Get Your Head in the Game: JEMMA MCKENZIE-BROWN

Make way for East High’s exchange student! Jemma McKenzie-Brown joins Bart to talk about getting the role of Tiara Gold in “High School Musical 3” at 13 years old, working on set with the cast and 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.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Everyone, welcome to get your head in the game today.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
My guest is someone who joined the High School musical
franchise for the third and final movie. You know her
as tr Gold, the exchange student from London, new to
East High. I am so excited to talk to her.
Please welcome Jemma Mackenzie Brown.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Jema Mackenzie Brown.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Oh my gosh. Oh, I can't believe this. It's you
look so great though, you look amazing you.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you, Sodie. I've just been on vacation so I've
got a nice ten bo. I'd show my arms off,
you know this.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Lovely lovely. Oh well, and we got to talk about
those tan fit arms at some point too. But first
I just want to say, Jemma Mackenzie Brown, welcome to
the podcast twenty year anniversary. So so glad you made
time for us to talk about the journey and the
history and everything else. It's been twenty years and we

(01:08):
just want to say thank you to the fans. And
this is like just a little way of saying to
the greatest fans in the world, we love you. We
want to just give you a little nugget and reminisce
a little bit, and and Jemma Mackenzie Brown Tiara Gold
was a part of that big part of that journey.
So I want to know everything you're doing now and

(01:28):
in your life, but also like just want to go back,
you know, should we take a little journey into the
history of books, Gemma.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
The wildness, the good word, apt word? Yeah, crazy?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
So I'm thirteen when we shot that movie. Oh my gosh,
I'm thirty one.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Now, Oh my god, you wait, you were thirty. Wait,
I don't remember you beat that. You did not look
like a thirteen year old.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Do you remember? Because I played a little bit older.
I think the character was meant to be God, I
can't remember how well, but a little older. But they
were like, she looks sixteen or whatever it is. Well,
just but I was thirteen at ten fourteen halfway through
the shoot.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Now, I gotta say, you carry yourself like an adult
like you were. Just you didn't seem thirty. That STU
sounds so young. That's great, but that did that wasn't
the beginning of your journey. Like you were like a
really well trained actress. At that point already.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, I went to drama school. It's quite funny because
Tiara was from a drama school in London and I
was from a drama school in London, so that worked
out quite nicely. Hopefully a bit nicer than Tiara in
real in real life Holly. But yeah, So I started
training when I was I'm from Yorkshire in the north
of England, and then I moved to London because I
saw there was this stage call that I wanted to

(02:50):
go to so desperately and I got in. It's called
the Sylvia Young Fifth School.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I understand you. That was all you like you saw,
You're like, I need, I want, I want there.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
There was a documentary on TV over like the school
holidays and maybe it was like the year before, and
it was The show was called When Will I Be Famous?
And it was just because so many kids from this
school in London have gone on to be you know,
really sadly she passed away last month and her but
it was amazing to go and celebrate her life and
high school school got a shout out in the eulogy

(03:22):
because she came on set.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
So a little okay, all right, well, nice to be
part of that.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, totally. So I watched that and I just begged
my parents, and my parents are like, you know, working
class from the north of England. They were like, what
what does she want to do? This is crazy? And
then I went down and ambitioned and then yeah, that
was it.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
The parents were support from the beginning though, They're like, okay,
and one of.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Those kids that run around doing performances for my parents
and making all the friends in the neighborhood joined giving
them parts like joining in. So I think they knew
it was in my bones somewhere, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I think it's so interesting when when kids are like that,
like they just you just I don't know what, Like
it just resonates and you're like I need to do that,
like I want to be a part of that.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
When you're so young as well, you don't second guess it.
I remember in my first school like what do you
want to do when you grow up? And I was like,
be an actor or an actress and they were like ha,
now what, Like what do you really want to do?
And when you're that young, you just adamantly you're like, no,
that that will be my You don't blinkers on You're like,
they're doing it on the TV, so surely, surely it's
crazy like that naivety, I think you'd still not second

(04:28):
guessing yourself and choices.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
And yeah, yeah, I'm up in I'm just in park City,
Utah right now, not far from where we shot High
School Musical or Want the Career.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Mom lived in Park City and I used to go
there to like Molly gray One all the dances. I
used to go up to Park City. We've had her
on the podcast Need a Big Listen through.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Are you guys? Did you stay close with Molly?

Speaker 3 (04:53):
We look closest in age, so I think while we're filming, especially,
I think she was about fifteen or sixteen or something,
But then we can't. This is the best thing about
social I chat to her on TikTok or Instagram. Yeah,
Casey always chatting with her.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Love Casey. She's one of my favorites.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
He is great.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, yeah, we do. We do some tiktoks together. Communicase.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yes, I've seen it.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
I'm all over hey when I come to London, let's
you and me doing let me know, Okay, okay, we'll
do it. I love that. I love that. It's so fun.
I was like, you know, it's coaches dream life. You know,
he get to be in those musical numbers that I
didn't get to be in the.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Movies in any numbers.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
I was in some, but I never got to dance.
I never got the only time I ever really said,
I like to claim that I'm on the soundtrack and
I'm a platinum recording artist, but the only thing I
do is during the number sixteen, you know, sixteen sixteen,
and I have a couple of lines They're like, come on,

(05:59):
come on, boys, come out. I was like, yeah, that
was it.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I love it. You are that Multiplatner record. I everyone
to say. I'm like, yeah, monthly listeners.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, yeah, okay, so you're you're well trained. You you'd
already you'd already been on TV. You'd done some stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, some dramas and stuff in the UK BBC shows
or kids TV shows and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, and then how did this world come into your life?

Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was just I don't know where they did the
casting call, but at my school. My school had an
agency attached to it, and there was about six of
us from the years, like a few year groups either
side that got the initial audition. Oh, to keep it secret,
and most of us did, but some people didn't, and
then almost the entire school ended up doing like a
one line edition because everyone was like I want my

(06:47):
want my daughter to do it like type thing. So yeah,
so it was literally just like another audition from my agent,
and my first audition was at my school, and then
the second audition was with Kenny, which I still think
is the best audition of my favorite audition of my
whole life.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Really tell me about that one.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
That's pretty quick to go like second, ut, you must
have crushed your first audition. To go from the first
call to like already to the director on this project,
you must have crushed it. Well.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I don't know if there was quite a lot of
us in that second because the first one was I
don't know how many people auditioned in London, but maybe
Kenny needed to see, like come over to all of
those because they auditioned in the States as well. I
think they wanted Tiara to be an exchange student, but
I'm pretty sure on my audition's side she wasn't from London,
she was from out of state, But I don't know,

(07:38):
because I think they were deciding whether what exchange students
she was going to be so yeah. The second audition
was in Dance Work Studios in London at Oxford Street,
and we didn't know Kenny was going to be there,
but the other girls were coming out coming so that's how.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, because for the first movie, the first two movies
were out and a big success in your country, that's huge.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I remember everyone at school was so excited. Came out
on a Friday and I got We got home from
school and I didn't have the Disney channel because in
the UK and those days, to have Disney you have
to have like a big cable package and my parents
didn't have it. So I went down to my friend
Harry's house to watch the first one because the buzz
about it was huge. Everyone was talking about it, so Harry,

(08:25):
but yeah, So it was to get to the call
for the audition. It was also like, okay, this is huge,
probably not going to get it, so I'll just enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
I'll just go for it. And so did you You
had audition lines and you had to dance or sing
or what did you?

Speaker 3 (08:43):
We did? We had to sign, we had the side
from Tira's first scene with Sharpayne, and then we had
to sing it do a dance of our choice. I
think I danced to Christina Aguilera. Ain't no other man
just did something around the room. And then we had
to sing a song that shar Pei would say, something
that you'd think Sharpeyo was sing from a musical or
a pop song. So I go in with my Wicked

(09:05):
the musical CD, because in those days you had to
take a CD for the CD player, and I did.
I said, Kenny said, what are you singing? And I said,
I got popular from Wicked and he said, every girl's
sung that. Do something else, and I was like yeah,
because I'm thinking all I've got is my Wicked CD.
I can't sing if I and gravity. This is not

(09:26):
my vocal range at all. I can't. So all I
thought I could do is the duet of what is
this feeling? Between Elsburg and Glinda, and I did both parts,
changing between like every lie a different voice so far,
which was interesting. I think God only all the words

(09:47):
because Wicked was massive at that time, especially in my
drama school. Everyone was Wicked crazy words.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, so you felt pretty comfortable doing that, like you
feel like, oh I nailed this.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Sucker, Like I had no choice I was like, I
have there's a few parts of all my host newsical
auditions where something went wrong and I just had to
be like and just made something up. I don't that
might have helped a little bit.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I remember, Yeah, it probably did. You know, it's seen
those real life moments and you overcoming it like Tiara
Gold would. Yeah, maybe they saw something like that's this
little that's the star power.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Maybe doing both parts, like this girl's got a split personality.
But I remember my Dan well. When I did my
Christina Aguilera dance, Kenny stood up and it made me
jump because when I first walked in, I went over
to shake his hand and he said I've got a cold.
You know I've got a cold. And I was like,
hate me, he hates me. I've come on too strong.

(10:44):
But he stood up and it made me jump and
he said carry on and he went around the studio
like this, and it was like walk towards me. Now
stra now do like it was a wild audition. He
was like, now throws out against the mirror, and now
Dan would the mirror. It was wild. This footage of
it somewhere I'm with the casting director Kelly from the
UK side of it, sent me a video of because

(11:07):
she still had the audition because it was just me crazy.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Wow, And were you like in a dance You must
have been in like a some kind of a dance
room with a mirror in a Yeah, it.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Was like a dance rehearsal studios in London. It's where
like people just take class, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, yeah, but he was doing that? Was it was
it just you? Was was there other dancers there?

Speaker 3 (11:27):
It was just me. This was like after I'd just
done my cellar, We're was going one by one and
after I'd finished my routine, I was like, you know,
we have her. It ended and then he went carry on.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
I was like, forgot, Oh my gosh, it's funny. Wow. Yeah,
I don't. I'm not sure what I would do. If
I was, I'd be like I'm done, I would carry on.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
I think that's the of me being so young, because
I think if now I went into you know, casting,
and they were like, now improvised, I'd be like, oh god,
I have When you're thirteen, you're like sure.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, well I guess man.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
That's interesting because like, because obviously Tia Gold was like
such a star, she'd be confident anywhere she goes, So
you got to you got to show that. I don't
know if people know, like people listening, like how many
people were seen for your role? I mean everybody's like
you're saying, you're at the school, like everybody's a massive fan.
Everyone in your school needed an audition. Well everybody in

(12:24):
LA there's millions of people, Chicago, New York, like all
around the world, like Toronto, like you name it, like
everywhe around the world. Like, I wonder how many people
it must have been. I don't know, ten thousand people
for your role.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
I have no idea. I wonder if my I feel
like my old agent used to always say, well she
exroduced me to people, She's like, oh she beat out
X thousand people, but well let's go for a thousand.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Great, Yeah, I bet you.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
I bet you. It is because I've Yeah, that's just
how it works in a role like this, And it's
not only were you in the big high School Musical
movie the third one, which was a huge budget one
Disney Pictures, But it was like to play the role
like everybody.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
I kind of feel like everybody.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
I thought Sharpei was like the most interesting, dynamic, wild character,
like that's like everybody's like, how entertaining is she has?
She's so amazing, and you got to be the one
to challenge her. You have to be the new Sharpei.
I mean basically that is that? How like, how was
it explained to you your character?

Speaker 3 (13:28):
It was kind of paint you let us three new people.
It was kind of like, and now you know this,
and you're the Scharpei and you're the Chad type thing,
or you all the Troy. So we were kind of
call that a little bit. But I think Tiara made
Charpei seem nice, which I think was wonderful. Like Shape
was always nice. She was always the heart of the movie.
I feel like Sharpei all she wanted to do was

(13:48):
put on her school show and that she loved so much,
and then everyone else took over her favorite thing.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
And she didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
You know, there's I'm sure you've heard the lore about
this about you know, like Sharpay's really the hero a,
Gabrielle was really the Villainy have.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
You heard this favorite thing? Is this singing dad's and
then suddenly the basketball team. Hey yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
The whole time she's like trying and encourage Troy, like, oh,
you're amazing, Troy. You could do this and she's just
painted this just evil villain.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
I know, but yeah, crazy, But yeah, that's how that
the role was like painted out to be. Yeah, I
think maybe making him when they decided to make her
English because at the final audition there was only two
of us from the UK and the rest the workshop
audition in LA. Everyone else is from the States or
maybe Canada as well.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Oh so you you did all of that in the
UK and then flew to LA and we're still fight
for the role.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Three day workshop. Three day workshop. We were all put
in a hotel and every day we'd get on the
coach and there'd be less people. You'd get a call
that night in your hotel room. Either go home or
get back on the bus. But that night we hoped
that because if they flew us from London, we'd at
least get to do the three days. Hopefully this moves
at least we can, you know, stick it out for

(15:04):
the the whole time.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Where is that? Where where were you were? You were
you in the valley? Where you do you remember where
you were?

