September 11, 2025 • 58 mins
"High School Musical" premiered on the Disney Channel almost 20 years ago, introducing a new generation to musicals and catapulting the young cast to international stardom! Scene stealer 'Ryan Evans' aka Lucas Grabeel joins Jenna and Kevin to talk about the smash hit musical that became a pop cultural phenomenon! From his initial audition for the role of 'Troy,' to working with Kenny Ortega to develop his character, and the reality of living in a moldy apartment while the movie was blowing up! He also shares some memorable moments from the HSM tour, the bittersweet bonus check, and the Glee role he came very close to landing! For fun, exclusive content, and behind-the-scenes scoops, be sure to follow on Instagram @andthatswhatyoureallymissedpod & TikTok @thatswhatyoureallymissed!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
And That's what you Really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to and That's what You Really miss podcast, Kevin. Yes,
who do we have today?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, your friend, I have a friend of mine, the
one and only Lucas Graybill, who you know famously from
High School Musical one, two and three icons Iconic Iconic
High School Musical, The Musical, the TV show Crazy Series.
He's and many other things. By the way, He's ridiculously
talented and a good, good human. He's our people. Jenna,
(00:41):
you become friends?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh no, I already feel like we are becoming friends.
This is a great combo.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
He's really so open and honest about the whole experience
and so wonderful to hear. I've been jonesing to hear
about their experience because it seems so similar to ours
in so many ways, and I just don't hear them.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Talk about it a lot. So I'm super excited to
have him.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This is Lucas Crapo.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Have you met before? I feel like maybe.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Passing twice maybe, but not like actually hung out or
anything exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Lucas is a tyrant. He's not nice, he's untalented.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
No, it was I was just thinking. I was like, Okay,
we're gonna probably talk a little bit about Glee. I
need to think about all of the people, and I'm holy,
I know so many people, so many people. Yeah, I
mean Max is one of my good friends. I met
Leah when she was doing before Glee, when she was
doing a Spring Awakening. I came on the year anniversary
(01:51):
of them doing it, and so no.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think I was there about a few months after.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
It to the after party and met everybody. And then
of course you know Matthew Morrison and you and Chris
and yeah, actually.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do you know everybody?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And I did a movie with Emma Roberts, so.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Through her, yeah, they.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Were reading, so yeah, a little bit of everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So just an honorary member now, like a distant uncle.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I like Lucas and I have been on trips around
the world together. And it took me a long time
to ever bring up high school musical because I was like,
it's how I am with j C from and Sync. Yeah,
or like I just didn't want to bring it up.
But obviously Glee and high school Musical. I had like
(02:46):
so many questions just because like Glee wouldn't have existed
without high school musical yea. And our experience feels so specific. However,
it's not specific if we have like your whole crew, right,
Like you guys experienced everything basically we experienced, but you
did it first, and so like you're the only sort
(03:08):
of group that we can talk to about like the
specificity of being on a musical that became like a
pop cultural phenomenon thing and also had a tour.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yes, yeah, that's imporing. Was the crazy part, right, Oh yeah,
because you do the show or the movie and it's like, okay, yeah,
we put all of our work into that and effort
and everything, and we have this bonding experience and it
was hard and fun and complicated and wonderful all at
the same time. But then you leave it and it's like, okay,
(03:41):
that's it. But when you're on stage looking out on
all of these people singing the words, every single one, right,
you know, back at you, that's like a visceral in
your face. This has an impact.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That's yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's something that people who
are on a TV show or in a movie don't
get to have that experience. It's so so removed.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
L didn't go out on tour, no, right, so take
us Backeah.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We just watched High School Musical and I had the
greatest time. I haven't seen it probably since it was
first on.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Oh that's great to wait a really I saw it
the rough cut when it first and then I never
watched it until like three years ago. Oh gosh, because
I was doing High School Musical, the musical, the series. Yeah,
and oh another Glee connection, same choreographer, Yeah, Zach. So
(04:39):
you know, just like, okay, I probably need to like
refresh my memory and remind myself what people have been
living with.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
All of these years.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
And yeah, I had a totally different experience with it. Obviously.
The first time I was like, oh my god, this
is terrible and it's so cheesy and I'm awful and
you know, all these things. But now I'm like, this
is adorable, and yeah, you know, I see why people
need that unadulterated joy.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And justly just it's a piece of cake.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
It's just like, yes, rightly colored confetti, Layton.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah cake, Yeah, exactly. That's why I had the time.
I was texting Jen, I'm like, I'm having the time
of my life. Because I remember, you know, like we
we grew up doing like TV or theater or whatever
it was, and like, I think I auditioned for high
school musical and I remember watching it and being like
the judge like this is so cheesy and I can't
(05:34):
believe this is pop yet I was obsessed with the music,
saying it all the time, and then just watching it now,
I'm like, what an idiot. I was like, this is wonderful.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Kind of same. I auditioned for Glee so many times.
Oh my god, but I mean, uh, Robert yea, so
he every time he came in and he was like, Okay,
so I love you, I really want you, but you know,
I just have to convince Ryan that that we we
can do something totally different and blah blah blah and yeah,
(06:07):
be a different thing and yeah we could never do it.
But he, you know, he championed me a lot so.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And you're just stupidly talented.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Oh stop it. The role I got the closest to
is the role that Darren Chris got, and I went
back a couple of times for that, and then later
when I met him, I was like, he was like, dude,
I just gotta say like I grew up like watching
you and like this is like so cool, and I'm like, bro,
when I saw that you got the part that I
was like really going for, I was like, holy sh
(06:40):
I could never do that. That is insane. So I'm
a fan of yours too, So.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It was like this weird lovest thing.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, what was that early process? Audition process? Take us
back way back.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So you know, I had moved out to la and
had a little immediate success like third audition, fifth audition.
Within five months, I was doing a movie like Boom
Boom Boom, booking things, and then it was like a
two year you know nothing, Tumbleweeds. And so then this
(07:16):
audition comes up and it's I had already done in
Disney Channel original movie a Halloween Town. So this was
like okay, I had to go back to work at
Blockbuster after I finished shooting Halloween Town. So I was like,
you know, it's it's great, I want to work, but
I know it's not going to like, you know, pay
my bills for that long. But yeah, it was a
(07:39):
musical and I read the script and I was like,
it didn't have any of the music in it, so
the magic wasn't connected yet, and I was like, I
don't get this at all. I don't I don't understand
what's going on. Went in to read for Troy, got
a call back. Actually I went in right after Drew
Seeley auditioned and it was in the trailers on the Universal.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Lie Oh so okay, confirmed I did audition for this. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Drew Syalley has like one of the best voices I've
ever heard, And I mean he was doing all these
runs and like just soulful, silky, smoothing, and I'm like,
oh man, I thought that he was gonna be a
walk in the park, but there is no way. So
I go and I do get a call back and
go and I meet Kenny or take At, the director,
(08:29):
and I read and he's like, you're you're you're great,
but you're not Troy. You're a Ryan. Can you take
these sides, go out and learn those come back in.
I was like, okay, cool, and I do that, and
then we have this epic seven plus hour callback. Oh
my god, very very New York theater style. Like all
(08:51):
of us were in Madeline Clark Studios. There's like probably
forty fifty of us to begin with. Wow, all going
for Troy, Gabriela, Ryan, and Sharpei. Oh my. We were
like taken in group by group to learn a dance,
dance it, and then go back out. And then we
would swap and then they would read names to like
(09:12):
come in and do the dance. And then they were like, okay,
if you hear your name, you can stay if you
don't see you later, and they just kept whil it down. Yeah,
it was crazy, and then we did once we kind
of whittled it down to a few people per role,
then we started doing the chemistry reads and so I
(09:33):
went in with several different girls to read with, you know,
for Ryan and Sharpei. And I've told the story many times,
but Ashley she was amazing. She was like I know
exactly why she got Sharpei because like from the get
go she was sharpey. She gave me notes, like we
went outside, we were rehearsing, and she said, I'm going
(09:54):
to add a line and you're gonna look like this,
and then you say this line like this, and then
at the very end, I'm gonna go grab my bags
and I want you to like run over and grab
my bags and then we'll go out. I was like really,
you're you're telling me what to do it like an audition, okay.
(10:14):
And I walked in with this like oh I you know,
the ego was like bruising everything. But then I was like, well,
you got to do it, and it's probably gonna be
better if you if you play along with it. And
that was the immediate perfect dynamic that they were looking
for for running Sharpay. I was burying all of this
(10:36):
like lifetime of contempt and like, oh so you're gonna
call all the shots okay, but here I am being
as joyful as I can be. And uh so that's
how it happened.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Wow, what I don't know how anyone survives the day
like that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Well, it was crazy. I think I was the only
one there maybe three other people who didn't have their
parents there as well.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Oh my god, that's so.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I moved out to La on my own, you know,
with the stick in the little right.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah. Yeah, and so so yeah, when I got there,
I was like, yeah, I went outside and I was
like having a smoke break.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That was that was definitely the start of something new.
And then once we got together, it was like an
instant family, you know, thrown into this crazy world that
Kenny Ortega just he he has this way of curtaining in,
like shutting out the outside world, and just like we're
(11:56):
living in this fantasy together and we're gonna play, and
he let us just run wild with our characters and
have so much fun and hard ass work. Like we
were dancing eight hours a day plus, as you guys know,
and just drilling these this choreography and the music and everything,
(12:21):
and so yeah, it felt so special when we were
doing it, Like Wow, I don't know, I've definitely never
had a filming experience like this before. I don't know
if I'll have one like this again. But it's still
Disney Channel. It's a made for cable TV musical that's original.
And then when it blew up, I was like, this
(12:43):
is way too much, way too fast. I don't deserve this.
Nobody deserves this. It scared the shot out of me,
and I was just like, I don't I don't know
how to deal with this.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I saw that clip of Kenny recently saying, like, you know,
at the end, when you guys wrapped in the gym,
he was like, if whatever you guys gave just their
translates to like the audience like you guys are about
to your lives are about to change.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Essentially, Yeah, can.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You kind of like explain to everybody what that when
it was after it aired and how you started to
realize that it was such a big hit because like, yeah, numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You know, viewers, you can, you know you can.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It doesn't translate, but when you walk outside, that's different.
