‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ star Aryan Simhadri talks getting the role, and being a fan of the series!

In the new Disney Plus series, seventeen year-old Aryan Simhadri plays Percy Jackson’s friend, Grover Underwood. Underwood is close friends with both Anna Beth and Percy, and the one who holds the fate of the world quest. 

Talking about the audition process, Simhadri explained that it was a role he never imagined getting in his career. 

“So I submitted the tape just for fun and a few months go by, and I didn’t hear anything. And I finally got a call back, and they set it out that it was a proper call back, which meant they knew who I was. So me and my mom started freaking out in our little New York apartment, and then I sent in a self-tape.”

For Simhadri, the Percy Jackson series was a favorite of his growing up, and Grover was always his favorite character. 

“I was a huge fan of the books growing up. They left a huge mark on me, they’re the second book series I ever read after the Magic Treehouse.” 

Simhadri was first introduced to the series in school, when all of his friends were reading the famous books. 

“They had blasted through Harry Potter and all the other young adult series’ out there, and they landed on Percy Jackson, and they’re like ‘dude this is the best one yet, you have to read it’”. 

It didn’t take long for Simhadri to read through the entire series, and he explains that knowing the premise of the books inside and out helped him refrain from taking too much inspiration from previous adaptations of Grover’s character. 

Simhadri first met Walker Scobell, who plays Percy Jackson in the series, during the chemistry read. The duo became great friends on set, which also translated to a great chemistry on camera. 

“We would hang out all the time off-set, and that’s what kind of helped I guess contribute to that on screen chemistry.”

The role in the Percy Jackson series is a dream come true for Simhadri, and when asked if he could pick any other dream role to portray, he says that this is the one for him, even in comparison to a role in Harry Potter. 

“There’s so many more things I love about it [Grover]. He feels like such a more dynamic character, in a lot of ways. The fact that I get to play like that kind of character, it’s so like, I still don’t believe it’s real sometimes.” 

If he could craft a dream role for himself, Simhadri hopes that he gets the opportunity to play an Indian Spider-Man in the future!