How Jack Innanen Embraced His Inner 'Whiny Man-Child' to Play Max in Netflix's Big Mistakes

Jack Innanen's Journey from TikTok to Netflix's Big Mistakes

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Big Mistakes Season One.

Not many actors can trace their path from astrophysics lectures to a Netflix crime-comedy series, but that's exactly the trajectory Jack Innanen has followed. The 27-year-old Canadian creator, who first built a loyal following through absurdist comedy videos on TikTok, has now firmly established himself as a legitimate on-screen talent — and his latest role in Netflix's Big Mistakes may be his most compelling yet.

From Science Class to the Small Screen

Before Innanen ever stepped in front of a camera professionally, he was studying astrophysics at university. It wasn't until his second year that a moment of honest self-reflection pushed him in a completely different direction.

"I had a crisis probably in my second year of university where I was like, 'Oh, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life,'" he recalls. "So I started messing around on social media and was like, 'Oh, I love this, and there is a world here I could earn a living at.'" That gradual pivot eventually brought him to New York, where he began pursuing acting in earnest.

His social media hustle paid off when he landed a recurring role in the 2024 series The Office Movers. But it was his portrayal of the charmingly naive Paul Baker in FX's Adults that truly turned heads — including those of Big Mistakes co-creator Dan Levy.

Dan Levy Came Calling After Watching Adults

Levy, best known for co-creating the beloved series Schitt's Creek, spotted something special in Innanen's performance in Adults and immediately envisioned him as Max — the well-meaning but utterly clueless boyfriend of Morgan (played by Taylor Ortega) in Big Mistakes.

The Netflix series centers on two aimless siblings, Morgan and Nicky (played by Levy himself), who find themselves dragged into the dangerous world of organized crime after being blackmailed. Max, completely unaware of the chaos surrounding his girlfriend, stumbles through the season in his own comfortable bubble.

For Innanen, the appeal of the role was immediate — though not without its challenges.

"The character was so fascinating to me," he says. "I had joked that he's like a man-child, and I was telling my mom about it and she was like, 'Oh, you're going to kill that,' because I'm such a whiny man-child."

The official character description painted Max as an "over-therapized man-child who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth" — yet someone who is ultimately sweet at heart. The tricky part? Almost every scene had Max in some form of conflict with Morgan.

"I read all the scenes and it's just fighting with Morgan, fighting with Morgan, fighting with Morgan, and I was like, I don't know how to make this sweet," Innanen admits. "So that was actually really fun to find a way to make him endearing and real."

Staying in the Dark — On Purpose

One of Innanen's more unconventional creative strategies was deliberately limiting how much of the script he absorbed. To fully inhabit Max's obliviousness, he chose to focus almost exclusively on his own scenes, intentionally staying unaware of the criminal chaos unfolding around Morgan and Nicky.

"I would read it over once and then just focus on the stuff that I'm in because I couldn't let anything else influence me," he explains. "That made table reads really fun because I mostly just paid attention to Max and Morgan — and then all the other stuff, I'd be listening and be like, 'Holy shit, I forgot about that. Oh my God, whoa!'"n This approach, though he humorously questions whether it was strategy or laziness, gave his performance an authenticity that's difficult to manufacture.

The Scenes He Can't Wait for Fans to See

When asked about standout moments from the season, Innanen doesn't hold back — spoilers and all.

"The one that I've wanted to see so bad is the penthouse getting shot up," he says enthusiastically. He also highlights the shocking reveal involving his on-screen mother Annette, played by Elizabeth Perkins, and teases the darkly comic moment involving cocaine and bull testicles straight from the script.

As for the jaw-dropping twist that Annette is secretly the head of a drug cartel — and what Max may or may not know about it — Innanen is deliberately coy.

"I'm going no comment, but I want to comment so bad," he laughs.

Hopes for Season Two

Should Big Mistakes earn a renewal, Innanen is already brimming with ideas about where Max's story could go — particularly given the explosive events of the finale.

"The curtain has dropped. The Wizard of Oz has been revealed," he says. "But now you live and you're married to the son of the Wizard of Oz. I think it's going to start getting direct, and people are going to start having their lives on the line in big ways and making big decisions. I'm excited for the stakes to get serious."

Comedy Is Home, But Darkness Beckons

While Innanen has carved out a niche in the comedy world, he's eager to explore darker creative territory as well. He points to filmmakers like Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger as inspiration for how comedic sensibilities can be wielded in more unsettling genres.

"There's something really fun about being a bad guy and it would challenge me to find the truths in myself," he says.

Adults Season Two Is Already in the Can

Meanwhile, fans of Adults won't have to wait long for more of his Paul Baker character. Innanen confirms that filming on the second season has already wrapped, teasing that this installment digs into the complexities of love and romance in your twenties.

"If they thought the first season was hilarious, they somehow got even funnier," he says. "I just forgot how much fun it was to be Paul Baker."

TikTok Takes a Back Seat

As for his social media presence — which has noticeably quieted down in recent months — Innanen acknowledges that the demands of a full-time acting career have made consistent content creation difficult. Acting, it turns out, is time-consuming in ways that leave little room for the vertical-screen comedy that first made him famous.

Still, for a former astrophysics student who once wondered if a creative career was even possible, the trajectory has been nothing short of remarkable.