So like, what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yeah, it was strange because from that point everything was
done through Disney. They were telling us everything, be here,
do this, shoot this, blah blah blah. After it came out,
I'm hearing from friends and people on the street. My
voice teacher texted me or called me and was like, hey,
(13:55):
did you know that your number one on iTunes? I
was like, that's not that's not possible. Within three weeks,
I had a microphone in my face saying or asking
your role model to kids all over the world, what
do you say to them?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I'm like, I live in a moldy apartment that I'm
constantly sick from and I'm struggling to pay my rent.
So I didn't think that I was a role model.
It's interesting. Obviously we were thrown in the deep end,
and we learned to swim, and it took some time
(14:33):
and definitely had some pitfalls and whoopsie daisies where Disney
had to get involved and be like, actually, please don't
put that in the article. But now, because of all
of that, Disney has a program like whenever you get
hired for a pilot or a movie, they gather you
(14:54):
all up and sit you down and talk about how
to give a good interview, how to you deal with
your social media fans, red carpets, like the whole thing. Yeah,
And oh man, I wish I had that. It would
have been so much easier. It was literally like the
scariest thing because at the same time, you know, part
(15:16):
of like the little kid in me who never thought
that would happen, is like, dude, this is crazy, Yeah,
like this is like more than you ever dreamed of.
And then so much of the critic inside me was like,
like I said, judging it, labeling it, saying you don't
deserve this, and runaway fast because all of these people.
(15:40):
We were just surrounded every day by thousands of people
saying telling us how great we were. And you know,
sometimes you take that and you get in a big ego.
Sometimes you take that and you're like, I can't trust
anyone because none of these people are telling me the truth.
They're just wanting something for me. And then there's a
(16:02):
mixture of the both, you know, and my pendulum was
swinging back and forth the whole time, trying to figure
out what was real and what was not because we
were perceiving the world from a vantage point that very
few people get to see. And that messes with you.
It messes with your reality and you know, friends and relatives,
(16:26):
you know, all of that stuff. Money. I never thought
I would ever have money, and thankfully I had great
managers who set me up with an investment person, and
like I put, I just took it all away. Was
just a forever. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spend
any of it. So, yeah, thank you for asking that,
(16:49):
because so many people don't realize that they're really you know,
other than a few instances now, or if you've already
grown up being an influencer and that's how you got famous,
you don't. If you're just an actor, especially a young
one thrust into this and then thrown into the lions den,
(17:12):
you don't know how to properly rephrase the question and
then you know, be eloquipped and poised and all of
those things. It's difficult. It takes time.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, what's interesting is like for us on a TV show,
you're like locked away on stages for nine months, and
so if the show's out there, you're never interacting with
the public. Really, you guys shot this movie and like
a vacuum, had this incredible experience and then you're done,
like that's it. And I remember the experience of like
(17:47):
watching the movie the night it came out on Disney
Channel and how you guys were instantly famous, just like
to me, you were also like I now know all
these people's name, I have bought all of these songs
on iTunes, like they are famous, and like you were
in every single magazine. You're like getting paparazzi, and I
(18:10):
think what people forget. It's like, yeah, you're like I
live in a moldy apartment. I'm just trying to become
an actor. And it's not like all of a sudden
because you guys are overnight famous that you all of
a sudden have like huge paychecks. You can take care
of yourself mentally financially, like none of that has come yet.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Yeah, Disney did give us all bonus checks a few
months afterwards, amazing good. I had a very old school
manager and he was like, you know, back in the day,
they would, you know, it's send the producer over with
a brand new car, like you might get a Cadillac.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Kid.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I'm like, I don't think so, but but it was
more than what I would spend on a car, right,
the biggest check I've ever seen. It's changed my life.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah, that's incredible. That's how they should. I mean, that's
nice to hear it, because I feel like that's how
they should treat people when they have this success like this.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I just learned that not all of our bonus checks
were the same amount, and that that hurt my heart,
Like not out of jealousy that I should have gotten more.
I probably got, you know, more than some. I know
that I got more than some. So when you're putting
(19:33):
all six of us through that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Machine, right, it should just be what it is.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Why would there be any discrepancy?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Was right?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
And I mean this was like last week, So yeah,
I don't love that, But I'm hoping that now because
of people speaking out and people being open about you know,
yeh wage, Yeah, that isn't the case anymore. A lot
lessons were learned on high school musical.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I'm sure now. I feel like our contracts were based
off of high school musical an American idol combined.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
And the music isn't that crazy like.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The music, yeah, portion of it. That's why I want
to talk, Like, so you said you originally read the
script without any music. What was your guys's process, Like
you had dance rehearsals before, because I feel you shot
the movie in a pretty quick days.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Right, Yeah. We recorded everything in la first without doing anything.
Then we went to Utah and got into the studio
and they had the finished products of the songs and
we would learn the choreography to those. I spent what
four days recording the first album like so quick?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The first time I ever walked into a recording studio,
I was recording We're All in This Together. Yeah, And
thankfully it was We're All in This Together, and not
the original lyrics, which were Everyone's a Winner, Everyone's a Winner.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
No does know about those songs? Is that in theory?
I feel like in theory they shouldn't work as well?
As they do, like they're almost corny, but they're so good.
I don't feel like there's something about watching them in
the movie. I was like, all of these I don't
(21:33):
know how. You know when somebody tries to write a
song for musical and it's just like a little too generic.
None of that doesn't happen to any of those songs.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
They chose the right people to write. Each song's great.
But I mean when we were recording Bop to the Top,
I literally turned to Kenny and I was like, Kenny, shit,
zap zop flop like a mop scooter around the corner.
What He's like, Honey, these are children who wrote these songs,
(22:05):
and they are they're projecting this, this make believe thing
that there. This is their idea of a Vegas song.
I'm like, oh, okay, I get it, but will kids
get that right right years later?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Period? I only got it. I watched it last week.
I was like, oh, I also just really enjoyed watching you.
I like, I haven't seen it since I've known you.
And I was like, God, damn, he's good. No, seriously,
I was like, you are. It's not all of you
are so good. It's not easy to like pull off
(22:41):
that like joy, that campiness, but like you still believe it.
It's not too much. I don't know. I think what
you were saying, like Kenny, that you all just go
for it with all your characters, whatever was happening with
the chemistry on set between you, whatever Kenny was instilling
in all of you, like it all clearly we felt
(23:01):
it as an audience, well.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I appreciate that. It just was perfect for like timing
of like Okay, I've done a couple of things, but
I still was very green. Yeah, but everything in my heart,
I just wanted to be a serious actor.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And so I was like, Kenny, can we talk about Ryan?
He's like yeah, going through all these notes that I
was making this up, and it ended up being amazing
because we had this amazing conversation about Kenny and his
life and why this character was so important to him.
Because the first thing I said was like, okay, so
(23:40):
Ryan's gay, right, And he's like, well, I mean I
don't know what do you think? And I'm like, well,
I mean the dialogue does kind of suggest and I
you know, for me, I knew a lot of the
you know, I was one of these Thespian guys, but
I knew the other ones, you know, just whatever, it's
just this is That's that's what I thought. And he
(24:02):
was like, well, okay, we could do something that other
people have done before and do this stereotype of what
we know, because obviously it's two thousand and five, it's
Disney Channel, say anything out right, but you know, we
could do this over the top thing that we've all seen,
or we can show someone who is in exploration and
(24:27):
in discovery and finding out who he is. And I
think that represents a lot of people in high school, gay, straight,
or anything else. And I was like, that's brilliant. I
love that. And there's so much that ended upon the
cutting floor that was like all of those different ranges
of that and I love what ended up coming out there.
(24:49):
But you know, it was one of those situations where
I didn't really know what version of Ryan was going
to come out, say the movie, but all through it
it was just like, so he started telling me about
his well, this is how I felt in high school
and with parents and all these things, and I was like, okay,
(25:09):
I'm pulling all of that in. I'm pulling all my
my Thespian background. Together, the Jazz Squares is straight up
out of two choreographers of mine in high school, one
in high school, one at the community theater. I don't
know how both they didn't know each other, but both
of them put jazz squarers in every single number.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's the thing.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Easy for kids, especially the ones who aren't great at dancing,
to make it look yeah. But you know, all of
us in high school were like eye roll. And so
I was like, Penny, I have to ask, can I
put this thing in about jazz squars? And I told
him the whole story, and he's like, I love it.
(25:53):
Let's add a line, let's make it a whole thing,
and let's have sharp Pey hate it. So yeah, and
the warm ups and all that stuff that's straight from
like my theater warm ups.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
You know, so good, growing up, so brilliant.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
It was amazing that that he allowed us to just
put so much of our.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Oh yeah, so there's so much truth in it. Like
we all knew that kid.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
If you were at Thespian watching high school musical, which
most of us were, we were like, I am that person,
and like I take myself just as seriously as they
do and it's ridiculous, but it's so good and it
felt so right.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
I'm so glad that it did.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
No, you did, so the journey after the success, right,
there's the tour.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
There's high school music tour after the first movie.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, we did the US arena tour.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
How many weeks was that?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It was thirty shows in sixty one days?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That yeah is I had people.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Two weeks before we had our first show. Again, I know, like.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That movie came out, became the success it became, and
then within like a couple of months, arenas were sold out.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Came out in January, and our first show was in November.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Oh nuts, yes, nuts.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
And we sold out almost every show.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
You're like, oh, we're doing this like really fun movie,
you know, twenty four days and we see you guys again.
And then you're like doing the top arena tours as
rock stars with people screaming, and you're like, oh, wow,
this is really popular. That's crazy. What was the tour like?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Oh man, I mean the first thing I told my
mom when I was a kid that I wanted to
be was a karate teacher and a rock star. Yeah, yeah,
you know, I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Have both receptions, right, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
No, it was everything and more and it was the
hardest two months of my life, but it was the
best two months of my life. That's when I knew, like, yeah, okay.
In March, we did the Today show Good Morning America
back to back and I taught America how to do
(28:18):
We're All in This Together dance like that. That was
like a holy crap. But when, like I was saying earlier,
when you're when you're on stage and people are singing
these songs back to you, and I remember this guy,
I might tear up doing this because I always do.
