Directed by... Kenny Ortega

There is no way to talk about movies like High School Musical, Descendants, Cheetah Girls 3 and Hocus Pocus without mentioning this man... Kenny Ortega!

The legend himself sits down with Sabrina and Will to talk about his career and the incredible projects he has made that have become some of our favorite movies.

Plus, find out who he fought to be in the Descendants films! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Thank you everybody for joining us on this well, very
very special park Copper episode. We talk about park Opper
episodes every week, starting with saying it's special, and usually
we're lying just to get it. It's clickbait, but this
one is pretty impressive. We we've done it, folks. Yes,
he is here, the King himself. I don't even want

(00:37):
to spend any more time or gild the lily anymore
than we have to because nothing is going to uh.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I can't anymore Kenny or take us here.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
We're so excited, Kenny or Tega, thank you so much
for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
We literally don't even call them d COM's anymore. We
call them or Tegas and we appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Could come with me anywhere like that. Thank you so much,
and for your kindness and and and for having me
here today. I'm really thrilled to see you again, sabritak
to me you will. We've never met, but I'm well
aware of all of the work that you've done with
the Channel and so great to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Guys, thank you so much for having me now. We
like to start back at the beginning because your your career.
We were texting last night with one of other producers
who said, literally, you have you have seven amazing careers.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
You have the career of seven people who have been successful.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Right, So I'm curious, how did it all start for
you in the entertainment industry.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
In the whole, the whole entertainment like you. I was
a kid, you know, I was. I was twelve years
old and I was in professional children's theater. My aunt
took me to an audition and we stood outside for
hours and I went inside and I didn't know what
an audition was. And I'd never read sides and I
never auditioned for anything. I never had been in a play.

(01:56):
And and it was Oliver Twist, I remember, and I
was reading in a plice, I want some more, and
they were like, read this, and then they put the
little the Bad Wolf in front of me, and I
read the Wolf. And then they put Peter in front
of me, and then they were like, who are you
here with? And I was like, my mom, my aunt,
my aunt Shirley, and they and they said where is she?

(02:16):
I said, you know, right out outside, and they brought
her in and I saw her shaking and starting to
cry and getting so excited, and I thought, well, this
is either terrible or wonderful. And then they brought me
over to the table and they said, we'd like to
welcome you to be a part of our children's theater company.
And from that moment forward, I just never left I

(02:38):
you know, I remember my dad used to take me
to the train station in Redwood City, California after school,
and I would drive take a train to San Francisco
to do theater and they'd be waiting for me at
the train station. Then they'd bring me back to the
train station and i'd catch the last train. Dad would
be waiting for me. We'd go home, and then I'd
get up and go to school in the morning. And

(02:58):
I was working in theater. That was me and Sabrina.
That was it. That was the beginning of my life,
working in musical theater and in straight plays. That was me.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
That was my dad would take me to the bus
station in Farmington, Connecticut. I would get on the bus
for three hours down, go to New York City, go
to my auditions.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Do it I had?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Did you come back and go to school the next
day and they were waiting for me on the buck
same thing. Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
My big one, My big one, was. I was working
at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, which
was an incredible repertory theater. Every play, every musical that
was happening in the theater came there through there, and
I mean Judy Garland performed there, right, So there was
I was working as an apprentice for fifteen dollars a week.

(03:42):
I was fourteen, and someone said, are you auditioning for Oliver?
And I was like what, and they were like, yeah,
the cast of Oliver's coming in from London and they
need a boy and they're having an audition and there
was a like a message on the bill bulletin board,
and so I brought it up to my family and
they were like, you should do it. So I did it,

(04:03):
and I got cast and I was on stage with
the glorious Georgia Brown and Robin Ramsey and the incredible
company from the West End of Oliver, the original Oliver.
And that was it. That was the moment that just
being on stage with that level of talent woke me
up to how far I needed to still go in

(04:24):
order to sustain and really belong as a permanent partner,
you know, in the industry.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
But ignited that design.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Boy, you got a long way to go, but that
they've invited you in this is That was the reason
for me, was you know that to realize to really
become an important part of the theater, that I had
more studying to do more.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
Wow, were you already studying dancing at that point? Did dance?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
I was like you, I studied dance when I was five.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
Five, Okay, yeah, so you had already had that that
dance background.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, and love music, love music and dancing. All because
of my parents. You know. They they were World War
two jitterbug champions, and they did all the Latin dances,
the roomba and mambo, and they would go to the
once a month they would have a big dance at
the Veterans Memorial Building in Redwood City, And since dad,
you know, was in the army, they went there and

(05:16):
they couldn't afford a babysitter. So I would stand there
on the sidelines of the ballroom floor and watch them dance. Gosh,
and I fell in love with it, and I thought,
that's it, that's everything.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
Yeah, I just I can't get the images of those
women's like ballroom dresses that they wore, especially back in
the day, they like weighed like tons and tons with
so much material, but they would just be so elegant
across the floor.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
I love seeing videos of that.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
You know. Sometimes they say you're born, you're born with something,
you know, and and I do believe that in some capacity.
But I also have to say that I was so fortunate.
I was inspired. Yeah, I was just these little miracles
that were popping up all around me as a little boy.
I was aware enough to pay attention and that they

(06:05):
moved me and excited me and inspired me to want
to live in that place of music and dance and
and and what that could do for people. I mean,
I remember what it did for me watching them. It
excited me. I just felt like I was floating watching them,
you know, when I thought, oh, one day, maybe I
can do that for someone.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Well, I think you have. There was a question one
thousand times, so what was that next?

Speaker 5 (06:36):
So you now you're on stage, you're you're working as
a child actor in the theater world, what was kind
of that next chat like door opening for you within
your career?

Speaker 4 (06:48):
What came next?

