Toronto actor home for ‘American Idiot’ musical
Jake Epstein (Will) in Green Day’s
Jake Epstein (Will) in Green Day’s

The Canadian Press

Date: Monday Jan. 2, 2012 6:58 AM ET

TORONTO Toronto actor Jake Epstein is rocking his home city with Green Day’s “American Idiot” musical.

The 24-year-old, who rose to fame playing troubled Craig on “Degrassi: The Next Generation,” plays Will in the touring production that’s now at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Epstein says the theatre is just down the street from his high school.

Epstein’s character sinks into depression on his couch in the punk-rock opera that’s based on the 2004 Green Day album.

He says he identifies with his character because he, too, once spent a lot of time on his couch waiting for better things to come.

Epstein says it happened last year while he was in Los Angeles to audition for TV shows.

He says he spent a lot of time waiting by the phone for a call telling him he got the job, and one day he did — for “American Idiot.”