I don't know why. This dad was in the front
(28:40):
row with his daughter on his shoulders and we're doing
We're All in This Together, and he's just balling. I
could just see that he was so happy to like
share that moments, sponsort or whatever. And I was just like, wow, yeah,
first hand impact, you know. So that and then there
(29:02):
was also like being on a tour.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Bus, you guys using across.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
The country, and we took like private jets sometimes because
we had to go from wherever we were to the
Billboard Awards in Vegas and then back when we did
the show in Vegas, Kenny had a nice little surprise
for us that, oh, I don't know, Michael Jackson's gonna
come and see the show with his kids. So we
(29:28):
were all in the dancers dressing room. He's like, everybody
go in the dancers dressing room and around the corner
comes Michael Jackson and his kids and we're like what
and we shake his hand. We was like, hey, how's
it going, and we like They had built a curtain
around the sound booth in the middle of the arena
(29:51):
and then it goes dark before we start the show.
They kept it dark for like an extra forty five seconds,
which was really creepy to have all those people in
pick as they brought him in and I'm wearing all
the Fedora's Corbyn's popping out of the thing. Other than
us like having our heels screwed into the floor and
(30:14):
the lean. We were doing all of this Michael Jackson
stuff because Kenny did all of his shows, so you know,
I'm like doing this thing like okay, we had been
doing it several times and then I look out and
I'm like, I see him. That is so weird.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I don't know that's but he.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Did, you know, Kenny came backstage afterwards and was like,
Michael loved it, and you know what, guys, he said,
he's like so inspired he wants to get back on
on stage into a tour.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So wow, So it's your fault, it is, no.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
No, it was truly a magical moment. I Like, immediately
I was like, you know, a million of people have
gone to see Michael Jackson, but how many people have
has he gone to see in an arena concert wise?
So just an incredible thing. I mean, that was just
a couple of the moments. There was extremely low moments too,
(31:15):
because you know, you're you're out on stage, you're getting
all of this energy, you're putting all of this energy
out and your body is just like buzzing, and then
you get done and you wipe down, you take your
mic off, and then you go outside and there's screaming
people on your side where crass it takes pictures and
blah blah blah. And then you get to the bus
and it's like, yeah, whoa, my body doesn't feel right
(31:39):
because it's not doing what it has been doing for
the last four hours. What's going on? What's wrong with me?
And Yeah, that up and down for that extremely short
and intense amount of time. Yeah, was hard on you.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
A very singular experience.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, but oh my.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
God, did I love it so great?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
How fast after did they say, like, oh, there's going
to be a second one?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I think pretty soon because the tour was really successful,
like this down yeah a movie. We had like four
days off and then we went into the studio to
record the.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Second sounds familiar, yeah, and then yeah, and then we
did the second movie.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
And I want to say we did have a month
or two Well, no, we were in it was summertime.
So yeah, we went right back on tour after the movie. Wow.
But it was a stadium tour in South America and
Central America, so we had to go back into this
(32:46):
the rehearsal and like deal with adding fifty feet of
extra stage on either side and my practice running back
and forth right, Oh my goodness, man. I mean since
it was in South and Central America. I was the
EMC of the show, so I spoke mostly in Spanish.
I had teleprompters, thank god, but yeah, I had to
(33:11):
like rush up on that and and translate most of
the things that I had done in the in the
US show to like condense it, make it more thing,
because you can't just go on talking forever to a
stadium of people. And when we did Brazil, I was
like taking a crash course in Portuguese two hours before
the show, praying that I remembered it. And that was
(33:32):
our That was our biggest show. It was almost one
hundred thousand people, so pressure ult and every country we
went to had a slightly different dialect or accent or whatever,
so I, you know, was just drilling the differences of that. Getos.
You know, don't mess that up because these people, if
(33:58):
you do it right, they will feel instantly so much
more seen in love.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
No pressure. Okay, my god, wow. Yeah that what's crazy
is like how quickly that, like a year and a
half before, if somebody had told you you'd be doing that,
you like you're on drugs.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, I mean after I shot the movie, I went
with my friends to Europe and was just like going
around sleeping in hostels and people's beds and or people's
apartments and stuff, and you know, like, all right, this
is just whatever. I had no idea that, yeah I couldn't.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
No anyway, right right, But yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Wow. Going into the second movie, I imagine now because
you guys are a proven successful brand internationally, the stakes
(35:02):
are a little different, and I imagine, like going into
it is different, the scale of it in so many ways.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It's you know, if you would have asked me day
of wrap after this second movie, like what was your
favorite one to do? I would have been like, the
first one was really hard, but that definitely would be it.
But now looking back, I would say the second one
because I forget, you know, I'm able to forget all
of the stress and the pressure. But there was so much,
(35:33):
Like we didn't we shot for six weeks. We didn't
have a day off. We had one day off Easter.
All of the other days that were off days we
were still doing photo shoots, interviews, all sorts of things.
So like it was, it was maddening. It was intense
(35:55):
after a tour too. Well, that actually helped, you know,
the momentum that we just got on a train and
they just kept saying, Okay, do this now, do this, now,
do this now, and yeah, And I do actually think
that that really helped. And we were all in the
spirit and you know, seeing the impact firsthand and getting
to like be excited about going back to these characters
(36:17):
and what we could do better and more of I
think two is the best movie, and I think that's
weird that, you know, not all.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Trilogies have that, Yeah, most do not.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, but like the music is so great. It's so
colorful and fun, and you know, yeah, we were working
our butts off, but we were living all on a
cul de sac in a country club. It was like
gorgeous in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Saint George
is a decent sized city, but there's nothing around it
(36:51):
except beautiful red rock mountains. So yeah, there was there
was a lot of that also comfort knowing like we've
even if this doesn't do as well as the first one,
like we're not, I'm not gonna like, I don't have
(37:13):
to go back to the moldy apartment because I know that,
Like my life is a little different now. And and
I mean, where when do you get a chance to
wear a white tuxedo and play a grand piano in
a pool?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I don't know. Ask Mat Morrison. He had to wear
a white taxedo in a pool. One glad And so
you know, you guys got we.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Just after.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Okay, baseball. When do you get to do a baseball
musical number?
Speaker 3 (37:42):
That's like.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
The sport numbers were.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Really knows how to shoot dance well, really knows how
to film.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
You know the reason why we did that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
J Kelly, Jean Kelly.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
So Geene Kelly gets called from the student. Hey, we
we've got Frank Sinatra coming in to do guys and dolls.
But he doesn't know how to dance. Can you teach
him how to dance? He's like, what sport does he like?
He likes baseball, Well, let's go to a game. So
we went to a game and he's sitting there and
he's like, all right, Frank, look at all these moves
that these guys are doing and think of them as
(38:19):
dance moves. And then he was like, through baseball moves,
taught him how to dance and came that story and
was like, okay, we're gonna do that in the second movie.
So crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Wow. Yeah, we had a discussion about how so many
not to bash modern movie musicals. So many people don't
know how to shoot dance well. And obviously Kenny, thank
you a master. Yeah, and watching high school musical, I
was like this, this is how you shoot dance. Yeah,
(38:56):
I can't even imagine, you know, like when we had
directors come on and and I feel so bad for
them because it's not often that you get to shoot. Obviously,
doing TV, you come in, you have very little time
to prep and you have to just like shoot something
and turn around. Yeah, and people are not used to
shooting dance obviously. Luckily, I think we had a pretty
good formula of how to do it, so people sort
of had their handheld through that. But because musicals aren't
(39:21):
that normal, people just don't have that experience. You worked
literally with the person who has the most experience doing it,
Like I just want to not like shooting a musical
number with Kenny, obviously, the rehearsal was intense from what
it sounds like, like, what was the shooting process.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Like, Well, the shooting process started in rehearsal because Kenny
was always the camera. So, you know, we worked with
Bonnie's Story and Chuckie Klaypow, two of my favorite people
in this entire world. They you know, the three of
them choreographed stuff and then they would they would teach
(40:00):
us and work with it and we work, work, work,
and then Kenny would come in and say, oh, let's
change this a little bit, Let's change that a little bit.
And then while we would just run it over and
over again, he would just be like looking and even
if we're dancing and he walked right through us, we
would have to move right and if we hit him,
(40:21):
oh boy, you do not want to hit him or
bump into him or back into him. Even like you
have to be aware that he is there all the
time because he's like, you won't know where I'm going
to put the camera and if I've got a steady
caim weaving through you, guys, you need to be able
to be aware of it. So always always be aware
and not just move out of the way, but do
(40:44):
it with soul and feeling. And it just made me
think of dirty dancing so much because it's just like
but yeah, it was we were being taught how to
be on set before we got on set, which was great, yeah,
and then yeah, doing it. It was like, you know,
whenever we were shooting a musical number, it was like, Okay,
(41:06):
get ready because we're going to be sweating all day
because we've got to get the wide and we have
to get it perfect before we do any coverage. And
then you know, as the movies went on, we had
you know, four or five more cameras right at legit.
But still it was it was not only about getting
the moves perfectly, because we were running through that stuff
(41:28):
so much. By the time we got to the shooting.
He's like, before we did, we're all in this together.
He's like, all right, guys, you know these moves. We've
been doing it for weeks because even while we were shooting,
we were still rehearsing that stuff. And he's like, this
is this is it. This is our last number that
we're going to shoot, and it's the last number in
(41:49):
the film. This is the culmination of the film. This
is where our spirit source. So I don't want you
dancing from your brains or your bodies. You have to
dig and find some some inner joy and whatever. We're
all in this together means to you find that and
(42:10):
dance through that, and we're all for you. He's like,
he would always yell like this is some film forever. Yeah.
A little so he was like a little pressure like coach,
you guys gotta give it your all, but also such
like a warm, loving parent being like you guys are
(42:32):
doing great and you've got the stuff down. Now, now
it's time to play, and it's time to give a
part of yourself. Yeah to children who need to be inspired,
who want to be uplifted and joyful. And yeah, that
was a little bit much for in my head, like
made for cable TV movie musical maybe Ken. Yeah, But
(42:57):
at the same time, I'm like, Okay, when do you
get that When do you get that opportunity when someone
putting a film camera in front of your face saying, hey,
do some really cool choreography and dance from your heart?