Speaker 3 (06:49):
At that I started my own Civic Light opera company
because my high school didn't have enough boys in it
to be able to do the kind of musicals that
I wanted to do. So my own and I started
the Redwood City Civic Light Opera. I was seventeen years old,
and we had kids from every school in the Bay
area and we put on Oliver and the Roar of

(07:11):
the grease paint and the sound of music and maime
and all kinds of musicals with a full orchestra and
a full cast and full backstage. I was directing and choreographed.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh my god, So at seventeen, you're already directing.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
So that was my question is did you think you
were going.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
To be in directing in my backyard hanging a sheet
on the clothes when I was a little boy with
all the neighborhood kids. So yeah. And also I was
in high school and my theater director, Ray Doherty, was
such a mentor and I loved him so much, and
I loved watching him, you know, put us into the
work and how he managed to stage and inspire and

(07:51):
motivate but not telling you what you know. And so
I I thought I can do that, And so that
was my first time doing it. Then I went into
the musical hair I got cast in the musical Hair
in San Francisco, and that then took me into the
national touring company of Hair. And then I decided, you know,
I was going to get ready to do Jesus Christ Superstar.

(08:12):
And I met a rock and roll band that said,
come with us and be with us and help us,
and we need someone that understands staging and theater. And
they were they called the Tubes, and they they were wait, wait, yeah,
you know about me.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
You you went on tour with the Tubes.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
I was in the Tubes for over ten years. Yes,
thank you for knowing who they are, A and M
and Capitol recording artists, the Tubes. They were pioneers of
rock and roll in the seventies and eighties. And I
was the artistic director choreographer of the band. And then
I performed with them, you did, and that really put
me into a different chair, a different seat, different shoes.

(08:52):
I was now the observer. I was concept on the
conceptual side and on the staging side, and less interested
in the form in side. And and when I came
out of the Tubes, well, everyone that saw the Tubes,
you know, from Bowie to the Kiss, Madonnas, so many

(09:15):
Danny Elfman and Only Go Boy and they all, you know,
were inviting me to come and give them some of
that magic. And so I was now the choreographer of
rock and roll in a popular, you know, live entertainment
and and that's where I got That's where I really
got my mind.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
Was anyone really doing that before you were doing it?

Speaker 4 (09:35):
I'm like that you were.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Like bringing choreography, yes, and and theatrical staging and theater right,
and bring it into rock and roll in popular, you know,
live performance. And no, no one was Tony Basel. Probably
Tony Basel, you know, was one of my mentors, by
the way, and who I owe so much to. I mean,
my god, did that woman, you know? But I didn't

(09:58):
realize that we were both doing at the same time
until much later. Yes, she was. She was doing it
with Tina with Bow.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
You guys are both pioneering that making bands. Understand, you've
got to learn how to not just play your instruments.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
But I love it still.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I still tick it over the tube.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
You got to get into the tubes, which will take
you to the romantics, which will take you to the replacements,
which will take there's we'll get fits It's really truly
a magical time.

Speaker 6 (10:25):
And the Jerry Bomb was a huge I worked with
them during the Runaway, I mean, I was working with
Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
I mean, so that's Share.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yeah, what took you into Michael.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Vegas, Big Giant Productions Las Vegas with Schaer and Diana
Ross and and the Pointer sisters, and all of that
came from and only happened because of of what those
artists saw in the Tubes. Yeah, they would come because
every everyone wanted to see what the Tubes were doing. Yeah,
there were lines around the block. We were selling out

(11:04):
everywhere we went. And then Share, you know, would be
knocking on my dressing room door, going I want to
work with you, oh Basle. Tony Basel came back at
the at the Roxy in Los Angeles, California, was banging
on my door. I was in a dance belt and
with eyeliner dripping down my face, and it was like
she pushed herself into my dressing room and was like,

(11:25):
I'm I want to work with you, you know, And
that was the beginning of my relationship for all of
these decades with Tony Basil. Yeah, the Tubes, thank you
for thank you for honoring Oh he came in my
life because those guys were everything to me.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's I have two older brothers and you get your
music from the older brothers, and that go there. Then
going into industrial, then going into kind of the seventies
punk scene was really what with everything, and then the
whole CBGB scene with the New York Dolls and television
and the Ramones, I.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Mean, Blondie. This was all some of the most important
times in music history.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
We were the first bear to bring video and media
into I mean Bill Graham, you know, had light shows
right with dripping paint on a screen behind rock and
roll bands like The Grateful Dead and Jannis Stoplin and
the Big Brother and the Holding Company. But the Tubes
actually brought video, you know, and it did. It weighed
hundreds and hundreds of pounds and you know, but we

(12:22):
trucked in video and we had television sets on our
heads with you know video. Yeah, and we were really
pushing it and we had Hell's Angels on stage, ballet
companies on stage. We were fearless. I mean, we went
to London for the first time. This is a great moment.
You know. We made fun of everything. We poked fun

(12:42):
of everything. We were dangerous, we were scary, we were controversial,
and the promoter said, look, we love who you are.
We're getting ready to do a big run at the
Hammersmith Odeon in London, and they said, just leave the
monarchy out of it. And Michael, the keyboard player and
the production designer, along with Prairie Prince, we all we

(13:06):
looked at each other and as soon as that guy disappeared,
we were in the streets looking for someone that resembled
Queen Elizabeth Stage. That's great.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
I mean I feel like a lot of that fearlessness
and stuff definitely continue to I mean we're talking about
working with Madonna, you're talking about working with Michael Jackson.
I mean that fearlessness that I feel knowing when I've
worked with you, that you give to artists.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
You give them that that.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Like strength and that power to like really believe in
what they're doing. What was it like when you were
working with then you go on to I mean with
Madonna and Michael Jackson at the not like the start
of their career, the boat Peace.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, Well, I worked with Madonna at the beginning of
her career, and I will say you know that she
was extraordinary. Yeah, you know, I worked with her on
the Material Girl music video and she invited me to
be able to go on beyond that. But it did
work out for us. But I have never lost my
respect and appreciation for I mean, she came at it
with like like such gusto and determination and dedication, and

(14:13):
I mean, and I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying, like
Mary Lambert directed that I choreographed it the Material Gold video,
and I mean Madonna was there before everybody, and when
everything was over and everybody was leaving, she was like,
can we just run through this one more time? And
you know, and and then it was just the two
of us and she was like, do you mind dropping
me off at the house? And you know that she

(14:33):
really worked to gain what she came to own, and
I still to this. I saw her in concert last year,
mind blowing, mind blowing coming out of the hospital and
standing on a stage and performing at the capacity that
she did. It was so awesome. Michael, you know already
was Michael. And that was just I got to call

(14:56):
at my house. My niece picked up the phone and
she screamed across the house. Some idiots on the phone
saying he's Michael Jackson and I was like, oh. I
picked up the phone and I was like hello. I
was like hello, this is Michael. And I was like,
Michael Jackson, Yes, And I was like, Michael, I so apologize.

