Jean-Luc Bilodeau is known for his role on ABC Family’s television show Kyle XY.  Bilodeau recently spoke to Media Blvd. Magazine about his work on Kyle XY as well as his upcoming project.  Bilodeau plays the part of Josh Trager, the youngest member of the Trager family.

Bilodeau, who is fairly new to acting, was drawn to it because he likes to keep people entertained.  “As a kid, I always loved Jim Carrey.  I used to do his impersonations and stuff like that.  I don’t know what it was, but I just like to entertain people.  I’ve always been a dancer.  I went to dance competitions and stuff like that, and just being in front of a big crowd of people brings me to an awesome place.  So, I think it made me want to become an actor because the majority of famous actors are just in front of everybody all the time and, being in the spot light, I like it. I like to entertain people and make them laugh.  Acting just fit the part.”

The audition for the part of Josh was pretty much like other roles Bilodeau has auditioned for in the past.  “My agent called up, I had an audition, so I went to downtown Vancouver and I did the audition, thought I did well, and within about a couple of weeks I got a call from some Hollywood execs saying that they wanted me to fly out to L.A. to audition for them.  I pretty much just got on a plane, went to L.A., did the audition, thought I did well again, so I was pretty excited and flew back home.  Then my agent called and said I had the part.  So, it was pretty much just like any other TV show or movie audition.”

Bilodeau likes his role on the show.  “It is a really funny character.  Josh is a great kid and I love his lines.  He is such a funny, outgoing person.  The lines the writers give me are just hilarious, and I love to play around with it and whatnot.  I just got lucky, that’s for sure, with Josh.”

Bilodeau also enjoys the people that he works with.  “I’d say my favorite part about working on Kyle XY is the actors.  Everyday of my life being around them is just so fun, you know?  Even if you’re having a hard time, being around Matt [ Dallas] or any of the guys, they’re great people.  I’d like the show even if they weren’t on it, but they just make everything so much better.  I came from commercials to going into TV and they made the transition really easy by being so outgoing and so cool.  I’d say that’s my most favorite part on being on Kyle XY.”

Bilodeau has fun playing tricks on his coworkers.  “One day I just started scaring Matt Dallas.  I’d just hide behind things and I’d pop out whenever he was walking anywhere, and I’d just scream really loud and lunge at him.  I don’t know, I just started doing it almost every day.  A couple of times, he almost punched me in the face once.  His gut reaction to getting scared is throwing a punch.  So if I get too close to him, I’m going to get a fist in the face.  It’s stuff like that.  I love scaring Matt.  He’s such a funny guy to play around with like that. Other than that, there’s not much PG rated stuff we talk about on the show.  So I don’t know.  I’d say that the scaring and all that is the biggest practical joke I play on the people.”

Bilodeau’s favorite episode has less to do with the story and more to do with the experience.  “I think my most eye-opening scene would be the one where I got naked in the hot tub, episode four of the first season.  I was wearing a Speedo.  I had never worn a Speedo before, so it was a very eye opening and a pretty fun experience, I’d say.  Me and Merritt Patterson had a lot of fun shooting that scene, that’s for sure.”

Bilodeau also likes the action storylines.  “I’ve always been kind of an action sort of guy, so anything to do with Tom Foss (played by Nicholas Lea) and Kyle (played by Matt Dallas), all that training stuff, I love that; that’s cool.  Pretty much all that action or the mystery between Kyle and Baylin (played by J. Eddie Peck).  That’s really cool stuff.  I like all the story lines on Kyle, but I’d say the action would be my top favorite for sure.”

Even with all the fun, working on the show is still hard work.  “There aren’t many negative things about being on the set of Kyle XY that’s for sure.  I’d say the least thing I like about being on Kyle XY is the fact that I live in Surrey, and they shoot in Vancouver.  Surrey is about an hour and a half away from Vancouver where we shoot during heavy traffic.  In the mornings, I have to wake up two hours before my call time, so I don’t get much sleep, which I need as a growing teenager, right?  But I can’t complain.  Kyle XY has been so good to me and I love the show, so I can put up with the short sleep.  I’m no baby.”

Bilodeau also has to balance work and school.  “I’ve never really liked school, so it’s not too hard, because I don’t really stress myself over a lot of things in school, especially exams.  I kind of just do it.   Sometimes it gets a little edgy when you’re behind with homework and you’ve got to catch up.  But, other than that, school on set is really cool because you’re just with your one-on-one teacher, except with Kirsten Prout as well.  It’s a cool environment to be in. I can leave the school trailer to go get some food any time I want to, and I can’t do that in normal school, so that’s a plus.  It’s been easy for sure.”