You know, like Okay, So we all got on board
and it was Yeah, it was a dream.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
It's illuminating to hear your journey feels like oddly similar
in a lot of ways in what we went through
and feeling like something is really special, but then also
just not being fully equipped for any of it and
kind of just on the train and it's NonStop and
(43:45):
you're just on it, right, You're riding it for as
long as they keep.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Going, and then at some point it.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Stops, right and you're like, Okay, I guess it's time
to get off this train now.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah. I think a lot of us because it was
so intense for that three and a half year period
of time that as soon as it was done, I
mean even in between, we were all trying to squeeze
in other movies and projects and things. As I've said before,
I was trying to be a real actor, you know,
(44:17):
like Corbin and Vanessa and actually all put out albums, right,
and I've been writing music since I was twelve. Like
that was like a dream come true to get a
record deal. But at the time, for some silly, whatever reason,
I don't regret it. I didn't do it because I
was like, I want to focus on acting and moved
(44:37):
out to LA to be an actor, and I want
to act.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
You know, we all choose different busses to jump on
and trajectories and all of those things. But there was
a lot there was this deep feeling of like, Okay,
I've been I've been eat, sleep and breathing this thing
for for so long. Even though it wasn't I gotta
I gotta go like big left hand turn, you know,
(45:03):
do something totally different so that people don't think that
this is all I can do. Ye looking back, I
even heard Rain Wilson talk about this on his podcast
when you're in it. You don't realize the relationship that
your fans have with your character and how comforting it
(45:23):
is to see they can watch it over and over
again and continue to feel that camaraderie in the connection.
You can have your feelings of angst and frustration with
this daily grind, but if you like trying to remember
that the character is the thing that you get to
(45:44):
play and that you get to do, and anytime someone
asks you to do more of it, like that's a
gift and no regrets. But like, yeah, I mean, that's
why every time any high school musical thing, when Ashley
called me to do Sharpey's Fabulous Cure, yep, without question.
When High School Musical the musical series called like, yep,
(46:05):
let's do it, you know, because yeah, any chance I
can have to play this character, I will. Yeah, It's
made my life.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
There's still there's so much it's still out there. People
still love it. Like it hasn't gone anywhere in the
last five years.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
It has only grown. Yeah, there's something the timing of
nostalgia plus people having children that I've been doing a
lot of conventions in the last year or so, and
I can't tell you how many moms come up, young
moms and they're like, I grew up on high school
musical and now we've got Carolyn and she just loves it.
(46:45):
Oh and it's like, what it's been that long that
can happen?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, because there's still not a lot out there that
has filled that night, right.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Yeah, well, I mean it was so pure, like they
don't even kiss in the first movie, So you don't
get a g rated thing unless you go back to
the forties, and then there's always chances that there's gonna
be stuff that doesn't really yeah, you know. So yeah,
it is special to have that squeaky clean thing that
(47:15):
any parent can feel comfortable. But now there's this like
history and I can feel it from people like and
I didn't under actually this is so My favorite movie
of all time is Waiting for Guffman, which is about
a small town, fictitious town in Missouri, which is I'm
from Missouri, about a community theater putting on a play,
(47:38):
an original musical based on for the celebration of the one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. And it is
it's perfect, perfect, It is perfect in every single way.
I can quote every line from it, and I've seen
it a million times and it's my movie. And doing
(47:59):
these conventions, Parker POSI was at one of them, and
I have seen everybody in these green rooms and I
don't come up to anyone because you know, it's like
the safe space and you don't want to bother anybody.
But I was like, oh, man, I cannot go without
saying something to her. I waited for a good moment.
She was done eating, she was going up to grab
(48:20):
a coffee, and I was like, hey, Parker, I'm a
huge fan. And I just have to say, like, Waiting
for Gotain was my favorite movie all time. I'm from Missouri,
like Blaine is, like I grew up doing like that
was that was my experience. Like we had a run
and Sheila, we had a quirky Saint Clair, you know,
(48:40):
like we had a Livy May You're just incredible blah
blah blah. And I'm like showering her and she's like, oh,
that's so sweet, and she was so nice and everything.
And thankfully her assistant came up right afterwards and she
was like, oh my god, I watch Halloween Town every
year all the time. I love that stuff. I was like,
(49:01):
not look like a good thing. I'm not looking like
a crazed fan who just like happened to squeeze into
the green room or something because she had no idea
who I was. But anyway, so I get done and
I'm sitting at the lunch table and Priscilla Presley is
also a client of my agents, and so we've done
a lot of conventions together. I've gotten to know her
(49:21):
and we're kind of chummy, and so I was like, oh, man, Priscilla,
like I just met Parker Posey. That was so cool.
And she's like, oh, yeah, that's nice. And then my
agent pulls me aside and she's like, Lucas, you like
yesterday Parker went up to Priscilla and was like, she
did exactly what you did to her. And after it
(49:43):
was like, oh, that's crazy, like world twisting moment. But
then I had this insane, joyous, exciting feeling in my
soul like it was just like, oh, that was really cool,
and I'm so glad I did that, and I'm so
glad that she was sweet and kind and all those things.
It was just like a perfect experience and I was like,
(50:06):
oh my god, I get it. I actually know the
feelings some of the people have when they come up
to my table and they they're kind of flustered and
they don't like I had experienced that, and it was
such a beautiful gift, and I was so glad that
it was Parker Posy, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
You never know who it's going to be either.
Speaker 4 (50:27):
I've met a lot of famous people, but.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
You met the most famous person probably evert.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Into your concert and saw you perform.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
I was I was a little starstruck.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, I mean I think anybody would.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Hey, I'm so excited to see the show. Kenny was like,
what's your favorite song? Oh? All of them? Oh, but
that was like Paris and Blankets first show that they
had ever seen. Crazy. Wow, that's that's wild. And now
(51:07):
they're all, you know, crazy amazing musicians of themselves.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
And you know, it's really lovely to hear you talk
about this experience. And I'm sure Jenna feels the same way,
because I think we also now feel the same about
our experience with or just how grateful we are for
that opportunity and like grateful that people were ever interested
(51:33):
in it. People are still interested in it, and because
the show obviously changed our lives. It meant so much
to us and it's really wild to think about just,
you know, the connection between high school musical basically birthing
when we were doing press. I don't even know if
I ever told you this, but when we were doing.
Speaker 4 (51:53):
You had to answer that question.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
One they ever prepped us for. The question was literally
the only note we ever got in the beginning was
when we go out to talk about it, try not
to mention high school musical. But if you do mention
high school musical, you can't explicitly say we're the anti
high school musical, but we are sort of like where
(52:17):
the satire. Yeah, And so that was the whole first
season was about like, oh, we don't just break out
into song like high school musical does, but also high school. Yeah.
But then like Jenna and I were watching high school,
like this is much more grounded than.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
We have a bully.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
It's also like you guys are in a real school.
Most of the time you're singing on a stage when
you would normally be singing.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Vanessa always Gabriella, she always she was definitely the musical
one of like not doing anything.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
And then like song my dream song, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
But I just it's I love that we've been able
to become friends, and I love that you are like
so integrated into the Glee family, and it's just it's
very reassuring hearing your experience, and well.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
I really appreciate that. I remember, you know, when we
were doing press, probably for the second or third one. Yeah,
A lot of the times they were like, so what
do you think about Glee? God, high school musical paved
the way for Glee?
Speaker 1 (53:30):
I mean, you did?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
You did?
Speaker 4 (53:32):
Did I? Back then? I was still auditioning for Glee,
So I was very diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
About I'm sure. I'm sure you know there's.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
A lot of great musicals out there, and I'm sure
that you know it definitely struck a chord. But who knows,
you know. I I love Glee. I think it's great. Yeah,
we did what we can't say why changing?
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, And I'm.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
Really really authenticity is so much more of a thing now,
whereas like I can't, Oh my goodness, if I was
authentic back then, I was some mixture of myself and
(54:23):
a Disney version of myself and Ryan all put together
that I had to come up with. That was like
my media character, and and that.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
A real trick on your Yes, Psyche, what's real?
Speaker 4 (54:42):
And people grow up with the relationship they have with
your character, and then they see a relationship, you know,
they gain a relationship with you doing interviews, and then
they meet you in person and they're like.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
What, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (54:59):
We ask everybody who comes on the podcast. Generally, usually
it's about Lee. What is feeling like Lee leaves you with?
But as we move into this new chapter of watching
other music shows, I'm curious what the feeling is that
high school musical leaves you with?
Speaker 4 (55:14):
M You said it earlier, It is just absolute gratitude.
It's an immense feeling of I mean, I look back
on so many parts of my life and they seem
like movies themselves that I've watched. It doesn't seem like
(55:37):
it's my actual life. And every now and then I
sync up with the virtuality simulation that we're all living. Yeah,
that we may have created ourselves, who knows. Sometimes it
kind of lines up and I do get to like
(55:58):
really feel like that was me so much the time
it wasn't. It's like that's somebody else. But whether or
not it's me or it's not me, it's still is
that like overwhelming sense of Wow, I'm so lucky and
so appreciative that that that happened and that I got
(56:19):
to do that, and that I get to relive a
lot of those things with meeting people today who who
are still impacted by it and kids who are still
who are watching it for the first time. Now, you know, Yeah,
it's an amazing gift.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
Well, thank you so much for chatting with us, for
thanks so much for having us wonderful hours.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
We're gonna have to watch the second and third.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Oh yeah, We're definitely doing the second.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Because I've never been more excited. Well, I remember just
trying to be like a cool kid, like I guess
I'll watch the second one. I guess I'll go to
the movie theater watch the third one. Fully showed up
and it was like.
Speaker 4 (56:57):
I would would have done the same exact thing, exactly
like this thing everybody.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
Yeah, and yeah, I was.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
I wish that we could do this flopped because I
talked the whole time, and I know that that's like
you know what, No, I've heard stories from you know,
so many of you guys in the cast, But I
would love to deep dive and have this conversation on
the flip side.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
So maybe after we watch two and three, we'll have
you back and then we can just talk about everything else.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Yeah, it's nice.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Actually, you're sweetest, you're the best, so stupidly talented. O,
thank you, thank you, thank you so much for spending
so much time with us.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
Hey, my pleasure, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
What a sweet man.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
What is an incredible experience, and what a sweet human.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
He's so well spoken, he's always just like humility and
like he's always himself. I know it sounds so dumb,
like he's so genuine, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
I love that, especially like just the success he's had and.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
Yeah, yeah, I'm still really grateful and positive and wonderful.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
So thank you Lucas for spending all the time with us.