(15:16):
He goes, that's okay. Nobody ever thinks it's.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Me, of course, because you I think I was.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
I was. I was in a two year prep to
get ready to do the Olympics in Atlanta. So I
was the biggest, hugest job of my life, knowing that
we were going to have tens of thousands of performers
and just this massive opening and closing ceremonies that I
was going to choreograph. And Michael asked me to do
his world tour and I said, Michael, I'm so sorry.

(15:47):
I can't believe I'm going to have to say no,
but I'm doing the Olympics. And he said that's okay,
you can do both, and that okay. That along with
the voices of a number of other people that came
before and after that, you know, have have been the
ones that have challenged me and and where I've had to,
you know, pull out my big boy pants and say yeah,

(16:08):
I can do both. Yeah, and I'm not going to
throw this incredible opportunity away. And then twenty five years later,
you know, I got to be there in the end
with Michael, which yeah, and.

Speaker 5 (16:17):
He's a workhorse too, right, I mean hours and hours
and details and details.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Had a portable dance studio on tour. You know. He
had a road case that was like six feet high
and when you opened the road case, it folded open
and there was a mirror and a dance floor that
pulled down and he would stand in front of that
and just repeat movement over and over and over until
he perfected it. He never underestimated the value of rehearsal

(16:46):
and putting time into an idea or a move for
a song. He was the workhorse. Yeah, he was. He
strived for greatness.

Speaker 7 (16:55):
Oh my gosh, Okay, I have to ask, and I
hate doing this, but I always put people on the
spot and.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
I hate doing this.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I love it other than.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Sabrina, because we all know that's the answer.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
I love Sabrina. Sabrina. I'm gonna say right now, I'm
gonna hold your thies. Sabrina was the Golden girl on
the set of Cheetah girls too in Spain, and it
was a really difficult experience doing a movie there. I'd
never done one there before, none of us had ever
been therefore, working professionally, Sabrina every day showed up with
this glorious attitude, with this incredible positive energy, with a

(17:37):
readiness to do the work. It shows. Look at the
movie if you haven't watched it again. She was so present.
She surrendered her totality to everything that we did. I
remember those days working alongside of her with such appreciation
and love you so to this day.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
I love you too.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Basically, you got me through that experience.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
I was selling Will about just working in a different country.
We would be just getting going and all of a
sudden they'd be like, all right, it's time to shut
down and break and we're like, everyone needs to take
their smoke break there the other wine. Maybe yeah, it's
like ten thirty, and we're like, what she got started?

Speaker 4 (18:18):
All right, I guess, And we're all like just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Going, okay, all right, who's the best performer you've ever
seen in your life?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
The best performer that I've ever seen ever in my life? Okay,
can I work? Can I don't? I'm not going to
say one, because they're all different, but they're exceeded at
the highest level of what they did. Judy Garland Yeah,
Stress End, Yeah, Oh my god, Stevie Wonder, MJ Share.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, she's still amazing. On Doors.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
There's so many of you guys.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Didn't you work with Gene Kelly.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Gean Kelly? Yeah, I worked with Gen Kelly. I was.
I directed and choreographed his very last dance sequence in
a movie. I don't want to throw I've got to
say though, I am such a Gaga fan. Yeah, Yes,
Lady Gaga is just so amazing. She's like like like
og She's like the old school. She's like the old school.
She comes at it with a with a no how
and an appreciation and a respect for the work. She

(19:23):
spills it. She doesn't leave anything. When you leave from
a Lady Gaga performance, you know she gave you everything.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
I gotta put that on my list.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
I haven't seen her, Rols does that.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Who I just saw many, many times, four times, and
who I'm friends with is Nicole Scherzinger, who just won
the Tony Award for playing in the musical Sunset Boulevard
Norma Desmond. She's another one. But anyway, there are lots
lots fee way built from the tubes. Was one of those.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, talk about this there. So we have to get
into the into the world of Disney at some point.
But before we do, let's just get into the world
of musical movies because we can't sit here and talk
with you that talking about Newsy's, which for an entire
generation of people is a hugely important film.

Speaker 5 (20:18):
Yes, was that your first introduction to Disney?

Speaker 3 (20:21):
That was my first? No, But because I had choreographed
for Disney and ABC, I directed for ABC, okay, but
it was my first motion picture period, and it was
with Jeffrey Katzenberg who brought me in. I was doing
a television series I think for ABC called hull Hi
if I'm not mistaken, which was it? Did it? It

(20:42):
only ran for one season, but it was so far
ahead of the game. Oh my gosh, I'd love to
pull that back out again, you know, and and to
come back at it again. But anyway, I got a
call from the president of the Walt Disney Movies, Jeffrey Katzenberg,
and he called me into his office and I was like,
you know, unsure of what that was about. But I went,
and he said, you know, everybody thinks that the musical

(21:06):
is dead, and he said, I'd like to show them
that it isn't. Would you like to join me. I
want to put musicals back on their feet. And I
was like, have you read my resume? Honestly? I was like,
you know, you know who I am? And he laughed
and he goes, of course I do, man, And he
was like, I've got one that I want to do,
and if you do that one, then I'll let you
choose the next one we do, and his was Newsy's

(21:29):
and I took it home and read it, and I
was like, I want to hit this. This is like Oliver. Yeah,
you know my favorite musical of all time. This is
like Oliver. You know, this is the the you know,
the the Newsboys Strike of the you know, early nineteen hundreds,
that Children's Crusade. My god, yes, I'll do this. And
then when it came to the second movie, I heard

(21:51):
that Bett wanted to do a movie that her daughter
could go see, and that she wanted to make a
movie that her kid could go watch, and that she
really liked this script called hocus Pocus, and I said,
let me read it. Let me read it, because I
had just done The Rose with her and Tony Basil
that she got nominated for an Oscar for and and
and then I picked hocus Pocus as my second.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Phil which another an.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
Just the most wonderful memories of Newsy's treasured for always
working with uh, with Christian Bale and and and just
that entire company and Margaret you know, Robert Duvall uh
uh you know. Uh, it was a time. You know