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Day? Glendale? Glendell, Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, Glendale
in a hotel. Yeah, three day workshop and that was crazy, right.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
I actually never knew that there was that three day
workshop in La. How many people you think were at.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
That first the first day, probably about forty and in
the end there was about twelve of us, and everyone
was being paired with different people. So some days I
was with Stealthy Knights, some days I was with Tony Olla,
some days I was with Mapra Cop and they kept
swapping Oh people.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Okay, so Matt, So Matt was in that process with
you as well.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
And so was Justin mine, Justin who slowly first the
first was like a I don't know which way around
it was. There was either a group thing first where
we learned that all in this together, down to Chucky,
and then we sung in duets and we did the scenes,
and then at some point we also had to do
solo songs because then I decided to sing Welcome to

(16:16):
the Sixties from Hairspray, and because it was a cappella,
I started so high and by the time it got
to the chorus, I I got high and I went
I've gone too high, and they all started laughing, and
I thought, well, this is either good or they're like
she's so unprofessional and crap and she's not gonna she started.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
What a great lesson for life though, right like you
feel like, oh, I totally screwed up.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
But in movie business call them happy accidents.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
When you you blow it and then you got to
cover or make a comment about it, it's like, oh,
so that's the loon, Like there's the personality.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah maybe, yeah, I didn't feel that way when the
doors swinging open and people are belting out like these
at love God. But that's the thing. I love that
lesson as well, that you don't know what they're looking
for because I was sat there as a thirteen year
old and there's really accomplished like Broadway singers in there.
Sarah Hyland was in that mix from Modern Family and
she's a Broadway singer and her voice I'm the door

(17:15):
opened and we were all like, oh my god, who
is that? But then it's a lesson of like you
don't maybe you know they're looking for something. It doesn't
have to be the best voice, the best downs, the
best actor, whatever, it has to be the conbo what
they're looking for.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, I'll tell you what. As coach, I'm just thinking,
like you know, it's that mental game, man, like we
could beat ourselves up.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
We think we know, like, well clearly better than ah.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Man, you don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
You don't know, I don't know what they're looking for.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
You's got to believe in yourself and just charge it exactly.
Oh my gosh, okay, so did you have did you when?
When the crowd started thinning out, I just I'm fascinated
by this auditioning process. It's wild, right, It's like it's
so high stakes, so much drama. You know what's on
the line. This is like going to change my life.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, this is the but you're already the biggest movie
franchise in the world, and it was it was the
dream job. It was like these jobs don't fall and
they don't come to England, these jobs and.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
They don't come to right. Even more special that you
are the one English but the one English person that's
going to be in this massive franch So different experience
than like what my experience, which was like I'm just
doing this little.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Little well yeah TV movie of course, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
I just thought it was a little dizzy channel movie,
almost be cute. So it started the crowd started thinning out,
and what are you thinking when it's like, oh my gosh,
I'm I might be last man standing here.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
I think that the only thing that made me think,
like I did hope that. Then I was kind of like, well,
like they've flown me out here, so they might just
see me anyway. Maybe I'm just here to help the
guys read like there was definitely that. I think that
was also my dad as well, because this is like
a world that's so different from my parents, and my
dad was kind of like, just do your best. Obviously,
the parents in the waiting room, some of them are

(18:58):
very stagy and they're going, oh my God has done this,
and and then my dad, oh, yeah, well, you know,
very different. My dad was like, this is a different
world and just.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Going into yeah, you can make a whole movie about
the parents, right, because some of the parents are forcing
their kids and are like this is my retirement, like
you could. You know, there's some there's a dark side,
and then there's parents like it sounds like your parents,
which are just like, hey, yeah, that was.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
The first time my dad and I had ever been
to America in our lives. For that edition.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Demo, this is what a wild ride, What a ride
we were excited.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
We were in premium economy. We were like, wait, way,
come on, let's go.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
I love it. I love it. Yeah. In business they
got they always got to fly you dow, they gotta
fly you die.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
So it's like, as I got through to different things,
we ended up in nice aparts of the economy. We
were like.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, yeah, I always laugh because like, if I'm the
one buying the plane ticket, we write we rid super cheap.
You know, if it's a job like first class, like
oh we belong here.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
You know what I was like, I flew first class
when I was thirteen and fourteen, and then I had
to get into the real world.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I was.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Like, what is this part of the plane? I'm not
going to pay for that. Yeah, for Disney when I
was a kid, and then.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
War that's of reality. Man, wow, wow, Okay, I don't
want not to beat a dead horse here, but I
gotta know, like, so it's thinning out, there's less and
less people.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
And then when did you get the sense of like,
I think I'm it.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
I think the last read with Matt broke up and
I we got brought in. I think I was there
and I think I had three different guys come in
I think it was me and then three different guys,
and then for the last reading, it was Matt and
I and we were in there a lot longer than
oh and I've been with the others. And then and

(20:53):
they were laughing, and then Kenny went, this is good,
this is good. And I think that's when I was
kind of like, that's put more positive feedback. Then I see,
I don't know what the other girls and guys are
getting in their pairs, but that was more positive than
I'd had with.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
The other the other guys.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, and there's loads of people there, like twenty eight people,
like so a huge long table.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Oh that are watching you.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah, Disney execs and Chucky was there. Some of the producers,
I think Bill, Yeah, there's lots.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Bill Bord and Barry Rosenbusch probably, yeah, Michael Healy and
a bunch of Disney executives and all these people just
scaringly judging you every every movie. The pressure pressure those
are terrifying most but Matt broke off. Of course, Rocketman,
who is part of the basketball team and kind of
like the kind of the next Troy Bolton, was the

(21:48):
idea ish as he graduates, when we have the younger
class because you were what grade were was Tiara gold In?