And we hope you guys enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
And that's what you really miss Thanks for listening and
follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss. Pod.
Make sure to write us a review and leave us
five stars. See you next time.
And That's what you Really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to and That's what You Really miss podcast, Kevin. Yes,
who do we have today?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, your friend, I have a friend of mine, the
one and only Lucas Graybill, who you know famously from
High School Musical one, two and three icons Iconic Iconic
High School Musical, The Musical, the TV show Crazy Series.
He's and many other things. By the way, He's ridiculously
talented and a good, good human. He's our people. Jenna,
(00:41):
you become friends?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh no, I already feel like we are becoming friends.
This is a great combo.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
He's really so open and honest about the whole experience
and so wonderful to hear. I've been jonesing to hear
about their experience because it seems so similar to ours
in so many ways, and I just don't hear them.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Talk about it a lot. So I'm super excited to
have him.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
This is Lucas Crapo.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Have you met before? I feel like maybe.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Passing twice maybe, but not like actually hung out or
anything exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Lucas is a tyrant. He's not nice, he's untalented.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
No, it was I was just thinking. I was like, Okay,
we're gonna probably talk a little bit about Glee. I
need to think about all of the people, and I'm holy,
I know so many people, so many people. Yeah, I
mean Max is one of my good friends. I met
Leah when she was doing before Glee, when she was
doing a Spring Awakening. I came on the year anniversary
(01:51):
of them doing it, and so no.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think I was there about a few months after.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
It to the after party and met everybody. And then
of course you know Matthew Morrison and you and Chris
and yeah, actually.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Do you know everybody?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
And I did a movie with Emma Roberts, so.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Through her, yeah, they.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Were reading, so yeah, a little bit of everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So just an honorary member now, like a distant uncle.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I like Lucas and I have been on trips around
the world together. And it took me a long time
to ever bring up high school musical because I was like,
it's how I am with j C from and Sync. Yeah,
or like I just didn't want to bring it up.
But obviously Glee and high school Musical. I had like
(02:46):
so many questions just because like Glee wouldn't have existed
without high school musical yea. And our experience feels so specific. However,
it's not specific if we have like your whole crew, right,
Like you guys experienced everything basically we experienced, but you
did it first, and so like you're the only sort
(03:08):
of group that we can talk to about like the
specificity of being on a musical that became like a
pop cultural phenomenon thing and also had a tour.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yes, yeah, that's imporing. Was the crazy part, right, Oh yeah,
because you do the show or the movie and it's like, okay, yeah,
we put all of our work into that and effort
and everything, and we have this bonding experience and it
was hard and fun and complicated and wonderful all at
the same time. But then you leave it and it's like, okay,
(03:41):
that's it. But when you're on stage looking out on
all of these people singing the words, every single one, right,
you know, back at you, that's like a visceral in
your face. This has an impact.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That's yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's something that people who
are on a TV show or in a movie don't
get to have that experience. It's so so removed.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
L didn't go out on tour, no, right, so take
us Backeah.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
We just watched High School Musical and I had the
greatest time. I haven't seen it probably since it was
first on.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Oh that's great to wait a really I saw it
the rough cut when it first and then I never
watched it until like three years ago. Oh gosh, because
I was doing High School Musical, the musical, the series. Yeah,
and oh another Glee connection, same choreographer, Yeah, Zach. So
(04:39):
you know, just like, okay, I probably need to like
refresh my memory and remind myself what people have been
living with.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
All of these years.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
And yeah, I had a totally different experience with it. Obviously.
The first time I was like, oh my god, this
is terrible and it's so cheesy and I'm awful and
you know, all these things. But now I'm like, this
is adorable, and yeah, you know, I see why people
need that unadulterated joy.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And justly just it's a piece of cake.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
It's just like, yes, rightly colored confetti, Layton.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah cake, Yeah, exactly. That's why I had the time.
I was texting Jen, I'm like, I'm having the time
of my life. Because I remember, you know, like we
we grew up doing like TV or theater or whatever
it was, and like, I think I auditioned for high
school musical and I remember watching it and being like
the judge like this is so cheesy and I can't
(05:34):
believe this is pop yet I was obsessed with the music,
saying it all the time, and then just watching it now,
I'm like, what an idiot. I was like, this is wonderful.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Kind of same. I auditioned for Glee so many times.
Oh my god, but I mean, uh, Robert yea, so
he every time he came in and he was like, Okay,
so I love you, I really want you, but you know,
I just have to convince Ryan that that we we
can do something totally different and blah blah blah and yeah,
(06:07):
be a different thing and yeah we could never do it.
But he, you know, he championed me a lot so.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And you're just stupidly talented.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Oh stop it. The role I got the closest to
is the role that Darren Chris got, and I went
back a couple of times for that, and then later
when I met him, I was like, he was like, dude,
I just gotta say like I grew up like watching
you and like this is like so cool, and I'm like, bro,
when I saw that you got the part that I
was like really going for, I was like, holy sh
(06:40):
I could never do that. That is insane. So I'm
a fan of yours too, So.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It was like this weird lovest thing.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, what was that early process? Audition process? Take us
back way back.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So you know, I had moved out to la and
had a little immediate success like third audition, fifth audition.
Within five months, I was doing a movie like Boom
Boom Boom, booking things, and then it was like a
two year you know nothing, Tumbleweeds. And so then this
(07:16):
audition comes up and it's I had already done in
Disney Channel original movie a Halloween Town. So this was
like okay, I had to go back to work at
Blockbuster after I finished shooting Halloween Town. So I was like,
you know, it's it's great, I want to work, but
I know it's not going to like, you know, pay
my bills for that long. But yeah, it was a
(07:39):
musical and I read the script and I was like,
it didn't have any of the music in it, so
the magic wasn't connected yet, and I was like, I
don't get this at all. I don't I don't understand
what's going on. Went in to read for Troy, got
a call back. Actually I went in right after Drew
Seeley auditioned and it was in the trailers on the Universal.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Lie Oh so okay, confirmed I did audition for this. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Drew Syalley has like one of the best voices I've
ever heard, And I mean he was doing all these
runs and like just soulful, silky, smoothing, and I'm like,
oh man, I thought that he was gonna be a
walk in the park, but there is no way. So
I go and I do get a call back and
go and I meet Kenny or take At, the director,
(08:29):
and I read and he's like, you're you're you're great,
but you're not Troy. You're a Ryan. Can you take
these sides, go out and learn those come back in.
I was like, okay, cool, and I do that, and
then we have this epic seven plus hour callback. Oh
my god, very very New York theater style. Like all
(08:51):
of us were in Madeline Clark Studios. There's like probably
forty fifty of us to begin with. Wow, all going
for Troy, Gabriela, Ryan, and Sharpei. Oh my. We were
like taken in group by group to learn a dance,
dance it, and then go back out. And then we
would swap and then they would read names to like
(09:12):
come in and do the dance. And then they were like, okay,
if you hear your name, you can stay if you
don't see you later, and they just kept whil it down. Yeah,
it was crazy, and then we did once we kind
of whittled it down to a few people per role,
then we started doing the chemistry reads and so I
(09:33):
went in with several different girls to read with, you know,
for Ryan and Sharpei. And I've told the story many times,
but Ashley she was amazing. She was like I know
exactly why she got Sharpei because like from the get
go she was sharpey. She gave me notes, like we
went outside, we were rehearsing, and she said, I'm going
(09:54):
to add a line and you're gonna look like this,
and then you say this line like this, and then
at the very end, I'm gonna go grab my bags
and I want you to like run over and grab
my bags and then we'll go out. I was like really,
you're you're telling me what to do it like an audition, okay.
(10:14):
And I walked in with this like oh I you know,
the ego was like bruising everything. But then I was like, well,
you got to do it, and it's probably gonna be
better if you if you play along with it. And
that was the immediate perfect dynamic that they were looking
for for running Sharpay. I was burying all of this
(10:36):
like lifetime of contempt and like, oh so you're gonna
call all the shots okay, but here I am being
as joyful as I can be. And uh so that's
how it happened.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Wow, what I don't know how anyone survives the day
like that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Well, it was crazy. I think I was the only
one there maybe three other people who didn't have their
parents there as well.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Oh my god, that's so.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I moved out to La on my own, you know,
with the stick in the little right.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah. Yeah, and so so yeah, when I got there,
I was like, yeah, I went outside and I was
like having a smoke break.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That was that was definitely the start of something new.
And then once we got together, it was like an
instant family, you know, thrown into this crazy world that
Kenny Ortega just he he has this way of curtaining in,
like shutting out the outside world, and just like we're
(11:56):
living in this fantasy together and we're gonna play, and
he let us just run wild with our characters and
have so much fun and hard ass work. Like we
were dancing eight hours a day plus, as you guys know,
and just drilling these this choreography and the music and everything,
(12:21):
and so yeah, it felt so special when we were
doing it, Like Wow, I don't know, I've definitely never
had a filming experience like this before. I don't know
if I'll have one like this again. But it's still
Disney Channel. It's a made for cable TV musical that's original.
And then when it blew up, I was like, this
(12:43):
is way too much, way too fast. I don't deserve this.
Nobody deserves this. It scared the shot out of me,
and I was just like, I don't I don't know
how to deal with this.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I saw that clip of Kenny recently saying, like, you know,
at the end, when you guys wrapped in the gym,
he was like, if whatever you guys gave just their
translates to like the audience like you guys are about
to your lives are about to change.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Essentially, Yeah, can.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You kind of like explain to everybody what that when
it was after it aired and how you started to
realize that it was such a big hit because like, yeah, numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
You know, viewers, you can, you know you can.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It doesn't translate, but when you walk outside, that's different.
So like, what was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yeah, it was strange because from that point everything was
done through Disney. They were telling us everything, be here,
do this, shoot this, blah blah blah. After it came out,
I'm hearing from friends and people on the street. My
voice teacher texted me or called me and was like, hey,
(13:55):
did you know that your number one on iTunes? I
was like, that's not that's not possible. Within three weeks,
I had a microphone in my face saying or asking
your role model to kids all over the world, what
do you say to them?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I'm like, I live in a moldy apartment that I'm
constantly sick from and I'm struggling to pay my rent.
So I didn't think that I was a role model.