(22:42):
those children, those kids, you know, Nony and Bob, the writers. Uh.
Every day, every day it was like pinch myself. No,
don't don't wake me from this dream. I don't want
to wake up. If this is not real, don't wake
me up. I just loved every Andrew Laslow, my director
for photography, who taught me so much, even though I

(23:02):
choreographed a lot before that. You know, now I was
the director, you know, and back then the monitors, you guys,
were these little tiny boxes, so you couldn't see dance
numbers in those little tiny boxes. So I would stand
right next to the camera, or I'd ride on the
crane with the camera operator. So it was a real

(23:24):
experience back then, you know, you weren't sitting in a
chair behind a bunch of monitors saying action, you were
really up there, you know, invested and inside of it,
and whispering to the actors, you know, and yeah it
was pretty great. Wow, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Well, that's the one thing I've really noticed about your
films is that there's a something that you use that
it didn't seem to be in many of the earlier musicals.
The earlier musicals are like wonderful singing, wonderful dancing. You
put the camera on, you let the dancers kind of
do their thing. Great, totally get that. Then your films
come out and you're adding levels to the dances that

(23:59):
I've ever seen before. When you're talking about high school
musical and there's people dancing on the balcony while people
are dancing below.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
There's and I'm curious where that came from.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Where the idea of I want to see multiple things
happening on multiple levels at multiple times in one single dance.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know, your ideas grow, you know, you read a
script and then and then you these ideas come to
you right as a director and choreographer, you know, and
then you cast people and they start reading that and
then you get more ideas. And especially if you cast
partners that are actors and singers and dancers. They don't

(24:35):
always have to be singers and dancers. Zach wasn't, Christian wasn't,
you know. But they have to have something there that
says to you, this is going to be fun. They're
going to bring something to the party. And then you
bring in your creative crew, and your production designer shows
you something, and then you go on location and you
see a cafeteria and you go, oh, we've got three

(24:55):
different stories here. I want to feel it all up.
I don't want to just do the number down like
I was imagining a month ago. Why not take this
and and and bring it? You know? So I think
those things for me happened during the process of creation.
They're not all there in the very very beginning. Some
things are, you know, and then you just sort of

(25:16):
hold on to them and ride with them until you
get a chance to do them, and other things kind
of develop and grow and and come from the wonderful
team that you've assembled and that you know, Michael Jackson
used to say, you know, it doesn't matter whose idea
it is if it sticks on the wall and it's
still there tomorrow that goes in. We don't need to

(25:36):
put a name next to it. Wow. And and that's
what it's like, you know. And so I credit everyone,
you know, everyone on everything that I've ever done in
the movies and in television that there's nothing there that
doesn't have the stamp of many, many people that have contributed.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
I just had a memory in Barcelona. You're on Las
Rumbless when we're out there, and he looked up and
there was these like little balconies and you went to
Devro and said, hey, do you think we could get
on one of them?

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Do you think we could get up there?

Speaker 5 (26:08):
And there was like it was like businesses and cafes
and then apartments.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
Up there, and he did. He got some of our
dancers out and you guys, you had them up there,
and I remember going like that. It was like you
saw it.

Speaker 5 (26:21):
And those were the great things that we were able
to do in Barcelona that you would normally think you
wouldn't be able.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
To, just like, hey, can we borrow your apartment right now?

Speaker 3 (26:29):
For we grawed with what we had. Yeah, you know,
we didn't know what we were going to be able
to do until we got there and found it. You know,
we found these places and it wasn't easy. The search
was continuing even when we were already shooting. We didn't
have all our locations locked in, you know, and so
we was like, oh, we have this, Okay, let's change
the choreography. By the way, we're here for now. I

(26:52):
just don't want to forget to say hello to all
the girls. Yes, you know Raven and Adrian and yeah Killey,
but also for you, greetings and love sent from Golan
and Peter.

Speaker 4 (27:04):
Oh yeah, did you see that.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
I've seen them many times.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
I've recasted Peter with Will.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
He wants to come back and I'm going to.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Be you know. You know, Peter has had an incredible
career as an actor. He's really done a lot, you know,
all all the streamers, and and Golan is still he's
still dancing, dancing and singing, recording, putting records out. Yeah,
he's a dad.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Any they wanted me to say hello, Yes.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
I'm so cool.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
They were both amazing. Golan was actually really great to
really kind of help us find our way around Barcelona too.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Didn't hurt them. It came out of a ballet company.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yes, yeah, I mean you could tell that.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
But the best part was he invited us all to
their company and it was a very contemporary. I mean
they started on this wall with chairs and the girls
had just like nude bras and underwear on, and he
had just like a tiny nude shorts. And I remember like,
looking around, I knew what contemporary was. It was okay,
but I looked at it it was like, guys, somebody

(28:15):
needs to check Keely's heart rate.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
We did not know we were getting into the Kenny
just brought us to a nude.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Show temporary contemporary.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
At Raven. Raven's going, what the hell is going on?

Speaker 3 (28:32):
You know, it's there were a lot of kids in
the audience, you know, Europe further.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
But it was awesome.

Speaker 5 (28:39):
That was a fun night that night, going to see
him like his actual because even in the movie Latin
dancing wasn't his like actual thing. He was a contemporary
ballet dancer and getting to see him in his realm
was just like, he's just phenomenal, but I very rarely
see a better dance male dancer than.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Was just really pleasure.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
It was. That was my favorite days on the set
for sure, and we had a dancing, yes, the dancing,
and I just remember walking in and you were explained,
You had me walk through everything and explain with Daniel
are brilliant, Yes, And I was. I mean I had

(29:20):
chills the whole day. I'm like, this is going to
be one of the most epic it could be, but
it was. It was just it was like the most
inspirational day I'm sure of my career.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Still to this day.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
It was just so amazing.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Cheetah Girls Too become majority of people, more and more
and more evident to me that it actually captured the
hearts and attention of a lot of fans. Oh yeah,
and that people stop me on the streets and go
and that and and that high school is the obvious
high school musical, you know, and and and and and

(29:55):
other things, depending on the age of the person that's
stopping me. But more and more and more and the
last years, people come up to me just the other night,
you know, talking about Cheetah Girls Too.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
Yeah. What I love about it is it took them,
you know, here in America, took them out of this
world and opened up their eyes to traveling. And what
my favorite thing is now is that generation they want
to go to Barcelona, they want to reenact Goudy, they
want to reenact everywhere that we went in Parkway, Las Rambles,

(30:26):
and they're redoing these videos. That's what I like, mainly
love TikTok for is for them to redo these videos
and do our movements, the running in.

