Get Your Head in the Game: LUCAS GRABEEL

Get ready to bop to the top! Lucas Grabeel, also know as THE Ryan Evans joins Bart Johnson to reminisce on the making of the High School Musical franchise, what it means to Lucas now 20 years later and so much more! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Wildcats, this is Bart Johnson and you're listening to
get your head in the game. Hi. Everyone, welcome to
get your head in the game today. My guest is
the guy who brought Ryan Evans to life in the
High School Musical franchise. Please welcome my friend Lucas Graybill
do the podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hell, that's my hoodie, it's mine now.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
No, man, no, thanks for hanging on. That was a
little while ago. I left that How long? Hell long?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Don't I have no idea? Well? Oh that was yet
two or two years ago? Three years ago?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh gosh. I was like, hey, I'll be over soon
to go get that from you. That's how much we've
been hanging out. That's to stay right, man. I see
you more in Paris than I do in La which
is not cool. Yeah, thank you so much for being here.
So stoked to have you.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh man, it's an honor. You are such a favorite
character in this franchise. And you know it's the twenty
year anniversary. Man, if you can believe it, twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, it's uh, it's wild I can't believe all this
time passed so quickly. So I also feel, you know,
there is something about you know, with the pandemic and
the unraveling of of the world around us, sometimes it

(01:27):
seems I think nostalgia is hitting so many people, especially
with technology moving so quickly right now, Nostalgia is like
on an all time high.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And I feel different.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
It does. And I've I've I see so much resurgence
and and new generations coming to uh celebrate this franchise,
and and I'm all for it. It's it's incredible. Yeah, yeah,
very lucky to be a part of something that that
can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Very lucky. Indeed, you know, Uh, I think we all
wanted to do something special for the anniversary, give something
bad to these fans that have been so incredible to us.
So I'm glad that we can have this time to
sit down and rehash some stories, man, talk about the
good old days.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
And yeah, oh.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's been great, man, it's been so fun. I've literally
every single person that's been on here has told me
so many things I didn't know, which I thought I
knew most of the stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
But well, I mean, I guess that kind of makes sense,
you know. Uh, yeah, we were there were a lot
of you know, group scenes and stuff, but you know,
as a movie goes there's always parts that you you
do separately and and uh, yeah, so this is cool.
I'm I'm so glad that you that you did this
so that we can talk about the good old days.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, you know, I thought this would be a cool,
like kind of an intimate way to do it too.
It's not really for like a show or whatever, putting
on the radio and letting people see it and uh
and just have a little credit, just to express some
appreciation for all these people, I guess really. Yeah, you know,
I'm up here where we shot high school musical one.
Oh nice, the karaoke scene, you know, I know you

(03:10):
know Utah man, you know this?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, you're.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
A resident for a minute. Yeah, charmed by the mountain life.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, ten years I had a place there.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah wow.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
And I still I still have a plot of land
in Utah. Oh that I'm hoping to like, I mean,
you know, one day build a treehouse on it or
something would be cool, or just wait until it's worth
millions of dollars and so I don't.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, hey man again, thank you for doing this. You're
such an incredible talent. I know a lot of people
like you are their favorite character, like you are the
come away with like the actor's actor of like being
such a complex, interesting, entertaining, enjoyable character. And you really
are a musician and you really do make really incredible music.

(04:06):
And I know you've gone on to do so many
incredible things, but let's start from the if it's cool
with you, like start kind of from the beginning and
like how this all started, and then like get into
like everything you've done since then. Sure, yeah, because you
were a youngster man this.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well yeah, I mean out of the kids, Monique and
I were the the adults of the group. But yeah,
still I still look at back on that time. You know,
I was twenty, but you think you know everything when
you're twenty, But now looking back, you're like, oh, yeah,
I was still a child acting putting my best grown

(04:47):
up actor face on.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah. Yeah, And how much stuff have you done before
the movie?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Not much. I moved out to la when I was eighteen.
I got really lucky right out of the gate. First
five months I was here, I did three national commercials
and booked my first Disney Channel original movie, Halloween Town High.
So I went from doing commercials to being on a

(05:15):
movie and it was just like. I also shot in
Salt Lake City a lot of the same crew members
and people involved with all of the high school musicals,
so that's cool. But yeah, I was so green and
had no idea. I grew up doing theater and had

(05:36):
dreamt about, you know, being in movies and TV shows,
but never imagined what it would actually be like. And
so it was quite a bit shocking getting into it,
especially all of that happening so quickly. But then I
did get a good dose or a good slice of
humble pie, and I didn't really work for like two

(05:59):
years after that movie. I had to go back to
work at Blockbuster with the movie on the shelf with
my face on it, which was wow, a lot of fun.
Yeah yeah, And then yeah, high School Musical, well, the
untitled High School Musical Project came around, and I had,

(06:19):
you know, continued to audition for Disney and stuff. But
I also felt like, I don't know, you know, I
was like, oh, I just did this one thing, and
they've forgotten about me, you know whatever. Plus when we
auditioned for it, the script didn't have any of the
music in it. It was very bare bones. I remember,

(06:40):
you know, I did the first audition. I auditioned for Troy.
I got a call back met Kenny. He told me
in the audition, he's like, hey, you're great. You're no Troy,
but you are a Ryan. So can you go out
and learn the Ryan side to come back in? So
I did that and then I got the big callback,
which was like the New York theater style. I think

(07:03):
it was like seven hours. Yeah, there was a bunch
of us just auditioning for Troy, Gabriella, Ryan and Sharpey.
We we did dances, we sang, we did scenes together.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
And for those who don't know, like the new like
the classic New York like Broadway, like like what does
that mean? Like so because that's different than what we're
used to on a regular movie or TV show.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Oh, totally wild, unlike anything. Well, I mean I had
I had done theater auditions before that were kind of similar,
but in Missouri, not in New York, so nothing to
this scale. And it's nerve wracking. You go there. You
have just gobs and gobs of material that you've prepared,
a song, a scene, and you know you're gonna dance.