As the second season continues, Josh Trager’s character will continue to develop.  “As the season goes on, you just get to know him better and you just kind of know how he makes decisions and how he thinks.  He is a funny, clever kid.  He’s a really normal kid.  He’s not like Kyle. There are obviously reasons for the way he [Kyle] acts most of the time, because he’s a genius or he’s super human, right?  With Josh, he’s just a normal teenager and you can really see that aspect of it for sure.”

The relationships Josh has will also continue to grow.  “I think Josh builds up his relationship with Andy (played by Magda Apanowicz), of course.  And again, he’s building up a stronger, brotherly relationship with Kyle.  They run into a couple of things during the season.  It’s just developing Josh.  He doesn’t really involve himself too much with Kyle’s mystery and Kyle figuring out what’s going on with his life.  Josh is kind of figuring out himself and just going with it.  He’s a family kid, right?  So, it’s plain ‘ole Josh.   He’s saying the same jokes, being the nice kid he is.  So I guess that’s what you can expect from him.

You get to see a lot of the “Jandy” [Josh and Andy] stuff later in the season. You should expect some more of that.  They get into a pretty deep, deep relationship.  It’s coming.  Just wait…Pretty much just like any other long relationship goes, there’s a roller coaster, up and down.  You’re going to see us get into a couple arguments.  We’re going to bump heads in a lot of ways, but we’re always going to makeup like Josh and Andy do – over a good make-out scene.  They just become stronger together.  They become closer.  The secret doesn’t affect the relationship much.  Josh can’t really hide much from her, but he does a pretty good job of this one.  No, it doesn’t affect it much, they just kind of move on from it and then they just kind of flourish their relationship even more.”

Bilodeau likes to joke about what he would like to happen in Josh’s future.  “Josh’d go off to a ninja fighting camp and then come back and beat the crap out of these androids that come after Kyle…I’d twist that show up.  It would not be on the air any more, probably.  I love action and whatnot, so I’ll probably just put myself in this huge army suit with a lot of guns.  You wouldn’t be on ABC Family any more, that’s for sure, HBO.  I hope that never happens.  I would just make it ridiculous.”

Besides filming Kyle XY, Bilodeau finished filming a movie coming out soon called Trick ‘r Treat.  “I play a part named Schrader.  I don’t know what his last name is.  They didn’t give me one.  He’s just a supporting character.  It’s about these four stories that all intertwine over this one kid.  It’s all about people breaking the rules of Halloween and kind of disobeying the spirits, I guess you could say.  It’s just them paying the consequences and whatnot.  Yes, Schrader, he’s just kind of the cool kid in the group.”

Working on a film is much different than a television show, according to Bilodeau.  “You can tell the difference.  The difference between working on a TV set and a movie set is that, with TV, things have to be moving.  There is a time limit and shows are airing, and they need to shoot stuff before the date.  It’s very fast paced.  On a movie, they can take as much time as they want to, really.  On Trick ‘r Treat, it was a pretty long shoot for the stuff I did.  If we did the same stuff for the TV, it would be much shorter.  We would have just plowed right through it.  But, of course, movies have a much bigger budget, bigger time limit.  Other than that, I don’t know.  I’ve only been on one movie set, so I can’t say much, but I thought they were relatively the same other than the time.  I think the timing is much different.”

Bilodeau would like to continue working in both film and television.  “TV is fun.  The movie I did was fun.  I guess, just whatever comes up first, and whatever seems good and a fit for my career.  I’ve worked on TV for two years now, so I think I have more of a TV, fast-paced sort of mind set now that I’ve worked on Kyle XY for so long.  But whatever; hey, TV is cool. Movies are cool.  Whatever works.”

Bilodeau has thought about what kind of role he would like to play if given the opportunity.  “My dream role would be probably a ninja/motorcycle racer/monster-killer guy.  I just like that corny action stuff.  It’s all good, but I’d say that crazy extraterrestrial-killing guy. I don’t know what you call it, but that’s my favorite for sure.”

You can see Bilodeau in his upcoming movie Trick ‘r Treat this fall, and until then you can see him as Josh Trager on Monday nights on Kyle XY on ABC Family.