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The Office, Oscar Movies, and More: Jake Lacy's Shockingly Eclectic Career, Recapped
Jake Lacy will take on the role of wealthy venture capitalist Troy Delaney in Peacock's new limited series Apples Never Fall.
He’s been the perpetual nice guy, the entitled newlywed, and the kidnapper hiding in plain sight, but actor Jake Lacy’s latest role has him exploring the family ties that bind.
Lacy will take on the role of Troy Delaney, the wealthy and successful second-oldest Delaney sibling whose life is suddenly thrown into chaos when his mother mysteriously disappears, in Peacock’s Apples Never Fall, premiering March 14.
It’s just one of the latest characters Lacy, who shot to fame on The Office and later earned an Emmy nomination for his role on The White Lotus, has embodied on screen since his career began more than a decade ago.
“I just want to be a part of stories and characters that I'm interested in that I think are engaging, whether that's good people or bad people or heroes or villains or somewhere in the middle,” Lacy told Harper’s Bazaar in 2021 of his career ambitions.
As fans wait to sink their teeth into the deliciously addictive Apples Never Fall, let’s revisit some of Lacy’s most memorable roles.
Who did Jake Lacy play in The Office?
Lacy’s acting career began in 2008 with a one-episode run on the popular soap opera Guiding Light, but he didn’t earn a more regular gig until two years later when he landed the role of Casey on the television series Better with You, according to IMDB.
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Lacy then got a “surreal” career break in 2012, when he was cast as one of the latest paper company employees on NBC’s hit comedy, The Office, in the show’s final season.
He played Pete, a nice guy and love interest for office assistant Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper), who was given the unfortunate nickname “Plop” by rival Andy Bernard (Ed Helms).
As Lacy shared with NBC Insider, one of his favorite memories from his time on the show was watching Pam, played by Jenna Fischer, deliver her final confessional-style interview to the camera.
“I just [had] this weird mix of being a fan and knowing what this moment means to me as a viewer and also being at work with people, who, this has been their life for the last like 10 years and knowing what it means to them, and that was surreal,” he recalled. “It’s still surreal I got to be there, you know? Like, I got to see it. I got to be in the thing."
How does Jake Lacy feel about playing the nice guy?
From there, Lacy went on to play a series of other “nice guys” whether it was Max in Obvious Child opposite Jenny Slate, Ken in How to Be Single, Fran Parker on Girls, or Clyde in the television series High Fidelity.
“A lot of the time, you get cast from a thing that somebody’s seen you in, and if you filled that role well in one place, then they are more inclined to think of you for a similar thing later down the line,” he told Harper’s Bazaar.
While Lacy said he was “very fortunate” to get steady work, the nice guy roles were more straightforward than some of his later work.
“A lot of those roles where I'm a solid boyfriend are to exist in that story to complete somebody else's arc or to create discovery for them to be like, ‘Hey, maybe the stable thing isn't so bad. Maybe the stable, loving thing is better than the chaotic boyfriend who doesn't call you back and forgot your birthday. Maybe that's not that sexy,’” he said.
The married father also admitted that in real life he’s “not as laid-back and blindly supportive as the characters I've played.”
Who did Jake Lacy play in The White Lotus?
Lacy stepped away from his usual nice guy role in the first season of The White Lotus.
Lacy played entitled newlywed Shane Patton, who becomes so obsessed with getting the “Pineapple Suite” his mother paid for at the Hawaiian resort that he set into motion a deadly chain of events.
He told The Independent the character was so despised among fans people would stop him on the street when they saw him to tell him “Oh man, we hated you.”
The role earned him a 2022 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Lacy credited the series’ director Mike White with bringing out the character’s affable yet “unpalatable” behavior.
“I really just looked at the script, and then followed Mike's lead and tried to selfishly just think about what Shane wanted out of this and accepted that he's a person that is pretty shameless about that stuff, has never needed to sugarcoat anything, whether it's like, [if] he wants to have sex now, he wants to have sex now; [if] he wants to not go to the beach, he's not going to go. [He] just has lived a life of expectation and privilege to be like, 'I do what I want when I want. What is the problem?'” Lacy explained to Harper's Bazaar.
Who does Jake Lacy play in A Friend of the Family?
Lacy took on an even darker role in Peacock’s limited series A Friend of the Family. Lacy played Robert “B” Berchtold, a close friend of the Broberg family who allegedly kidnaps their young teenage daughter not once, but twice, in the dramatized true-life tale.
“We wanted to be authentic and compassionate toward what the experience was like inside this family, inside this community when this wonderful young girl gets taken,” Lacy told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 of playing the sinister character. “Ultimately, the saving grace for me, and for the production, was that there’s a real purpose in telling this story: Let’s shine a light on what it is to be a victim of both sexual abuse as a child, but also as a family and the people surrounding that, and what it’s like when you’re in the grasp of a predator who’s manipulating and gaslighting and coercing, and how difficult it is to make decisions that from the outside is very easy to say, ‘That’s a red flag, why did they do that?’ But from inside the experience, you feel cornered and trapped and alone. That’s the tool he uses to get what he wants. And he’s very good at it.”
Who does Jake Lacy play in Apples Never Fall?
Lacy takes on the complex dynamics within a family in Peacock’s new limited series Apples Never Fall.
Lacy plays Troy Delaney, one of four siblings who, as the press materials explain, has a “competitive edge” that once served him as a young tennis player but is “now his greatest asset as a venture capitalist.”
“Troy is working overtime to compensate for this gaping hole in him where there should be love and confidence and there isn’t, or perhaps some self-love,” Lacy recently told Digital Journal of the character. “That is just clear and very active to play: a guy who is driving full-steam ahead and feels like his serenity will exist or be found if he can just crush enough.”
The limited series also stars Annette Bening and Sam Neill, who play parents Joy and Stan Delaney. Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner, and Essie Randles round out the cast as the other Delaney siblings.
“I’ve always been drawn to stories with moral complexity and that embrace complicated people and possibilities,” showrunner Melanie Marnich said. “I couldn’t wait to dramatize Joy’s life on screen, to capture her marriage to Stan, and to explore the siblings’ lives as they grapple with plot twist after plot twist.”
To see Lacy and the rest of the cast tell the suspenseful tale, watch Apples Never Fall on Peacock beginning March 14.