Speaker 3 (21:56):
I think they were a yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Sophomore year. I don't know if a lot of people
know this, but you and I know this is that
what they were hoping to do and did I'm curious
if you knew this from the beginning. But the idea
was to establish you in the big number three, make
you a really prominent character and Justin and Matt and
when everybody graduated, you're the new class and it's going

(22:20):
to be it was going to be high school musical
on the Disney Channel again for four and five, and
then six was going to be a big thing. We're
going to repeat the formula and six was going to
be this massive Disney Pictures movie.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Did they tell you that?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Then?

Speaker 3 (22:33):
That was the contract?

Speaker 1 (22:35):
That was a contract, Oh.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
Because I remember my agents saying they didn't do that
with the original cast, and I bet they did.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
You know they did? You know they wish they did, Like,
let's lock them down for this three you know, usually
they would do a three picture for those that no
do they they would do a three picture deal and
lock everybody up. So when Zack becomes a superstar, the like, oh,
we got them cheap.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
And I remember taking meetings after the movie came out
and we've made it, being like, oh yeah, she'll be
able to do a movie in between that and four
all that, and I was but you know, you just
kind of you're on that train and it's going and
you just go, okay, cool, you know that's that'll happen. Then,
you know, I had no idea that things were optioned
or they won, or things could change, just totally.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
You said, they said there was going to be four
five and six. Well we're going to make four five
and six this Disney, like Disney's certainly going.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
To the biggest franchise ever. Surely.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
I'm the franchise made over a billion dollars and it
was a global phenomenon. And they told all of us, yeah,
we're going to do four five and six, and we're like.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
I was buying my house.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I'm the coach.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
So the coach, I think you're doing it like everybody
would graduate. But like, okay, I got my new set
of Worldcats here, let's go. I got a deal with Rocketman.
Now it's okay.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, we were ready, man, we were ready.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I think the scripts are already written or they were
in the process, and then they never.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Really told us anything right, just time went on.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
It was very the movie.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
When I went back to school, I just kind of
went back to school, took my like like GCSE exams,
which like the exams you take when you finish high school,
and just.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Waiting, wow, wow, okay, so so you get that Wait
once you got the part? How long until you did?

Speaker 3 (24:28):
You?

Speaker 1 (24:28):
I guess you went home and we did and it.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Was about two weeks. And I remember it was really
strange because I had my agent outside on at the school.
You were highlighted if the agent wanted to speak to you.
I went to see my agent and she was just
talking about visas and I was confused. She was like, so,
just talking about US visas and she didn't say I
booked it. I was so confused. I was like, yeah,
just thirteen year old nodding and smiling. And then I

(24:52):
called my mom when I left and I was walking
to the train station where my school friends were waiting
for me to go home, and I remember I called
my mom and I was like, yeah, Julie was talking
about visa's Like, do I have to go back and
do another edition and my mom went, no, Gemma, you
booked you books the role.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
No.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
One didn't tell me in the agency. I think they
thought my mom had already told me because they called
my mom during school hours. They didn't want to tell
me till after school. But I hadn't yet spoken to
my mom.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
So oh, yeah, you had that whole meeting and still
didn't get out of it that you got the part.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
No.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
I just thought, maybe it's another Oh, maybe they want
to see if I can get a visa first before.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
My logistics, before we hire her.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Maybe they were doing that. But yeah, crazy, wow, wow.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
And then and so you had two weeks to go,
Oh my gosh, I beat everyone in the UK and
in the world like it's you.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
It was so strange. I remember when I saw on
the phone with my mom the girls from school, my
friends from school. They were stood around me and they
were going what is it?

Speaker 1 (25:50):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (25:50):
And I was just still talking to my mom smiling,
and my friend Ellen I saw her go, oh my god,
I think she got it. Like I remember, my friend Ellen,
this is ked like London's school kids, even though we
were you know, theater school, and we did have kids
that were in the West End shows and on TV
and maybe some British movies, but this, like you you
lived it. You know, the hype around this movie. To

(26:11):
book this is wow, it's like booking James Bond. So
you know, looking for the next James Bond right now.
I feel like it's that level of at that time
two thousand and seven, thousand and eight, that was the
especially for you know.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Like I'm thinking of your analogy. You're like, for a kid,
it's probably even better than James. James want to be cool. Yeah,
be the new James Bond. Cool, but be in high
school when you're a teenager age. Yeah, I was the
age age thirteen.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
I was eleven when the first one came out. Perfect, Yeah,
I was.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
I was, oh my gosh, Okay.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
So then now you're on plane, you're two weeks later,
you're you've you're flying to La No, you're find.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yes, And I could have believed that either this is
just like a different We're at the second desk for
like an hour, and then when you're in the wrong
line and we were like oh because we were just queuing,
we were just in line with the normal fight. So good.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
So yeah, to salt Lake where we have our East
High of course. And then do you remember first day
on set or was there a try to remember? Do
we have a table read before.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Rehearsals?

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Sure, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
The first although I think the first thing I did
was record the song because I remember being in that
beautiful was it like a church, like it was like
a big church where we recorded the music. And up
the top was Corbyn because I think he was in
the session before or after me, And that is the
first person I saw from the cast.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
That was the first I know that dude, that's Chad.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, and he waved down like my dad was like,
because my dad had to come with me everywhere because
I was young. The first thing is and then I
think the rehearsals we did with Kenny some kind of
everyone sit around and share who you are. Maybe it
was the table read and everyone had to say who

(28:10):
they were. And I remember every so I kind of
everyone at once, so that was quite ah, oh you
walked in everyone's yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
So yeah. So before we shoot our movies, we always
have a table read where the entire cast sets around,
usually on some kind of a round table where they
can kind of face each other, and then we're all
looking at you, so we can say our lines to
each other across the table and anything else, and everybody
can hear the movie kind of in real time. Right,
That's the closest you get to. It's kind of the
only time like the movie. It's like a stage production.

