My worst moment: ‘Black-ish’ and ‘Grown-ish’ star Marcus Scribner on an early harsh lesson as a child actor

Marcus Scribner’s career took off in 2014 with the ABC comedy “Black-ish,” playing oldest son Andre “Junior” Johnson. The role has since transitioned over to “Grown-ish” on Freeform, following the character to college.

Was continuing Junior’s trajectory into young adulthood part of the appeal? “One hundred percent,” said Scribner. “After talking to all of our producers about their ideas for Junior and turning him into Andre — and what his college experience would be like — all of that was very exciting for me. It’s crazy, I’ve been playing this character for 10 years, since I was 13. Junior’s personality is consistent throughout, but as an individual, he’s grown into a real person. He gets to actually grow up.”

At 23, you might wonder: Has Scribner been around long enough to have a worst moment? “Oh, I’ve got multiple,” he said. “There’s a lot of failures on the road to success.”

My worst moment …

“This really affected me, and at the time it felt like such a big deal. When I was in middle school, one of my first big guest starring roles was on ‘New Girl’ in (2012). I was super excited about it.

“Jess, the main character played by Zooey Deschanel, was a schoolteacher. And my character was one of her students and I had a crush on her and painted a bunch of sticks — like, straight-up tree branches; he was an odd fella — and gave them to her. It was a whole storyline and we had a scene where a couple of lines are exchanged.

“I was super excited about this moment. ‘New Girl’ was popping at this time and was critically acclaimed. (Co-star) Lamorne Morris was so cool. The whole cast was so nice. I think they had just won an Emmy and they were toasting with Champagne on set and gave my dad some Champagne. The whole experience was amazing, I had a great time. And the scene went well, I remember the whole crew was laughing.

“I felt great after leaving. Like: I ate that up! They’ll never recover from that (laughs).

“But I jumped the gun a bit. Just a bit. Just a smidge. Because I told literally everyone I knew that I was going to be on the show — including everybody at my school, which is kind of embarrassing looking back; why was I trying to impress everybody?

“And, um (laughs) my scenes never made the light of day.

“It’s the way these things go. But I learned a valuable lesson to never let anybody know about a project you’re in until it sees the light of day because you could be cut.”

This is not an unusual thing to happen for actors.

“At all! It’s extremely normal. Even when you have a bigger role, they’ll cut a bunch out, trim the fat, make it a more concise project.

“It was mortifying for me. But I held my head up high and was like, you know what? I was on an episode of ‘New Girl,’ the check cleared, I still have the credit, it just never got to see the light of day (laughs).”

Was he warned that he’d been cut?

“No. They never tell you. It was a guest star role, so after you do your part, they kind of cut contact with you (laughs) because you’re just a day player.

“I think they sent us a computer file of the episode before it aired, so we got to watch it before it came out. And we’re sitting around the computer, waiting the whole time for my part — and it never happened. Luckily I was just with my parents, and they laughed and were like, ‘It’s all good.’

“I’m pretty good at brushing things off. But I was 12 and I was crushed. It was embarrassing. They cut my part!

“And then I was like, ooooh (shoot), how do I spin this to my classmates? That was the immediate next thought because I had literally told everyone that I was going to be on this episode. And I had lines, this wasn’t just a background thing. I used to do background acting before that. I started acting when I was around 7, so I had done a bunch of background stuff before that. But I had a speaking role this time and it was a cool scene. How do I let everybody know that I’m not in it?

“So that increased the anxiety tenfold.

“I decided, you know what? Don’t say anything to anyone and let them watch it and come to their own conclusion, and then you can have that difficult conversation after the fact.”

Did any of his classmates think he’d made the whole thing up?

“That was the thing! Beforehand, a lot of people were doubting me. Like, ‘Oh yeah, sure, you’re going to be on an episode of “New Girl,” we don’t believe you.’ Especially in middle school, people lie all the time. So I’m sure nobody believed me.

“So to be proven wrong right after that was the worst.

“But then I booked ‘Black-ish’ and I was like, yes, suck it (laughs). See, I wasn’t lying.

“My friends, though, were like, ‘We watched the episode and didn’t see you in it — which part were you in?’ Completely innocent. Because I think they were trying to figure out if they missed it or if it was a different episode. And I was just like, ‘Guys, I have to be honest with you: It looks like they cut my role.’ And everybody was really cool about it. They were like, ‘Yeah, it happens’ — and I was like, you guys are in middle school, how do you know what’s up?

“But for me, at the time, it was a big deal to see my part cut.

“If that happened now, I’d be like, oh whatever. But I also wouldn’t have told everybody (laughs).”

The takeaway …

“It prepared me for how difficult the industry is. You put all this work into something, study for hours, and then it’s just cut. So it definitely was a valuable lesson and it humbled me.

“I mean, I had been told ‘no’ so often on auditions before that and I tried to not let that affect me. But as a little kid, it’s pretty difficult, especially when you’re trying your hardest at something.

“When people ask me how to get into acting, I wouldn’t say background work is a good steppingstone to actually get into acting. But I think it teaches you a lot of valuable lessons about what it’s like to be on set because you get to just observe everything that’s happening.

“Being a background actor is difficult, I salute every background actor out there (laughs). People are so mean to you, and I was a kid and I felt like people were mean to me. I was like, how are you going to mean to a child (laughs)?

“It just goes to show you that the world is not sunshine and rainbows.”

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic

nmetz@chicagotribune.com