It's interesting. Obviously we were thrown in the deep end,
and we learned to swim, and it took some time
(14:33):
and definitely had some pitfalls and whoopsie daisies where Disney
had to get involved and be like, actually, please don't
put that in the article. But now, because of all
of that, Disney has a program like whenever you get
hired for a pilot or a movie, they gather you
(14:54):
all up and sit you down and talk about how
to give a good interview, how to you deal with
your social media fans, red carpets, like the whole thing. Yeah,
And oh man, I wish I had that. It would
have been so much easier. It was literally like the
scariest thing because at the same time, you know, part
(15:16):
of like the little kid in me who never thought
that would happen, is like, dude, this is crazy, Yeah,
like this is like more than you ever dreamed of.
And then so much of the critic inside me was like,
like I said, judging it, labeling it, saying you don't
deserve this, and runaway fast because all of these people.
(15:40):
We were just surrounded every day by thousands of people
saying telling us how great we were. And you know,
sometimes you take that and you get in a big ego.
Sometimes you take that and you're like, I can't trust
anyone because none of these people are telling me the truth.
They're just wanting something for me. And then there's a
(16:02):
mixture of the both, you know, and my pendulum was
swinging back and forth the whole time, trying to figure
out what was real and what was not because we
were perceiving the world from a vantage point that very
few people get to see. And that messes with you.
It messes with your reality and you know, friends and relatives,
(16:26):
you know, all of that stuff. Money. I never thought
I would ever have money, and thankfully I had great
managers who set me up with an investment person, and
like I put, I just took it all away. Was
just a forever. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spend
any of it. So, yeah, thank you for asking that,
(16:49):
because so many people don't realize that they're really you know,
other than a few instances now, or if you've already
grown up being an influencer and that's how you got famous,
you don't. If you're just an actor, especially a young
one thrust into this and then thrown into the lions den,
(17:12):
you don't know how to properly rephrase the question and
then you know, be eloquipped and poised and all of
those things. It's difficult. It takes time.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, what's interesting is like for us on a TV show,
you're like locked away on stages for nine months, and
so if the show's out there, you're never interacting with
the public. Really, you guys shot this movie and like
a vacuum, had this incredible experience and then you're done,
like that's it. And I remember the experience of like
(17:47):
watching the movie the night it came out on Disney
Channel and how you guys were instantly famous, just like
to me, you were also like I now know all
these people's name, I have bought all of these songs
on iTunes, like they are famous, and like you were
in every single magazine. You're like getting paparazzi, and I
(18:10):
think what people forget. It's like, yeah, you're like I
live in a moldy apartment. I'm just trying to become
an actor. And it's not like all of a sudden
because you guys are overnight famous that you all of
a sudden have like huge paychecks. You can take care
of yourself mentally financially, like none of that has come yet.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Yeah, Disney did give us all bonus checks a few
months afterwards, amazing good. I had a very old school
manager and he was like, you know, back in the day,
they would, you know, it's send the producer over with
a brand new car, like you might get a Cadillac.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Kid.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I'm like, I don't think so, but but it was
more than what I would spend on a car, right,
the biggest check I've ever seen. It's changed my life.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah, that's incredible. That's how they should. I mean, that's
nice to hear it, because I feel like that's how
they should treat people when they have this success like this.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I just learned that not all of our bonus checks
were the same amount, and that that hurt my heart,
Like not out of jealousy that I should have gotten more.
I probably got, you know, more than some. I know
that I got more than some. So when you're putting
(19:33):
all six of us through that.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Machine, right, it should just be what it is.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Why would there be any discrepancy?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Was right?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
And I mean this was like last week, So yeah,
I don't love that, But I'm hoping that now because
of people speaking out and people being open about you know,
yeh wage, Yeah, that isn't the case anymore. A lot
lessons were learned on high school musical.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I'm sure now. I feel like our contracts were based
off of high school musical an American idol combined.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
And the music isn't that crazy like.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The music, yeah, portion of it. That's why I want
to talk, Like, so you said you originally read the
script without any music. What was your guys's process, Like
you had dance rehearsals before, because I feel you shot
the movie in a pretty quick days.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Right, Yeah. We recorded everything in la first without doing anything.
Then we went to Utah and got into the studio
and they had the finished products of the songs and
we would learn the choreography to those. I spent what
four days recording the first album like so quick?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The first time I ever walked into a recording studio,
I was recording We're All in This Together. Yeah, And
thankfully it was We're All in This Together, and not
the original lyrics, which were Everyone's a Winner, Everyone's a Winner.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
No does know about those songs? Is that in theory?
I feel like in theory they shouldn't work as well?
As they do, like they're almost corny, but they're so good.
I don't feel like there's something about watching them in
the movie. I was like, all of these I don't
(21:33):
know how. You know when somebody tries to write a
song for musical and it's just like a little too generic.
None of that doesn't happen to any of those songs.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
They chose the right people to write. Each song's great.
But I mean when we were recording Bop to the Top,
I literally turned to Kenny and I was like, Kenny, shit,
zap zop flop like a mop scooter around the corner.
What He's like, Honey, these are children who wrote these songs,
(22:05):
and they are they're projecting this, this make believe thing
that there. This is their idea of a Vegas song.
I'm like, oh, okay, I get it, but will kids
get that right right years later?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Period? I only got it. I watched it last week.
I was like, oh, I also just really enjoyed watching you.
I like, I haven't seen it since I've known you.
And I was like, God, damn, he's good. No, seriously,
I was like, you are. It's not all of you
are so good. It's not easy to like pull off
(22:41):
that like joy, that campiness, but like you still believe it.
It's not too much. I don't know. I think what
you were saying, like Kenny, that you all just go
for it with all your characters, whatever was happening with
the chemistry on set between you, whatever Kenny was instilling
in all of you, like it all clearly we felt
(23:01):
it as an audience, well.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I appreciate that. It just was perfect for like timing
of like Okay, I've done a couple of things, but
I still was very green. Yeah, but everything in my heart,
I just wanted to be a serious actor.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And so I was like, Kenny, can we talk about Ryan?
He's like yeah, going through all these notes that I
was making this up, and it ended up being amazing
because we had this amazing conversation about Kenny and his
life and why this character was so important to him.
Because the first thing I said was like, okay, so
(23:40):
Ryan's gay, right, And he's like, well, I mean I
don't know what do you think? And I'm like, well,
I mean the dialogue does kind of suggest and I
you know, for me, I knew a lot of the
you know, I was one of these Thespian guys, but
I knew the other ones, you know, just whatever, it's
just this is That's that's what I thought. And he
(24:02):
was like, well, okay, we could do something that other
people have done before and do this stereotype of what
we know, because obviously it's two thousand and five, it's
Disney Channel, say anything out right, but you know, we
could do this over the top thing that we've all seen,
or we can show someone who is in exploration and
(24:27):
in discovery and finding out who he is. And I
think that represents a lot of people in high school, gay, straight,
or anything else. And I was like, that's brilliant. I
love that. And there's so much that ended upon the
cutting floor that was like all of those different ranges
of that and I love what ended up coming out there.
(24:49):
But you know, it was one of those situations where
I didn't really know what version of Ryan was going
to come out, say the movie, but all through it
it was just like, so he started telling me about
his well, this is how I felt in high school
and with parents and all these things, and I was like, okay,
(25:09):
I'm pulling all of that in. I'm pulling all my
my Thespian background. Together, the Jazz Squares is straight up
out of two choreographers of mine in high school, one
in high school, one at the community theater. I don't
know how both they didn't know each other, but both
of them put jazz squarers in every single number.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It's the thing.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Easy for kids, especially the ones who aren't great at dancing,
to make it look yeah. But you know, all of
us in high school were like eye roll. And so
I was like, Penny, I have to ask, can I
put this thing in about jazz squars? And I told
him the whole story, and he's like, I love it.
(25:53):
Let's add a line, let's make it a whole thing,
and let's have sharp Pey hate it. So yeah, and
the warm ups and all that stuff that's straight from
like my theater warm ups.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
You know, so good, growing up, so brilliant.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
It was amazing that that he allowed us to just
put so much of our.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Oh yeah, so there's so much truth in it. Like
we all knew that kid.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
If you were at Thespian watching high school musical, which
most of us were, we were like, I am that person,
and like I take myself just as seriously as they
do and it's ridiculous, but it's so good and it
felt so right.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
I'm so glad that it did.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
No, you did, so the journey after the success, right,
there's the tour.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
There's high school music tour after the first movie.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, we did the US arena tour.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
How many weeks was that?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
It was thirty shows in sixty one days?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That yeah is I had people.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Two weeks before we had our first show. Again, I know, like.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That movie came out, became the success it became, and
then within like a couple of months, arenas were sold out.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Came out in January, and our first show was in November.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Oh nuts, yes, nuts.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
And we sold out almost every show.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
You're like, oh, we're doing this like really fun movie,
you know, twenty four days and we see you guys again.
And then you're like doing the top arena tours as
rock stars with people screaming, and you're like, oh, wow,
this is really popular. That's crazy. What was the tour like?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Oh man, I mean the first thing I told my
mom when I was a kid that I wanted to
be was a karate teacher and a rock star. Yeah, yeah,
you know, I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Have both receptions, right, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
No, it was everything and more and it was the
hardest two months of my life, but it was the
best two months of my life. That's when I knew, like, yeah, okay.
In March, we did the Today show Good Morning America
back to back and I taught America how to do
(28:18):
We're All in This Together dance like that. That was
like a holy crap. But when, like I was saying earlier,
when you're when you're on stage and people are singing
these songs back to you, and I remember this guy,
I might tear up doing this because I always do.
I don't know why. This dad was in the front
(28:40):
row with his daughter on his shoulders and we're doing
We're All in This Together, and he's just balling. I
could just see that he was so happy to like
share that moments, sponsort or whatever. And I was just like, wow, yeah,
first hand impact, you know. So that and then there
(29:02):
was also like being on a tour.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Bus, you guys using across.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
The country, and we took like private jets sometimes because
we had to go from wherever we were to the
Billboard Awards in Vegas and then back when we did
the show in Vegas, Kenny had a nice little surprise
for us that, oh, I don't know, Michael Jackson's gonna
come and see the show with his kids. So we
(29:28):
were all in the dancers dressing room. He's like, everybody
go in the dancers dressing room and around the corner
comes Michael Jackson and his kids and we're like what
and we shake his hand. We was like, hey, how's
it going, and we like They had built a curtain
around the sound booth in the middle of the arena
(29:51):
and then it goes dark before we start the show.
