Jalen Thomas Brooks on Off Campus, Joining the Night Shift on The Pitt

Jalen Thomas Brooks empathizes with book fans who want to see faithful onscreen adaptations. He’s an avid book reader himself.

Being such a fan of books, the 24-year-old actor knew just how dedicated the fanbase for his new Prime Video series Off Campus would be. Brooks plays John Tucker, a member of the elite Briar University hockey team and one of the closest friends to the season’s main character, Garett Graham, portrayed by Belmont Cameli.

Off Campus isn’t Brooks’ only foray into dedicated fanbases, however. The actor scored a recurring role as nurse Mateo Diaz in HBO Max’s The Pitt, appearing in every episode of the award-winning first season. His character swapped to the night shift in season two — one has to assume so that Brooks himself can pursue some academic and athletic endeavors at Briar U.

“I’ve seen social media being like the merging Off Campus and the Pitt is the craziest [thing],” he tells The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom. It’s the calm before the chaos storm that is Off Campus’ press run, which has taken the cast from junkets to L.A. red carpets all the way to Brazil for a premiere in São Paulo.

Brooks’ character Tucker is, by his definition, a bit of a “gentle giant” with a love for cooking. Much like Netflix’s winning formula with Bridgerton, Off Campus will center around different couples each season, based on the books in Elle Kennedy’s series. Tucker is the lead of the author’s fourth book in the series, The Goal.

Below, Brooks speaks with THR about his favorite books, his experience making Off Campus and how his mom helped him book The Pitt.

Let’s start with The Pitt. I saw you say elsewhere that you don’t know if they’ll bring Mateo back for next season. Noah [Hawley] has indicated that there is a want for the night shift to still be in the narrative. Can you tell me about the shift?

Shifting over to night shifts and everything, of course, has so many opportunities for stories, and I know that there’s creatives that really love to see that be explored. I know it’s floated by people’s ears, but we’ll see what that entails in the future. Mateo fits perfectly into the night shifts aura. If that’s explored, it’s money, that’s amazing. Ayesha [Harris] — she’s from the night shift — she’s going to be a regular next season. There’s going to be a little inkling of the night shift personality in the next season, which will be lovely.

What has the show meant to you?

It was my first role after the actors strike. I had to move back home, and my mom works as a front desk lady, like Lupe (Tracy Vilar) in The Pitt. She worked for a hospital. My mom’s my reader for me with all my auditions, and I did this read with her, with the scene from season one with me and Doug Driscoll (Drew Powell), where he’s telling me to hurry up, and me telling him, “I’m going to keep my eye on you.” My mom gave me one note and she said, “You need to be kinder but also more firm and a little bit more mean at the same time. Because you’re not going to let a patient talk to you like this.” We did it one time, sent that in and that’s what got me to meet with John [Wells] and Noah [Hawley]. They booked me off of that.

The Pitt was the first time I actually felt part of something being held with such care by a creative. Coming off of the strike, and what that meant for so many people getting back to work, and then being able to go back to work on that type of set was such a privilege and very humbling. Then as the show has gone on, and the bubble’s popped — the reception of it has been larger than life.

The Off Campus books are quite beloved in that romance space. There’s a lot of people who have been waiting for this series and feel really protective over it. Does that ever give you pause?

I’m an avid book reader. I read all the time, and there’s books out there that I can’t wait that are going to get an on-screen adaptation. I understand the passion that as a book reader, you’re like, “Don’t get it wrong. I hope this actor understands,” and there’s a responsibility there. The thing that’s cool about Tucker — it not being my season and being further down the line — is that he has this ability of becoming now. There’s differences about him that are in the book, that are on the screen. But the core of who Tucker is internally, and I believe what people fell in love with, is so there and so illuminated. I love a good slow burn, and the things that are set up for Tucker, of him becoming this gentle giant, I think fans are going to love. It’s something that, as a book reader, I’m licking my fingers being like, oh my goodness, you get to see a character stumble in and become this guy, which is awesome.

What books do you like to read?

