August 27, 2025 • 49 mins
Magical Rewind presents “Get Your Head in the Game” hosted by Bart Johnson!
Bart embarks on this mini series to share all the behind the scenes of High School Musical franchise!
Find out how he got the role, stories about his relationship with the cast, and what it was like being a part of the franchise.
Plus… Coach Bolton was supposed to have a song?!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Wildcats, this is Bart Johnson and you're listening to
Get your Head in the Game. Hey guys, welcome to
the first ever Get your Head in the Game podcast
on Bart Johnson. I'm your host, and I'm here with
the fabulous, ever famous Valentine the Morning Star. Jill.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you not famous, but thank you famous.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You are famous. You're amazing. Thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you for having me because I'm such a fan
of high school music, well and a fan of yours.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you. I'm so glad that you're a part of
the East High family. Yes, and we all us talk
about today Get you Head in the Game. I can't
This is such an honor and I'm so excited and
I can't believe this day is actually here. But this
is a podcast to celebrate twenty years. Can you believe it, Jill?
Twenty years since high school musicals come out.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Gone by so quickly for us fans. I can't imagine
how fast it's gone by for.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
You, Hill, It's wild. I can't believe it. The movie
came out Jane your eight, two thousand and six. So yeah,
we're sneaking up on twenty years. So we're going to
do a podcast where we interview the cast, the crew,
all the filmmakers, the choreographers, all the interesting people, and
a bunch of interesting people that I know have really
great stories. And I know they have great stories because
I was there. So that's I guess the advantage of
(01:18):
doing this. But I just want to say my interest
in doing this is entirely for the fans, which are
the the are Jill. They're the greatest people in the world.
They're so kind of and so good to me. So
thank you, guys. I love you all so very much,
and this is going to be super fun. Does sound good, Jill?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That sounds perfect so far.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
How old were you when the movie came out?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I was just a tad older, I think than
I should have been when watching it, okay, because I
was in my early twenties.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So I love Disney and I loved all the Disney
Channel original movies.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
And my sister was the first one who was like,
you have to watch this, little sister, my little sister, Britt,
and so I went to watch and I love musicals,
I love everything Disney.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So right away I became a fan, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And have been since then, and with the other movies
as well, and then following the cast twenty years later
and all of them becoming.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Such big stars.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's just so cool to go back and to see
how it all started with that first movie.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, you know, I love the age range here because
this movie, I think it was made for like really
young people, but it's got such a broad appeal, which
is amazing. Like I get little kids coming up to
me that recognize me, Like these little tiny kids. I'm like,
the movie came out fifteen years eighteen years after you
were born, Like how do you know who I am?
(02:36):
So it's pretty cool that it's had the longevity and
the age range that it has.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And still relevant today because I remember during the pandemic,
one of my first tiktoks was too we're all in
this together, Like really tell you everybody, Like don't worry guys, Yes,
we're all this together.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
We're still to this day.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I love That's That is one thing I love about
the movie. It has such great messaging, like there are meaningful,
like they really have a lot of weight to them,
and I think that's a really timely one. Like during
the pandemic, like I was doing a We're all in
this together thursdays, like just going live and like talking
like what are your concerns, Like let's talk about it,
Like let's what do you guys worried about. Let's let's uh,
(03:17):
let's just be there for each other, you know what
I mean. And it's like everyone it's the only time
everyone in the world has experienced the same like fear
and that same pain, and so it was a it
was a cool thing to say, Yeah, the world really
is all.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
In this together, and we know you as Coach Bolton,
so like you are the world's coach, You're the world's dad.
So I'm sure seeing your face during that time, you know,
it was comforting to the fans too.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, you know, it's it's wild. It is really interesting
dynamic because I'm called coach every Like I walked through
the airport yesterday and I heard like maybe ten people, Hey, coach, Hey, coach,
gotta get a picture coach, Like everybody calls me coach,
which is I love it, Like it's so endearing to
me and like you're my dad, Like I love it.
I love I think that's so cool. So yeah, it
was an interesting role to play. I kind of feel
(04:00):
like I've been told a lot of times, like you're
the world's dad, like you're the world's coach, and like, man,
what an honor. That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
And because of that, because we know you as coach,
we want to get to know Bart Johnson in this
first episode. So if you can, can you take us
back to the very beginning, oh gosh, beginning of journey.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you know it all begins. I was born in Hollywood,
true story, he really was born in Hollywood. And my
mom was a hairstylist and she worked on like More Committee,
Brady Bay As, Charlie's Angels, all these are like really
cool eighties TV shows, and she worked on a musical
high school show called hell Hi, directed by Kenny Ortega
if you don't believe it, and then she went on
(04:42):
to I didn't meet Kenny at the time, but then
Kenny directed Newsies, you know, the Disney paper Boy musical,
And I met Kenny on the set of Newsies, and
I got to know like Christian Bale and Dave Moscow
and Ellie Keats and all the lead actors on this
show and was kind of pounding around with them. And
that's when I realized I was like, with you guys
are you guys are my age, and you like you
(05:03):
do this like you get paid, like you guys want
a home, and you're like doing this for a living.
And that was really, uh a really wild experience to
see that, uh, that people like my age could do
something so cool and so interesting and so fun and
make an actual living at it. And I still didn't
think I was going to be an actor at that point,
was like still A couple of years later, I started
(05:23):
doing theater and really started kind of got the bug
of it all, and then dropped out of college to
make my parents so proud of me, and uh, and
I went to go pursue it. I moved to Hollywood
and just went and chased it, and uh I did.
I started working as an actor. Luckily, my very first movie,
I Know We're going back now me familiar France For.
(05:43):
Coppola produced it. I kind of figured, oh, cool, I
made it, Like you know, like every movie is going
to be a France for So yeah, that's not the case. Uh.
There's a lot of waiting tables between that and uh, well,
you know, anytime you get like a really good job,
you get to quit and and you'll I made it
and then like a year later, you're like, I guess
I didn't make it. I'm gonna see if I get
(06:04):
that job back at Anyway Tables. And it's like, I'm
gonna get a job a little further out of town
because now I'm waiting tables to my actor friends and
is embarrassing. But a little little humble pie, it's good
for you, you know. So I did a TV series
that a lot of people liked called Hyperion Bay and
Kenny watched the show and he was he was a
fan of the show. He was always so nice and
(06:25):
he said, oh yeah, I saw you do that scene.
It was like such great work, and you know, very compliment.
You're very supportive. And then I got a call from
Kenny one day and he said, Hey, I'm doing this
a Disney Channel movie. It's a little movie. It doesn't
have a name yet. We're just calling a high school
music until we come up with the name. There's not
a lot of money in it. You know, No, it's
good to see it. But we're gonna go shoot in Utah.
(06:46):
I know you love Utah. What do you say, Let's go,
Let's go have some fun this summer. And I said, well,
I'm in, let's do it. So he got me an
audition at Universal. I went and read for Natalie Hart
and Jason Lapuduura and I didn't get the part. And
then like a few days later, I got a call
from Kenny were taking. He's like, what whoa what happened?
What you do? How did you not get I said,
(07:08):
By the way, he at this point he had seen
all of Disney's choices, you know, they have like their selects,
all the people that have been Disney products or projects
over the years. They see those people first, and he's like,
I just not I'm not feeling any of these guys
from my coach, Like I need my coach and I
feel like you're my coach. And so he was really
disappointed I didn't get the party. He said, what'd you wear?
And I'm like, I don't know, T shirt and jeans
(07:30):
and he's like, no, you're You're supposed to be Zac
Efron's dad, and this thing, I don't know who's Zach Effron,
Like nobody knows who Zach Efron is at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And so he already had the part at this at
this part, okay, yeah, yeah, Like the whole cast was
filling out and and they they needed the coach.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So it's like the wife was already cast, matter of fact.
So uh, they just couldn't find the coach and they
looked everywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Does it Kenny Artega have final say? Like, couldn't he
have just said, like, no, I want well, I want
Bart for this.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I don't know. There's a whole problem to it. There's
a It was a big I don't know. I think
like the Disney Monster, it has a lot of people
with a lot of say, I guess.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I don't know, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It worked out well.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
He's so he got me back in the room for
a screen test and he wore something else and he
said wear a suit, Like, wear a suit, put gray
in your hair, Like I went to all these all
this length to try to like He's like, try to
act like an adult part. I'm like, okay, i't do
that very often, but okay, I'll do it. And I
went in and just was a lot more serious when
I got the part.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So did you have any like screen testing with zac Efron? No, No,
because to me, like watching it, you guys look like family,
Like I thought, like that really was part of you
getting the part?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Because you guys look like it could be related.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Zach. I love him so much. He's such a great guy,
so I appreciate And he's a good looking, fit dude,
so I really appreciate it. That's probably what you meant, right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Exactly what it meant.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So there's a scene in the first film you and
Zach playing basketball? Did you know how to play basketball?
Did he know?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Like?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
How how was that acting yet also playing basketball?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That was pretty same? That was that was honestly, it's
pretty like Zach. He's just such a good actor. He's
so in it. And Kenny like creates an environment where
you can have some kind of some freedom and it's
not like, you know, you could block a scene where
the camera the camera's right here, you got to stay
in the spot and it's just terrible. It's terrible try
to act like that. But this was it was just
like just a scene where it's like a father and
(09:28):
son talking to each other. So it could have been
doing anything and having a little action just made the
whole thing feel natural. Now, yeah, there's there's where you
can't bounce the ball in a line, you know, because
it'll screws up the whole lot, Like great, guys. Great,
But so you're trying to act natural in a very
unnatural environment. So the more natural environment you can make,
it's like, it's pretty great. I did have some trouble,
like as a basketball coach, because I don't know anything
(09:49):
about basketball. So I was like, what, I don't know
what to say, Like what the thing? What did basketball
coaches say? I don't know, I don't know what they say.
So I was like watching like Hoosiers and stuff, and
I was like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then like, well,
you know, I was like, wait a minute, that's what
you said like thirty years ago. Like that doesn't help
me now. So I try to get a little bit
of vernacular, like sound like a total idiot, but I
(10:10):
think I pretty much sound like an idiot. I think
I nailed it, you know, but I'm a high school coach,
you know. I wasn't. You know, it wasn't I don't
have to be cool guy, I guess uh. But yeah,
I honestly, I loved working with Zach. It was the
best part of the movies. I feel so fortunate that
it's not only did I get to have all my
scenes with Zach, I got to have important scenes is
(10:31):
when he's talking about life or like really constable with
my dad, what do you think about this? Or you know,
I don't know if I should do this, or you
know it's like oh my gosh, hearts. Yeah. I get
to do that, Like I get to be the guy
when he's really down or frustered, depressed or like making
big decisions. I get to be dad, Like I get
he gets to come to me and have that conversation.
Like it's amazing. And you know, usually you do a role,
(10:51):
You're you're either the dad, you're the supportive dad, or
you're like the hard nosed coach. And I got to
do both. And I think that's my favorite part of
this job is like I have to draddle that line
between well, I need to push him to excellence, I
need to be hard on him. I need to like
be that driven coach, but at the same time, like
I just want my boy to be happy. I want
to be I want to be I want to love
(11:13):
him and support him. So to be conflicted and that
was great, Like Alia was a gift to me. And
then to have Zach always be so incredible. I remember
we did the scene in his bedroom and we sat
down on the bed and I was like throwing a
bat and we're like, kind of, I'm kind of joking
with him a little bit to keep it light, to
(11:34):
get in this conversation. He kind of and it just
was like this beautiful segue into a really meaningful conversation.
And I've thought about that, like in my own life
when I'm talking to my kids, you know, you don't
want to come in and like have a heavy conversation.
You know, you want to go and joke like, hey,
how's it going, Like what's yeah, what's going on? You know,
like kind of I'll open them up to a serious
conversation and then just like and naturally progresses that they
(11:54):
might open up and share something with It's just like
real life.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's like, what a beautiful if you could do that
on a film, like you have a real moment. It's
like you're not just making a little, you know, little
Disney movie you're like making You're making a great movie.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
And did it continue that relationship with Zach in the
second movie?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
In the third movie, like, did you still feel that way?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It did? It did. As a matter of fact, I
remember when the second script came in for high School
Musical two. I wasn't in it. I wasn't in the movie.