(07:50):
There's I think there was like forty to fifty people
there all going for these four parts, so and it's
just the clipboard out and it's like, if you hear
your name, you can stay. If you don't hear your name,
thank you so much, have a great day. And you're
just like, uh, this is it. Am I gonna move

(08:11):
on or not? And slowly throughout the day the numbers
just get lower, and you know it's hard not to
like look around the room and be like, okay, all right.
So there's like so many this me and ten guys,
me and four guys, you know, like it just keeps
going down, And I.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Did you get to know anybody like in that process?
Like did you see.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
I think it was the only one who showed up
to that audition that their parents weren't there with them,
like these were you know, like a lot of them
were children. Yeah, and even you know, like Ashley's mom
was there even though she was my age. They just
you know were always together, close knit and everything. So yeah,

(09:04):
I did meet Ashley most of the time, though, I
just like would like when I knew I had a break,
I'd just go outside because I don't do well with
being around. I don't want to, you know, the competition
is just not Auditioning is hard enough on your own,
and when you're in there sizing up other people, it's like, I,

(09:28):
I that's the part of actors that I just don't
really care for. And I had had some experiences, you know,
like testing for TV shows and stuff where you know,
actors were playing mind games and I was I was
so naive. I didn't know. So yeah, that was that
was important for me to just kind of like keep
my distance. But Ashley did talk to me, because you know,

(09:49):
when we were paired up to do a scene together,
she was like, hey, do you want to rehearse? I
was like, well, that's kind of weird, but okay, let's
do it. And then we were hur She gave me
notes very sharpay come on, added a bit at the end,
and at first I'm like, this is why we got
the job. By the way, it's it's all thanks to her,

(10:13):
because I at first was like, how dare you you know,
like you're giving me notes that like you don't know me?
Like what?

Speaker 1 (10:23):
So I thought an.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Audition and so I walked in with this like anger
but also this absolute joy to when I perform, and
especially doing musicals, and we were singing a song from Hairspray,
which is like just a great song, super fun. So

(10:48):
I was having a good time, but so that's ryan
I literally had to like put all of you know,
swallow all of this pride and just be like, okay,
just do what she said and then everything will be okay.
And that is the dynamic they were looking for, which I,
you know, didn't really even realize at that point because

(11:09):
everything was just so new. But yeah, it was great,
and I mean I could see the twinkle in Kenny's eye,
which made it really weird that, you know, I left
feeling pretty good about it, but you know, you never know,
so I just kind of tried to put it out
of my head. But it was like a month later
before I got the call, and it was at night,

(11:32):
and it was just like, was totally out of the blue,
and I did. I didn't obviously know that I wasn't
gonna have to go back to work at Blockbuster again,
because you know, you just you never know about these things.
But I I did quit because I was like, even

(11:53):
if I have to come back and do something else,
I'm gonna find another job. Two and a half years
working the monkey job was enough for me. But yeah,
it was a beautiful moment. I got so excited because
you know, the dry spell was over and I was
ready to go on an adventure. And because it was

(12:13):
a musical, I mean, growing up doing musicals and everything,
we just got so close so fast, and a lot
of casts can be like a family. But I only
you know, looking back on all of the jobs and
people that I've worked with, there's only a few select
people that I still keep in contact and have that

(12:36):
forever bond with. And High School Musical is definitely the
biggest well of those people that I will that I
always go back for more because such great people. And
like I said, with it being a musical, when we
were rehearsing, we just instantly gelled. And you know, when

(12:58):
you're dancing for eight hours a day, you're working hard,
it's fun, you're goofing off, and you're also learning from
these incredible artists Chucky Claypow, Bonnie Story, Kenny Ortega, like
changed all of our lives. You know, I thought doing

(13:23):
community theater in Missouri, I learned how to dance, but
I really learned how to be a dancer on the
movies because it was much more than just Hey, this
is some really cool choreography that was difficult and challenging
but also just really fun to do. But it wasn't
just hey, here's the choreography and that's that. It was

(13:48):
like life lessons. It was really like theater. You know.
I learned very early on Chucky. I overheard him talking
to another one of the dancers and the answer was
doing everything perfectly. But Chucky was like, it's not there,
You're just phoning it in. And he's like, well, I'm
doing the moves right, and he's like, yeah, but when

(14:10):
you were, when you're truly dancing as an art form
and telling a story, the music should look like it's
coming out of your body with the movements. You need
to connect with the music and think about the music
and not the moves, think about your heart and not
your head. And I just like it changed everything for me.

(14:34):
And I think that spirit, the soul, the joy that
was pounded into us, you know, like, yeah, we did
those dance moves over and over and over again, but
every time that Kenny walked in to kind of check
our progress and tweak things, he would always take a

(14:55):
moment to talk about your soul and your heart and
how how to tell a story with these moves and
not just doing choreography, which was great, you know, and
it allowed us, it allowed us to trust him and

(15:18):
really put all of us, all of our efforts into
doing the best that we could. Not only that, but
he also just gave us so much leeway and for
no name actors who are young and not had a
lot of experience in the game a director giving us
that much room to explore. And I mean I got

(15:43):
to add so much to Ryan and had so many
amazing conversations with Kenny about Ryan, and so much of
the time when I would ask something about Ryan, he
would just put it back to me and say, Okay,
well what do you what do you think? Even when
we were doing the first choreography, the first time Ashley
and I came in to do Bop to the Top,