Speaker 4 (30:35):
And out, and something new is going on.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
They always flipped that leg that Raven had that big
old heeled boot. I couldn't believe she chomped around Barcelona
and those giant heels the whole time. I switched to
Tenny's I had platforms on and Kenny goes, you know, girls,
we're gonna be in these a lot and we're gonna
be dancing a lot. And I was like, yeah, I'm
gonna get some tennis shoes and raised like nope, I'm

(30:58):
gonna I'm gonna do these heel boots the whole bank.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
So wait, you know, I was gonna say, Gary Marsh,
thanks to God that that that had the foresight to say,
let's broaden our horizons here and we have a world audience.
You know, Disney Channel has a world audience. Let's go
out there and play in the world. And I mean
he took Cheatah Girls three to India. He took Cheatah
Girls two, you know, to to Barcelona, you know. And

(31:23):
when these movies became successful, he you know, brought High
School Musical to Paris for its opening night and brought
it to London for its opening night. And and he
and Rich Ross really you know, I think invited the
world into the channel in a greater capacity than we
saw in other you know.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
Yeah, yes, and he was willing to take risks, willing
to alays cost yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Which Ross cast me on Nickelodeon when I was eleven
years old.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah, so it was High School Musical. While we were
filming in Barcelona, was when Kenny was getting all of
remember this, we were well not filming, we were rehearsing.
Was when you were getting all the updates of Good
Morning America High School Musical cast. And it was basically

(32:17):
the fans shut down Times Square because it was so
massive and we're all we're at rehearsal and he's getting
video after video you and.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
What That's what I'm wondering is so when Gary or
Rich comes to you and says, we're we want to
do a musical dcom.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Because that was kind of they started Cheaty Girls one.
We were kind of the first Oh you went to that?

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeh, Bill, Bill Borden and Barry Rosenbush who produced High
School Musical, and and Peter Barzaccini, who had written it,
came to me. I had asked, this is such a
beautiful story. I had called my agents at a paradigm.
Ken Greenblatt was my agent at the time, and I
was doing a lot of TV at a lot of

(32:59):
episodic telep back in the day. It was Chicago Hope
and then Allie McBeal and then The Gilmore Girls, and
I missed doing long form and I really wanted to,
you know, to do a long form musical. And so
I reached out to my agent and I said, can
you just find me a little, tiny script, a little

(33:20):
script that we can with a little budget, that I
could we could go to a cable station, you know,
and just a little under the radar, just so that
I have something that I can take with me and
show people that I know how to do this. And
he called me within twenty four hours and he said,
I'm sending you a script. It's called a High School Musical.

(33:41):
It's a working title, and I read it and I said,
oh my god, I said, this is like this is
my life. Not only do do I think that I
would want to do this, I mean I lived this
in so many capacities. So I said yes immediately to
Barry and Bill and then and Peter, and we went
in to have a meeting at Disney. They read it

(34:03):
and liked the idea, brought us all in and Gary
Marsh said to me, if you could do anything that
you want with this movie, what would it be. And
I said I would make it a musical. And he said,
I've been waiting for four years for the right person
to come in and say that. And he said, how
would you go about that? And I said, let me

(34:23):
work with your music people here and we'll create an
outline of how music can work through this story. And
we went away and we came back with a first
outline and we started working with the studio and there
we are.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Wow, because it truly was like what he was asking.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
It really was the Channel's first musical. The Cheetah Girls
did come.

Speaker 5 (34:44):
Before it, but our songs were more like music videos,
like our performance driven versus it being like you know,
singing through the streets Barcelona before it was something like that.
It was more all performance driven. Then High School Musical
came and became this just like.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
It said, duh, there's an audience. There's an audience, a
global audience that needs this.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Did you know when you were shooting it that it
was going to be as successful as it was?

Speaker 3 (35:17):
I love that question, you know, because I did. I
had done dirty dancing, don't.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Yeah, no one can forget that.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
And so you get this feeling, you know, you guys
know this. You get this feeling when all engines are
working in harmony where everything is just kind of perfectly
sort of moving, you know, in the same direction as
a director, where you feel that there's an incredible extension
of your energy and your and your ideas that are

(35:47):
that people are connected to and are supporting you in
in in you know, your highest aspirations. And and I
remember when we were doing We're All in This Together,
the finale of High School Musical one in the gymnasium,
and and we'd already shot quite a bit of the
movie and and uh and and and and the work
that these kids had put into it, and my crew

(36:08):
had put into it, and the producers and the creative
team had put into it was evident, and the dailies
and everyone was excited. Well, all of a sudden, we
had all these cameras and these cranes and these you know,
and and and we we hit playback, and I called action,
and they they started going. The cast started dancing, and
then more dancers came on, and then more dancers came on.

(36:29):
And I just found myself blown back, like a storm
was hitting my chest. And when when when when I
called cut, the room erupted into cheers, and they were embracing,
and they were sweating, and and I called the cast together,
just the main cast together, and I pulled them into
a circle. Mon I will tell you this story. And

(36:50):
and and I said, guys, if the Walt Disney Channel
does the work in marketing that you put into making
this movie, get ready for your lives to change. Yes.
And she says, I remember that day, Kenny, I remember
when you said get ready. And and we didn't know
then that you know, this could be the start of something,

(37:12):
a phenomenon, you know, the opening song of high school
musical one. This could be the start of something. We
have no idea, you know, literally until the sort of
middle of the movie that this was going to turn
the page on all of our lives.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Ye for.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Garry's life Riches. It was only a domestic movie. Then
Ridge said I'm taking this to London and then they
put it up and then it went to the South America,
and then it went to Europe and then it went
to as So it changed everybody's life. It broke stars
out from the cast and you know, everybody that worked
on that film. By saying I was a part of

(37:50):
High School Musical, it just seemed to be an entry.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yes, did you work on their tour? Did you do you?