And Kenny got the script and he's like, what is this?
Where's coach?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Kenny loves you.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
He loves me. I guess, I guess. But he's like,
look this movie, like I understand, like everybody's away at
summer school. And I think people like they like High
School Musical two a lot because it's you're leaving school,
you're leaving your parents, you get to go have this
fun summer vibe and it's really cool. But he's like, no,
there's you're missing the heart of it though, like the
heart of the story, like your friends and this moment
in life is going to come and go. But he's
(12:48):
got like, you'll have more depth if you're having these
father and son conversations. I thought, oh, thank you, what
a great idea. I totally agree with that, Like that
that's a you know, yeah, I'm available, and that's it
is the most important part of the movie now that
I think about it. So yeah, Coaches High School Musical.
They could have called it back.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That could be the fourth movie.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I think pitch that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Do you still talk to Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, but you know, everybody's you've been on like such
a journey because the first job or the first movie,
high school musical one, like everybody's just stoked have a job,
you know. It was like, uh, like we're getting paid
down my oh. I mean the kids especially because they
were they're pretty much brand new, most of them actually
of course been around for a while. She did Sweet
Life with Zach and Cody. She'd been doing that for
(13:34):
a while, and she'd done some other things. Zach had
only done a little like a summer run show called
summer Land something like that little small show, and no
one else had really done anything, so it was it
was a big deal. Everybody was happy to be there.
It stoked, like stoked to be there. It's like you
you know, and you go way to Utah, so it's
like your it's like summer camp, yeah, you know, and
you get your like cool hotel room and you know,
(13:55):
all the parents are there still though, you know, so
it's like it's it's mine. They got to go to
school still, yeah, yeah, there's yeah, yeah, yeah, you go
to on set school and all that kind of stuff.
But everybody's like so happy to have a job. So
uh as it progressed, like from number one, matter of fact,
number one High School musical. One. We had a premiere
for the movie on the Disney lot. You know, you
(14:15):
know the little tiny that's a little tiny movie theel
yes on the right on the Disney lot. It's tiny. Yeah,
there's like no big deal. Like they had one poster
up and I remember it was raining that day, so
like in the premiere pictures, like my shirt's all wet.
I'm like hanging out with Zach in front of the poster, like,
you know, posing for one photo from the premiere. And uh,
it was just like it was just like no big deal.
And that by the time we did the third movie,
(14:36):
they said, hey, uh, we're gonna send you a limo
and I was like, oh, what we talked about here limo? Okay,
So they said the limo and pick us up, and
we're going down. It's it was at El Capitan Theater
in Hollywood, and so the limo turns on Hollywood Bulevard.
It's traffic everywhere. The whole road's blocked off, and I'm like, oh,
it's too bad, and they must must be having a premiere.
Grammin's Chinese where they do the big premiere. So the
big movies. And then when the limo turned around the corner,
(14:58):
I was like, oh my gosh, for you guys, this
is for us. Yeah, and it was massive and everybody
was there, like Hollywood all came out for that movie.
So it was uh, quite a change from first movie
to the last movie. But the kids were like, like
everybody was so cool. Everybody stayed so down to earth
and they were so sweet, and uh, yeah that was
(15:19):
the that was the journey.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
While you were filming that first movie, did you guys
feel like this was something different, this was something a
little more special than the other ones that had come
along before.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, that's a good question. With no like nobody knew
like nobody knew it was special. And when people take
credit for it, when we just see anybody that goes, oh,
I knew it was gonna be big bull crap, they
are so full crap. There is nobody had a clue.
So but there were a couple of little clues that
it might be something special. And I remember, for me,
I was watching Stick the Status quo that song and
(16:03):
we're We're in the cafeteria and it was so big
and Kenny had you know, at that Kenny had already
directed the closing and opening ceremonies to the Olympics, like big,
big events, And so I was watching the stick of
the Status Quo and I'm like, this is massive, this
is so big, and I thought, this is this doesn't
feel like a little Disney music. This feels like a
(16:24):
big epic motion picture. So yeah, but I still I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Did you Were you a part of the rehearsal process,
Like did you see the kids going through the hours
and hours of rehearsal the training that they had to
do for these big dance numbers.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yes, But interesting thing about that, like there was a
there was a small budget and it was only like
five million dollar movie or full I think the first
one was four million. Oh yeah, first one was four million,
the second one was six million, third one was thirty
five million. Oh so that's how that jumped. Yeah, so
you can imagine like your resources prelimited, and I think
we have one week of rehearsals before the first movie
(17:02):
because you couldn't afford it, right, you have to fly
everybody out. Everybody's in Utah, And e fact Kenny told
Disney said, I want you know whatever, it was like,
I want fifty dancers. And they said, we can't fly
out fifty professional dancers out of Utah and he's like, no, no,
I'll find them. I'll get them local. And they're like, no,
you can't go to like Utah and like collect fifty
professional dancers. And he said, no, I did the opening
(17:24):
closing ceremonies. I know what kind of talent is there?
And they he's right, there's like this unbelievable amount of
talent and that's you know a lot of dancers for
Dancing the Stars come from. Oh true. I was like,
I always like crazy talent in that state. So he
got a lot of local dancers and they crushed.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
And so do you remember the first scene that you filmed?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Oh, like official first day on set? Who is it with?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Hm? Gosh? I don't think I do. I don't well huh.
I think I get a little confused on you know,
people ask me like, what's your favorite movie and I'll
tell him number three on this scene and they're like
that was the number two. I was like, oh, sho, okay, yeah,
what's fans keep? Yeah they do. They're so on it
and I love it. But all my scenes, basically, I
(18:13):
feel really fortunate because almost he's re Zach and he's
so good and you know, even though it was a
it was a Disney Channel movie, so you think, you know,
maybe people don't bring the heat, but he was so
invested and so and so it is Kenny Ortega like that,
And I think that's why High School Musical is as
successful as it is. Kenny Ortega. It's just that man
(18:34):
is such an inspiration. He is so passionate, and there's
he doesn't there's no off switch on that guy. So
if you go to dinner with him that you know
night during rehearsal, he's talking about the movie. He's talking
about the scenes, he's talking about the work. Uh you
on the weekends. It's all that's all he does. He's
rewriting dialogue's rewriting lyrics to songs like coming up more
dance ideas. The guy's a genius. So, uh, it doesn't
(18:56):
matter if it was a four million dollar, you know
film or whatever Newsy is or hocus Pocus was. You know,
when you direct the hocus posts like, he's just as
serious about making High School Musical. He's a hocus Pocus.
So it's I think there's a lesson in filmmaking or
maybe just life in general. You know, if you approach
a project, even if it's a small project, and you
treat it like it's this big, monumental, life changing epic,
(19:18):
then maybe a small thing becomes epic, because it certainly did,
and there's no reason, there's no reason people tried to
do it over and over with so many other Disney musicals.
Some of them are great, but none of them have
like really become like as like big or.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Phenomenon that it is.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Were you.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Guys as close of a cast in real life as
it seemed to us as fans, because watching it, it
seems like you would be.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The father figure to the cast? And did they all
get along?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Were they all as close as we saw watching it?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
It's interesting to hear you say it because I don't
hear those comments, you know that, I don't really I've
only seen it from the inside and uh, totally, like
we answered one hundred percent, like everybody's so cool. No,
I don't know what. I don't know why. I don't know. Well,
I do know why, because Kenny Ortegas are really he
sets the standard and he's he's a beautiful soul this
(20:18):
guy he is. He is amazing. But he also cast
some really incredible actors that are really sweet people. They're
really kind and considerate and really passionate about their work.
I mean every single one of them, and I think
they get that from Kenny. You know, Like Kenny took
it all so serious and he reminded everybody of how
special this was. Matter of fact, he does this thing
that was really cool. He would anytime we're shooting a
(20:40):
special scene, he would stop and we got it like
crazy schedule, imagine like how big these movies are. On
such a tight schedule. He would still stop everybody and
bring everybody into a little circle like this Kenny or
tag a circle, and it was so cool, and he
would express like some really beautiful things. You know. We
talk about the movie and talk about like do you
guys realize like what a beautiful thing is we get
to do? Like look how lucky we are we get
(21:02):
to do this and this scene. And then you talk
about why it's so important and this song means so much,
and then you go around let everybody express themselves like
what do you know? What do you think about this?
You know, and you get to express yourself and it's
this was this amazing bonding experience and having someone remind
you of like how special this is and to have
gratitude for this, like this incredible moment. I think it
(21:24):
really made a big impact on everybody. So everybody hung out,
everybody went to dinner, everybody want to spend time together,
like the whole entire time, all three movies. This is
incredible and.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
You all felt safe, I'm sure, like a safe space,
a safe place to go, and like if you mess up,
it's okay, you know. He Kenny Artega seems like the
type to just help you along and to make sure
everybody feels feels good.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, yes, yes, totally. He totally does that. And if
you have an idea for a scene or like I
want to try something different, Like I want to try
like probably my favorite line in the whole entire movie,
it's just what the heck of those doing it in
a tree? He let me like experimental because I, like
I said, you know, I really want to come in
with like some heat on this, Like I want to
(22:06):
be at my limit, Like I want that line to
have like a ton of weight to it. You know,
I didn't want to just save line as I walk it.
I want to like, can I come in, like marching
in and just like, what the heck are those dude
doing in a tree? And just like he's so many
He's like, yeah, go for it, and so he let
me like do a few of those and he's like,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We're keeping it and iconic to this day.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
It's like one of the most quotable moments of that movie.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I'm honored. I'm honored. I kind of thought I was
kind of channeling Matthew Perry a little bit, because he like,
he puts so much weight on things that might not
seem important, but and he doesn't do it like in
a fake but it doesn't, like at a very real way.
I think that's what's funny about. He's not trying to
be funny. He's trying to like that actually really matters
a lot, and that's what I think makes it funny.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So do you remember the first time you were recognized
as coach or maybe so the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Somebody yelled out one of the one are the quotes
for the movie?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, yeah, it kind of you. It's almost like you
could you have a little timeline because first people are like, hey,
I know you you were Did you coach me? Did
you coach my little legally? Like people are convinced that
was their coach, And it happened like tons and then
it started turning like wait, ma, your coach, your coach
Bolton or your choice dad? Wait, your choic's dad, and
so then it's it kept going to like then they
(23:19):
all knew my name. Then it's like, oh, you're you're
coach Bolton, You're Then they start saying Bart and that
I remember when they start saying my name, they say,
my first mind, Bart john Are you Bart Johnson? Hey Bart,
I'm like, oh my gosh, Like now that like years
go by though, like at first, I mean I'll be
talking about years, like five years your name's coach, five
years later coach Bolton. Then it's and then it starts
(23:39):
evolving into like your your name, and then the last
five years, which is the sweetest of all, which is
they stopped me going listen, you don't understand, Like can
I just you don't understand? And so many of the
sentences begin with you don't understand, and I just like
start smiling. I'm like, lay it on me, brother, lay it.
I want to hear it. What don't I understand. But
I was little in this. I'm like, oh, let me
(24:00):
just enjoy this. I love it. I love it so much.
But they all have this story of how it like
impacted them and meant so much to them, or they're
struggling and just the greatest stories ever people share.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Well, especially today, like there are still people kids and
adults who feel like I don't want to go after
what's in my heart, like I don't want to change
who I am. You know, they might feel like they
want to do something or be somebody different, and you
can go back to watch high school musical and think like, oh,
this could be just a little fun kids movie.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, but it has such an important meaning.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's true. It's true. It's kind of amazing. I've met
people that were afraid to do musicals or afraid to
do something maybe their parents didn't want them to do
and they kind of had to come, which I kind
of think is like, I'm kind of glad I was
able to play a character that didn't make it easy
on my boy, like I challenged him, because then it's relatable.
Then other people can understand like, well, yeah, my parents
(24:53):
didn't want me to do this thing. Too, Like I
was passionate about this, but I met all this resistance.
