Welcome to the sixth installment of ACTING UP, a weekly Casting Networks feature designed to call attention to standout roles and performances in television/streaming and film. The series spotlights work in projects that have recently been released as well as work in projects being released that same week. The column also covers how those actors and actresses got to where you see them now. Read up and watch these performances as your weekly in-home acting class.
Sixth up: Ciara Bravo, whose dark comedy adventure “Wayne” premiered as an original YouTube series on Wednesday, and Spencer Treat Clark, who reprises his role as Bruce Willis’ son Joseph Dunn in the feature saga “Glass” from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, which hits theaters today.

Ciara Bravo
THE PERFORMER: Ciara Bravo
THE SERIES: “Wayne” on YouTube
THE PERFORMANCE: Bravo is Del, a pint-size bundle of 15-year-old energy with heavy doses of attitude in “Wayne,” a surprisingly violent and disturbing 10-episode YouTube original. It tells the story of Wayne (Mark Mckenna), a self-destructive would-be James Dean who sets out on a dirt bike from Boston to Florida to retrieve the 1978 Pontiac Trans-Am that was stolen from his father before he died.
Del is Wayne’s tough new squeeze who lives “in the shithole on Norton” with a criminal father and goonish brothers. She sets down the ground rules for their budding relationship right off the bat.
“OK, here’s the rules,” she explains to Wayne. “I like the romance shit, all right? I don’t like flowers. I don’t want a stupid Valentine on Valentine’s. I don’t wanna hold your fat fuddy hands all the time. And I’m never gonna cook for you unless I’m making something for myself. Oh, and my name’s Del, and it ain’t short for nothin’, so don’t ask. Got it?”
“Yep,” replies Wayne.
“Good. You wanna go cut some snakes in half with a shovel?”
We imagine there is someone with a heart of gold inside Del, even though she conceals it well. But Bravo’s effortless charm and angst-riddled warmth leaves us rooting for this girl from way, way on the wrong side of the tracks.
THE CAREER: The 21-year-old actress has been performing since the age of 9, playing everything from a young brainiac to a troubled teen. Born in northern Kentucky, she’s already been a regular on three series: the Nickelodeon comedy-musical “Big Time Rush (2009-13); the Fox dramedy “Red Band Society” (2014-15), about teen hospital patients; and the Fox sci-fi drama “Second Chance” (2016).
Of the three shows Bravo co-starred on before “Wayne,” only “Big Time Rush” enjoyed a lengthy run—though “Red Band Society,” from creator Margaret Nagle, was critically acclaimed. She also has a role in the forthcoming indie feature drama “Coast” with Melissa Leo.

Spencer Treat Clark
THE PERFORMER: Spencer Treat Clark
THE FILM: “Glass”
THE PERFORMANCE: It’s kind of a wonder that Clark’s work stands out at all considering the wattage of costars James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Sarah Paulson. But, as it turns out, Treat can hold his own with the best of them and makes his mark in reprising the role of Joseph Dunn, son of indestructible superhero David Dunn (Willis) from “Unbreakable.”
If it seems like only yesterday that “Unbreakable” (also from M. Night Shyamalan) was in theaters, it’s actually been more than 18 years. It premiered in 2000, when Clark was 13. (He’s 31 now but looks maybe 16.)
Clark has a couple of powerful scenes with Willis that find father and son bonding, mostly over Joseph’s trying to keep David out of trouble and failing miserably.
“Dad,” he says at one point, “don’t go out. Staying inside is much safer. You know what can happen.”
A master of understatement, this Joseph. But the actor from New York City is adept at making us feel his angst, his pain, his despair at being the son of a potential superhero. To say more would prove a spoiler, so suffice it to say that he spends a lot of time keeping tabs on his father through electronic surveillance.
“Don’t give up,” Joseph says. “I need you. The world needs you.”
THE CAREER: Clark had a couple of great breakthroughs in early adolescence, both in 2000, with roles in both “Unbreakable” and “Gladiator,” playing Lucius, son to Maximus played by Russell Crowe. He also appeared in the Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood drama “Mystic River” (2003) and in the final episode of “Mad Men” in 2015.
There have also been recurring roles in the ABC series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (8 episodes) and the TNT drama “Animal Kingdom” (14 episodes), the latter in episodes written by Clark’s screenwriter-sister Eliza.
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