(28:38):
It's like you're you sit down for two hours and
everybody and they stop and they'll play the music and
every kind of dance and say like, yeah, let's go,
let's get get into the mood, and then we go
back to doing lines and so so you enter this room,
it's that that could be a really intimidating situation.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
It was. I couldn't tell you who I sat next
to you. I couldn't tell you who I sat opposite I. Actually,
there is so much that was so overwhelming, it's just
blurt out. I just I remember sitting I remember on
this side of the room, like the right hand side
of the room. That is all I remember. But I
do remember the music being played. I remember actually making
everyone laugh so much, and because she does, because she's

(29:15):
hilarious and so brilliant with sharpay. And then and then
it's just like a blur of like the dance rehearsals.
I do remember we had to go round the room
and it's funny how you remember the embarrassing things. You
had to go around the room and say a song
that inspires you or something, maybe the dance rehearsals. And
I said this like random UK pop boy band, but

(29:35):
nobody because everyone was saying, you know what, it's born
to be Wild, Yeah, yeah, yeah, same, or you know
born in the USA or all these like inspirational songs
like don't Stop Believing. And I was like, I like McFly,
I'll be okay. Right, you can see everyone was like cool.
And I remember just wanting to go, oh my god,
I'm going red. Oh my god, I'm going red. I
should have just said I mean, I should have said

(29:56):
the Champions.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
It's so funny. I remember that exactly. I remember him.
Kenny was great about that. Right. Anytime there's like the
cast was al together, like gather up, let's get in
a circle here. It makes those money like make a special,
which doesn't really happen out o their movies. It's like
you're just doing your work and you're kind of going
through the grind, and it's like Kenny, like knew these
were great opportunities to bring everybody together and kind of

(30:20):
share something personal and get to know each other a
little little deeper, little human on the set. But I
do remember the song one and he's like, yeah, what
song inspires? And I'm like, well, first of all, all
these guys, everybody's like fifteen, sixteen, seven, eighteen years old,
and I'm like, uh, Neil Diamond, I don't know, Like

(30:40):
what am I gonna say that?

Speaker 4 (30:41):
It's gonna be like, uh, how could I be Crael
with these guys, Like, I'm not gonna Yeah, I'm the
I'm the old guy like in this group, like, uh, it's.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Like where's my kids? Kids are out of ticket.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
I'm glad that you felt this because I was. I
was just going around the group like I've got Everyone
else was so cool about it.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
They were so cool. They had like write, oh yeah,
this Miley Star song was you know what they'd already
thought about this.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm like, did you guys, did they tell you ahead
of time? It's not that's I wish I didn't know. Yeah, Okay,

(31:38):
So we usually do the table read pretty close before shooting. Yeah,
but you guys had a lot of dancing to work on.
I always get a kick out of that because I
remember every time I walk into the dance rehearsals, everybody's
like laying on the ground ice on their knees, like
they're all broken up, like NBA players or something, you know,
like just like, oh.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
My god, they were so talentedul like, oh my gosh.
I used to I used to go watch the rehearsals
that I wasn't in. I would just walk down and
sit in the corner and ask if I could just
watch because I loved it better than sitting in.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
My hotel room.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Not like I a thirteen year old. I was like,
there's always sat here and watch it.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, yeah, Now that's the greatest show in the world.
You can like like everybody and they're killing it and
it was so fun. I think it's really fun to
like watch Chucky uh Art or choreographer and Kenny and
Bonnie's story, well a great what a team? Like what
a team? And it's like the choreography is always fun.
Like I always felt like there's something magical about I mean,
obviously Kenny Ortegas he did Michael Jackson's tour for fourteen

(32:34):
years and he's done dirty dancing all these like iconic
Zanay like amazing movies. But he didn't make it like
overly complicated. He just made it like kind of magical, right,
the choreography and.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
Iconic, like I often everyone knows that, you know, the
we're all this together Dan say. Everyone does it with
the clap. And then when people reference Tiara to me,
like in the street or friends, they do this move
that that just started off the number this like double
point thing people. It's so simple, like two points right
to you. But people do it. People remember it because

(33:09):
and you wouldn't think, you know, you'd think they just
have us strutting down the stairs or and Kenny did
this for the night and that people do it to
me all the time.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I see it all the time. I see it on
social media. I see on TikTok people.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
The Halloween outfits of me and as Me and Actuley
are very funny. They come up every We'll be coming up. Well,
it's crazy, so clever because it's simple, everyone can copy
it so effective. It looks amazing memorable.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah yeah, it's uh, it's like trendable. It's like, uh,
TikTok didn't even exist, but it's almost like let's make
some great content for TikTok, So everybody can do this
on the trend because it's so uh, it's just it's delicious.
The correy your feet, Yeah yeah, I do like that
about Halloween when that's as well.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, sagged and it's like four hundred people.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Into Have you ever gone out on Halloween as Tiara?

Speaker 3 (34:05):
No, well I haven't, but that would be so funny.
I've done it, my friend, have you, Oh.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yeah, because I'm like, like my famous going, I'm like,
oh crap, I didn't get a car, uh what? They
grab a hoodie and a basketball and a clipboard, you know,
and all up. I'm good.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Of course, I love you know what.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
I wish I had had that dress, but I also
don't think i'd fit in that dress anymore.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
So you're so young, Oh my god, it looks like
you would fit in that.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh let's pretend. Yeah, that is actually such a good idea.
My friends had found that so funny as well, because
it's a period of time that you can't do that,
like the like if the ten years after, it'd be like.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
She is, yes right right now, it's iconic.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah yeah, yeah for the first like ten years after
the movie came out like I have like a hard
time getting a job, Like it was like not the
highest school musical.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
Yes, yeah, exactly, the dad from look Zach's dad, Like okay,
but now it's like now it's iconic because like you're
the you're my coach, and it's like okay, it's it's
like the longer it's been, the cooler it is.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
I get stopped more now than I did back then.
Do you get stopped and recognized?

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Definitely more there was obviously was at first. Yeah, probably
there was a gap of maybe six or seven years.
But you know what's crazy now, I even get it
from people I know. So I've known people for like
three years and then suddenly they'll go I turned on
the TV last night, or like I decided to watch
House some musical three on an airplane and there'd been
my friend for three years.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
They don't even like they didn't know you did the movie.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Yeah, either're a friend of a friend or like they're
at the gym or something and then they come over.
But it's definitely TikTok has also made it a resurgence
thing as well. I've noticed, yeah, which it used to
be five years six year olds yeah, the bar or
wait staff. Like if I'm in a bar or a restaurant,

(35:55):
sometimes the servers are like, oh my god. Where it's
like you're serving me a loss of wine, like you
should be playing like the movie with kids, like moving
after school in the school uniforms. And now it's like
waiters and bartenders that are like, hey, you're gold.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Gold.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Oh that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
That's cool.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah, it's And it's on all the airplanes, you know.
I was on I had this really surreal moment just
a couple of weeks ago, and I was sitting on
a plane and someone was watching High School Musical and
I saw like ahead of me, they saw that, and
then I'm on Landman right now the Taylor Share the show,
and they were my scene came up on that. On that,
I was like, I'm on two TVs on an airplane.