I'm like, well, good, now in the movie had resistance
and you had to like overcome that, And so I
think we're challenged a lot in life with with resistance
and learning to over like learning the great gift and
like caring enough to overcome that and enjoy that. So yeah,
so people are trying different things and it's a beautiful
(25:16):
it's a beautiful lesson to learn. I mean, how cool
you get to be in a movie that has, like
you might see, just full of it could have been
full of silly songs, but they did. I think it
was good. I mean I get a little carried away here,
I get all emotional, but I think the movie is
special because the songs really are deep and meaningful and
they touch people's soul. You know, they're touching these kids
(25:37):
and maybe they're just simple enough that they're accessible. And
it really does affect people and make them think and
empower them and empower young kids to try something different
or know they're okay or or all that. Just some
beautiful messages. And I get I get soft. I said,
I don't let don't tell Darbus that I've got a heart.
(25:58):
Coach likes to have a nice cold heart, you know,
in the next aior. But truth is, I care too much.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I know you said earlier that you guys didn't know
this was going to be as big of a movie
as it was. So when you finished filming the first one,
did you all think like that was it one and done?
I'm sure it had to be such an emotional last
day on the site.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Oh yeah, it's you know, it's it happens a lot
in movies when you when you do a movie, it's
a month or two months if you're lucky, you know,
in a bigger movie, on a TV series you go
for years, you know, or like a full year. So
it's like a lot more emotional at the end you
feel like you have as so at the first one,
you know, I think everybody was pretty bumped it was
over because it was There's something different about doing a musical.
(26:38):
You know. I've done one hundred of I saw my
credit sailor of one hundred movies and TV shows now,
Oh my gosh. Yeah, but I've done three musicals. I
think maybe maybe four, I don't know. But musicals are
different because every movie is the same. You know, you
have a master shot. Then you going for singles. You
kind of okay, now we've got that shit. When we
get their coverage, you know, we do our inserts a
right now we move on, and it's just kind of rinse.
(27:00):
You're kind of doing that over and over and over.
And it's sometimes it's comedy, sometimes dropping there's all variety.
But in a musical, it's like, oh, today we're doing
this number and it's like, oh man, I get out
my bag of popcorn and I sit back. I'm like,
let me see the show. And it's just this. They
put out the big speakers and they played the song
over and over and people are it's just big dance
numbers and it's so fun. It is so fun. And
(27:22):
I remember the first time I saw that on Newsi's
and I saw them danceing the paper boys dancing on
the street. I'm like, this is awesome, Like this is amazing.
And I'm a film geek too, like so I'm watching
through the lens of the camera and seeing what they're
picking up and seeing like the the emotion and the
energy coming through the screen. And then in the High
School musical, the same thing. It's just like, oh my gosh,
(27:43):
if you haven't done all my actor friends out there,
you're done to me. You go get yourself into music,
go make one or something, because it is it's really special.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
How long would a scene like stick the Status Quo?
How long would that take to film?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I tell you the problem is there's no time in
these schedules. You know, we had four weeks to shoot
High School Musical one. That's a lot of work and
very ambitious shoot. And Kenny's wants to do things really big.
So I think, like Status Quo, I think it was gosh.
I don't have to ask him, you know what, I
will ask Kenny. I'm gonna try to track him down
and I'm gonna ask him. I think it was two days.
(28:16):
It might have been one day. I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Is that a short amount of time?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Four weeks?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That seems super short film?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well, it's typical most Disney Channel movies. We're done in
five weeks. It's a five week schedule and it's like
a four million dollar budget for five weeks. That's really typical.
So you try to you gotta cram in lot, you
gotta move, you gotta move real faster. You're shooting five
six seven pages a day. You got to get through
a lot of a lot of pages until a lot
of story. And then when you have extras and dancers
and you're moving a lot of bodies, it is it's
(28:46):
a lot. It's a lot. So to do something special
and to do it right, it's a miracle. Yeah, it's
really mirror.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
So you were on set for that, But were you
there for the huge iconic finale of We're All in
This Together?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I did not miss a musical number. There's the Way,
And I certainly wasn't about to miss that one because
it was so big and so important, and it wasn't
that the championship game, wasn't that after the big championship. Ye,
so I'm in the scene. So I hand the trophy,
I get the trophy and I handed to Troy and
uh so I'm there? So am I in that number?
(29:20):
I don't know if dan I don't. They never let
me dance. I start dancing there? What are you doing?
Come on, coach? You know the coach doesn't dance. You
know I had a number. I had a dance number
in the first movie.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I have it.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's this like this pains me to talk about. But
there was a dance, not there was a there was
a song. It was like anything you could do, I
could do better number like from any get your Gun
and it was me and Darbus.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh yeah, it would have been incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
So mad about it. I'm so mad about it. And
it was. It was in there like we were. We
didn't shoot it, we didn't shoo. But they said, Disney,
it went back to you know, anytime you make a movie.
They said, let's do it faster, just shorter. Let's make
everything quicker and make the movie run faster. So we cut, cut, cut,
and what goes first to get cut? The old people?
(30:14):
I said, I don't know if you need, like, we
don't need old people dancing. And I'm like, I'm in
my twenties, wasn't I I was close to I was
not very old in that first movie. I think I
did the math. I had to be like eleven to
have Zach as my kid in the movie. I'm like,
I could dance. I'm not too old to dance if
I was. If I if I was eleven years old
having a kid, I could dance at a dang movie.
(30:36):
So but they didn't let me dance at Darbus is
so upsetting.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I feel like that would have been incredible. Yeah, me
too for the twentieth can can you do it?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah? Well, you know, I gotta say that's one thing
I'm so grateful for for like social media TikTok is
because I kind of feel like I could live vicariously,
like Coach gets to have his fantasy life like via TikTok. Yeah. Yeah,
like nobody's gonna tell me I can't dance. Now, I'm
gonna start singing. I'm gonna start dancing.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I want to see it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, No,
I love it. I genuinely. It's been so much fun.
And then people like all look like, hey, can you
do that dancing? Get Coach, Like, what do you mean again?
Like I never I wasn't in the dance, so I
have to now I'm learning the dances now, like twenty
years later. But I love it. It's it's great, and
I will always forever be bitter about not having that
(31:24):
Darbus dance.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I thought the movie was pretty perfect. No I'm mad, No,
I'm mad.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
I mean we should have shot it and just thrown
it in the extras. You know, yes, right, it's pretty upsetting. Yeah,
I'm upset too. I still know Alison Reid, of course,
you know, I see her on occasion. I tried to
get her some tiktoks and she said, no.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Well she's got to do this one, she said.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So what I talked. I took to Alison Reda. I
got this great idea. I've got this great idea for
the short film for like Coach Bolton, like bumping into
Miss Darbus. I have this like this whole script. I
got tons of them and and I said, will you
do just do it is a TikTok And you say, oh,
you can't do that. You're gonna Disney's gonna sue you.
They're gonna sue you if you like you take your character.
(32:11):
And I'm like, well, they're gonna sue me a bunch
because I'm gonna do it so much. And uh, they've
never said a word. Like matter of fact, I went
to a Disney thing and some Disney executives are like, hey,
I saw your talk, but I saw that now.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
I think like people bring back characters all the time
on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I feel like they do too. Yeah, I do it
in a respectful way too. I don't I'm paying homage.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah exactly, Yes, I'm not making fun of me, But no,
you wouldn't do anything neative with the two of you.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Brand for me, Like I know, man, I like, I
know what I enjoy and I would like to do,
but like I like to to bring those things back
to life. And and it's fun when I can strike
a chord if people love it, and and uh, that's
all I'm trying to do it. But I got some
really funny stuff. Alison Reed. If you're out there, you're
listening to this, listen, it's okay. No one's gonna sue us.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Do it for us.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Do the fans want it? I wanted, come on, let's
do it. Did you know she was in Cabaret? She
Kenny or Tega directed her on Broadway. I think it
was Cabaret. You know what, we'll have to do a
podcast with Alison Reid.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Get her in here.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Maybe we could all gang up on her TikTok with me.
Tell her it's okay. But she's great. I love Alicie.
She's so talented, she's amazing and she and yeah, Kenny
had directed her on Broadway, like a million years ago,
like they knew each other when they were kids. So
pretty cool. She's great.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And you were with your wife Robin at the time.
Oh yeah, and so did she move with you to Utah?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Like what? What was her? What?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
You're filmed in Utah?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Or no?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, we should we shot all three in Utah. Yeah,
she would visit, okay, but when I was working, Oh yeah,
because we had kids at the time. And so but
this is I'll tell you a sad story. This is
a really sad story, well sad for not sad for
a sad dad story. So I had my kids, Bailing
(34:06):
and Kate and and Why, all three of them with
me on the set and we were doing Stick the
sas Quo and they were in video village. So the
video villas were where the director hangs out and they
have the screens, the monitors, and it's really fun to
watch Kenny work because he has the monitors up and
he had he's flanked by the choreographers and he's pointing
out the while they're shooting. He's playing all changes. This
(34:28):
gout to do a flip here, it's it's been here
preper and he's like it's like almost like painting on
a canvas, but like a million miles an hour while
the song's going, and the song's three minutes long, and
he's making one hundred changes, and the choreographers are just like, okay, okay,
taking notes, taking notes, hut. And they just run in
and they make all the changes and they got to
move quick, so they're given notes to all the dancers.
You gotta do this to move here and move and
(34:48):
and I'm like, this is the coolest thing effort. And
I'm sitting there in video village on one of my
kids watches. I got Zack out front him one side,
Vanessa Hudges on the other side. I was like, this
is this is my apex. This is my crown moment
of dad awesomeness. This is it. This is all I got.
And they're like, I go, what do you think your
dad's pretty cool? Huh? And they're like, can we just
go home? This is so boring. They were young. They
(35:11):
were so they're like two and four or something or
something like that or five. I gotta do the math
on that, I guess, but yeah, they were super young.
But I was like, you guys, please please enjoy this
moment because this is like, this is it for me.
I'll never be able to top this moment for being
a dad.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Do they appreciate it now? Do they understand the significance
of coach?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
No, No, they really don't. They haven't seen the movies
they have it. They won't watch the movie. They won't.
Why not? They don't know? They hate me. I don't
know why. I don't know. I don't know why I coach. Look,
I am I am home, okay, I'm a dad that's
home with my kids all day every day. I mean,
I thought I do all volunteering. I coached all their
(35:52):
soccer teams. Like I'm present dad. Like that's met fact.
People ask me, like, what's the best thing you do
in your life? I'm my own to be a dad.
Like I wish I was as good as an actor
as I was deap. I'm a really good dad. Why
won't they watch my movies? That's not fair, that's not right,
it's mean.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
That is just wild to me. That's crazy, I know.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
And then like when I get recognized a bunch of
bugs the crap out of them. I don't know why,
but I will say this. Once we were in Orange
County and we went to this trampoline park. It was
like circus something I was. It was amazing. It was
like an amusement park of trampolines. And we discovered it,
like let's go, and we went in. There's like only
an hour left and and all this. You imagine the
staff of a trampoline park. They're young, so they're like coach,
(36:32):
and so I'm great with them. A lot of my
kids jump. I take pictures of the entire staff, and
we're hanging out and having a good time. Well when
it closes and my kids are like, no, this place
is so awesome. It's all the way Orange County. We
live in LA, so we might as well be on
another planet, you know, if you're all the way in
Orange County from LA. Yeah. So everybody's leaving the trampoline
park and we start to leave, and they're like, coach, Coach,
(36:54):
you guys don't have to leave. You stay here as
long as you want. My kids are like, what's going on?
What's going on? I'm like what he be? This is
what you get like when your dad's the coach, Like
you get to stay at the tramp lee park all
night long. And they're like, wait a minute, there's an
upside to this.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I'm like, yes, yeah, they're enjoying the perks. The least
they could do is watch it exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
No, there's no respect. There's just no respect, no love
for old dad.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
By the end of this podcast, they need to have
watched it.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
If anybody's listening, go bully my kids, in which I
give you free range to go bully them on social media.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
No, don't, but your wife has watched. Obviously she's watched,
and what she.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Thinks it's cute and she loves the She loves everybody,
like we've gotten another. Kenny is a really good friend. Everybody.