(16:05):
the three of them were sitting there and they're like, Okay,
we're gonna put on the song and you guys just
go and do whatever you think Ryan and Sharpey would do,
and we'll see, let's let's just have fun. We ran
it through and then they're like, Okay, that one leg
thing that you did at that one part, keep that
the thing where you guys got together, We're gonna we're
gonna work on that. Keep that too, throw everything else away,

(16:27):
let's do it again. And we did that like three
four times, and that was our first dance rehearsal. After that,
they're like, Okay, good, we got we saw everything that
we needed. Uh, well, we'll have the choreography for you tomorrow.
And when we showed up the next day, they had
taken all of the things that were comfortable with us
that you know. I mean, Chuck even told me, he's like,

(16:47):
I never would have choreographed some of those dance moves
because they're so weird, but because they came from you,
it makes so much more sense. And that's that's what
a choreographer wants to do. They don't want to make it,
make something so hard that the performer is not going
to be able to connect with it. This was real,

(17:08):
and so I mean that just starting everything off with
that tone was just like, WHOA, this is special. This
is going to be a different kind of project because
the yeah, it's a made for cable TV movie musical
that's original and not based off of anything, which just

(17:32):
seems like such a shot in the dark. But everyone
came with so much love and joy and care that
everything needed to be perfect and it was demanded of us.
You know, the whips were cracked and we were in
line and and learned so much. I mean, it was incredible, amazing,

(17:57):
it's been great. So talking to you this is amazing.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Man. I'm just like I've just enthralled, Like please, like
I want to hear the stories. Well, a lot of
people ask they're like, you know, they're they're trying to
figure out what is the how like how did this
become the phenomenon? Like why is this so different than

(18:22):
Disney Channel did a bunch of these musicals and a
bunch of these movies, and then they before this was
made and after it was made, and they tried to
replicate it and just like nothing hit like this one.
And so it's like how how how did that happen?
And I hear stories like this and I'm like, that's
a piece.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, it's definitely the soul. You know. I remember before
we were doing We're All This Together, Kenny would always
yell out, this is on film forever, because back then
we would shoot movies on film. And he also had
such a like such a coach mentality sometimes and he

(18:59):
would get us huddle up and and tell us, all right,
we know that we know the moves. This is uh,
this is not about anything else but reaching inside your soul,
finding the the fire that ignites you and tell this
story of joy. We are all in this together. This
is a message that is going to be sent out

(19:21):
all over the world. Let's try to inspire some kids.
And we're all just like, okay, kiddy, we'll try her
bet And and it was magical and I think you know,
that spirit was there, and it somehow, you know, came
through uh the screens and and it and and it

(19:42):
did even though it's so campy and so cheesy and uh,
you know, all of the song titles are cliches. I
think the other part of it is that everyone can
see themselves in this movie. This movie is about types people.
And one of the reasons that I'm so happy that

(20:05):
I got to play Ryan Ryan's I think, you know,
one of the cooler characters because yes, in the first
movie he starts out as one of the clicks. It's
like you're either a skater, a brainiac, a jock, or
a thespian. And everyone in school knows like, Okay, I
can relate to these different groups, and the whole movie

(20:25):
is about like, well, you can't mix, you can't cross over,
and this just is so relatable to life, like stay
in your lane, don't try to do anything. I mean,
your character is the voice of so many, you know,
people who are just sheltered and don't understand that you

(20:46):
can do both. And having Zach be able to cross over,
I mean, he's still always the consummate jock, but Ryan
was able to kind of really kind of move throughout,
you know, in the second movie, getting to become a
wildcat with I Don't Dance and really gain the trust

(21:07):
and respect of the Jackson and some of the other kids,
and then really coming together and helping everyone, you know,
kind of be in the glue to choreograph and help direct,
you know, the final performances of the third movies. So
I really lucked out with that. And I also, you know,

(21:33):
being able to, like I said, talking with with Kenny
so much about the character. You know, first thing I
said to him was like, okay, so Ryan's gay, right,
And he's like, well, it's two thousand and five and
this is a Disney channel. We can't just come out
and say that. But you know, here's the thing. We
could do the same thing that so many other people

(21:54):
have done and play this stereotype character that's been it's old,
and it's it's it's out there, and that's it's been done.
So the other option is we could really delicately paint
this this character as someone who is really trying to

(22:14):
find himself and doesn't really doesn't really know where he belongs.
And I think that's it was so relatable to me,
and I think that's why I get approached a lot
of times by people who, you know, a lot of
the underdogs and the people that have been overlooked and
pushed into the shadows and not given their moment. You know,

(22:38):
Ryan as a character is such a champion for those
kinds of people. And yeah, the the whole sexuality thing
just gave it a whole other undertone and layer that
we could play with. And there was so much in
the first movie that ended up on the cutting room

(22:59):
floor because we we had to, you know, a spectrum
of different flavors of of how Ryan would be. So
it was funny because I didn't really I didn't really
know exactly who like how Ryan was gonna come out
as a character until I saw the movie and saw
how all all of it was cut together, which then

(23:20):
you know kept growing and changing through the two other movies.
So yeah, really.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
I think that's I mean, I always thought felt like
that was kind of the brilliance of this movie and
maybe what made it so different because is as big
as an incredible as it got, and the characters are
so big and this you know, some of the way
we approached some things were just like just so out there,
so hyper reality it, but they're always find these like
Kenny's like very sensitive to like organic authentic, like real emotions,

(23:50):
real problems, real conflicts, real texture, you know, like like
like your character, like it's like it's brilliant man, or
the way that he handled your dance, like mining like
real things from you and all these things you're you're
going through in school like they're real, Like these are
all real issues, and it's something about like the I
feel like it's like having so much fun with it

(24:11):
all and the way that he uh just made it
so enjoyable, but like it had all the heart, it
had all the realness underneath it, so it kind of
like made it a little more accessible. Yeah, and then
and then layering like the really important messages in all
that music, Like they're incredible themes. Those are great songs,

(24:31):
And maybe that penetrated a lot deeper because it wasn't
heavy handed. It wasn't like real or gritty. It was
like it was and open up your heart and listen exactly.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I think that you know the fact that so many,
I mean, I'm sure you've been approached by so many
parents who were like, ah, I was so grateful to
have a thing that my kid was just gaga over
and I didn't have to like worry about it. I
could sit my two year old, my five year old,

(25:02):
my twelve year old in front of the TV, and
I didn't have to worry about mixed messages or weird
things going on. They don't even kiss in the first movie.
It's so cheap. But it's also you know, a lot
of movies, stories, especially about kids, don't always have the
best messages. I mean, Greece has a terrible message. It's awful.