(36:37):
This is amazing. I peaked.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Absolutely, that must happens. Happened so much to like so
many acts and stuff. And I love it when comedians
say they see people watching their specials on flights but
not laughing laughing. Yeah, that's amazing. I love it.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
That's great. Okay, So I'm trying to think of when yours.
So your first day, well, I wouldn't know. Do you
remember your first day of shooting?

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, only because it was the same scene as the audition,
So I was like, oh, I don't even need to learn,
Like maybe there were a couple of edits in the script,
but mainly I remember going, oh, this is my first day.
One thing I don't have to panic about is getting
the lines right. And I've been doing it for a
month already.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah. Yeah, what what was that scene?

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Tira's first scene? The locker scene where Sharpey is it
shar Pei's first day back at school and she shuts
her pink locker and I'm stood there and I go there,
I'm tur Gold and you're you're looking for in a
personal assistant and I've got to here's your latte and
blah blah blah, and I can help you learn your
role for the Spring Musical and she's like, keep the accent.

(37:47):
And that was the first thing in the movie and
my audition scene and the first scene that I shot,
which is.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Right, did you talk to Ashley before that? I mean
obviously we met. Everybody met briefly. We only need you've
been rehearsing for a while now.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, we'd already done a month of dances, so we've
done because I learned we did Armine and Ashley's number,
we've already done that. And then I think we've done
some recordings, so we'd actually done quite a bit before
before the shooting. I think it was about a month
of things like a bit of ePK stuff or like
photo shoots for the dolls or whatever, you know, like

(38:27):
promo promo stuff. So I had met her a few times,
but she was so nice, so amazing. But you can't
help but be intimidated by someone so good like so,
and I've been watching on TV and I think as
she was like in her early twenties and as a
thirteen year old, it's this sparkly, beautiful girl, the woman
that you look up to. And there's some really funny

(38:50):
beat like behind the scenes footage, like I loved that.
Now we have like YouTube, you can find behind the
scenes stuff all the movies, and there's times where Ashley
and Zach talking to me and I'm like, like, you
could tell a girl like like so excited. But she

(39:10):
was so lovely. I even remember learning the dance with her,
that the dance that we did together and having a
moment of like, okay, so now you're going to be
choreographed by Kenny Ortaga against Asha Tisdale. Go for it,
like just do it, just listen like all these all
these guy dancers. I did this big routine coming down
a staircase, and I just remember having the whole time

(39:32):
in my head, I'm going just do it. Just go
for it. No, like, don't let anything get into your head.
Just do your best. Just But it was a conversation
I was having in my head with myself everything, Yeah,
you're going to be fine, you're a peer, You're meant
to be imposter syndrome when every way in everyone on

(39:56):
the TV my gosh, like my other program, TV program
and stuff I've done. Maybe there's two stars that you're like, oh,
I've seen him and stuff before. And then the rest
of the actors are known actors, jobbing actors. Whereas this
was everyone was very famous. Everyone had been on my
TV every day for two three years. It was pinched

(40:17):
me every five.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Seconds, Wow, Wow, you killed it. I mean you look
super comfortable, and it's funny like I when I would
see you on set, I never really processed that, like, oh,
She's probably inside going pullly, crap, what I keep up
these guys out, like these are all icons I'm working with.

(40:38):
Every single person on the show is an icon.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
He had place to come into. But I loved. I
absolutely loved every second and even and like even Kenny's direction,
like there was not everything about that movie was just magical.
Like the notes you get, you will have the same thing,
like you do a scene a certain way, or you'd
be playing with someone in the scene and then Kenny
would say come over and say one no, or do
this like this, and the whole scene would just be

(41:02):
like pull this face, raise this left eyebrow or something
like this, and the whole scene was suddenly be like, Oh,
that's it, that's it. That was exactly what he was.
He knows exactly what he's doing, and whatever he says
brings the whole thing to life.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, so the whole shoot, you were able to enjoy
the whole.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
Thing, I think, so, I think, yeah, I can't remember.
I can't remember a time. There was a lot of nerves,
but I think I was trying to bat the nerves
away with just do it, don't show them that you
shouldn't be here. Don't show them this wrong. I think
I do every and I do think being at Sylvia

(41:42):
Young the Theater School in London prepared me for that
a little bit. They were very good at, you know,
telling you the show must go on, go for it,
go for it, do it type thing. But yeah, the whole,
the whole, the whole shoot was fantastic, amazing.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
I bet you were on set thinking, thank you for
being in old classes and have all experience being on
your feet doing scenes, doing all that work in your past,
like leading you to this moment, because if you didn't
have all that training and where you're just like, oh,
I think.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
I had been a lot more, a lot more panicked.
I actually fainted. I forgot this. I fainted on the
way to the first audition on the plane and they
had to circle the flight around because they had me
in the aisle because I was so nervous. They had
me in the aisle. But my dad said I was
not copping them. No, I can twenty years later, but
my dad said, don't tell anyone because if they think
that you're like going to faint, you might not book

(42:32):
the job.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Oh my gosh, this is you were flying from the
UK to Utah.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
This was this was for LA for the final audition
for that workshop audish.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, my gosh.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Coming into Land, so I feel like said, I don't
feel very well. It's like you'll fine, just you know,
get me your water or something. And then I woke
up in the isle of the plane and they were circling.

