Netflix’s ‘Grand Army’ Star Sydney Meyer Discusses Her Role + the New Series!

Hi Sydney! Tell us about Grand Army and your character. 

Grand Army is a gritty, true to life look at American teenagers in their life in school and online. It covers a range of issues from the day to day issues of dating and finding yourself in high school, to more timely, sensitive issues like sexual assault, racism, and discovering one’s sexual identity. I play Anna Delaney, she’s the motherly figure of her group. She’s intelligent, nurturing, quick to laugh, and protective of the ones she loves. She’s Tim’s sister and Joey Del Marco’s best friend since childhood. Anna finds herself in a difficult position when friction arises within her friend group and she needs to make a very serious decision about who she is going to be and what she is going to stand for.

What do you hope viewers, especially younger viewers, will get from the series? 

I really hope that viewers will see themselves in this show. That they will feel seen and heard. Whether that’s through character representation on screen or through the different story arcs. I hope our show can act as a catalyst to start some conversations that perhaps have been difficult to broach in the past. I hope after watching this show that over the dinner table or in the hall with friends people will find the strength to talk about the issues that are discussed in Grand Army.

What was it like working with the cast and crew on this project? 

It was a totally unique experience for me. So many of the cast knew each other already coming into the show and almost all of the cast was American. I was one of very few Canadians on the show even though we were filming in Toronto. I was also the oldest of the cast so I felt like my character in a way because I did feel quite motherly toward so many of these amazing kids that were still in high school and were on a show for the first time. I felt protective of them. Odessa A’zion who plays Joey moved in with me in Toronto and we became so close. I think life mimicked art in that sense. We became a family. It was a very intense, emotional experience. I learned a lot about myself throughout the process.

Did you have to do any type of unique things to get into character for this role? 

I made a playlist for myself for each episode that I would listen to to help me follow the emotional character arc of Anna and allow me to drop into where she was mentally and emotionally at that point in the show. I also decided to wear a perfume that I wore in high school. I found the sense memory of that helped to bring me back to where I was and what I was feeling when I was 16. I felt a big part of my job was to truthfully depict a teenager and to have some grace and forgiveness for my character in terms of the confusion I felt when I was that age. Being the oldest one on the set, I had to allow myself to go back to that age without any judgment.