(25:28):
You know, in order to be liked and loved by
the popular people, all you gotta do is get a
makeover and change everything about yourself. And lose true yourself
at all at all. And this is just like celebrating
the the togetherness of all of us from different walks

(25:52):
of life coming together and and you know, celebrating music
and dance and and life. You know, and high school
is hard. Yeah, I've had so many people be like
I saw that movie in middle school. It ruined my
high school experience. I really thought that we were gonna
it was gonna be like that. I'm like, yeah, I

(26:14):
never heard.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Of a lot of people as that. I moved to
America because I wanted to go to that high school.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
I remember, Yeah, I remember Billboard, one of the executive
producers was talking about about Russia. They when they were
trying to sell because it didn't it didn't immediately hit worldwide.
There was you know, Europe and South America. Yeah, but uh,
you know, Japan, China, Russia. It took. It took some

(26:42):
convincing and you know, the bill was saying that the
guys whoever he was talking to and Russia was like,
but we don't we don't have cheerleaders, we don't have
like there is no such thing as like school spirit,
Like none of our kids are going to even get
this they did, you know, Uh, yeah, it's it's somehow

(27:06):
Uh now.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
How did that transcend? Man? Like I've talked so like
in Europe, like we don't have sports like in school
like this where we're gonna have an assembly and talk
about it and I'll go to a dance before the
game or you know, or after the game like they
just but somehow they like, we love it.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, we're in Yeah. I think it's also like it
was so American, and I think so so many. I
mean that's why it was. It was way bigger outside
of America than it was in the US, and it
was pretty big here. So I think you know that
that desire and uh you know, uh, fantasizing about the

(27:44):
Western culture and about American culture from from someone outside
is uh has always been a thing. Yeah, probably not
so much these days, but back then, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
When you first got the job, do you remember flying
out and like how it started, Like do you remember
like the first time going to work?

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, I mean, well I remember first night we were there,
we had we had a little.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Dinner cast cast dinner with Kenny.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, well Kenny wasn't it wasn't like an official one.
It was like Vanessa and Ashley, me and Mo. I
don't think Corbyn was there, but it was like the
rest of us and Mo and I were by ourselves,
but everybody else had you know, they're families with them,

(28:45):
so it was kind of a big group. But you know,
yeah and everyone it was great, you know, me and everybody. Afterwards,
MO was like, hey, I don't know, we we connected
because you know, we were again like the only people
there without are we you know, we weren't minors.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
So yeah, it's a big age gap, like back not now,
but like back then totally.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, fifteen to twenty is is a is a big gap.
Lots of life has lived in those formidable years. So yeah,
but that was great. And then you know, I can't
remember the actual order of like.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
You know, probably rehearsals, first run, dancing, danceing, Uh.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, I mean it was in that first week we
were we were in the studio dancing, and oh man,
it was. It was nerve wracking, but it was so
fun because, like I said, you know that with all
there were I think we had thirty dancers on the

(29:57):
first movie, all of them were so incredible, like so
good and watching them inspired us. And then we like
getting to know them and everything, like it just was
a very fast family. So uh yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
They're all on Dancing with the Stars now, a bunch
of them. I know, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I always think that I did a series once when
I was twenty eight and eight members of the cast
were my age, and it's like it's so different. It's
like that was so fun. But like as you get older,
you're usually you're doing a job where there's like one
or two people your age, and then there's the kid
teenager and then the young kid, and it's like it's different.
It's different than like one or two people. But if

(30:44):
you have a whole cast that's your age, like you
guys had, like that's that's pretty special.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, yeah it was. I I really also the crew.
I mean I am still so close friends with so
many people who worked on those films and Chucky Bonnie,
they are like so many people are family to me.
But yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, the crew kept coming back, same camera, hair, makeup,
word of everybody. Yeah, I'm working start shooting with them tomorrow.
I'm doing a movie up here. Yeah, I'm doing a movie.
I'm here in Utah to do this movie called Sleigh
Days and I start tomorrow and I know it's like
a ton of the same crew, so I can't wait
to see everybody.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Of course, that was a really cool thing about doing
the TV show to you know, it had been there
was a period of time we were just in Utah
all the time. I mean you more than me, but
still like not just the high school musical movies. I
went back and did another Halloween Town, and then I

(31:47):
did like three other indie films and so many of
the same people just working together all the time. And
then for years I didn't. It was like right after
I bought a house there, it never worked there again.
But yeah, so many years later going back to do
uh the TV show and seeing all of uh those

(32:10):
faces again. I mean Brent Geisler, one of my best friends.
He started off as a PA on the first movie
was a was an a d by the third and
he brought I remember, you know, he brought Carson Brendan
and Carson as two kids. Carson was three when I
first met him, you know, he was a baby. And

(32:31):
then on High School Musical, the musical the series, Carson's
working in the wardrobe department, He's like straightening my pig.
Like I'm like, we had this moment. I was like
I got tiry. I was like, Carson, this is really cool.
Like yeah, like and you're you're still connected to this,

(32:55):
this ever growing. I mean, I hate to even say
frand because it just seems like it it takes away
from us its soul.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
You know, I think so too. I've caught myself said like,
I can't say, like high school musical fans. It feels
like that doesn't feel it doesn't it doesn't give it
enough respect that it deserves. It's like it's the family, man,
It's like our East High family. It's just brands now.
He directed an episode of the Yeah Yeah, that's amazing
if a high schoo musical musical the series.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah man, how far was that?

