The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Incoming
star Loren Gray.
Gray discusses her journey from Musical.ly to scoring a major role in a Netflix comedy.
She also explains why she has a no-fear attitude toward acting.

The entertainment industry has a habit of boxing artists in. Have your Hollywood breakout via a horror movie? I’m willing to bet you’ll see an influx of genre scripts. Make a name for yourself with a particular type of music? The business will come to expect more of the same. But what about a social media superstar eager to pursue more paths and art forms out in Los Angeles? Given the fact that the number of high-profile social media personalities is skyrocketing, we’re bound to see more and more explore other sectors of entertainment. Someone who’s already well on her way while pursuing that path? Loren Gray.

Gray started building her fan base on the music-driven social media app Musical.ly, a following that transitioned over to TikTok when Musical.ly merged into TikTok in 2018. At this point in time, Gray is the 24th most followed TikTok creator with a whopping 53.7 million followers. She also has nearly 24 million followers on Instagram and 3.66 million subscribers on YouTube where she shares vlogs and her own music, much of which is quite successful. While Gray is still very passionate about all of this work, she’s eager to pursue an additional path in entertainment, a path she dubs her first love — acting.

With the high school comedy Incoming starring Mason Thames now available to stream on Netflix, Gray swung by the Collider Ladies Night studio for an interview covering her journey from Musical.ly to professional actor. She ran through some of her earliest acting inspirations, discussed what it was like making the move to Los Angeles as a teenager, and pinpointed the highs and lows of breaking into Hollywood as a social media star eager to build a career as an actor.

Why Did Loren Gray Choose Musical.ly?
“It was very positive for a young Loren who was dealing with a lot. I needed that outlet.”

Gray is now widely known for her monumental success on social media and with her music, but acting was actually her first love. In fact, she used to recite the introduction of Avatar: The Last Airbender to her parents as a kid, and would frequently act out scenes from favorite films, like The Sixth Sense.

However, while she dreamed of becoming an actor when she grew up, the itch to entertain was always there in a broader sense. She explained:

“I always loved entertaining in any form. I loved singing. I had my little karaoke machine, and I would have tickets that my parents would give me, and I would invite them into the dining room to watch me perform. Dancing. When I got a little older, I was a cheerleader and did a ton of sports. So really, any form of performance, but acting is the first thing.”

The combination of Gray’s love of acting — comedy specifically — and her love of music led her to the social media app Musical.ly. But, Gray didn’t join the app with the intention of amassing a following. That happened accidentally. She recalled:

“I didn’t fully understand Musical.ly when I started gaining traction, so I was sort of learning as I was growing an audience. I was uploading videos accidentally. I was trying to save them to my camera roll and then they were going viral. [Laughs] That’s how I started learning about it. But music is a huge part of my life, and Musical.ly/TikTok are very music-based platforms — I mean, it’s the same platform, but just a little different. But, at that time,
it was very music-based, which made me feel really comfortable because I love music, and there was also the comedy aspect
.”

Not only did the comedy and music combination suit Gray’s style of creativity, but she also found Musical.ly to be a safe space to get silly and be herself.

“At that time, there was a lot less pressure. I feel like there’s a lot more pressure now, but at that time, I could be funny, and I liked to post my gymnastics and cheerleading, and kind of a little bit of everything. The whole platform felt very natural, very organic, and kind of aligned with everything that I loved. And the community was great, too. The fans were really great, and still are. And that was sort of the beginning of everything. I would say
it was very positive for a young Loren who was dealing with a lot. I needed that outlet, for sure.
”

Loren Gray Wasn’t Given Credit When She Got to Hollywood — But That Didn’t Stop Her
“When I came to LA … I realized how dumb everyone thought I was.”
Image via Netflix

When Gray made the move out to Los Angeles, she was already a certified star with millions of followers. However, sadly, building a hugely successful brand doesn’t necessarily guarantee one gets respect while navigating the entertainment industry in Hollywood.

“I’d grown up in a household where anything was possible, right? I always sort of had my parents’ trust with taking the lead over my own life. If I thought that something was gonna be best for me, then they would support that.
I also grew up in a house where I felt really smart.
I was nurtured in that way. So,
when I came to LA and I was interacting with record labels and men [laughs], I realized how dumb everyone thought I was.
That was a really, really tough feeling because I felt like I had proved myself because I built this platform on my own and I had what I thought were pretty good marketing skills, and I just wasn’t given any credit. It was really frustrating. So that was definitely a learning curve. You have to constantly prove yourself and constantly show up, and I have no problem doing that now, but I definitely got my feelings hurt quite a bit in the beginning because I
knew
what I was capable of and I knew other people didn’t necessarily always see that.”