Everybody's terrific. So we've we've spent time with everybody since
then a bunch and now we've done events. We've been
doing these events. How cool is this? So we got
invited to do this like a fan event in Paris
and it's all of Kenny's musical So it is all
(37:50):
of Descendants, the cast of Descendants, the cast of High
School Musical, and the cast of Julian the Fantoms other
musical and we all go out to this event in
Paris and it's like Kenny's World, Kenny's Musical World, and
so we do this fans, like all these fans come
from all over Europe. We all hang out together. And
you know, another fun thing of you, hanging out with
actors is always fun. You know, I find actors they're
(38:11):
interesting people. You know. I don't know, maybe it's because
they got so much time on their hands, like can
develop some good hobbies or bad habits or so, I
don't know something, but they're usually interesting people. And and
but there when you do musicals, like everybody's a musician.
So now you go when you hang out, everybody brings
a guitar or they'll sit down a pian and like
everybody gets sick and it's like, oh it's seen this on.
Everybody's like singing in harmonies and it's beautiful. So it's
(38:32):
like super fun to hang out and jam with those guys.
Has been awesome and it's emparissed. So it's like, oh,
that was so rad.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Did your kids go with you to that?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
They did?
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Oh my god, they did.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
They did go to that every time. Well, you know,
they were always my like, plus, wellfe I bring a
kid every time with me, so they got to experience that.
They've done a bunch of that so it's been a
matter of fact. I'm doing this thing. I'm doing this
thing that I got invited to this company in Italy
they do these concerts and they say, hey, would you
come out? They offer me a job. Amy come out
to Italy to go like do a concert, like a
(39:04):
Disney throwback. I'm like, well, we do I don't do anything.
What do you want me to do? They're like, we
just want you to host it. Yeah, it's like like
a deep magically you're a DJ, but you're just gonna
be on stage like getting the crowd pumped. And I'm like,
well that I could do. Like I'm I'm a I'm
a ham when it comes to that kind of stuff
like okay, great. So I go out to this. I
go on to this uh this concert in Italy. Thirty
(39:24):
thousand people out there, Oh my, and they're all dressed
up like wildcats and they're singing their hearts out and
they're crying, They're all emotionally. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
We Disney fans are diehards.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I love it. We love it and it's everywhere. Over story.
So I was in My brother Adam was shooting a
movie in what's that place called Sicily. I'm in Sicily.
My brother's down there shooting the movie. So and it's
this it's his birthday. So we go to my other
brother and I we go down there and surprise them
for his birthday. And we rented motorcycles and drove all
(39:54):
the way around the island of Sicily. How cool is that?
Pretty coore? So we're in this little time, we're using
this atm and these kids behind us little top Toom,
a little tiny little town in uh Sicily, and these
kids are like, oh my gosh, coach boul you coach Bulon,
you coach. And they don't speak in English, but they speak,
you know, they know how to say coach Bold, like
yeah yeah, and it's like oh, I started taking pictures
and some of them run away and come back with
(40:15):
more friends. And then they ran away and they can't
have more friends. Pretty soon it was a parking lot
like late at night, Wow, three hundred people like hang out.
Couldn't believe it. And then the news shows up and
then like when you do a throw for us, and
I was like okay, and it's all that Italian. I
wonder what I actually said. They're like say this. I'm
like I'm gonna try. I'm sure I butchered it, but
(40:36):
it's like, you know, and that's been really fun because
we travel a lot, and it's amazing that the wildcats
are out there man.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
And still, you know, still to this session, it.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Is way more passionate now than they've ever been, which
is super cool.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
And there's the nostalgia too, like for us as adults,
like going back, like I rewatched it again getting ready
for this and I just felt like, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Like still it still makes me feel so good, you know,
watching it. So it's really great.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
What's really fun is when the little kids come up
to me and they're like or they want a picture
or something, and I look at the parents that they're like,
I'm raising my kids right, yes, yes, you are well done.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
So we've talked about all the positive, wonderful things about filming.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
And all that.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Is there anything you would have changed looking back? I
think it would have done differently on this journey.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Man. Gosh, I don't know if I want to done
anything too.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I mean, it sounds perfect, you know, it just sounds
like such a great experience.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
It was really great, you know, and and it was
before I had a but it was before cell phoneses
had cameras, you know, And so I actually always wanted
to videotape stuff. And so I started videotaping on my laptop,
like like moments on set, and I'd start kind of
like videotaping and and I don't know where that laptop is.
I gotta find because I've got like gems on there.
(41:51):
I bet somewhere I gotta find that.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
You for sure have it? Oh for sure, I got
to find it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I'll keep all my hard dry, all my stuff. But
uh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was great. You know. I
never took it for granted. I will say one of
the things I'm really grateful for. And maybe it's because
I've been around long enough and I had had jobs
that I thought where I made it and and honestly
a big job, like bigger jobs than this I've had before,
(42:20):
but not as special. So I knew, like I had
gratitude for like the whole entire process. And I'm so
glad I did, like from beginning to end. And I
sucked to Kenny. I was probably drive a cane. Now
I'm like, hey, Kenny, should coach be in this scene too?
He's like, no, there's a dream sequence, right, you know,
no one's dreaming about their dad being I'm like, okay,
fair enough, I'll be over here. But like you know,
they they when they when I get cut loose for
(42:41):
for work and they say you go home, I was like, yeah,
but I'm just gonna I'm just gonna hang out or
like I'm gonna go operate the cameras or something, you know,
like they're so nice to us, you know that way.
So uh, I think I took full advantage. I don't
know if I could have taken advantage anymore than I did.
I feel like I still do you did it right?
You know? After the movie, like so many people were
like ready to move on, and maybe they were smarter
than me. A lot of the cast is like, oh,
(43:01):
I'm not going to talk about high schomusic anymore. I'm
gona talk about the next thing and moving forward. I'm like,
I get it, dude, I get it. Yeah, that's I
should probably do that. Screw that though, I'm having too
much fun, Like this is fun. I'm making people happy,
Like if I could do I always think like if
I could, if the small amount of effort it takes
to make people really happy. Is amazing, Like what a gift?
Like what a what a shame that be if I
(43:22):
if I didn't see that as a gift and take
advantage of Like I can make someone like a thirty
second video and they go bananas for like years, Like
that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
That got to feel so good.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, that's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
So I love it, And I'm sure we'll get to
this as the podcast goes on. But do you think
you guys will do something big for the twentieth anniversary?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Well, I know I've got some stuff cooking, so okay,
we'll see, we'll see what we could do. But I've
got a few particular friends in Look, if there's a
high school, first of all, if there's a high school
musical for it, it's got to be everybody. It's got
to be everybody. Yeah, I don't know how you do
high school musical four without it, without all the main guys,
(44:04):
you know, it just wouldn't be the same. Like everybody
wants to know what happened to Trony Gabriello, what happened
to Ryan Sharpet? You know what happened? You know? Like
where are they? Like you would have to be something
brilliant and amazing and something that really like and I think,
like a great story that really is what the fans
really want, the way what they really want to see,
you know, and they don't want to see half the
cast showing up. So I think you got to be
(44:26):
careful on you know, that kind of thing. Like in
a perfect world, like some kind of cool thing would
happen where everybody was back. I'd love to see it.
I would love and I've it's if it doesn't happen,
it won't be from a lack of me pitching Disney ideas,
Like I've pitched out so many ideas, like good ideas,
good ideas, you know we have. I don't know if
I'm allowed to say this, Okay, Like like there was
(44:48):
a high school musical four script a couple times really yeah, yeah,
And there was one one was about soccer. It was
all all about she was going to like because became
such international success to the movies, it makes sense, right
and like I coach soccer, so I was like, oh
my gosh. So I started talking to like all these
(45:09):
like I talked to like David Beckham, I talked to
like guys like would you be in this movie, and
so I'm like trying to put it together. I'm like,
let me get a couple of stars, and you know, man,
let's make this thing. Let's make this thing happen, Let's
make it big, let's make it awesome, and and it
just went. They burned it. They burned to burn the script.
I don't know why. I don't know why, but uh,
it just never worked out. So there was a couple
of ones. There's one called East versus West. There's a coup,
(45:32):
There's a couple I know stuff I don't I probably
so yeah, yeah, So I was hope. And then the
TV series. There were several TV series and like every
here's Here's something that was a little frustrated for me
is that every time there was a new TV series,
like I mean, I know all the filmmakers, of course,
and they called me and say, hey, there's a new
(45:53):
We've got this TV series looks like this one might
go You're gonna be well that I was going to
be the head of the athletic department, so I'd be
charged with soccer and I'd be in you know whatever
for that one. Or there's another one that was like, oh,
you're gonna be the You're gonna be the vice principal
of the school, Like yes, my god, So I don't
want to be the prinson. I'll be the vice principal,
you know. So it's like a little bit a little
bus but a little a little conflict, you know, a
(46:14):
little jealousy, you know. So something something meaty, you know,
something good where we're coaches in a spot. So like
there's all these like great ideas I kept getting pitched
and then and then the one they finally go, hey,
we're gonna go with this one where it's like it's
the it's uh, it's modern day where they talk about them.
It's meta. They're gonna talk you know, the TV series
High School Musical Musical the Series, and I was like,
(46:35):
oh great, So like I literally cannot be in this
movie now, that's awesome. So that was I hated that.
I hated it so much, and I unfortunately I love
the cast and the filmmakers on High School Musical Musical
the Series because like, I was so angry when I
saw I was like, dang it, man, and it's not
the hyper reality I want. Oh, it's like all these
different things. But then I worked on on the final
(46:57):
season A High School Musical. The Musical Series season four,
A bunch of us came back and worked with them,
and they're so great, Like, the cast was amazing. So
I'm glad they got their show.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
So do we start this petition to get those scripts?
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah? Yeah, I think maybe this is it. Maybe there's it,
you know, I mean I saw the before and after
and the cast has like everybody looks pretty great. They
have all become better actors. I think so, like, yeah,
I think we could do this. Nobody retired now they
think about it like you do a lot of those
you know, right, they say like, oh where are they now?
(47:33):
And some of them, oh I live on a farm
and I checked out and whatever.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
And they're all they're all working, they're everybody's in it.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Yeah, yeah, And the plan is with this podcast to
get some of them sitting right here next to you.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
We're going to find out. We're going to find out
where everybody is, what they're doing. That's yeah, that's my plan.
And also, like you know, they were so young when
they graduated from high schools, when they graduated from East
High they were so young, and now they've got they've
stepped into this new area on their life. You know,
Cordon Blue is a big Broadway star now he's doing
Great Gatsby in London, and and Zach's like doing all
these big movies. And Vanessa's like a big movie star.
(48:08):
But she's also like this amazing mom and you know,
having kids and stuff, and her husband is awesome. Like
I got to know him in parents, Like he's amazing,
and uh yeah, I can't wait to you know, Kenny's
done a million amazing things since then. So, uh, we're
gonna get into it and find what everybody's up to,
get some dirt, maybe get some original stories of you know,
some things that happened on set that maybe that we
(48:30):
saw that no one else saw, and a couple original
things and then uh yeah, see everybody's out and then
we'll just commit at the end of the podcast, was
to commit him to the series or maybe that's what
we'll do.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
That is the whole don't.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Tell them, don't tell them that. Let's not hear that
part though, until after we get the give him to
sign a paper with small print.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Well, as fans, we are very excited that you were
doing this. We're excited to get more in depth with
the whole high school musical journey.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Awesome, so thank you, awesome. I'm so happy to be
doing this and to like, uh, you know, I just
want to do it for the fans and just to
express gratitude for them and how much they have made
this a special journey, because without them, it's like it's
a cool movie. But it's their response to it all
and how much they love it and their passion it
makes it so fun and so fulfilling. So thank you, guys.