Speaker 1 (33:31):
By the way, we got to reunite on that show.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
I tell the story of us walking into this gym
often because that was take.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Me back, take them tell me the story.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Well, you know, pulling up to the school is one thing,
and we were outside for a bit before they were
like okay, we're all ready to like have you guys
come in, And we walked in through this side.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Sorry for those that don't know, Like, let's back up
and tell him, like what we were the name of
the episode, and like what context of what we were shooting.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
So this is season four of High School Musical, the
musical the series. It was the first episode where the
original cast was coming back to do High School Musical
four the reunion, And so the whole episode starts with

(34:22):
us doing the number, the opening number of High School
Musical four, the fictitious you know thing. And so we're
all there in the gym, coming back and having our
little seamlts with with people, but then coming together and
doing a musical number. So you know, we're getting ready walk,

(34:43):
you know. Like I said, we pulled up to the
the front of the school, which was just you know,
it's always a moment. I could not care less about
going to my own high school. I mean, no offense, kickapoo,
love you sure, but like I the East High like
just has something really special, uh that will never go away.

(35:09):
And so there's just this like feeling that you get.
It's like going back to your childhood home if you
haven't seen it in decades, you know, and uh, walking in,
it's just like I could see, like you go in
the little vestibule and there's the the hallway and I'm like,
what time is it right there? Well, we shut the

(35:30):
the that one scene right down there. Oh and then
it's like all right, We're all just kind of like
geeking out and be like oh and then we're seeing
people that we we haven't seen in so long.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Oh oh the crew crew we all know.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, and then they're like, okay, go into the gym.
That's where we're gonna you know, obviously that's where we're.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Gonna do gym.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
And I lost it. I absolutely lost it, not only
because you know, just seeing the you know the set
uh dune so well and and just brightly colored and everything. Yeah,
just yeah, that that Jim you know, so so many

(36:11):
crazy memories. It just uh yeah, we all just lost it.
Started crying. Uh. Then we got into a circle, and
I was really glad that Tim, the executive producer, really
took some time to like, you know, recognize how special
it was, and you know, we we got to share

(36:34):
a little bit and just like take a moment before
just like jumping into work, which really helped set the
tone of what we were trying to do and what
was weird about it. I had such a great time,
so many, so many good things happened. But what was
strange is Corbyn Mo and Casey and I were dancing.

(36:57):
I think I think they did like four takes of
of the the whole thing, and they had a lot
of cameras rolling. But we were like, wait, that's that's
just like the start of it, right. They're like, nope,
we got it, We're done. Whereas on high school Musical
we're shooting musical numbers all day and getting it from

(37:21):
every angle and all this stuff, and so it was
it was like, oh, this this huge moment that's been
built up, and we were like I was, I mean,
for me, I had danced in so long, and I
was just like, you know, we were sweating and just
like really trying to you know, do the same thing
that we were doing, you know, back in the day.
And and then it was over, which was also sad,

(37:44):
you know, and yeah, so it was crazy.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
So glad that it's you know, I got, I got.
I'm so glad you brought this up because I look
back at those times and think there's all the rehearsal
before you get before you start the movie, Like you
get there, you get to Utah early and you get
together with the cast and you work with those numbers
and you work the numbers and work there and get
them all dialed in. And then when it for for me,
it's like every film or TV show I do is

(38:10):
exactly the same. You need to establish a shot, you're
going for your coverage, going to you know whatever. But
you move on, you go the next thing. When you're
doing a musical, it's like, oh, today's musical number, and
I'm like, okay, I'm just sitting back here. I just
enjoyed The show Man and watch it over and over
and it's all that. It's like all that everybody's just
hammered at the end of the day. And then tell
me this loocause this is how This is how I
see it is that at the end of the day,

(38:30):
when you're doing your like last shot and you kind
of feel like, okay, this is probably the last shot.
There's something about it. It's like almost heartbreaking, almost like
this is like you gotta let go of this dance now.
This is like the last time I'm gonna do with
my friends and with my wildcats. Here this is it.
And then it's over and it's like, oh, it feels
a little emotional, right.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
There's always the thing with an actor, you know, when
you're driving back to uh, when you're going home for
the day and you run through all of the things
and the scenes that you've done, you're.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Like, ah, I should have done.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
And it's the same with the dancing, but it's it's
so much uh more intense because of all of that
rehearsal and leading up. I mean we had lived with
even even while we were shooting, we were still rehearsing
a lot of the day. We would have not as many,
but we'd have you know, uh dance rehearsals to to

(39:22):
keep you know, brushing up on everything so that when
we were ready when it came time to shoot. And yeah,
if you're in a play, you know you're doing you're
doing the show eight times a week for months or
you know, even if it's a community show or or
even in high school musical, you you you have all

(39:44):
of this time with it, and you do multiple performances
on different days and you have different relationships with with
with the material to show, and yeah, it's sad when
you get done, but like this was, even if it
it was all day, it still felt like it wasn't enough,
and so to go from all day wasn't enough to

(40:06):
three four takes and we were done by lunch. It
was like, oh.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Wow, Okay. So I was talking to the Glee cast
about this, and I was asking them about like how
they felt about doing these music look trying to relate
to them, like people don't understand doing a music was
so special. It's so different than any other movie or
TV show. And then I was explaining to him. I said,
you know, and then when it's over and everybody's walking away,
it's like you just did this iconic dance that the
whole world's gonna know, and you're done. You're never gonna