The key to powering through that frustration? Continuing to have sky-high faith in her ability and work, and to learn how to best navigate the business. For Gray, it’s all about finding the appropriate balance between sticking up for herself and knowing when to “bite [her] tongue.” She explained:

“You gotta know when to bite your tongue and when to stick up for yourself, and there were a lot of times when I felt like biting my tongue was actually the most powerful thing I could do in some moments because
there’s a lot of times when I’ve been really, really frustrated and I’ve really, really wanted to act out of line, but keeping it together and handling things in a professional way always worked out for me
. I think being strategic and evolving with my career, and knowing when to make the right decisions. And my mom helped a lot with that. My mom was never a stage mom, but she did keep an eye on everything and
taught
me instead of being like, ‘I’m handling this. I’m your manager.’ She taught me so that, now that I’m older, I have the reins, and I learned on my own as well.”

Another major lesson learned during her early days with a record label? Trusting her gut and knowing when to say no.

“
I think saying ‘no’ made me feel a lot of power.
I was signed to a record label and they offered me a song about being bisexual. They obviously didn’t listen to the lyrics. They were like, ‘It’s a hit, it’s a hit, it’s a hit.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t sing that.’
That’s where I put my foot down.
And that was the right decision for me because that would’ve never worked out, and I knew that. It was the same thing —
my most streamed song is called “Queen,” and I fought
so
hard for that song
. They did not want to put it out and they didn’t want to put any budget behind it. My mom took the photo for the Spotify cover on her phone, and we made it happen, and then it ended up being the most streamed song. It was just a lot of knowing when to say no, knowing when to bite your tongue, and making those strategic moves to not burn any bridges but also move forward in the best way.”

“I work really hard, and that’s something I know for a fact.”
Image via Netflix

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Gray has proven herself on social media. She’s proven herself in the music realm. Is she ready to do that yet again as a Hollywood actor? You bet she is. In fact, she’s come to love the challenge of proving herself.

“It’s the same thing in any medium that I explore and any creative path that I pursue. I’m always gonna have to prove myself, and I’m okay with that because I like raising the bar a little bit, and being like, ‘No, I can do this.’ So I don’t mind. I used to really be bothered by being put in those boxes, but I’m older now and I have more faith in myself than I did as a 16, 17, 18-year-old, and that only continues to grow.
I work really hard, and that’s something I know for a fact
, so I have no problem because I love breaking out of those boxes.”

Turns out, breaking out of the social media box and into acting was made easier for Gray because of her social media experience. Not only did she have on-set experience, but she’s also no longer afraid of embarrassing herself.

“When it comes to social media, I’m very fortunate because I’ve had so much time on set and interacting with people. Obviously not as an actress, but I’ve been on a lot of sets, I’ve been a part of a lot of projects, and I know how to handle those situations. I’m also not afraid of embarrassing myself.
My whole life is on the internet. I have no shame anymore
, so that was really helpful when we were shooting
Incoming
. [Laughs] But yeah, there’s a lot of things that I take with me from my background, obviously. That’s a big one because that’s what gets in a lot of peoples’ way, is fear. I still have a little bit of that, but a lot less than I used to.”

Why Loren Gray Wanted to Play Katrina in ‘Incoming’
Incoming is now available to stream on Netflix.

Gray plays Katrina in Incoming, an upperclassman who gets herself into a rather extreme and deeply mortifying situation in a car with two freshmen (Ramon Reed and Raphael Alejandro). The role plain old does not work without a fearless actor willing to give 110%. Fortunately for directors Dave and John Chernin, they found just that in Gray.

“I’d done a lot of self-tape auditions here and there, but nothing really jumped out at me the way that
Incoming
did. First of all, I loved that it was a comedy because I love a comedy and I think I can be funny, so that was something I really wanted to do. But
the role was just so outlandish
. There were two different sides for two different roles, and I loved the role of Katrina because it was so me! [Laughs] It was so me. It aligned with who I am perfectly, and it’s just so outlandish and out there. I feel like it’s what people would expect from me, but with a twist, which I was really, really stoked on, so I wanted it really bad.
She’s funny and it’s silly, and that was really great because I wanted a project that I felt like I could push myself on
, and it was the perfect combination because it was comedy, so it can be silly and it can be fun and I don’t have to take it too seriously, but I also get to do these really crazy, outlandish things that people wouldn’t necessarily expect me to do.”

One of the best parts of having a first big acting experience that demands one go to such extremes? Gray will forge forward with her acting career with the feeling that she can do anything.

“I’m glad I got to do this as my first experience because it’s so far out there that I feel like anything I do now. It can’t be as embarrassing — maybe it could. But
I feel like I’ve embarrassed myself to the highest degree
, I’ve put myself out there to the highest degree, and I know I can do it now. I watched the movie, I didn’t cringe at myself, which I was really expecting to do — I mean, I did, but not because of the acting. I know I can do it now, and that, I think, was the biggest hurdle for me because I have to prove it to myself the same way I’m proving it to everyone else, because I don’t even really know what I’m capable of until I get out there and do it.”

Eager to hear even more from Gray about her experience building a social media empire and making the transition to acting? Be sure to catch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

Incoming (2024) Incoming is a high school comedy about four freshmen—Benji, Connor, Eddie, and Koosh—who face the challenges and hilarity of their first-ever party. As they navigate this milestone, they encounter various adolescent terrors. Release Date August 23, 2024 Director Dave Chernin , John Chernin Main Genre Comedy

Incoming is now available to stream on Netflix.

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