hold up. I mean, lacking confidence in a hockey game. That would make me play badly. I would be shy, but in some games, I would have confidence, and you couldn’t get the puck off of me. Moving into acting, I decided never to let that lack of confidence take over ever again. Some days, you just have to fake it until you make it.
Antonio: With baseball, my biggest takeaway is something that my dad taught me when he was the coach of my team. One, you're only as good as your last at bat. Always get back up, and have a short memory. That applies to anything in life. And also, burn all the ships. My dad said that during our championship game. We were freaking out because we weren't the home team. He was like, ‘Okay, guys. Burn the ships, we're not going back. We have to come out of here with a win.’
Belmont: Sick. I could run through a brick wall right now.
Antonio: I ran through a fucking brick wall, man. We won that shit!
Belmont: I love being on a team so much. That’s what filmmaking is: it’s a team sport. Your Assistant Directors are the quarterback, the Director is the offensive coordinator—football stuff. Every department has its role, and they can't do it without the others. I’ve been thinking about wrestling a lot lately. Whether I knew I was going to wipe the mat with the dude or I didn’t stand a chance, I would get a pit in my stomach. I would get so, so, so nervous. That never went away. I still feel like that.
Antonio: Yeah, of course.
Belmont: I get that pit. Shout out to The Pitt, Jalen. [laughs] You get all this adrenaline and just channel it. Whenever I'm next up in the room for a callback, I get that feeling too.
Jalen: It's that game time feeling.
Belmont: Oh, it’s so good.
Take in the full 24-page cover story beyond this teaser. Our brand new Spring Summer 2026 issue, "ROOTS" is available to buy online.