(40:34):
do it again. And then you're at the rap party
maybe a month or two later, and everybody's dancing and
the DJ has that idea to put the song on it.
Everybody looks at each other like let's do it, and
the red of the dance floor and the dude, it's like,
it's like, that's like it's amazing to see everybody doing
it again. You know that experience.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, yeah, well doing you were so gracious to come
and so many times to to the top the throwback,
you know, Disney Dance party that we did.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
A couple of people about that in case they don't know,
because it's you that was brilliant, man, and you were
so great at this.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Thank you. I never knew that this was something that
could be and I definitely didn't think that I would,
you know, be a part of it or you know,
create something like that. But yeah, it was at big
clubs all over the country, you know, lots of House

(41:33):
of Blues kind of places up to you know, sometimes
we had like over two thousand people coming to these
shows and it's three hours long of old school Disney
Channel music, all the high school musical songs, Cheetah Girls,
you know, Hannah Montana, all all of the stuff. And
these people went nuts. It was like packed house, packed house.

(41:59):
People were when we played Orlando, they were lining up
at ten am for a show at eight pm. Wow,
And just so they could just be in the front.
They had costumes. This was, you know, the tour that
we went on. The tours that we went on, you
know after the first and second movie were wild beyond

(42:24):
anything of my comprehension.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
As the official high school musical musical tours you did
in South America.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
And Yeah, that was life changing.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
And stadiums, right, I mean, it.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Was took I've been I've talked to some of the
Gleek kids about this too. It's so weird. Most of
the time when you do a movie, you don't take
it on tour, and a whole other part of that,
like not only the rehearsal of that, like Okay, we
you know, get back into doing these these dances that

(42:58):
we haven't done in over a year or more, but yeah,
seeing the world from that vantage point, walking in through
kitchens and having security everywhere you go and going from
place to place on either the coolest tour buses I
had ever seen or private jets or whatever, you know,

(43:20):
Like it was madness. It was not real life, and
it was the best two months of the first American
tour was like best two months of my life, you know.
But it was also super hard, you know, to handle
at that age amidst the craziness that was already going

(43:42):
on with High School Musical the movie. Seeing it firsthand
was such a gift and seeing the impact and people
singing along like that was crazy. The energy that you're
feeling standing on stage. It's this conversation that you're having
with the audience, and sometimes it's overwhelming and it just

(44:05):
knocks you over and it charges your battery just to
send out that thing and like hit that note even harder,
or the dance move whatever, and the crowd's going crazy
and we're all this together ends and there's confetti, cannons
and flames and all this stuff, and then you get
your stuff taken off and you do a meet and

(44:26):
greet and you meet some kids out by the tour bus,
and then you get onto the tour bus and you
get in your bunk and it's silent and there's nothing,
and your body doesn't know how to regulate that, so
you're going up and down on a daily basis. Not
to mention the times outside of the show when we

(44:46):
are just crowded by people constantly telling us how amazing
we are, which you know, some people believed, and some
people like me became very cynical and guarded because of that,
because I'm like, I can't trust anybody because I know
we're not that great. It is a great thing that
we're doing, and it's amazing that all of this is happening,

(45:08):
but like, you know, that was that was crazy, and
you know, going to the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame Museum, and you know, I gave them some of
Ryan's hats to put into the museum. Like what like
that's you know, wild, so crazy. He performed for Michael

(45:30):
Jackson and his kids in Vegas.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
He came back, you know during the before the show,
met us all talked to him for you know, ten
fifteen minutes the lights go down, they hold it an
extra like thirty seconds.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
No one, fifteen thousand people in this arena, nobody knows
that the King of pop is in the building. They
put a huge curtain around the sound booth and he
sits there with his kids and we're on stage. Look
at now we can see him and it's like, what
is life? This is not real?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, to go from that to like days off. I
recorded my first animated film on my three days off
during that. But there are other times when there was
nothing and you needed to relax. I needed I had
knee surgery two weeks before the tour, so I was

(46:29):
getting you know, chiropractor massages, physical therapy. Painful, so painful.
But yeah, there was when the quiet hit. It was
it was deafening and it was really challenging to balance
that at twenty one years old, let alone, I can't

(46:51):
even imagine. Like Corbin, I mean he was he was
still a kid, but was fifteen, sixteen, then he was sixteen,
maybe seventeen when we tour. I love that one so much.
He watching him grow and you know, he's always been
a brother, but like you know, through the years we've

(47:14):
we've gotten really close and he's just one of the
best people ever. So many, so many great people in
the movies. But you know, uh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
It's fun to still be in touch after all the years. Now.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
So circling back to the Bop to the Top thing,
you were so you were so nice to come out
and oh my god, did the kids just love you?
You are amazed. You are built for this, Like it
was amazing to watch, you know, you interact with them
and and you know, for me, I could hide behind

(48:01):
the choreography or the DJ part of it or whatever,
but like you just you were out there, and that's again,
that's that's another beautiful thing about it. Almost twenty years later,
here we are touring the country and now people are
old enough to drink and come and see this, and

(48:24):
they still are crazy. I had people crying after me
after the show, being like that was the best night
of my entire life. Oh yeah, this gave me so much,
like all of the feels that everything, reliving these moments
and feeling like we were all together again, like it
just it.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Was amazing forwhelming, right, it meant so much to them.
And there's no band, It's just we were staying on
the stage. You were playing music and doing some of
the dancing and just connecting with the us, singing with
the others, and they're just saying to their hearts out bad.
It was a beautiful thing. All love it.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
It was a blast.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
That was seriously one of the most I mean, I've
done a bunch now then I'm happy to have done
it and do it so more. But it's one of
the funnest things I've ever done. Like it just I
always feel like it's such a gift that you could
do so little to make people so happy. Like I
think that.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
That's something, you know, celebrity has has had a lot
of different you know, I've had a different relationship with
it through all the ups and downs and the journey
of the career and everything. H that's the heart that's
the weirdest thing that I I don't think I will
ever truly understand until I die. When you when your presence,