Speaker 5 (37:58):
Did you do everything for the tour? I thought so,
which was which was big because we had already been
on tour and.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
With what we had, the knowledge we.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
Had going into it, you know, we did as much
as we could.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
You came in and was.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
Finally telling like things that we were trying to, like
fight for production value, things that needed to happen. You
came in and did high School Musical and they were like, oh, okay,
but the third tour that we got to do or
the actually the party's just begun tour. They had already
learned so much from you guys that it was nice
for us to finally like feel like they were prepped,

(38:37):
because again Disney didn't know what had to really one
hundred percent market a soundtrack. When the first Cheetah Girls
came out, they did it so much better and bigger
for your high school musical. And they were learning because
this wasn't a thing that was on the channel before.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
The first soundtrack ever on television to hit the top
of Billboard charts, it went platinum and and that and
that it went global. It was clear that there was
something that we could do. We could take it off
the small screen. And I remember we sold out arena
tours in the United States faster than any pop group

(39:14):
that year and broke Madonna's merchandising record. And then I
got a call from Gary and he said, the president
of Disney Channel in South America wants us to come
to South America. And I was like, we're prepping high
school musical two. We don't We're not going to have time.
When he goes, no, no, no, you'll have time. We're just
going to do five or six concerts. We're doing them

(39:36):
in stadiums. And I was like what and and he
was like stadiums. So I remember we went to Buenos Aires, Argentina,
and we sold out two seventy five thousand seat soccer
stadiums two. And on top of that, there were tens

(39:57):
of thousands of people lining the streets when we were
driving from the hotel to the to the stadium. Only
the Rolling Stones had done that before. In San Paolo, Brazil, Paolo, Brazil,
ninety four thousand people. There were so many people outside
that were trying to get in. The promoters almost considered

(40:21):
canceling the performance because they were afraid of problems. Figured
it out. The show went on eighty eight thousand people
in Mexico. I mean, it really was a global phenomena.
That was a global phenomena. It was the biggest cable
a show of all time, including football. Right, it just

(40:43):
did something.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
No, we're from the channel, That's what was always what
we were looking at each other going, we are a
Disney Channel act.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
I'll tell you Rich Ross was told that by his superiors,
as I remember the story, and I could be wrong,
and I'm not putting anybody down. I'm really not. I
adore the people that I've worked with there at the studio,
all the way back to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey and
you know, but that rich Ross was told this is

(41:12):
a you know, an American story. They don't go to
school like this in London, they don't go to school
like this in other countries. This is a domestic product.
And he didn't believe that, and he stuck it in
his pocket, and when he went to London for other reasons,
he threw it on the table for the head of
Disney and Disney Channel in London and they said, we

(41:34):
want this. Yeah, and then it became the second biggest market,
and then and then Europe and whatever came next, and
so it was just really you know, so many people
that made right decisions and they were courageous, they took risks.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, well they stood behind the product, which is something
that doesn't stop another product.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
So what I said to the kids that day, you know,
if the Walt Disney Company gets behind this in the
capacity that you have, get ready for your lives to change.
Only because I did, did all these lives change, absolutely?

Speaker 5 (42:04):
And it changed the game for the channel because now
we're going to be like pushing into everything that you've done.
I mean, obviously we did Focus Focus, which was before that.
When when did Descendants come into small franchise that one.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
When did when did that come in?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
First?

Speaker 5 (42:27):
We did find out from one of our interviews that
it was not a musical at first. The script wasn't
a musical. That was you making it into a musical?
When did that come on in the like time frame?
Because it's pretty it's pretty far out from the high
school musical time right on the channel was a few
years after, right, How did that that whole project come

(42:50):
into your last to do other things?

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yes? Yeah, And I was in Las Vegas actually at
the Wind Hotel. I produced the opening of all the
Wind Hotels, the Bellagio Hotel, the Encore Hotels. I did
the Belagio fountains, you know. I was the choreographer that
made the water hear the music, you know. And I
got a telephone call from Gary And I was doing
the Lake of Dreams at the Wind Hotel in Las Vegas,

(43:14):
which is this outdoor, interactive kind of big experience. And
I got this call from Gary Marsh and he said,
I've got a script. I haven't shown it to anyone.
It has your name all over it. I would love
for you to take a look at it. And I said,
I'm honored. Thank you. Gary. He said, it's descend It's
called Descendants, and it's about the children of you know,
the Disney you know, heritage characters. And I was like yes,

(43:38):
and he said, we'll read it. I said, okay, but yes,
and I read it right away that night, and I
called him, I think that night and I was like,
oh my god, yes, Gary, I would love to be
a part of this. And he said it's not a
musical and I don't think we debated that at the moment, okay,
And then after I hung up, I remembered all of
a sudden getting really dizzy and like honestly almost fainting,

(44:00):
and I thought, what have I just done? You know,
I'm I'm now putting myself in a position to take
on the responsibility of telling a story with characters that
are born out of some of the most important Disney
characters of all time. You can't mess this. And I

(44:21):
was really terrified.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Really really wow.

Speaker 8 (44:24):
I remembered hyperventilating and going whoa and and kind of
like that moment all the way back when I was
a kid, you know, working on stage with the London
company of Oliver, going boy, have you got I realized
you've really got a prep now, you've really got to
think this through. This is not going back and doing
anything that you've done before. This is honoring the heritage

(44:48):
characters of the Walt Disney.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
Which when we've watched the first one, that's one of
the first things we talked about. This is like, so,
because I'm such a Disney person, I could. I would
live at Disneyland if I could, if there was an opportunity,
I would be there.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
True, absolutely, I just live in that.

Speaker 5 (45:10):
Club thirty three give the service, would be our guest.
So but it was done so creatively. It wasn't always
one hundred percent like in your face. I mean, it
was just that was what I said. I said, it
was just done perfectly.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
But wait then, how did it become a musical?