They kept it dark for like an extra forty five seconds,
which was really creepy to have all those people in
pick as they brought him in and I'm wearing all
the Fedora's Corbyn's popping out of the thing. Other than
us like having our heels screwed into the floor and
(30:14):
the lean. We were doing all of this Michael Jackson
stuff because Kenny did all of his shows, so you know,
I'm like doing this thing like okay, we had been
doing it several times and then I look out and
I'm like, I see him. That is so weird.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I don't know that's but he.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Did, you know, Kenny came backstage afterwards and was like,
Michael loved it, and you know what, guys, he said,
he's like so inspired he wants to get back on
on stage into a tour.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
So wow, So it's your fault, it is, no.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
No, it was truly a magical moment. I Like, immediately
I was like, you know, a million of people have
gone to see Michael Jackson, but how many people have
has he gone to see in an arena concert wise?
So just an incredible thing. I mean, that was just
a couple of the moments. There was extremely low moments too,
(31:15):
because you know, you're you're out on stage, you're getting
all of this energy, you're putting all of this energy
out and your body is just like buzzing, and then
you get done and you wipe down, you take your
mic off, and then you go outside and there's screaming
people on your side where crass it takes pictures and
blah blah blah. And then you get to the bus
and it's like, yeah, whoa, my body doesn't feel right
(31:39):
because it's not doing what it has been doing for
the last four hours. What's going on? What's wrong with me?
And Yeah, that up and down for that extremely short
and intense amount of time. Yeah, was hard on you.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
A very singular experience.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, but oh my.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
God, did I love it so great?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
How fast after did they say, like, oh, there's going
to be a second one?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
I think pretty soon because the tour was really successful,
like this down yeah a movie. We had like four
days off and then we went into the studio to
record the.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Second sounds familiar, yeah, and then yeah, and then we
did the second movie.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
And I want to say we did have a month
or two Well, no, we were in it was summertime.
So yeah, we went right back on tour after the movie. Wow.
But it was a stadium tour in South America and
Central America, so we had to go back into this
(32:46):
the rehearsal and like deal with adding fifty feet of
extra stage on either side and my practice running back
and forth right, Oh my goodness, man. I mean since
it was in South and Central America. I was the
EMC of the show, so I spoke mostly in Spanish.
I had teleprompters, thank god, but yeah, I had to
(33:11):
like rush up on that and and translate most of
the things that I had done in the in the
US show to like condense it, make it more thing,
because you can't just go on talking forever to a
stadium of people. And when we did Brazil, I was
like taking a crash course in Portuguese two hours before
the show, praying that I remembered it. And that was
(33:32):
our That was our biggest show. It was almost one
hundred thousand people, so pressure ult and every country we
went to had a slightly different dialect or accent or whatever,
so I, you know, was just drilling the differences of that. Getos.
You know, don't mess that up because these people, if
(33:58):
you do it right, they will feel instantly so much
more seen in love.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
No pressure. Okay, my god, wow. Yeah that what's crazy
is like how quickly that, like a year and a
half before, if somebody had told you you'd be doing that,
you like you're on drugs.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, I mean after I shot the movie, I went
with my friends to Europe and was just like going
around sleeping in hostels and people's beds and or people's
apartments and stuff, and you know, like, all right, this
is just whatever. I had no idea that, yeah I couldn't.
I wouldn't be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
No anyway, right right, But yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Wow. Going into the second movie, I imagine now because
you guys are a proven successful brand internationally, the stakes
(35:02):
are a little different, and I imagine, like going into
it is different, the scale of it in so many ways.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
It's you know, if you would have asked me day
of wrap after this second movie, like what was your
favorite one to do? I would have been like, the
first one was really hard, but that definitely would be it.
But now looking back, I would say the second one
because I forget, you know, I'm able to forget all
of the stress and the pressure. But there was so much,
(35:33):
Like we didn't we shot for six weeks. We didn't
have a day off. We had one day off Easter.
All of the other days that were off days we
were still doing photo shoots, interviews, all sorts of things.
So like it was, it was maddening. It was intense
(35:55):
after a tour too. Well, that actually helped, you know,
the momentum that we just got on a train and
they just kept saying, Okay, do this now, do this, now,
do this now, and yeah, And I do actually think
that that really helped. And we were all in the
spirit and you know, seeing the impact firsthand and getting
to like be excited about going back to these characters
(36:17):
and what we could do better and more of I
think two is the best movie, and I think that's
weird that, you know, not all.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Trilogies have that, Yeah, most do not.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, but like the music is so great. It's so
colorful and fun, and you know, yeah, we were working
our butts off, but we were living all on a
cul de sac in a country club. It was like
gorgeous in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Saint George
is a decent sized city, but there's nothing around it
(36:51):
except beautiful red rock mountains. So yeah, there was there
was a lot of that also comfort knowing like we've
even if this doesn't do as well as the first one,
like we're not, I'm not gonna like, I don't have
(37:13):
to go back to the moldy apartment because I know that,
Like my life is a little different now. And and
I mean, where when do you get a chance to
wear a white tuxedo and play a grand piano in
a pool?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I don't know. Ask Mat Morrison. He had to wear
a white taxedo in a pool. One glad And so
you know, you guys got we.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Just after.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Okay, baseball. When do you get to do a baseball
musical number?
Speaker 3 (37:42):
That's like.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
The sport numbers were.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Really knows how to shoot dance well, really knows how
to film.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
You know the reason why we did that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
J Kelly, Jean Kelly.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
So Geene Kelly gets called from the student. Hey, we
we've got Frank Sinatra coming in to do guys and dolls.
But he doesn't know how to dance. Can you teach
him how to dance? He's like, what sport does he like?
He likes baseball, Well, let's go to a game. So
we went to a game and he's sitting there and
he's like, all right, Frank, look at all these moves
that these guys are doing and think of them as
(38:19):
dance moves. And then he was like, through baseball moves,
taught him how to dance and came that story and
was like, okay, we're gonna do that in the second movie.
So crazy.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Wow. Yeah, we had a discussion about how so many
not to bash modern movie musicals. So many people don't
know how to shoot dance well. And obviously Kenny, thank
you a master. Yeah, and watching high school musical, I
was like this, this is how you shoot dance. Yeah,
(38:56):
I can't even imagine, you know, like when we had
directors come on and and I feel so bad for
them because it's not often that you get to shoot. Obviously,
doing TV, you come in, you have very little time
to prep and you have to just like shoot something
and turn around. Yeah, and people are not used to
shooting dance obviously. Luckily, I think we had a pretty
good formula of how to do it, so people sort
of had their handheld through that. But because musicals aren't
(39:21):
that normal, people just don't have that experience. You worked
literally with the person who has the most experience doing it,
Like I just want to not like shooting a musical
number with Kenny, obviously, the rehearsal was intense from what
it sounds like, like, what was the shooting process.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Like, Well, the shooting process started in rehearsal because Kenny
was always the camera. So, you know, we worked with
Bonnie's Story and Chuckie Klaypow, two of my favorite people
in this entire world. They you know, the three of
them choreographed stuff and then they would they would teach
(40:00):
us and work with it and we work, work, work,
and then Kenny would come in and say, oh, let's
change this a little bit, Let's change that a little bit.
And then while we would just run it over and
over again, he would just be like looking and even
if we're dancing and he walked right through us, we
would have to move right and if we hit him,
(40:21):
oh boy, you do not want to hit him or
bump into him or back into him. Even like you
have to be aware that he is there all the
time because he's like, you won't know where I'm going
to put the camera and if I've got a steady
caim weaving through you, guys, you need to be able
to be aware of it. So always always be aware
and not just move out of the way, but do
(40:44):
it with soul and feeling. And it just made me
think of dirty dancing so much because it's just like
but yeah, it was we were being taught how to
be on set before we got on set, which was great, yeah,
and then yeah, doing it. It was like, you know,
whenever we were shooting a musical number, it was like, Okay,
(41:06):
get ready because we're going to be sweating all day
because we've got to get the wide and we have
to get it perfect before we do any coverage. And
then you know, as the movies went on, we had
you know, four or five more cameras right at legit.
But still it was it was not only about getting
the moves perfectly, because we were running through that stuff
(41:28):
so much. By the time we got to the shooting.
He's like, before we did, we're all in this together.
He's like, all right, guys, you know these moves. We've
been doing it for weeks because even while we were shooting,
we were still rehearsing that stuff. And he's like, this
is this is it. This is our last number that
we're going to shoot, and it's the last number in
(41:49):
the film. This is the culmination of the film. This
is where our spirit source. So I don't want you
dancing from your brains or your bodies. You have to
dig and find some some inner joy and whatever. We're
all in this together means to you find that and
(42:10):
dance through that, and we're all for you. He's like,
he would always yell like this is some film forever. Yeah.
A little so he was like a little pressure like coach,
you guys gotta give it your all, but also such
like a warm, loving parent being like you guys are
(42:32):
doing great and you've got the stuff down. Now, now
it's time to play, and it's time to give a
part of yourself. Yeah to children who need to be inspired,
who want to be uplifted and joyful. And yeah, that
was a little bit much for in my head, like
made for cable TV movie musical maybe Ken. Yeah, But
(42:57):
at the same time, I'm like, Okay, when do you
get that When do you get that opportunity when someone
putting a film camera in front of your face saying, hey,
do some really cool choreography and dance from your heart?
