Actor Brandon Delsid grew up in Fresno but has his sights set on Broadway and beyond.
Performing as Krys, a “two spirit” embodying both male and female energies, in Larissa FastHorse’s world premiere play “Fake It Until You Make It,” Delsid talked to LA Theatrix about the show’s upcoming move from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. — and if all goes well, maybe even onto New York.
“It’s been very fulfilling as an artist and as an actor to get to embody Krys,” he said. “It’s been freeing for me as a performer to get to live this story every night. I love that it’s about queer joy.”
Rewritten “Fake It Until You Make It” moves to D.C.
The show, a farce that centers on an Indigenous and white woman competing for a grant supporting Native American causes, also features three younger characters seemingly more comfortable with fluid identities, including Krys.
FastHorse wrote a “fairytale” for his character, Delsid said, allowing Krys to come out on top relative to some of the others — something unusual in queer stories.
“Stories about queer trauma are important,” he said. “But I also love stories about queer joy. That is what she’s given me as a gift in this show. It feels good. It feels like a step in the right direction as a queer artist to do work like this in 2025.”
The play will soon move to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., running from April 3 to May 4, and featuring most of the same cast except for Julie Bowen, who will be replaced by Amy Brenneman.
The show will also be tweaked from its L.A. world-premiere version, Delsid said, with rewrites intended to make the show “faster, funnier and more interesting,” with the goal of moving it to Broadway.
“The show will be different,” he said. “It’s going to evolve and grow. Theatre is this living, breathing thing and you can’t contain it.”
Even on opening night at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A., Delsid recalls FastHorse changing the script to have Krys enter the stage in the first few moments of the show rather than later. Though the show continues to be a work-in-progress, Delsid is taking it in stride.
“I think that freshness is what I thrive off of as an actor,” he said. “I’m realizing how much I love the quick pace. There’s something kind of primal and animalistic when we’re up there.”
Delsid credits his five “incomparable” co-stars, including Eric Stanton Betts, with whom he shares intimate moments on stage.
“We want it to be hot and lusty, and I think it comes off that way,” Delsid said of the scenes. “You don’t always get to feel that way as a queer person. You don’t always get to be celebrated for your sexuality.”
Moving for six weeks to D.C. to rehearse and perform “Fake It Until You Make It” is a “challenge” Delsid said he welcomes, especially in the current conservative political climate of the nation’s capital that is the opposite of the show’s celebration of diversity, inclusion and gender and racial fluidity.
“It’s wild that we are about to head into the belly of the beast — it’s not lost on us,” Delsid said. “It’s a troubling political time, and it does feel like we’ve taken a step back, especially for queer rights. It’s disappointing.”
But the way the play pokes fun at everyone—gay or straight, conservative or liberal—with humor, is something that the world needs more than ever right now, Delsid said..
“I’ve seen a lot of theater, and I’ve never seen anything like this show in the way that we go there,” he said. “But the show is also funny, modern and sexy. I think Washington will appreciate and respect it.
He also believes the political “pendulum” will swing back the other way in time, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. saying “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“Burn the boxes”
“Fake It Until You Make It” describing Krys as “two spirit” fits Delsid’s own resistance to putting himself or anyone else in a box or category by labeling them as one thing or another.
“Burn the boxes!” he exclaimed. “I myself have felt liberated over the past couple of years, playing with gender fluidity and makeup and costumes and outfits and how I express myself.”
But it was not always easy growing up in “conservative” Fresno, Delsid said.
“Being queer is a superpower,” he said. “But there’s a lot that comes with it that sometimes people don’t understand. It can be difficult finding your space.”
Delsid was nonetheless able to train in theatre, but it took 20 years of “hustle, work, rehearsal, classes and slow times” since the age of eight before a breakthrough role in Jennifer Lopez’s 2024 film “This Is Me...Now: A Love Story.”
Learning from Lopez how to navigate a film set and improvise scenes sharpened his skills, Delsid said.
“She was so playful — kind, loving, and nurturing, and held space for everybody, which I think is one of the biggest compliments,” he said. “She gave us space to play and create.”
Working with strong and “iconic” women — from Lopez to Bowen and even Brenneman, who has been workshopping the play with the cast in anticipation of performing in D.C. — has been inspirational, Delsid said, and plugs into the “feminine energy” around him.
“I’m drawn to them, and I think they’re drawn to me, and I think it’s this synergistic thing,” he said. “It’s empowering and its powerful and I try to channel it.”
Lucille Ball was Delsid’s first heroine, he said, and he was obsessed with her show “I Love Lucy,” watching every episode, including the “weird” seasons where the Ricardos move from New York to Connecticut.
“It fueled the type of comedy and work I want to do and what I think is in my wheelhouse as a performer,” he said. “I love physical comedy. I love drama as well, but comedy is the sweet spot.”
Moving fluidly from Broadway to a comedy series to a drama — such as his part in director Luc Besson’s soon-to-be-released film “John and June” — would be his ideal actor life, Delsid said.
“In life you keep finding yourself, keep evolving,” he said. “I’m a big believer in the best is yet to come.”
“Fake It Until You Make It” will perform at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW, Washington, D.C., from April 3 to May 4. For tickets and information, call the box office at (202) 488-3300 or visit ArenaStage.org.
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