Speaker 6 (42:53):
Because oh gosh, I really had a poker phase on
this whole time, just like yeah, yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Wow, you know, I'm realizing, like you more than anyone else,
had like more pressure, but by far, like the Sharpay roll,
which is such a powerhouse, you have to deliver. You
were and you're the youngest, and you had all these
scenes and you had to you knew you had three
more movies to do after that.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Gem Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
I do remember as well getting there and knowing that
Matt crocop knew people from LA from auditions, and I
remember being like, oh, well, the three of us are
all going to be new, but the other two had
been on the audition circuit in LA and they kind
of knew people or they had friends that were friends
with Vanessa or I don't know who have Chris, you
know or someone. And I was like oh, I really

(43:45):
do anyone, I'll stay with my dad And I'm joking.
Everyone was everyone was together and everyone was very friendly,
but there was just that's like I did. It was like, oh,
this is not my world, but I'm going to pretend
I know exactly what I'm doing at all times until.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Then at thirteen do it all that at thirteen? That's
wild to me? That is wild.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Well you did great, Like you seemed so comfortable.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
You seemed totally cool and always like on set like
very personal and yeah, fit right in.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, I did love it.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Big heavens we had Like the cast is like you know,
when people ask me, like, hey, what are those kids
like when they started, Look, their careers are blowing up,
I'm like, honestly, like, I'm so impressed with those guys.
Like from the first one, everybody was so sweet and
everybody is stoked work with Kenny. By the third move
there are superstars now and like just as sweet, just
as kind.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
People say to me, what were they really like honestly, nobody,
Like everyone was fantastic, Yeah, look funny, welcoming, professional like
it was you just yeah, it was yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah. You hear all these stories about these kids become
a monsters when they get a little little fan of money.
And you know, not that it's ever acceptable to be
ugly like that, but you understand the dynamics of like
this is this is not a normal thing to happen
to kids. You know, all of a sudden, you're on
the cover of every magazine. And by the time, like
paparazzi was so aggressive with everyone it was crazy. They

(45:22):
couldn't go anywhere. Zack and I were like gym buddies
and we'd go to the gym and he's like, well,
the first time. I remember the first time we went to
the gym, he walked out and he's we were about
to walk out, and he started like zim zipping up
and stuff. He's like, are you ready. I'm like ready
for what He's like, you trust me? And I'm looking outside.
I'm like, there's no dude. I'm looking. I'm looking out
the glass doors. There's nobody out there. And he's like, okay,

(45:42):
just you know, don't be surprising. Open the door and
it's like twenty five people jumped out of bushes and
behind cars. I was like, what aggressive paparazzi.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
And they're so used to and the weird things. I
remember having this really strange experience where when they were
doing the premiere in London, we all went for dinner
either before or after all the day before or something
like that, and there was my dad, Vanessa, Ashley, Zach,
Kenny Corbyn, maybe Corbyin's had like a big group and
obviously Dad and I just came in the front. But

(46:14):
they're like, we're going to we're on the same hotel
or something. We're going to get you all leaving by
the back entrance. So this is in the dark, something
I've never experienced before. I go up the first, or
Jemma at first, I go out first. I'm like this
because they're trying to get Zach and Vanessa. The lights
in the dark were crazy. Zach is holding Vanessa's hand.
This is when they were dating. Zach comes out next

(46:35):
the next day in the paper it said Jemy Mackenzie
Brown is a caron leaving a restaurant and Vanessa. He's
holding Vanessa's hand behind him, so he's coming that the
first experience of like, oh the precious, they'll just say
that what they want that. I found that quite scary
because at that point I was fourteen.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
So clickbait whatever they can say to get a store
and get you to open up that, you know, And.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
There's more pictures later on, but all of us together
in the car and h the letter and my dad.
But that was the first the first time I was like, wow,
that is this is the smallest experience. That's like the
smallest nugget of what they're now dealing with every day.
And I woke I'm kind of scared by it. I
woke up and it freaked me out. It made me
feel a bit like weird and yeah, creeping, but there,

(47:18):
that's there every day and that probably still is a
lot of the every day life.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah. Yeah, it's a paparazzi man, they get you know,
if the picture sell, they're going to be there. You know,
you guys have some serious paparazzi in the UK. Yeah, yeah,
did you Did you have a problem at all when
you were when you went back?

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Only events? I do remember. It was really funny in
my school friends we have we had a teacher and
I got back. There was a bit of a buzzble
I got back to school, but like not like just
from I think they were trying to do it from
like a security point of view, and my math teacher said,
what do we do if the paparazzi jump out the bush?
And we all found it so funny. No paparazzi, maybe

(48:03):
like a couple of photographers after school, post release, but
it really out of the school because I feel like
it didn't feel I think there are some laws school.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah that's just creepy. Yeah, pop right to their little
little kids. But yeah, and then Zach Vanessa, of course
they're being a couple and being the stars. They took
the brunt of like all that tabloid fodder.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Crazy. And then you asked me if they're really a couple?
I got that.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, yeah, people have been asking me lately.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I don't know where this came from, like just out
of the blue, Like, hey, so was that relationship manufactured
by the studio?

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Like what do people love to find a conspiracy in everything?
I know? F as they were definitely together. Also, that
was until the thirteen year old the Secrets of Hollywood,
Like if it.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Was I remember like the you know, being together on
I schoo musical one and they were like kind of
like kind of like discovering each other. I was like, oh,
that's so cute, Like I remember first time I stum
holding hands.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
I was like, oh, it's so cute.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
I just love those two.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Yeah, so sweet.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Before run out of time, Gemma, where are you? What
do you do with? Like I see your serious fitness instructor.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Yeah, in the world, I've done a load like since,
so I want like the planet. After her music was
definitely to keep acting. But I got put into a
pop group by Jerry Hamwell from The Spice Girls she
made up when I was fifteen. So I did that
for like three years, but we were just in development
and then I left that and I was like, right, o,
Karen doing music. So I did a rock band for

(49:40):
like seven years. And while I was doing the rock group,
I a friend from the States came over and said, Oh,
they're opening this gym, Barries, and I was like, oh,
I've heard of Barries, like it's like a an La
fitness thing, probably seen Kardashians or something like that. Did
Oh they're looking to higher. So I literally went to
Barries in London and been in instructure there for like

(50:04):
ten years. Oh my gosh, ten years. But I am
I quick. The rock from the music fun thing was fun,
but I was kind of always using it as like
an avenue to get back to act. I miss acting
so much and I miss all of it. So as
of literally this year, I am writing, and I'm some
TV show ideas and some theater ideas and some pilots