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Gary said, Okay, show me you know, and which is great?
I don't mind. You know why? You know, razon reason
for being? What is the reason that lives at the
center of the idea that makes it valuable and worthwhile
getting up for every day and rushing out the door
no matter how pooped you are, right, you know, no matter
if you're not feeling your best, what is Arazon de

(45:52):
Gary would challenge me, you know in those ways. You know,
why why do you want to make it a musical?
It works? It works, you know. And then Steve Vincent,
who I worked with on all the high school musicals
and Cheater Girls too, and all the descendants and Miley
Sires of the Jonas Brothers, is just one of my
favorite human beings on the planet. Steve Vincent music Maestro.

(46:12):
We went away and we came back with an outline,
and Gary looked at it and said, okay, okay, gave
us the support to go forward and go full blown out.
That's how I remember it.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Yeah, did you have anyone already set in your mind
of who you were wanting to cast?

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Gary did?

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Gary did?

Speaker 4 (46:35):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (46:36):
Okay, Yeah, Gary did? And I did, okay? And the
one I wanted, he said, you can't have.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
Oh I was unavailable.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yeah. I wanted Cameron Boyce to play Cruella Deville's son.
I could not get him out of my brain and
I wouldn't get him out of my brain, and I
knew too much about his history and what he could do,
and I just was madly crazy in love with him
as an artist on television. And Gary said, and the

(47:03):
head of casting, Judy Taylor and her whole team said,
we're going to develop a movie for him. We're developing
a movie for him, and I was like, I couldn't
get it out of my head. And we were seeing
actors and I wasn't There wasn't anybody I cared about
holding on to, and honest to God, this is the
squear to God truth. We're auditioning actors for the role

(47:26):
of Carlos for that role. And I took a break
to go outside into the hallway and Gary was in
the room, and Judy Taylor was in the room, and
La Padour and Harder casting directors were in the room,
and I took a little break and I walked outside
and Cameron Boyce was sitting on a couch in the
hallway and I thought, oh my god, he's here. He's
auditioning for me. And so I said, oh my god,

(47:49):
Cameron Boyce and he said, Kenny Ortega and we started
talking to one another, and I'm like, literally out of
my mind excited, and I said, I'm so happy you're here. Uh,
you know, do you have any questions for me before
you come in? And he was like, I'm not coming
in to see you, geez, I'm here for something else
and I said, oh, I said, I desperately wanted to

(48:12):
see you for a movie I'm doing called The Descendants.
And he said, well, I'll audition for you. And then
I said, hold on a second. And I walked into
the room and I was like, I can't rememboy. He
just told me that he wants an audition. Garry looked
at me like, You're like.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
No good, but this is my favorite part. Gary knows
you very well. What was he even thinking.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Trying to Gary? I think it was it was kind
of an honoring you know, that they had a relationship
with with with Cameron and his family. He was doing
extremely well, his numbers were really high, that they wanted
to treat him, you know, in a way that he
was deserving and giving him a title kind of a
tile ring, and that he was going to be one
of four. And they weren't sure that that's the way

(49:02):
that they wanted to move him. And he was like,
I'm ready, let's go. I'm in on this. He wanted
Dove Cameron. He said, I've got an actress that I
think is one of the top actresses that we've ever had.
On the channel. I can't wait for you to meet her.
Her name is Dove Cameron, I said, and he said,
she's on the show. I watched her. I was like, whoa.

(49:22):
And then he brought her into the room. She put
on a black wig. She came in and like full
drag and walked into the room and did mal and
I was on the floor. I was like the part
of why he wanted to do Descendants was he knew
he had Maleficent's daughter, and everything after that was that's

(49:45):
called Kenny. Let's get him to read the script, Let's
move quickly, and let's make it now.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Did you have the same feeling while shooting Descendants that
you did with High School Musical?

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Like did you know that it was going to be
what it became?

Speaker 4 (49:54):
And why was it during rotten to the core?

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Because that is my she loves it.

Speaker 5 (50:01):
I will choose any moment to ever talk about it.
When we watched it, I said that right there, that
is the Newsy's that is the High School Musical.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
This is the.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
Routine that puts Kenny Ortega on a different map that
no one else lives on. It is so good, Kenny,
I could jam out my daughter jams out to it.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
It is so good. I love it.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
I have to say thank you to Steve Vincent, our
music supervisor, and the writer, the composers, but also to
my creative partner and and and sociate associate choreographer Paul Becker,
you know, and together we worked, you know, in hand
in hand in the choreography for you know, for that opening.
He did the first movie, and then Tony Testa did

(50:43):
the second one, and then Jamal Simms did the third one.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Tony test we worked with him. He's amazing. I loved
in the second.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
One, the routine where we first see Ursula's daughter, Oh yeah,
And I loved it because that was a whole different
style of dancy.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:00):
It's just so good because you get to really see
the difference in these groups of villains, which I love.
Like everyone's got their specific style of dance, which is
just awesome.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
I mean it's like it was really.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
I love Disney villains. My favorite Threwell at the Ville
and Captain Hook you know, and and so I got
to have Hook in three, and I got to have Crewell,
I got to have you know, Cameron and all of them,
China and McLain.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
We haven't seen three. We haven't done Descendants three yet.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
There we're going through.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
That quickie for Gary marsh On. When we were doing
Descendants too, we were playing him a song and he goes, well,
it's no rotten to the core. That song really jumped up.
I mean yeah, I mean.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
It's just in your face. It's so good.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
So it became the song that we had to, like,
you know, come on, we gotta gotta live to Yeah,
at least arrive at that something kind of.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Place right right.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Well, unfortunately, we're slowly wrapping up here, so we have
a couple questions just to wrap it up so that
we like to ask a number of people first of all,
and some of them are going to be easy, some
of them a little more difficult.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Sure, So first of all, what.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Is your favorite movie that you've ever directed?

Speaker 3 (52:18):
My favorite movie that I've ever directed is Newsies. It is,
and not that I thought it was a great movie,
because I felt like I could have done so much
more had I had more time. I felt a little rushed,
I felt a little penalized financially with it. You know,
I just I didn't feel I had all that I
wanted in order to like really arrive at a place.

