Victor Rasuk Goes from "Gang Banging" to 'Stalker'

Off the Cuff' Podcast: Victor Rasuk Goes from "Gang Banging" to 'Stalker'
There was something we had to get off our chest when Victor Rasuk joined #pretapodcasts to chat about his new CBS show Stalker. And that thing was How To Make it In America.
"I'm still so mad that they cancelled it," Rasuk admits when we bring up the beloved but short-lived HBO comedy that briefly but rightfully made Rasuk a household name. But the actor has quickly moved on to to bigger and brighter (or, perhaps, darker) things, with a primetime drama premiering this fall and a big role in 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey.
We ask him about the troubling subject matter at the center of Stalker, which features a level of violence that has so far been shocking to some audiences.
"Our intention is not to show people how to stalk," he explains. "It's not glorifying stalking. If anything it shows people how not to be victims."
Rasuk also tells us what it was like growing up the son of Dominican immigrants in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where he nearly fell into gang life before discovering a love of performing at New York's prestigious Professional Performing Arts High School school (with classmates like Jesse Eisenberg).
"I was so skinny when I was fifteen," he says. "Can you imagine me gang banging? My wife beaters, my tank tops, were baggy on me."
Luckily the acting stuck and he's been working steadily since starring in 2002's break-out indie Raising Victor Vargas. His upcoming turn as Jose in 50 Shades could propel Rasuk into a whole new level of stardom if the book's fans follow their beloved characters into the theater.
"I'd be lying," he admits, "if I didn't say, obviously, I wanted to be a part of the phenomenon."