I read everything. I’m a big Narnia buff. I love C.S. Lewis. I’ve read all the Game of Thrones books. Strangely, I haven’t read Harry Potter, which everybody thinks is funny, but I’m a big James Baldwin guy. My friends have been trying to get me into Fourth Wing because they think I’ll like it because I love Game of Thrones and dragons.

You will.

I dabble in everything fiction, it doesn’t matter if it’s YA or for an older audience. My favorite authors of all time are James Baldwin and then Fredrik Backman, who wrote Anxious People and A Man Called Ove. He’s wonderful.

How familiar were you with this subgenre of hockey romance?

In a really humbling way, I did not know anything about hockey romance sub-genre of BookTok. When the cast announcement came out, a lot of people, when we were auditioning for it, a lot of people on the business side were like, “This show has a lot of legs.” It’s like there’s a fandom, there’s all this stuff. As an actor, everybody goes, “OK, that’s great. Cool. But is it really?” Then you get cast, and it was this onslaught of just Reddit posts, Tweets, Instagram Reels, and you’re just like, “Whoa, this is insane.” I posted a story that my friend screenshot because she thought it was the most time capsule-worthy thing. I searched up, “What is smut?” because I didn’t know what smut was. I posted [that] on my Instagram Story, and my friend told me, “You’re going to find out what smut is for the next four years.”

I imagine bringing this show to life feels a bit like you’re actually on a team. You’re filming and spending all your time with these other actors on this hockey team.

Absolutely. I have a very athletic background. I was constantly a part of sports teams, and it’s something that I’ve always chased, that camaraderie of everything. I got to meet Elle [Kennedy] multiple times, and it was something that she would always say: they come to the books for their reasons, but they stay for the brotherhood. They love how the characters have each other’s backs, how they support each other and how their lives intertwine. It’s something, as a young man growing up, that I always wanted and craved — having a brotherhood. It’s fun to portray that, but it was even better to actually find that in Belmont, Antonio [Cipriano] and Stephen [Kalyn]. It really bleeds onto the screen, and the audiences are really going to feel the chemistry we all have. That team dynamic that we have is not just because we’re on a hockey team, but because we actually have each other’s backs on set while we’re acting and off set. We just have each other’s best interests in mind. It’s a really special thing and doesn’t happen all the time. But it’s very fun to portray. Just like how you do when you’re a young kid playing on an actual sports team, it’s like the locker room etiquette, the jokes and it’s happening 24/7 on the set, and it’s the best time.

Did you read any of the books preparing for the show?

I read the first book, The Deal. I didn’t want to read any books afterwards because I didn’t want to have preconceived notions about who Tucker is, what’s happening, where he’s at, because it could impede on my opinions or anything that isn’t in the script. Tucker specifically is different in a sense. He’s going to end up in the same place, and that’s the goal for everything — Oh, that’s a pun (Laughs). That’s the end goal. How you get there is totally different. Louisa, all the producers and the writers are putting little inklings that are showing these sprinkles of just who John Tucker is that are going to snowball into things. That’s one of the beauties that people are going to notice about the show as it goes on, even into the second season. You’re going to go back into the first season and then be like, wait, they said that there.

You’ve already been renewed for a second season. The studio obviously has faith in you all and the show, and there’s a lot of anticipation. Does that add a bit of pressure on you and the others?

It’s something that we’ve all been asking ourselves a lot actually — how do we feel about all this anticipation? We’ve all been on projects where it just doesn’t have that. What’s funny is that it’s been a nice little learning curve of holding it loosely in a sense, of putting your attention in what you can control. You’re not going to be able to control what people are going to like about it or dislike about it, and that’s going to happen with how much anticipation is behind it. There’s going to be people who don’t like it, and there’s going to be people who love it and there’s people right in the middle.

For me, I enjoy the pressure and the anticipation of it all because I am confident in what we’ve done. Man, I hate to relate everything back to sports, but it’s like this game time thing of, I’m confident in it and I can’t wait for people to watch. The more eyes the better. Everybody wants eyes on their work.