You know, like Okay, So we all got on board
and it was Yeah, it was a dream.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
It's illuminating to hear your journey feels like oddly similar
in a lot of ways in what we went through
and feeling like something is really special, but then also
just not being fully equipped for any of it and
kind of just on the train and it's NonStop and
(43:45):
you're just on it, right, You're riding it for as
long as they keep.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Going, and then at some point it.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Stops, right and you're like, Okay, I guess it's time
to get off this train now.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah. I think a lot of us because it was
so intense for that three and a half year period
of time that as soon as it was done, I
mean even in between, we were all trying to squeeze
in other movies and projects and things. As I've said before,
I was trying to be a real actor, you know,
(44:17):
like Corbin and Vanessa and actually all put out albums, right,
and I've been writing music since I was twelve. Like
that was like a dream come true to get a
record deal. But at the time, for some silly, whatever reason,
I don't regret it. I didn't do it because I
was like, I want to focus on acting and moved
(44:37):
out to LA to be an actor, and I want
to act.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
You know, we all choose different busses to jump on
and trajectories and all of those things. But there was
a lot there was this deep feeling of like, Okay,
I've been I've been eat, sleep and breathing this thing
for for so long. Even though it wasn't I gotta
I gotta go like big left hand turn, you know,
(45:03):
do something totally different so that people don't think that
this is all I can do. Ye looking back, I
even heard Rain Wilson talk about this on his podcast
when you're in it. You don't realize the relationship that
your fans have with your character and how comforting it
(45:23):
is to see they can watch it over and over
again and continue to feel that camaraderie in the connection.
You can have your feelings of angst and frustration with
this daily grind, but if you like trying to remember
that the character is the thing that you get to
(45:44):
play and that you get to do, and anytime someone
asks you to do more of it, like that's a
gift and no regrets. But like, yeah, I mean, that's
why every time any high school musical thing, when Ashley
called me to do Sharpey's Fabulous Cure, yep, without question.
When High School Musical the musical series called like, yep,
(46:05):
let's do it, you know, because yeah, any chance I
can have to play this character, I will. Yeah, It's
made my life.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
There's still there's so much it's still out there. People
still love it. Like it hasn't gone anywhere in the
last five years.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
It has only grown. Yeah, there's something the timing of
nostalgia plus people having children that I've been doing a
lot of conventions in the last year or so, and
I can't tell you how many moms come up, young
moms and they're like, I grew up on high school
musical and now we've got Carolyn and she just loves it.
(46:45):
Oh and it's like, what it's been that long that
can happen?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Yeah, because there's still not a lot out there that
has filled that night, right.
Speaker 4 (46:55):
Yeah, well, I mean it was so pure, like they
don't even kiss in the first movie, So you don't
get a g rated thing unless you go back to
the forties, and then there's always chances that there's gonna
be stuff that doesn't really yeah, you know. So yeah,
it is special to have that squeaky clean thing that
(47:15):
any parent can feel comfortable. But now there's this like
history and I can feel it from people like and
I didn't under actually this is so My favorite movie
of all time is Waiting for Guffman, which is about
a small town, fictitious town in Missouri, which is I'm
from Missouri, about a community theater putting on a play,
(47:38):
an original musical based on for the celebration of the one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. And it is
it's perfect, perfect, It is perfect in every single way.
I can quote every line from it, and I've seen
it a million times and it's my movie. And doing
(47:59):
these conventions, Parker POSI was at one of them, and
I have seen everybody in these green rooms and I
don't come up to anyone because you know, it's like
the safe space and you don't want to bother anybody.
But I was like, oh, man, I cannot go without
saying something to her. I waited for a good moment.
She was done eating, she was going up to grab
(48:20):
a coffee, and I was like, hey, Parker, I'm a
huge fan. And I just have to say, like, Waiting
for Gotain was my favorite movie all time. I'm from Missouri,
like Blaine is, like I grew up doing like that
was that was my experience. Like we had a run
and Sheila, we had a quirky Saint Clair, you know,
(48:40):
like we had a Livy May You're just incredible blah
blah blah. And I'm like showering her and she's like, oh,
that's so sweet, and she was so nice and everything.
And thankfully her assistant came up right afterwards and she
was like, oh my god, I watch Halloween Town every
year all the time. I love that stuff. I was like,
(49:01):
not look like a good thing. I'm not looking like
a crazed fan who just like happened to squeeze into
the green room or something because she had no idea
who I was. But anyway, so I get done and
I'm sitting at the lunch table and Priscilla Presley is
also a client of my agents, and so we've done
a lot of conventions together. I've gotten to know her
(49:21):
and we're kind of chummy, and so I was like, oh, man, Priscilla,
like I just met Parker Posey. That was so cool.
And she's like, oh, yeah, that's nice. And then my
agent pulls me aside and she's like, Lucas, you like
yesterday Parker went up to Priscilla and was like, she
did exactly what you did to her. And after it
(49:43):
was like, oh, that's crazy, like world twisting moment. But
then I had this insane, joyous, exciting feeling in my
soul like it was just like, oh, that was really cool,
and I'm so glad I did that, and I'm so
glad that she was sweet and kind and all those things.
It was just like a perfect experience and I was like,
(50:06):
oh my god, I get it. I actually know the
feelings some of the people have when they come up
to my table and they they're kind of flustered and
they don't like I had experienced that, and it was
such a beautiful gift, and I was so glad that
it was Parker Posy, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
You never know who it's going to be either.
Speaker 4 (50:27):
I've met a lot of famous people, but.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
You met the most famous person probably evert.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
Into your concert and saw you perform.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
I was I was a little starstruck.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, I mean I think anybody would.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
Hey, I'm so excited to see the show. Kenny was like,
what's your favorite song? Oh? All of them? Oh, but
that was like Paris and Blankets first show that they
had ever seen. Crazy. Wow, that's that's wild. And now
(51:07):
they're all, you know, crazy amazing musicians of themselves.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
And you know, it's really lovely to hear you talk
about this experience. And I'm sure Jenna feels the same way,
because I think we also now feel the same about
our experience with or just how grateful we are for
that opportunity and like grateful that people were ever interested
(51:33):
in it. People are still interested in it, and because
the show obviously changed our lives. It meant so much
to us and it's really wild to think about just,
you know, the connection between high school musical basically birthing
when we were doing press. I don't even know if
I ever told you this, but when we were doing.
Speaker 4 (51:53):
You had to answer that question.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
One they ever prepped us for. The question was literally
the only note we ever got in the beginning was
when we go out to talk about it, try not
to mention high school musical. But if you do mention
high school musical, you can't explicitly say we're the anti
high school musical, but we are sort of like where
(52:17):
the satire. Yeah, And so that was the whole first
season was about like, oh, we don't just break out
into song like high school musical does, but also high school. Yeah.
But then like Jenna and I were watching high school,
like this is much more grounded than.
Speaker 4 (52:38):
We have a bully.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
It's also like you guys are in a real school.
Most of the time you're singing on a stage when
you would normally be singing.
Speaker 4 (52:48):
Vanessa always Gabriella, she always she was definitely the musical
one of like not doing anything.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
And then like song my dream song, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
But I just it's I love that we've been able
to become friends, and I love that you are like
so integrated into the Glee family, and it's just it's
very reassuring hearing your experience, and well.
Speaker 4 (53:14):
I really appreciate that. I remember, you know, when we
were doing press, probably for the second or third one. Yeah,
A lot of the times they were like, so what
do you think about Glee? God, high school musical paved
the way for Glee?
Speaker 1 (53:30):
I mean, you did?
Speaker 2 (53:31):
You did?
Speaker 4 (53:32):
Did I? Back then? I was still auditioning for Glee,
So I was very diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
About I'm sure. I'm sure you know there's.
Speaker 4 (53:39):
A lot of great musicals out there, and I'm sure
that you know it definitely struck a chord. But who knows,
you know. I I love Glee. I think it's great. Yeah,
we did what we can't say why changing?
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, And I'm.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
Really really authenticity is so much more of a thing now,
whereas like I can't, Oh my goodness, if I was
authentic back then, I was some mixture of myself and
(54:23):
a Disney version of myself and Ryan all put together
that I had to come up with. That was like
my media character, and and that.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
A real trick on your Yes, Psyche, what's real?
Speaker 4 (54:42):
And people grow up with the relationship they have with
your character, and then they see a relationship, you know,
they gain a relationship with you doing interviews, and then
they meet you in person and they're like.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
What, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (54:59):
We ask everybody who comes on the podcast. Generally, usually
it's about Lee. What is feeling like Lee leaves you with?
But as we move into this new chapter of watching
other music shows, I'm curious what the feeling is that
high school musical leaves you with?
Speaker 4 (55:14):
M You said it earlier, It is just absolute gratitude.
It's an immense feeling of I mean, I look back
on so many parts of my life and they seem
like movies themselves that I've watched. It doesn't seem like
(55:37):
it's my actual life. And every now and then I
sync up with the virtuality simulation that we're all living. Yeah,
that we may have created ourselves, who knows. Sometimes it
kind of lines up and I do get to like
(55:58):
really feel like that was me so much the time
it wasn't. It's like that's somebody else. But whether or
not it's me or it's not me, it's still is
that like overwhelming sense of Wow, I'm so lucky and
so appreciative that that that happened and that I got
(56:19):
to do that, and that I get to relive a
lot of those things with meeting people today who who
are still impacted by it and kids who are still
who are watching it for the first time. Now, you know, Yeah,
it's an amazing gift.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
Well, thank you so much for chatting with us, for
thanks so much for having us wonderful hours.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
We're gonna have to watch the second and third.
Speaker 1 (56:42):
Oh yeah, We're definitely doing the second.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Because I've never been more excited. Well, I remember just
trying to be like a cool kid, like I guess
I'll watch the second one. I guess I'll go to
the movie theater watch the third one. Fully showed up
and it was like.
Speaker 4 (56:57):
I would would have done the same exact thing, exactly
like this thing everybody.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
Yeah, and yeah, I was.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
I wish that we could do this flopped because I
talked the whole time, and I know that that's like
you know what, No, I've heard stories from you know,
so many of you guys in the cast, But I
would love to deep dive and have this conversation on
the flip side.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
So maybe after we watch two and three, we'll have
you back and then we can just talk about everything else.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Yeah, it's nice.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Actually, you're sweetest, you're the best, so stupidly talented. O,
thank you, thank you, thank you so much for spending
so much time with us.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
Hey, my pleasure, Bye bye.
Speaker 2 (57:47):
What a sweet man.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
What is an incredible experience, and what a sweet human.
Speaker 2 (57:52):
He's so well spoken, he's always just like humility and
like he's always himself. I know it sounds so dumb,
like he's so genuine, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
I love that, especially like just the success he's had and.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
Yeah, yeah, I'm still really grateful and positive and wonderful.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
So thank you Lucas for spending all the time with us.
And we hope you guys enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
And that's what you really miss Thanks for listening and
follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss. Pod.
Make sure to write us a review and leave us
five stars. See you next time.
Host
Jenna Ushkowitz
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.