(52:40):
At its conclusion, I felt rushed. Shooting some of the
musical numbers. We did King of New York and in
one day, Wow, you know, and and the scene that
was associated with it, and they had kicked it out.
They said, we're not doing another musical number. You've run
out of money. And the kids said, we'll all the

(53:00):
kids said, we'll rehearse for free over the weekend. And
I said, and I'll shoot it with the scene that
we already are shooting in that day. I'll shoot the
number within the time that you're allowing me. Wow. And
they said, if you can do that, so so I.
But but stepping away from Newsy's was I just felt championed.

(53:22):
My father sat there and watched me direct a movie.
You know, when I came I was born in a shack. Wow,
you know I was you know, I was born in
a shack in the backyard and my grandmother's house, and
and you know, and came up the hard way, you know,
really the hard way. We didn't ask what's for dinner?
We asked is their dinner? So to be standing at

(53:43):
the Walt Disney Company directing a movie with my father
sitting in a director's chair. Those memories will always remain
to be the most significant and most meaningful. You know,
that's movie career.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
All of our listeners are going, how could you ever
even right to top Newsy?

Speaker 4 (54:02):
How could it get better? It's just so good?

Speaker 1 (54:06):
And then we like to ask everybody, what's your favorite
d com of all time?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
It doesn't one of yours.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
It does not have to be one of yours if
you don't want it to be, which is gonna be
tough to pick, but just your favorite d com of
all time?

Speaker 3 (54:21):
It's not fair because I like a lot of them.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Sure got to marry one though.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
I mean, so you ask.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Cheater Girls one? Really cheater Girls one?

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Did you say cheatera girls one?

Speaker 3 (54:45):
You?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Oh wow?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
That I loved saying ethnic women mm hmmm on television
playing heroic roles. Yeah, that's great. And I was like, yeah,
you know, diversity give those young women out there in
the world someone to look up to and to give

(55:08):
them a chance to, you know, to say, you know,
I can dream it, I can be it, I can
do it, you know. Raven shimone, Yeah, a star star. Yeah.
For a lot of reasons. Oh yeah, I liked that.
I was like, yeah, pushing the boundaries, pushing the boundaries.
It was a lot of that wasn't happening. I still
had to go into meetings. I mean it, even with

(55:30):
high school musical, you know, I stowed to go into
meetings for a long long time before I wasn't the
voice in the room that said I want to do
color blind casting.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
Yes, right, exactly.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Yeah. And I think Cheeter Girls was before people were
really being sort of righteously considerate of like, you know,
being more integrated in how one can cast a show.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
It was the first that we were all of different
ethnicities because people even though my character came off as
the quote unquote white girl, I was I am half Hispanic.
So the whole starring cast it was of different ethnicities
that they didn't have, you know, y.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Yeah, honestly, I thought, thought, thought, thought, thought, And there
were a lot of really you know, the camp movies,
and there were a lot of really fun things. And
what Gary's doing with Descendants now and four and now
coming up five, and I'm excited to see what they're
doing there. You know, Cheeterah Girls, I thought broke new
ground and and and opened up people's eyes and said,

(56:37):
wait a minute, we're not thinking big enough. You know,
there's a grander audience out there that deserve to have
heroic characters on television. Yeah, so anyway, much.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
I have to ask to please go first? You go first.

Speaker 5 (56:52):
What do you think about the Zombies and Descendants Integrated Tour?

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Did you get a chance to check it out?

Speaker 3 (57:00):
I tried so hard. I tried so hard, and I
was always in the wrong city. Okay, And I was invited,
and I'm sure that if I had gone, I was
even going to make an appearance.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
Does it take you back though?

Speaker 2 (57:12):
To bring in who directed.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
It said, if you come to one of the shows,
I want you to come out and introduce the show.
I said, oh my god, I would love to do.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
That would be awesome.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
I did not get to see it, but I've got
tickets for so many if I got eight for my agent,
my theater agent in New York, for his family, and
I heard wonderful things and everything I saw online, the
kids looking like they.

Speaker 5 (57:35):
Were oh yeah to me looking at everything, it reminded
me of that the last time we had a huge
touring era. The peak of it was what you did
with Miley and the Jonas brothers, like that's what that
tour reminded me of.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
It was that best of both worlds.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
Yeah, that's both worlds really with like all of the
kids that were in it, the franchises that they represent, and.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Yeah radio shitty musical. It's crazy. You don't think I
wanted to be there, wrote the crypto, You know, I
mean I wanted to be there to be there.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Yeah, no, next time.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
But last question and asking for a friend. Okay, can
anyone learn how to dance?

Speaker 3 (58:24):
No, that's what I figured. I used to think so,
but not anymore. I think anyone can dance, okay, but
not everyone can learn how to dance. Okay, because learning
how to dance means the technique of dance. Right to me,
everyone can and should dance. Look at Oh my God,

(58:46):
one of my favorite movies, Napoleon Dynamo.

Speaker 5 (58:48):
Yeah, great.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Dance scenes ever, one of.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
My favorite dance sequences ever in the history of emotional
pressures exactly. So anyone can dance, but no, there's technique
in dance, in the learning of dance. And I learned
that the hard way when I used to think anyone
could dance, and then I got asked to work with
an artist and after two weeks. I went home and

(59:19):
I said, it's not true. We won't ask rhythmic.

Speaker 5 (59:29):
It's not just the technique too, it's the memory aspect
of learning dance moves that people really underestimate how hard
it is.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
I think maybe, I think maybe if you go through
therapy and you can get rid of all of the
sort of you know, fears and stuff, that get that.
But if you don't, if those are there, and you know,
choreographers don't necessarily know how to like move someone out
of that fear. We can do our best to build
someone's confidence into help in encouraging them, right, But if

(59:58):
you come into the situation Matthew Broderick was a nervous wreck.
When we did Paris Builders, I was able to relax again.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Yeah, it was great that what what you know?

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
We were sitting on the floor in a in a
hotel ballroom in Chicago, getting ready to make the movie,
and and he was in his sweats and and we
were stretching. We're just stretching and and uh. And from
that first moment where the two of us were just
there stretching, I said, I'm going to get this guy there.
He never done it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
What a scene iconic. Yes, well, thank you so much.
We look forward to the next fifty two episodes we
do together.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Because so much fun.

Speaker 6 (01:00:37):
This was really fun, stretched the surface.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
It's wonderful to see you both, that you were here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Thank you so much.