(49:41):
mere presence has an impact, has such an impact on someone.
It that's that's such a wild thing, and I don't
I will never get used to that. And it's it's
equally scary as it is. Like I've found that, like

(50:01):
sometimes when I'm at my lowest and i have to
put on a brave face because I'm meeting I'm doing
a convention or one of those bop shows. You know,
I've had my head in my hands five minutes before
going on stage, thinking I don't know how I'm gonna
do this, And then that relationship cures everything. And it's

(50:27):
not about attention and praise. It's about knowing that we're
connecting over something that I'm so lucky to be a
part of so much. At the time you do, you
shoot something, it goes in the can and it lives
out in the world and you never really touch it again.
This is so tangible and so real when you can

(50:50):
have that interaction with people all of these years later
and still see that that inner joy and that light
just light someone up because of something you did like,
it's it's I don't know, there's nothing else like it.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's. It would be a shame
if we didn't get it, you know, it didn't really
feel out and appreciate it, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, I'm it is a gift. I'm so I'm so
lucky to also have these different experiences, like you know,
the tours and conventions like I I've been trying to
get Ashley to come and do a convention with me,
because man I I slept on them so hard and

(51:40):
I did not I did not realize what joy and
amazement there is in these At these conventions, it's a
room full of thousands of people all coming together to
celebrate something that they love. It is a giant room
filled with people just wanting to love on things, and

(52:02):
we're all weirdos and nerds and geeks and super fans
and getting to be in that energy, you know, it's
a different It's different than just being in a crowd
or going to a concert. It's this big thing and
then it's so small when you can have a five
minute conversation with a fan that you normally wouldn't really

(52:24):
have time for. Maybe they wouldn't have time for if
you met him on the street. Here face to face,
you can like really share, you know, like these anecdotes
and stories from my experience or hearing things from them.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I've had people tell me one time I was I
was signing an autograph for a person. I was like,
what's your name? They said Sunflower. It was like, oh, Sunflower,
that's a really cool name. How'd you come up? Where
did that come from? And they were like, I chose it.
I was like, oh, that's cool, that's cool, and they

(52:58):
were like, yeah, it was almost Ryan. Because in high
school I didn't really know who I was, but I
knew I wanted to be Ryan. I dressed up like
Ryan every single day in high school. He was such
a part of my personality that when I transitioned to

(53:18):
who I am today, I really thought long and hard
about being, you know, calling myself Ryan. Like what that's
such a oh man. I lost it. I was just
like just bawling hearing that story, because like it had
so little to do with me personally, but just that

(53:41):
I was a part of something that affected someone so
positively and was so you know, intrinsic to their identity
was like, whoa, this is uh, this is something else.
The the fandom, the love of the family. It never

(54:01):
ceases to surprise me. There's always something new that happens
that I'm like, well, never done that before or never
thought that would happen because of this movie. Uh, you know,
it's it's wild.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
I will say, and not just to praise you here,
but like, I think because you were so honest in
your performance. You know, even as big as Ryan got
and as dramatic as he could be, you grounded it
with real emotion. And I'm I guess you're an emotional
like you You're you know, you're sensitive and authentic person,

(54:39):
and I think bringing that to us, I kind of
like nobody really said, oh this is this is just
a silly Disney Channel movie. It wasn't that it was.
It was so different and everybody was so honest, even
in that big story. But I think you the way
you played your character made it accessible and made connect

(55:00):
to that. So I think, you know, I mean, I like,
I love the humility and rightfully so, but like, also,
you did something really special there that people can connect
like that. I think it's so cool that you have
those experiences.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Thank you, thank you. Yeah. I am so much more
emotional now than I used to be. I think I
think it's like an age thing.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
But oh man, it doesn't get any better.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
I know.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I'm a baby man.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Yeah, I cry at commercials. It's yeah, something I used
to laugh at. But it's great for the gig though,
because I used to have a hard time crying on
que Now it's like I'll cry all through rehearsal, like
all day long, doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Yeah. Yeah, And and the best type of crying, of course,
is when it when you're really feeling things, of course,
you know.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
So yeah, well yeah, Like I said that, the connection
with with fans and people that I meet because of
all of these projects, ah, you know, it's it's it's
a unique experience that I never thought I would, you know.
I never wanted to be famous or be a celebrity

(56:22):
or anything. I just I was really gunning for being
a character actor that people would be like, hey, what'd you?
And I am kind of that now because I haven't,
you know, gone on like zach and and become a
movie star. But yeah, it's still there is something different

(56:49):
about this, like it's not it's not your typical fandom.
People live with this, it becomes part of their their lives.
And of course there's the people who have seen it
once they're like, oh yeah, that's cute, but like there
are certain people. I mean, I was, It's it's just
the reach is also insane. I was on a glacier

(57:12):
in Iceland and I thought I was the only person
for miles and miles. Two hikers come around the thing.
I'm just sitting there like taking pictures, being in awe
is the first glacier I've ever seen, and they were
They were walking back and they're like, hey, if you're
if you're hiking, like watch out kind of slippery up there.
Wait a second. Uh, my daughter is a huge fan

(57:37):
of yours. Would you mind if we do? I'm like,
what you know? Wow? Wow? I was like, well, this
is like so.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Much more of a kick out of when you're in
the just both random spot.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Yeah. Uh, like I said, never never seen this.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Yeah, I'll tell you when we did that. We did
a convention a year ago fan X and it was
you me, Corbyn Casey. Yeah, and we did that panel discussion.
You remember that panel discussion we did. We brought like all
the fans in one room that was that was amazing. Man,
there was a lot of tears in that room. Oh yeah,
but it's like it's what you said. It's like you