(49:15):
I love you all so much. Like I get the
nicest comments on social media, it's like almost all of
them are like so nice and so kind, and it
means the world. So my heart is full of gratitude.
Join us next week with our very first special guest.
Hey, Wildcats, this is Bart Johnson and you're listening to
Get your Head in the Game. Hey guys, welcome to
the first ever Get your Head in the Game podcast
on Bart Johnson. I'm your host, and I'm here with
the fabulous, ever famous Valentine the Morning Star. Jill.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you not famous, but thank you famous.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You are famous. You're amazing. Thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you for having me because I'm such a fan
of high school music, well and a fan of yours.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you. I'm so glad that you're a part of
the East High family. Yes, and we all us talk
about today Get you Head in the Game. I can't
This is such an honor and I'm so excited and
I can't believe this day is actually here. But this
is a podcast to celebrate twenty years. Can you believe it, Jill?
Twenty years since high school musicals come out.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Gone by so quickly for us fans. I can't imagine
how fast it's gone by for.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
You, Hill, It's wild. I can't believe it. The movie
came out Jane your eight, two thousand and six. So yeah,
we're sneaking up on twenty years. So we're going to
do a podcast where we interview the cast, the crew,
all the filmmakers, the choreographers, all the interesting people, and
a bunch of interesting people that I know have really
great stories. And I know they have great stories because
I was there. So that's I guess the advantage of
(01:18):
doing this. But I just want to say my interest
in doing this is entirely for the fans, which are
the the are Jill. They're the greatest people in the world.
They're so kind of and so good to me. So
thank you, guys. I love you all so very much,
and this is going to be super fun. Does sound good, Jill?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
That sounds perfect so far.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
How old were you when the movie came out?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I was just a tad older, I think than
I should have been when watching it, okay, because I
was in my early twenties.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So I love Disney and I loved all the Disney
Channel original movies.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
And my sister was the first one who was like,
you have to watch this, little sister, my little sister, Britt,
and so I went to watch and I love musicals,
I love everything Disney.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So right away I became a fan, okay.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And have been since then, and with the other movies
as well, and then following the cast twenty years later
and all of them becoming.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Such big stars.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's just so cool to go back and to see
how it all started with that first movie.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, you know, I love the age range here because
this movie, I think it was made for like really
young people, but it's got such a broad appeal, which
is amazing. Like I get little kids coming up to
me that recognize me, Like these little tiny kids. I'm like,
the movie came out fifteen years eighteen years after you
were born, Like how do you know who I am?
(02:36):
So it's pretty cool that it's had the longevity and
the age range that it has.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And still relevant today because I remember during the pandemic,
one of my first tiktoks was too we're all in
this together, Like really tell you everybody, Like don't worry guys, Yes,
we're all this together.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
We're still to this day.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I love That's That is one thing I love about
the movie. It has such great messaging, like there are meaningful,
like they really have a lot of weight to them,
and I think that's a really timely one. Like during
the pandemic, like I was doing a We're all in
this together thursdays, like just going live and like talking
like what are your concerns, Like let's talk about it,
Like let's what do you guys worried about. Let's let's uh,
(03:17):
let's just be there for each other, you know what
I mean. And it's like everyone it's the only time
everyone in the world has experienced the same like fear
and that same pain, and so it was a it
was a cool thing to say, Yeah, the world really
is all.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
In this together, and we know you as Coach Bolton,
so like you are the world's coach, You're the world's dad.
So I'm sure seeing your face during that time, you know,
it was comforting to the fans too.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, you know, it's it's wild. It is really interesting
dynamic because I'm called coach every Like I walked through
the airport yesterday and I heard like maybe ten people, Hey, coach, Hey, coach,
gotta get a picture coach, Like everybody calls me coach,
which is I love it, Like it's so endearing to
me and like you're my dad, Like I love it.
I love I think that's so cool. So yeah, it
was an interesting role to play. I kind of feel
(04:00):
like I've been told a lot of times, like you're
the world's dad, like you're the world's coach, and like, man,
what an honor. That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
And because of that, because we know you as coach,
we want to get to know Bart Johnson in this
first episode. So if you can, can you take us
back to the very beginning, oh gosh, beginning of journey.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, you know it all begins. I was born in Hollywood,
true story, he really was born in Hollywood. And my
mom was a hairstylist and she worked on like More Committee,
Brady Bay As, Charlie's Angels, all these are like really
cool eighties TV shows, and she worked on a musical
high school show called hell Hi, directed by Kenny Ortega
if you don't believe it, and then she went on
(04:42):
to I didn't meet Kenny at the time, but then
Kenny directed Newsies, you know, the Disney paper Boy musical,
And I met Kenny on the set of Newsies, and
I got to know like Christian Bale and Dave Moscow
and Ellie Keats and all the lead actors on this
show and was kind of pounding around with them. And
that's when I realized I was like, with you guys
are you guys are my age, and you like you
(05:03):
do this like you get paid, like you guys want
a home, and you're like doing this for a living.
And that was really, uh a really wild experience to
see that, uh, that people like my age could do
something so cool and so interesting and so fun and
make an actual living at it. And I still didn't
think I was going to be an actor at that point,
was like still A couple of years later, I started
(05:23):
doing theater and really started kind of got the bug
of it all, and then dropped out of college to
make my parents so proud of me, and uh, and
I went to go pursue it. I moved to Hollywood
and just went and chased it, and uh I did.
I started working as an actor. Luckily, my very first movie,
I Know We're going back now me familiar France For.
(05:43):
Coppola produced it. I kind of figured, oh, cool, I
made it, Like you know, like every movie is going
to be a France for So yeah, that's not the case. Uh.
There's a lot of waiting tables between that and uh, well,
you know, anytime you get like a really good job,
you get to quit and and you'll I made it
and then like a year later, you're like, I guess
I didn't make it. I'm gonna see if I get
(06:04):
that job back at Anyway Tables. And it's like, I'm
gonna get a job a little further out of town
because now I'm waiting tables to my actor friends and
is embarrassing. But a little little humble pie, it's good
for you, you know. So I did a TV series
that a lot of people liked called Hyperion Bay and
Kenny watched the show and he was he was a
fan of the show. He was always so nice and
(06:25):
he said, oh yeah, I saw you do that scene.
It was like such great work, and you know, very compliment.
You're very supportive. And then I got a call from
Kenny one day and he said, Hey, I'm doing this
a Disney Channel movie. It's a little movie. It doesn't
have a name yet. We're just calling a high school
music until we come up with the name. There's not
a lot of money in it. You know, No, it's
good to see it. But we're gonna go shoot in Utah.
(06:46):
I know you love Utah. What do you say, Let's go,
Let's go have some fun this summer. And I said, well,
I'm in, let's do it. So he got me an
audition at Universal. I went and read for Natalie Hart
and Jason Lapuduura and I didn't get the part. And
then like a few days later, I got a call
from Kenny were taking. He's like, what whoa what happened?
What you do? How did you not get I said,
(07:08):
By the way, he at this point he had seen
all of Disney's choices, you know, they have like their selects,
all the people that have been Disney products or projects
over the years. They see those people first, and he's like,
I just not I'm not feeling any of these guys
from my coach, Like I need my coach and I
feel like you're my coach. And so he was really
disappointed I didn't get the party. He said, what'd you wear?
And I'm like, I don't know, T shirt and jeans
(07:30):
and he's like, no, you're You're supposed to be Zac
Efron's dad, and this thing, I don't know who's Zach Effron,
Like nobody knows who Zach Efron is at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And so he already had the part at this at
this part, okay, yeah, yeah, Like the whole cast was
filling out and and they they needed the coach.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So it's like the wife was already cast, matter of fact.
So uh, they just couldn't find the coach and they
looked everywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Does it Kenny Artega have final say? Like, couldn't he
have just said, like, no, I want well, I want
Bart for this.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I don't know. There's a whole problem to it. There's
a It was a big I don't know. I think
like the Disney Monster, it has a lot of people
with a lot of say, I guess.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I don't know, it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It worked out well.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
He's so he got me back in the room for
a screen test and he wore something else and he
said wear a suit, Like, wear a suit, put gray
in your hair, Like I went to all these all
this length to try to like He's like, try to
act like an adult part. I'm like, okay, i't do
that very often, but okay, I'll do it. And I
went in and just was a lot more serious when
I got the part.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So did you have any like screen testing with zac Efron? No, No,
because to me, like watching it, you guys look like family,
Like I thought, like that really was part of you
getting the part?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Because you guys look like it could be related.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Zach. I love him so much. He's such a great guy,
so I appreciate And he's a good looking, fit dude,
so I really appreciate it. That's probably what you meant, right.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Exactly what it meant.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So there's a scene in the first film you and
Zach playing basketball? Did you know how to play basketball?
Did he know?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Like?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
How how was that acting yet also playing basketball?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That was pretty same? That was that was honestly, it's
pretty like Zach. He's just such a good actor. He's
so in it. And Kenny like creates an environment where
you can have some kind of some freedom and it's
not like, you know, you could block a scene where
the camera the camera's right here, you got to stay
in the spot and it's just terrible. It's terrible try
to act like that. But this was it was just
like just a scene where it's like a father and
(09:28):
son talking to each other. So it could have been
doing anything and having a little action just made the
whole thing feel natural. Now, yeah, there's there's where you
can't bounce the ball in a line, you know, because
it'll screws up the whole lot, Like great, guys. Great,
But so you're trying to act natural in a very
unnatural environment. So the more natural environment you can make,
it's like, it's pretty great. I did have some trouble,
like as a basketball coach, because I don't know anything
(09:49):
about basketball. So I was like, what, I don't know
what to say, Like what the thing? What did basketball
coaches say? I don't know, I don't know what they say.
So I was like watching like Hoosiers and stuff, and
I was like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then like, well,
you know, I was like, wait a minute, that's what
you said like thirty years ago. Like that doesn't help
me now. So I try to get a little bit
of vernacular, like sound like a total idiot, but I
(10:10):
think I pretty much sound like an idiot. I think
I nailed it, you know, but I'm a high school coach,
you know. I wasn't. You know, it wasn't I don't
have to be cool guy, I guess uh. But yeah,
I honestly, I loved working with Zach. It was the
best part of the movies. I feel so fortunate that
it's not only did I get to have all my
scenes with Zach, I got to have important scenes is
(10:31):
when he's talking about life or like really constable with
my dad, what do you think about this? Or you know,
I don't know if I should do this, or you
know it's like oh my gosh, hearts. Yeah. I get
to do that, Like I get to be the guy
when he's really down or frustered, depressed or like making
big decisions. I get to be dad, Like I get
he gets to come to me and have that conversation.
Like it's amazing. And you know, usually you do a role,
(10:51):
You're you're either the dad, you're the supportive dad, or
you're like the hard nosed coach. And I got to
do both. And I think that's my favorite part of
this job is like I have to draddle that line
between well, I need to push him to excellence, I
need to be hard on him. I need to like
be that driven coach, but at the same time, like
I just want my boy to be happy. I want
to be I want to be I want to love
(11:13):
him and support him. So to be conflicted and that
was great, Like Alia was a gift to me. And
then to have Zach always be so incredible. I remember
we did the scene in his bedroom and we sat
down on the bed and I was like throwing a
bat and we're like, kind of, I'm kind of joking
with him a little bit to keep it light, to
(11:34):
get in this conversation. He kind of and it just
was like this beautiful segue into a really meaningful conversation.
And I've thought about that, like in my own life
when I'm talking to my kids, you know, you don't
want to come in and like have a heavy conversation.
You know, you want to go and joke like, hey,
how's it going, Like what's yeah, what's going on? You know,
like kind of I'll open them up to a serious
conversation and then just like and naturally progresses that they
(11:54):
might open up and share something with It's just like
real life.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
It's like, what a beautiful if you could do that
on a film, like you have a real moment. It's
like you're not just making a little, you know, little
Disney movie you're like making You're making a great movie.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
And did it continue that relationship with Zach in the
second movie?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
In the third movie, like, did you still feel that way?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It did? It did. As a matter of fact, I
remember when the second script came in for high School
Musical two. I wasn't in it. I wasn't in the movie.
And Kenny got the script and he's like, what is this?
Where's coach?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Kenny loves you.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
He loves me. I guess, I guess. But he's like,
look this movie, like I understand, like everybody's away at
summer school. And I think people like they like High
School Musical two a lot because it's you're leaving school,
you're leaving your parents, you get to go have this
fun summer vibe and it's really cool. But he's like, no,
there's you're missing the heart of it though, like the
heart of the story, like your friends and this moment
in life is going to come and go. But he's
(12:48):
got like, you'll have more depth if you're having these
father and son conversations. I thought, oh, thank you, what
a great idea. I totally agree with that, Like that
that's a you know, yeah, I'm available, and that's it
is the most important part of the movie now that
I think about it. So yeah, Coaches High School Musical.
They could have called it back.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That could be the fourth movie.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I think pitch that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Do you still talk to Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, but you know, everybody's you've been on like such
a journey because the first job or the first movie,
high school musical one, like everybody's just stoked have a job,
you know. It was like, uh, like we're getting paid
down my oh. I mean the kids especially because they
were they're pretty much brand new, most of them actually
of course been around for a while. She did Sweet
Life with Zach and Cody. She'd been doing that for
(13:34):
a while, and she'd done some other things. Zach had
only done a little like a summer run show called
summer Land something like that little small show, and no
one else had really done anything, so it was it
was a big deal. Everybody was happy to be there.
It stoked, like stoked to be there. It's like you
you know, and you go way to Utah, so it's
like your it's like summer camp, yeah, you know, and
you get your like cool hotel room and you know,
(13:55):
all the parents are there still though, you know, so
it's like it's it's mine. They got to go to
school still, yeah, yeah, there's yeah, yeah, yeah, you go
to on set school and all that kind of stuff.
But everybody's like so happy to have a job. So
uh as it progressed, like from number one, matter of fact,
number one High School musical. One. We had a premiere
for the movie on the Disney lot. You know, you
(14:15):
know the little tiny that's a little tiny movie theel
yes on the right on the Disney lot. It's tiny. Yeah,
there's like no big deal. Like they had one poster
up and I remember it was raining that day, so
like in the premiere pictures, like my shirt's all wet.
I'm like hanging out with Zach in front of the poster, like,
you know, posing for one photo from the premiere. And uh,
it was just like it was just like no big deal.
And that by the time we did the third movie,
(14:36):
they said, hey, uh, we're gonna send you a limo
and I was like, oh, what we talked about here limo? Okay,
So they said the limo and pick us up, and
we're going down. It's it was at El Capitan Theater
in Hollywood, and so the limo turns on Hollywood Bulevard.
It's traffic everywhere. The whole road's blocked off, and I'm like, oh,
it's too bad, and they must must be having a premiere.
Grammin's Chinese where they do the big premiere. So the
big movies. And then when the limo turned around the corner,
(14:58):
I was like, oh my gosh, for you guys, this
is for us. Yeah, and it was massive and everybody
was there, like Hollywood all came out for that movie.
So it was uh, quite a change from first movie
to the last movie. But the kids were like, like
everybody was so cool. Everybody stayed so down to earth
and they were so sweet, and uh, yeah that was
(15:19):
the that was the journey.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
While you were filming that first movie, did you guys
feel like this was something different, this was something a
little more special than the other ones that had come
along before.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, that's a good question. With no like nobody knew
like nobody knew it was special. And when people take
credit for it, when we just see anybody that goes, oh,
I knew it was gonna be big bull crap, they
are so full crap. There is nobody had a clue.
So but there were a couple of little clues that
it might be something special. And I remember, for me,
I was watching Stick the Status quo that song and
(16:03):
we're We're in the cafeteria and it was so big
and Kenny had you know, at that Kenny had already
directed the closing and opening ceremonies to the Olympics, like big,
big events, And so I was watching the stick of
the Status Quo and I'm like, this is massive, this
is so big, and I thought, this is this doesn't
feel like a little Disney music. This feels like a
(16:24):
big epic motion picture. So yeah, but I still I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Did you Were you a part of the rehearsal process,
Like did you see the kids going through the hours
and hours of rehearsal the training that they had to
do for these big dance numbers.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yes, But interesting thing about that, like there was a
there was a small budget and it was only like
five million dollar movie or full I think the first
one was four million. Oh yeah, first one was four million,
the second one was six million, third one was thirty
five million. Oh so that's how that jumped. Yeah, so
you can imagine like your resources prelimited, and I think
we have one week of rehearsals before the first movie
(17:02):
because you couldn't afford it, right, you have to fly
everybody out. Everybody's in Utah, And e fact Kenny told
Disney said, I want you know whatever, it was like,
I want fifty dancers. And they said, we can't fly
out fifty professional dancers out of Utah and he's like, no, no,
I'll find them. I'll get them local. And they're like, no,
you can't go to like Utah and like collect fifty
professional dancers. And he said, no, I did the opening
(17:24):
closing ceremonies. I know what kind of talent is there?
And they he's right, there's like this unbelievable amount of
talent and that's you know a lot of dancers for
Dancing the Stars come from. Oh true. I was like,
I always like crazy talent in that state. So he
got a lot of local dancers and they crushed.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
And so do you remember the first scene that you filmed?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Oh, like official first day on set? Who is it with?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Hm? Gosh? I don't think I do. I don't well huh.
I think I get a little confused on you know,
people ask me like, what's your favorite movie and I'll
tell him number three on this scene and they're like
that was the number two. I was like, oh, sho, okay, yeah,
what's fans keep? Yeah they do. They're so on it
and I love it. But all my scenes, basically, I
(18:13):
feel really fortunate because almost he's re Zach and he's
so good and you know, even though it was a
it was a Disney Channel movie, so you think, you know,
maybe people don't bring the heat, but he was so
invested and so and so it is Kenny Ortega like that,
And I think that's why High School Musical is as
successful as it is. Kenny Ortega. It's just that man
(18:34):
is such an inspiration. He is so passionate, and there's
he doesn't there's no off switch on that guy. So
if you go to dinner with him that you know
night during rehearsal, he's talking about the movie. He's talking
about the scenes, he's talking about the work. Uh you
on the weekends. It's all that's all he does. He's
rewriting dialogue's rewriting lyrics to songs like coming up more
dance ideas. The guy's a genius. So, uh, it doesn't
(18:56):
matter if it was a four million dollar, you know
film or whatever Newsy is or hocus Pocus was. You know,
when you direct the hocus posts like, he's just as
serious about making High School Musical. He's a hocus Pocus.
So it's I think there's a lesson in filmmaking or
maybe just life in general. You know, if you approach
a project, even if it's a small project, and you
treat it like it's this big, monumental, life changing epic,
(19:18):
then maybe a small thing becomes epic, because it certainly did,
and there's no reason, there's no reason people tried to
do it over and over with so many other Disney musicals.
Some of them are great, but none of them have
like really become like as like big or.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Phenomenon that it is.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Were you.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Guys as close of a cast in real life as
it seemed to us as fans, because watching it, it
seems like you would be.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The father figure to the cast? And did they all
get along?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Were they all as close as we saw watching it?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
It's interesting to hear you say it because I don't
hear those comments, you know that, I don't really I've
only seen it from the inside and uh, totally, like
we answered one hundred percent, like everybody's so cool. No,
I don't know what. I don't know why. I don't know. Well,
I do know why, because Kenny Ortegas are really he
sets the standard and he's he's a beautiful soul this
(20:18):
guy he is. He is amazing. But he also cast
some really incredible actors that are really sweet people. They're
really kind and considerate and really passionate about their work.
I mean every single one of them, and I think
they get that from Kenny. You know, Like Kenny took
it all so serious and he reminded everybody of how
special this was. Matter of fact, he does this thing
that was really cool. He would anytime we're shooting a
(20:40):
special scene, he would stop and we got it like
crazy schedule, imagine like how big these movies are. On
such a tight schedule. He would still stop everybody and
bring everybody into a little circle like this Kenny or
tag a circle, and it was so cool, and he
would express like some really beautiful things. You know. We
talk about the movie and talk about like do you
guys realize like what a beautiful thing is we get
to do? Like look how lucky we are we get
(21:02):
to do this and this scene. And then you talk
about why it's so important and this song means so much,
and then you go around let everybody express themselves like
what do you know? What do you think about this?
You know, and you get to express yourself and it's
this was this amazing bonding experience and having someone remind
you of like how special this is and to have
gratitude for this, like this incredible moment. I think it
(21:24):
really made a big impact on everybody. So everybody hung out,
everybody went to dinner, everybody want to spend time together,
like the whole entire time, all three movies. This is
incredible and.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
You all felt safe, I'm sure, like a safe space,
a safe place to go, and like if you mess up,
it's okay, you know. He Kenny Artega seems like the
type to just help you along and to make sure
everybody feels feels good.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, yes, yes, totally. He totally does that. And if
you have an idea for a scene or like I
want to try something different, Like I want to try
like probably my favorite line in the whole entire movie,
it's just what the heck of those doing it in
a tree? He let me like experimental because I, like
I said, you know, I really want to come in
with like some heat on this, Like I want to
(22:06):
be at my limit, Like I want that line to
have like a ton of weight to it. You know,
I didn't want to just save line as I walk it.
I want to like, can I come in, like marching
in and just like, what the heck are those dude
doing in a tree? And just like he's so many
He's like, yeah, go for it, and so he let
me like do a few of those and he's like,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We're keeping it and iconic to this day.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
It's like one of the most quotable moments of that movie.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
I'm honored. I'm honored. I kind of thought I was
kind of channeling Matthew Perry a little bit, because he like,
he puts so much weight on things that might not
seem important, but and he doesn't do it like in
a fake but it doesn't, like at a very real way.
I think that's what's funny about. He's not trying to
be funny. He's trying to like that actually really matters
a lot, and that's what I think makes it funny.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So do you remember the first time you were recognized
as coach or maybe so the first time.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Somebody yelled out one of the one are the quotes
for the movie?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, yeah, it kind of you. It's almost like you
could you have a little timeline because first people are like, hey,
I know you you were Did you coach me? Did
you coach my little legally? Like people are convinced that
was their coach, And it happened like tons and then
it started turning like wait, ma, your coach, your coach
Bolton or your choice dad? Wait, your choic's dad, and
so then it's it kept going to like then they
(23:19):
all knew my name. Then it's like, oh, you're you're
coach Bolton, You're Then they start saying Bart and that
I remember when they start saying my name, they say,
my first mind, Bart john Are you Bart Johnson? Hey Bart,
I'm like, oh my gosh, Like now that like years
go by though, like at first, I mean I'll be
talking about years, like five years your name's coach, five
years later coach Bolton. Then it's and then it starts
(23:39):
evolving into like your your name, and then the last
five years, which is the sweetest of all, which is
they stopped me going listen, you don't understand, Like can
I just you don't understand? And so many of the
sentences begin with you don't understand, and I just like
start smiling. I'm like, lay it on me, brother, lay it.
I want to hear it. What don't I understand. But
I was little in this. I'm like, oh, let me
(24:00):
just enjoy this. I love it. I love it so much.
But they all have this story of how it like
impacted them and meant so much to them, or they're
struggling and just the greatest stories ever people share.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Well, especially today, like there are still people kids and
adults who feel like I don't want to go after
what's in my heart, like I don't want to change
who I am. You know, they might feel like they
want to do something or be somebody different, and you
can go back to watch high school musical and think like, oh,
this could be just a little fun kids movie.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, but it has such an important meaning.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's true. It's true. It's kind of amazing. I've met
people that were afraid to do musicals or afraid to
do something maybe their parents didn't want them to do
and they kind of had to come, which I kind
of think is like, I'm kind of glad I was
able to play a character that didn't make it easy
on my boy, like I challenged him, because then it's relatable.
Then other people can understand like, well, yeah, my parents
(24:53):
didn't want me to do this thing. Too, Like I
was passionate about this, but I met all this resistance.