(58:20):
can be real people and open up your heart to
them and and they're opening their heart does.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
I think it's also when when any time there's there's
two or more of us together, it the the emotions
and feelings just multiply because it's it's special. You know,
there's when you're alone, you you know, you're just from
your own thing, but like, you know, just doing this

(58:47):
whenever you know, Corbyn and I did several of those together,
and when he's telling stories sometimes I'm like, what, I
didn't remember that at all? Uh, And yeah, like we're
not constantly asking each other like hey, what was the
audition like audition process like for you you know, yeah,
well things like that. So yeah, it's a it's a

(59:11):
really special thing when when we get together. Yeah, it's
more than you know, your typical reunion. It's a selection.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yeah, you know, and that's kind of part of the
reason I want to do this is because when I
see you, Lucas, whenever I bump into you. The last
thing we talked about is the movies we did together
twenty years ago. It's like, what's going on with you?
What's what's happening to you now? Like what's you been
up to? You got to catch up. So this is
an opportunity to like just do some all something for
the fans, for East High family and remas. But thanks

(59:42):
man for being here. But I know, like I'm running
out of your time, but I just want to know,
like I just want to say, like I love all
the stuff you've done. I know you've done a ton
of voiceover work, You've done all sorts of movies. You
did Harvey, the Harvey Milk thing you did with Sean Penn.
Still is like, I just thought you were so brilliant
in that. You're so amazing in that. And I've seen
you do a bunch of Hey we did a little
We Were and Little Women Together Affect. I forgot about

(01:00:02):
that one. That's another fun thing, man. You know, it's
like years later and it's like, oh, I'm gonna do
a movie Lucas all.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Right, Yeah, No, that was great. I loved making that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
That was awesome fun.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
I really enjoyed doing the you know, it's super fun
to do a big budget movie. But man, when you're
when you're in the trenches making something with no money,
talk about bonding and getting close with people because everyone
has to do multiple jobs and you know, helping each
other out, and yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Those could be those could be the most special sometimes,
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
Yeah, well, I thank you so much for having me.
I I love you, know, as you can tell, I
can talk about high school musical quite a bit unprompted
because it is something of a of us, like a
I still study it even though I went through it.

(01:01:02):
I'm studying my experience every day. I you know, any
any interaction or or things that happened about it. It's
just like it will never leave our lives. And uh
that's something I thought was going to happen so many
times and it didn't. But yeah, it's it's a really
interesting thing to study. And uh, sometimes it's tearful and

(01:01:26):
sometimes it's hilarious, and sometimes it's scary. But that's what
makes it what it is. And that's why I can
just yarn and yarn about it for days. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Well, I appreciate it man.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Giving me a platform to I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
I love it so much. I'm so I really appreciate
your time and thanks for giving.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
I'm so glad that we did this. Thank you for
for doing this, putting this together.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
By the way, do you have anything that you're doing
for the twentieth We should do something, you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
Know, We've been I've been talking a lot about it.
I think Disney is sleep being on it. Pretty think.
I've talked to Kenny and Bill and you know, a
couple of the cast members and stuff. If nothing else,
I'm going to do stuff on my own, but I

(01:02:20):
would love to the problem is is that anything that's
official Disney has to be involved, you know, because of
all of the rights, you know, So that that makes
it a little challenging when I think most of the
people who were who championed high school musical at Disney

(01:02:43):
just don't work there anymore, and so the people left
are like, oh, yeah, that was one of our millions
of franchises that that that was successful. But that was
so long ago, and I've got Star Wars in Marvel
to think about now, and so it's not really on
top of the priority, you know, to to put any

(01:03:05):
effort into. But I do hope that we get to
do something. I talked to Kenny hopefully about you know,
I know he would like to do something kind of
like the Friends reunion that they did, kind of a
live audience and clips and music, and I mean it

(01:03:26):
would it would just be Look, if Disney would let me,
I would organize it. I would put it together. But
you know, we'll see. Yeah, we got to get on
it though, because it's gonna sneak up coming up quick. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Yeah, I was thinking about hosting a big watch party
at East High but it's winter so that might be hard.
But I mean's something you know from the night of
maybe on the night it was released.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
That would be really cool. They will be in rehearsals
for high school musical at that time, because yeah, the
auditions for East Highs High School Musical. They're coming up
like in a little over a month, I think, is
it really Yeah, they're putting it on for the twentieth anniversary.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
I didn't know that. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
It's their spring musical.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Yeah, there's another there's a little there's a little theater
in town here that's doing it. I'm gonna go stop.
I'll make a video of it or something.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Oh that's cool. I might you know, I find myself
in Utah pretty often, and I don't have I just
got home after being on the road for a really
long time, and so I might I might make it
out to Utah this fall. Uh and yeah, are you
going to be there? Are you coming up?

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not sure there's
a I got a few projects up in the air,
so I'm kind of trying to figure it out. And meanwhile,
my son is getting into rodeo here in town, which
is my my l A kid. Wyatt is like becoming
a little like a rodeo guy. So I'm love it.
It's amazing. Oh get this kid on yellow Stone?

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Or why Marshalls Now there's shooting why Marshalls here in Utah.
Taylor shared a Zoos show so great.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Yeah, has always always got such a great community for
the films.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Yeah. Yeah, Oh it's great. I can't wait to work
with the crew tomorrow. Well, of course, call me and
let's chatf you come up here. Let's lose corny for sure.
And you got and you got my hoodie there, right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
I'll bring it with me. I'll bring it with me.
I cuddle with it every night.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Oh that's nice. Okay, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Thanks buddy, love your brother. I'll talk to you soon.