I'm like, well, good, now in the movie had resistance
and you had to like overcome that, And so I
think we're challenged a lot in life with with resistance
and learning to over like learning the great gift and
like caring enough to overcome that and enjoy that. So yeah,
so people are trying different things and it's a beautiful
(25:16):
it's a beautiful lesson to learn. I mean, how cool
you get to be in a movie that has, like
you might see, just full of it could have been
full of silly songs, but they did. I think it
was good. I mean I get a little carried away here,
I get all emotional, but I think the movie is
special because the songs really are deep and meaningful and
they touch people's soul. You know, they're touching these kids
(25:37):
and maybe they're just simple enough that they're accessible. And
it really does affect people and make them think and
empower them and empower young kids to try something different
or know they're okay or or all that. Just some
beautiful messages. And I get I get soft. I said,
I don't let don't tell Darbus that I've got a heart.
(25:58):
Coach likes to have a nice cold heart, you know,
in the next aior. But truth is, I care too much.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I know you said earlier that you guys didn't know
this was going to be as big of a movie
as it was. So when you finished filming the first one,
did you all think like that was it one and done?
I'm sure it had to be such an emotional last
day on the site.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Oh yeah, it's you know, it's it happens a lot
in movies when you when you do a movie, it's
a month or two months if you're lucky, you know,
in a bigger movie, on a TV series you go
for years, you know, or like a full year. So
it's like a lot more emotional at the end you
feel like you have as so at the first one,
you know, I think everybody was pretty bumped it was
over because it was There's something different about doing a musical.
(26:38):
You know. I've done one hundred of I saw my
credit sailor of one hundred movies and TV shows now,
Oh my gosh. Yeah, but I've done three musicals. I
think maybe maybe four, I don't know. But musicals are
different because every movie is the same. You know, you
have a master shot. Then you going for singles. You
kind of okay, now we've got that shit. When we
get their coverage, you know, we do our inserts a
right now we move on, and it's just kind of rinse.
(27:00):
You're kind of doing that over and over and over.
And it's sometimes it's comedy, sometimes dropping there's all variety.
But in a musical, it's like, oh, today we're doing
this number and it's like, oh man, I get out
my bag of popcorn and I sit back. I'm like,
let me see the show. And it's just this. They
put out the big speakers and they played the song
over and over and people are it's just big dance
numbers and it's so fun. It is so fun. And
(27:22):
I remember the first time I saw that on Newsi's
and I saw them danceing the paper boys dancing on
the street. I'm like, this is awesome, Like this is amazing.
And I'm a film geek too, like so I'm watching
through the lens of the camera and seeing what they're
picking up and seeing like the the emotion and the
energy coming through the screen. And then in the High
School musical, the same thing. It's just like, oh my gosh,
(27:43):
if you haven't done all my actor friends out there,
you're done to me. You go get yourself into music,
go make one or something, because it is it's really special.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
How long would a scene like stick the Status Quo?
How long would that take to film?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I tell you the problem is there's no time in
these schedules. You know, we had four weeks to shoot
High School Musical one. That's a lot of work and
very ambitious shoot. And Kenny's wants to do things really big.
So I think, like Status Quo, I think it was gosh.
I don't have to ask him, you know what, I
will ask Kenny. I'm gonna try to track him down
and I'm gonna ask him. I think it was two days.
(28:16):
It might have been one day. I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Is that a short amount of time?
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Four weeks?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That seems super short film?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well, it's typical most Disney Channel movies. We're done in
five weeks. It's a five week schedule and it's like
a four million dollar budget for five weeks. That's really typical.
So you try to you gotta cram in lot, you
gotta move, you gotta move real faster. You're shooting five
six seven pages a day. You got to get through
a lot of a lot of pages until a lot
of story. And then when you have extras and dancers
and you're moving a lot of bodies, it is it's
(28:46):
a lot. It's a lot. So to do something special
and to do it right, it's a miracle. Yeah, it's
really mirror.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
So you were on set for that, But were you
there for the huge iconic finale of We're All in
This Together?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I did not miss a musical number. There's the Way,
And I certainly wasn't about to miss that one because
it was so big and so important, and it wasn't
that the championship game, wasn't that after the big championship. Ye,
so I'm in the scene. So I hand the trophy,
I get the trophy and I handed to Troy and
uh so I'm there? So am I in that number?
(29:20):
I don't know if dan I don't. They never let
me dance. I start dancing there? What are you doing?
Come on, coach? You know the coach doesn't dance. You
know I had a number. I had a dance number
in the first movie.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
I have it.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's this like this pains me to talk about. But
there was a dance, not there was a there was
a song. It was like anything you could do, I
could do better number like from any get your Gun
and it was me and Darbus.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh yeah, it would have been incredible.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
So mad about it. I'm so mad about it. And
it was. It was in there like we were. We
didn't shoot it, we didn't shoo. But they said, Disney,
it went back to you know, anytime you make a movie.
They said, let's do it faster, just shorter. Let's make
everything quicker and make the movie run faster. So we cut, cut, cut,
and what goes first to get cut? The old people?
(30:14):
I said, I don't know if you need, like, we
don't need old people dancing. And I'm like, I'm in
my twenties, wasn't I I was close to I was
not very old in that first movie. I think I
did the math. I had to be like eleven to
have Zach as my kid in the movie. I'm like,
I could dance. I'm not too old to dance if
I was. If I if I was eleven years old
having a kid, I could dance at a dang movie.
(30:36):
So but they didn't let me dance at Darbus is
so upsetting.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I feel like that would have been incredible. Yeah, me
too for the twentieth can can you do it?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Yeah? Well, you know, I gotta say that's one thing
I'm so grateful for for like social media TikTok is
because I kind of feel like I could live vicariously,
like Coach gets to have his fantasy life like via TikTok. Yeah. Yeah,
like nobody's gonna tell me I can't dance. Now, I'm
gonna start singing. I'm gonna start dancing.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I want to see it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, No,
I love it. I genuinely. It's been so much fun.
And then people like all look like, hey, can you
do that dancing? Get Coach, Like, what do you mean again?
Like I never I wasn't in the dance, so I
have to now I'm learning the dances now, like twenty
years later. But I love it. It's it's great, and
I will always forever be bitter about not having that
(31:24):
Darbus dance.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I thought the movie was pretty perfect. No I'm mad, No,
I'm mad.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
I mean we should have shot it and just thrown
it in the extras. You know, yes, right, it's pretty upsetting. Yeah,
I'm upset too. I still know Alison Reid, of course,
you know, I see her on occasion. I tried to
get her some tiktoks and she said, no.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Well she's got to do this one, she said.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So what I talked. I took to Alison Reda. I
got this great idea. I've got this great idea for
the short film for like Coach Bolton, like bumping into
Miss Darbus. I have this like this whole script. I
got tons of them and and I said, will you
do just do it is a TikTok And you say, oh,
you can't do that. You're gonna Disney's gonna sue you.
They're gonna sue you if you like you take your character.
(32:11):
And I'm like, well, they're gonna sue me a bunch
because I'm gonna do it so much. And uh, they've
never said a word. Like matter of fact, I went
to a Disney thing and some Disney executives are like, hey,
I saw your talk, but I saw that now.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
I think like people bring back characters all the time
on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I feel like they do too. Yeah, I do it
in a respectful way too. I don't I'm paying homage.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah exactly, Yes, I'm not making fun of me, But no,
you wouldn't do anything neative with the two of you.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Brand for me, Like I know, man, I like, I
know what I enjoy and I would like to do,
but like I like to to bring those things back
to life. And and it's fun when I can strike
a chord if people love it, and and uh, that's
all I'm trying to do it. But I got some
really funny stuff. Alison Reed. If you're out there, you're
listening to this, listen, it's okay. No one's gonna sue us.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Do it for us.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Do the fans want it? I wanted, come on, let's
do it. Did you know she was in Cabaret? She
Kenny or Tega directed her on Broadway. I think it
was Cabaret. You know what, we'll have to do a
podcast with Alison Reid.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Get her in here.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Maybe we could all gang up on her TikTok with me.
Tell her it's okay. But she's great. I love Alicie.
She's so talented, she's amazing and she and yeah, Kenny
had directed her on Broadway, like a million years ago,
like they knew each other when they were kids. So
pretty cool. She's great.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And you were with your wife Robin at the time.
Oh yeah, and so did she move with you to Utah?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Like what? What was her? What?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
You're filmed in Utah?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Or no?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, we should we shot all three in Utah. Yeah,
she would visit, okay, but when I was working, Oh yeah,
because we had kids at the time. And so but
this is I'll tell you a sad story. This is
a really sad story, well sad for not sad for
a sad dad story. So I had my kids, Bailing
(34:06):
and Kate and and Why, all three of them with
me on the set and we were doing Stick the
sas Quo and they were in video village. So the
video villas were where the director hangs out and they
have the screens, the monitors, and it's really fun to
watch Kenny work because he has the monitors up and
he had he's flanked by the choreographers and he's pointing
out the while they're shooting. He's playing all changes. This
(34:28):
gout to do a flip here, it's it's been here
preper and he's like it's like almost like painting on
a canvas, but like a million miles an hour while
the song's going, and the song's three minutes long, and
he's making one hundred changes, and the choreographers are just like, okay, okay,
taking notes, taking notes, hut. And they just run in
and they make all the changes and they got to
move quick, so they're given notes to all the dancers.
You gotta do this to move here and move and
(34:48):
and I'm like, this is the coolest thing effort. And
I'm sitting there in video village on one of my
kids watches. I got Zack out front him one side,
Vanessa Hudges on the other side. I was like, this
is this is my apex. This is my crown moment
of dad awesomeness. This is it. This is all I got.
And they're like, I go, what do you think your
dad's pretty cool? Huh? And they're like, can we just
go home? This is so boring. They were young. They
(35:11):
were so they're like two and four or something or
something like that or five. I gotta do the math
on that, I guess, but yeah, they were super young.
But I was like, you guys, please please enjoy this
moment because this is like, this is it for me.
I'll never be able to top this moment for being
a dad.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Do they appreciate it now? Do they understand the significance
of coach?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
No, No, they really don't. They haven't seen the movies
they have it. They won't watch the movie. They won't.
Why not? They don't know? They hate me. I don't
know why. I don't know. I don't know why I coach. Look,
I am I am home, okay, I'm a dad that's
home with my kids all day every day. I mean,
I thought I do all volunteering. I coached all their
(35:52):
soccer teams. Like I'm present dad. Like that's met fact.
People ask me, like, what's the best thing you do
in your life? I'm my own to be a dad.
Like I wish I was as good as an actor
as I was deap. I'm a really good dad. Why
won't they watch my movies? That's not fair, that's not right,
it's mean.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
That is just wild to me. That's crazy, I know.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
And then like when I get recognized a bunch of
bugs the crap out of them. I don't know why,
but I will say this. Once we were in Orange
County and we went to this trampoline park. It was
like circus something I was. It was amazing. It was
like an amusement park of trampolines. And we discovered it,
like let's go, and we went in. There's like only
an hour left and and all this. You imagine the
staff of a trampoline park. They're young, so they're like coach,
(36:32):
and so I'm great with them. A lot of my
kids jump. I take pictures of the entire staff, and
we're hanging out and having a good time. Well when
it closes and my kids are like, no, this place
is so awesome. It's all the way Orange County. We
live in LA, so we might as well be on
another planet, you know, if you're all the way in
Orange County from LA. Yeah. So everybody's leaving the trampoline
park and we start to leave, and they're like, coach, Coach,
(36:54):
you guys don't have to leave. You stay here as
long as you want. My kids are like, what's going on?
What's going on? I'm like what he be? This is
what you get like when your dad's the coach, Like
you get to stay at the tramp lee park all
night long. And they're like, wait a minute, there's an
upside to this.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I'm like, yes, yeah, they're enjoying the perks. The least
they could do is watch it exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
No, there's no respect. There's just no respect, no love
for old dad.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
By the end of this podcast, they need to have
watched it.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
If anybody's listening, go bully my kids, in which I
give you free range to go bully them on social media.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
No, don't, but your wife has watched. Obviously she's watched,
and what she.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Thinks it's cute and she loves the She loves everybody,
like we've gotten another. Kenny is a really good friend. Everybody.
Everybody's terrific. So we've we've spent time with everybody since
then a bunch and now we've done events. We've been
doing these events. How cool is this? So we got
invited to do this like a fan event in Paris
and it's all of Kenny's musical So it is all
(37:50):
of Descendants, the cast of Descendants, the cast of High
School Musical, and the cast of Julian the Fantoms other
musical and we all go out to this event in
Paris and it's like Kenny's World, Kenny's Musical World, and
so we do this fans, like all these fans come
from all over Europe. We all hang out together. And
you know, another fun thing of you, hanging out with
actors is always fun. You know, I find actors they're
(38:11):
interesting people. You know. I don't know, maybe it's because
they got so much time on their hands, like can
develop some good hobbies or bad habits or so, I
don't know something, but they're usually interesting people. And and
but there when you do musicals, like everybody's a musician.
So now you go when you hang out, everybody brings
a guitar or they'll sit down a pian and like
everybody gets sick and it's like, oh it's seen this on.
Everybody's like singing in harmonies and it's beautiful. So it's
(38:32):
like super fun to hang out and jam with those guys.
Has been awesome and it's emparissed. So it's like, oh,
that was so rad.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Did your kids go with you to that?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
They did?
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Oh my god, they did.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
They did go to that every time. Well, you know,
they were always my like, plus, wellfe I bring a
kid every time with me, so they got to experience that.
They've done a bunch of that so it's been a
matter of fact. I'm doing this thing. I'm doing this
thing that I got invited to this company in Italy
they do these concerts and they say, hey, would you
come out? They offer me a job. Amy come out
to Italy to go like do a concert, like a
(39:04):
Disney throwback. I'm like, well, we do I don't do anything.
What do you want me to do? They're like, we
just want you to host it. Yeah, it's like like
a deep magically you're a DJ, but you're just gonna
be on stage like getting the crowd pumped. And I'm like,
well that I could do. Like I'm I'm a I'm
a ham when it comes to that kind of stuff
like okay, great. So I go out to this. I
go on to this uh this concert in Italy. Thirty
(39:24):
thousand people out there, Oh my, and they're all dressed
up like wildcats and they're singing their hearts out and
they're crying, They're all emotionally. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
We Disney fans are diehards.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I love it. We love it and it's everywhere. Over story.
So I was in My brother Adam was shooting a
movie in what's that place called Sicily. I'm in Sicily.
My brother's down there shooting the movie. So and it's
this it's his birthday. So we go to my other
brother and I we go down there and surprise them
for his birthday. And we rented motorcycles and drove all
(39:54):
the way around the island of Sicily. How cool is that?
Pretty coore? So we're in this little time, we're using
this atm and these kids behind us little top Toom,
a little tiny little town in uh Sicily, and these
kids are like, oh my gosh, coach boul you coach Bulon,
you coach. And they don't speak in English, but they speak,
you know, they know how to say coach Bold, like
yeah yeah, and it's like oh, I started taking pictures
and some of them run away and come back with
(40:15):
more friends. And then they ran away and they can't
have more friends. Pretty soon it was a parking lot
like late at night, Wow, three hundred people like hang out.
Couldn't believe it. And then the news shows up and
then like when you do a throw for us, and
I was like okay, and it's all that Italian. I
wonder what I actually said. They're like say this. I'm
like I'm gonna try. I'm sure I butchered it, but
(40:36):
it's like, you know, and that's been really fun because
we travel a lot, and it's amazing that the wildcats
are out there man.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
And still, you know, still to this session, it.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Is way more passionate now than they've ever been, which
is super cool.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
And there's the nostalgia too, like for us as adults,
like going back, like I rewatched it again getting ready
for this and I just felt like, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Like still it still makes me feel so good, you know,
watching it. So it's really great.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
What's really fun is when the little kids come up
to me and they're like or they want a picture
or something, and I look at the parents that they're like,
I'm raising my kids right, yes, yes, you are well done.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
So we've talked about all the positive, wonderful things about filming.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
And all that.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Is there anything you would have changed looking back? I
think it would have done differently on this journey.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Man. Gosh, I don't know if I want to done
anything too.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I mean, it sounds perfect, you know, it just sounds
like such a great experience.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
It was really great, you know, and and it was
before I had a but it was before cell phoneses
had cameras, you know, And so I actually always wanted
to videotape stuff. And so I started videotaping on my laptop,
like like moments on set, and I'd start kind of
like videotaping and and I don't know where that laptop is.
I gotta find because I've got like gems on there.
(41:51):
I bet somewhere I gotta find that.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
You for sure have it? Oh for sure, I got
to find it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I'll keep all my hard dry, all my stuff. But
uh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was great. You know. I
never took it for granted. I will say one of
the things I'm really grateful for. And maybe it's because
I've been around long enough and I had had jobs
that I thought where I made it and and honestly
a big job, like bigger jobs than this I've had before,
(42:20):
but not as special. So I knew, like I had
gratitude for like the whole entire process. And I'm so
glad I did, like from beginning to end. And I
sucked to Kenny. I was probably drive a cane. Now
I'm like, hey, Kenny, should coach be in this scene too?
He's like, no, there's a dream sequence, right, you know,
no one's dreaming about their dad being I'm like, okay,
fair enough, I'll be over here. But like you know,
they they when they when I get cut loose for
(42:41):
for work and they say you go home, I was like, yeah,
but I'm just gonna I'm just gonna hang out or
like I'm gonna go operate the cameras or something, you know,
like they're so nice to us, you know that way.
So uh, I think I took full advantage. I don't
know if I could have taken advantage anymore than I did.
I feel like I still do you did it right?
You know? After the movie, like so many people were
like ready to move on, and maybe they were smarter
than me. A lot of the cast is like, oh,
(43:01):
I'm not going to talk about high schomusic anymore. I'm
gona talk about the next thing and moving forward. I'm like,
I get it, dude, I get it. Yeah, that's I
should probably do that. Screw that though, I'm having too
much fun, Like this is fun. I'm making people happy,
Like if I could do I always think like if
I could, if the small amount of effort it takes
to make people really happy. Is amazing, Like what a gift?
Like what a what a shame that be if I
(43:22):
if I didn't see that as a gift and take
advantage of Like I can make someone like a thirty
second video and they go bananas for like years, Like
that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
That got to feel so good.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, that's awesome. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
So I love it, And I'm sure we'll get to
this as the podcast goes on. But do you think
you guys will do something big for the twentieth anniversary?
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Well, I know I've got some stuff cooking, so okay,
we'll see, we'll see what we could do. But I've
got a few particular friends in Look, if there's a
high school, first of all, if there's a high school
musical for it, it's got to be everybody. It's got
to be everybody. Yeah, I don't know how you do
high school musical four without it, without all the main guys,
(44:04):
you know, it just wouldn't be the same. Like everybody
wants to know what happened to Trony Gabriello, what happened
to Ryan Sharpet? You know what happened? You know? Like
where are they? Like you would have to be something
brilliant and amazing and something that really like and I think,
like a great story that really is what the fans
really want, the way what they really want to see,
you know, and they don't want to see half the
cast showing up. So I think you got to be
(44:26):
careful on you know, that kind of thing. Like in
a perfect world, like some kind of cool thing would
happen where everybody was back. I'd love to see it.
I would love and I've it's if it doesn't happen,
it won't be from a lack of me pitching Disney ideas,
Like I've pitched out so many ideas, like good ideas,
good ideas, you know we have. I don't know if
I'm allowed to say this, Okay, Like like there was
(44:48):
a high school musical four script a couple times really yeah, yeah,
And there was one one was about soccer. It was
all all about she was going to like because became
such international success to the movies, it makes sense, right
and like I coach soccer, so I was like, oh
my gosh. So I started talking to like all these
(45:09):
like I talked to like David Beckham, I talked to
like guys like would you be in this movie, and
so I'm like trying to put it together. I'm like,
let me get a couple of stars, and you know, man,
let's make this thing. Let's make this thing happen, Let's
make it big, let's make it awesome, and and it
just went. They burned it. They burned to burn the script.
I don't know why. I don't know why, but uh,
it just never worked out. So there was a couple
of ones. There's one called East versus West. There's a coup,
(45:32):
There's a couple I know stuff I don't I probably
so yeah, yeah, So I was hope. And then the
TV series. There were several TV series and like every
here's Here's something that was a little frustrated for me
is that every time there was a new TV series,
like I mean, I know all the filmmakers, of course,
and they called me and say, hey, there's a new
(45:53):
We've got this TV series looks like this one might
go You're gonna be well that I was going to
be the head of the athletic department, so I'd be
charged with soccer and I'd be in you know whatever
for that one. Or there's another one that was like, oh,
you're gonna be the You're gonna be the vice principal
of the school, Like yes, my god, So I don't
want to be the prinson. I'll be the vice principal,
you know. So it's like a little bit a little
bus but a little a little conflict, you know, a
(46:14):
little jealousy, you know. So something something meaty, you know,
something good where we're coaches in a spot. So like
there's all these like great ideas I kept getting pitched
and then and then the one they finally go, hey,
we're gonna go with this one where it's like it's
the it's uh, it's modern day where they talk about them.
It's meta. They're gonna talk you know, the TV series
High School Musical Musical the Series, and I was like,
(46:35):
oh great, So like I literally cannot be in this
movie now, that's awesome. So that was I hated that.
I hated it so much, and I unfortunately I love
the cast and the filmmakers on High School Musical Musical
the Series because like, I was so angry when I
saw I was like, dang it, man, and it's not
the hyper reality I want. Oh, it's like all these
different things. But then I worked on on the final
(46:57):
season A High School Musical. The Musical Series season four,
A bunch of us came back and worked with them,
and they're so great, Like, the cast was amazing. So
I'm glad they got their show.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
So do we start this petition to get those scripts?
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah? Yeah, I think maybe this is it. Maybe there's it,
you know, I mean I saw the before and after
and the cast has like everybody looks pretty great. They
have all become better actors. I think so, like, yeah,
I think we could do this. Nobody retired now they
think about it like you do a lot of those
you know, right, they say like, oh where are they now?
(47:33):
And some of them, oh I live on a farm
and I checked out and whatever.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
And they're all they're all working, they're everybody's in it.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
Yeah, yeah, And the plan is with this podcast to
get some of them sitting right here next to you.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
We're going to find out. We're going to find out
where everybody is, what they're doing. That's yeah, that's my plan.
And also, like you know, they were so young when
they graduated from high schools, when they graduated from East
High they were so young, and now they've got they've
stepped into this new area on their life. You know,
Cordon Blue is a big Broadway star now he's doing
Great Gatsby in London, and and Zach's like doing all
these big movies. And Vanessa's like a big movie star.
(48:08):
But she's also like this amazing mom and you know,
having kids and stuff, and her husband is awesome. Like
I got to know him in parents, Like he's amazing,
and uh yeah, I can't wait to you know, Kenny's
done a million amazing things since then. So, uh, we're
gonna get into it and find what everybody's up to,
get some dirt, maybe get some original stories of you know,
some things that happened on set that maybe that we
(48:30):
saw that no one else saw, and a couple original
things and then uh yeah, see everybody's out and then
we'll just commit at the end of the podcast, was
to commit him to the series or maybe that's what
we'll do.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
That is the whole don't.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Tell them, don't tell them that. Let's not hear that
part though, until after we get the give him to
sign a paper with small print.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Well, as fans, we are very excited that you were
doing this. We're excited to get more in depth with
the whole high school musical journey.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Awesome, so thank you, awesome. I'm so happy to be
doing this and to like, uh, you know, I just
want to do it for the fans and just to
express gratitude for them and how much they have made
this a special journey, because without them, it's like it's
a cool movie. But it's their response to it all
and how much they love it and their passion it
makes it so fun and so fulfilling. So thank you, guys.
(49:15):
I love you all so much. Like I get the
nicest comments on social media, it's like almost all of
them are like so nice and so kind, and it
means the world. So my heart is full of gratitude.
Join us next week with our very first special guest.
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Sabrina Bryan
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