(50:26):
and I want to get back into that kind of
that kind of well. But I love barriers. It's so fun,
Like it's the best I get to perform. Like I go,
put a headset on, dimmer lights, turn the music up,
playing music I want to play, and shout at.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
People, I'm coming.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
If you've done it in La I've done a Yeah,
that's that's me running around the room screaming to do
it when you come to.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
London, I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm going to come to
your class for sure.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
So far, yeah, yeah, we'll make it.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
We'll make a little something of that love.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Yeah, doing a bit of writing and stuff alongside as well.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
So oh that's great, that's great. Yeah, the industry is
very different out there, right.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
So I came back. I wrote my old lady and
I was like, so I'm coming back. She was like, Okay,
brace yourself.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Okay, No, I have a lot of friends that live
in the UK, and it's near impossible to uh be
worre like you got to. You really have to make
a big sacrifice and say I'm living I'm going to
live in la or I'm going to live in New
York or something right Like It's it's pretty pretty hard
to unless you're writing Gemma, unless you're making your own vehicles.
I love that.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
I always wanted to. I always kind of at school.
I used to do like little movies with my friend,
like over the school holidays the summer, like the summer break,
we'd go on Skype and write a movie or something.
So I actually just thought, you know, I'm just gonna
I'm just gonna do it. I actually have a table
read next Friday with a few of my active friends.
They're going to come around like a workshop. They're going
to come and read my first pilot and I'm going

(51:54):
to hear it out loud for the first time, which
is wow.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Just an idea.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
What do you think about like taking us on that
journey with you and and we'll follow, like we'll all
follow you on social media? What do you like Instagram
or TikTok or.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
By Instagram and TikTok, But my handle is just Jim
McKenzie brown on both.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Of them, Jemen McKenzie Brown. Okay, okay, and I'll tag
you too so everybody can be sure to find you.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
But like what take us on a like we want
to see your fit.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
You look amazing. I saw you like do something, I was.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Like, danger, sure that that's good man.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
Nice job. So I and I'm obsessed with the fitness
world too, Like I could definitely like have a career
there and be pretty dang fulfilled. But if you, you know,
maybe share your fitness life, but also like get let
us be on the journy of you creating these shows
and seeing you become a big filmmaker.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Yeah, okay, I love I've written myself into all of
these shows by the way as well.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely no, no.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I you know, I have friends that work in la
as actors a ton, and they make the amazing careers
and they spend all their time writing because the character
they really want they don't get to because that's got
to come to you. It's like you.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Gotta outlet is so fun as well, it's so fun
to just have your own vision. I mean you do
that with parts as well and auditions, but just you know,
while the auditions are dry or you're just overwhelmed with
trying to be someone else's vision, do you really? I
love it. I wrote all the music for my band
as well, so I've always had that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
Okay, Gemma, I want to see it, like we could
you post something from your table read even like let's
see that, Yes, okay, I will a couple updates along
the way of like okay, now the script is done,
or here's this one, or like what like I want
to I would let's take Dirtey with you. That'd be
so cool.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
That sounds awesome. Yeah, I'm excited, maybe even more excited
than I already was.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
All right, all right, all right, Well I think I'm
a huge fan.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
I think you're amazing and super talented, and I know
it's like, you know, in this world, there's like the
competition out there is so fierce and it's so crazy,
and it's like really the only I mean, I know,
like the roles I want, they're going to whoever, you know,
some due they're going to the star of the big stars.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
It's so interestingly like I have a friend that a
part was written for her and something and then they
cast a name instead of her, but the writer wrote
it for her.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Right and that the.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Production company were like, we just need a name. It
is so hot, you know.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I did a short film once
for someone like, oh, you'd be great in this part,
like it's could be amazing. I'm like, okay, cool, And
then they take the short film and then they got
like some big movie star. I'm like, sick, what.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Is zach.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
No? No, I wish I wish I was there. Well, hey,
thank you so much for your time. You are amazing,
uh and such a you were just so interesting and
but that was such a great story of your journey. Okay,
so we got your socials Jemma McKinsey Brown, all.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
All one way and no hyphenated, just straight across.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Okay, and we're going to be following you and watching you,
and gosh, I don't know, is there anything we want
to say to the two Wildcat fans out there that
have been last twenty years.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
They have been so good and the loyalty is real
and the love a lot. They keep this movie alive,
whether it's like bringing all the movies bringing their children now,
because musical fans that have their own children, the original ones,
and just the support, Like I post something on TikTok
and the comments are all like Tiara or and this
is what I love about social media. There's lots of

(55:41):
about social media that stresses me out, but the fact
that someone can write a small comment you will have
had it a million times of terror. Gold made me
do this in my school production all I didn't think
that dancing was cool, and then or I didn't think
English people could do this in Hollywood movies, and then
you doing it made me realize I can. They're special.

(56:02):
People were all part of the same magical experience, and
the fans are in it as well. It's not just
the cast, it's not just the creatives. The fans were
all part of that.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
And it's yeah, it's my special thing in my life.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
It's phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, I love that. When the comments
are like I loved it, Oh, it's so great, it's
not those, not those kind of comments. It's like you
don't understand, like you made You've helped me through the
hard time, like school, Like oh, you're such an inspiration,
like all these like the nicest compliments.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Right, Well, I do get you, don't you come for
my girl, shall pay Ever again, you tried and you've failed.
But I love that as well because if they're saying that,
it means that the role did you know what it
was supposed to do.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Oh man, I would have loved to see what Tiara
did these next three movies. I would have loved to
have seen that.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
So I know.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I actually got asked on top the other day, where
do you think she is now? And I was like,
I think she probably moved back to London and married
some kind of financer or like some aristocrat, and is
now just an annoying, pushy mother or like one of
those real housewives of London or something.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yes, yes, and a stage mom making your kids stage
on that stage.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Yeah, just like a child with not much talent but
money to push it onto the child.

Speaker 6 (57:21):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yeah, I think sage that might be an interesting short
film or something.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
You know, writing it down.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Here we go and the journey she begins. I think
it's a great I like that. I think it's a
great premise.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
It's really funny.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
And then here's a great part for you, you playing
you like amazing.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
I can't wait see the ideas of flowing. I knew
I should have been a writer.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Yeah, it's so natural. It's so natural. Uh, twenty year
anniversaries in January. Any any plans for anything?

Speaker 2 (57:56):
No?

Speaker 3 (57:56):
What, I don't, but now I actually think I absolutely must.
Maybe I'll see if Hughes is around. He's getting married
now I still have him on Instagram. Maybe I'll go
see Harry, who I watched high school musical one with
when I was eleven, and maybe we'll have like a
viewing party with his.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Field circle with Harry. Oh it's so cool, that's so cool.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Check.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
But yeah, I talked to the Assault Like magazine yesterday
and I said, hey, I will come host a screening,
like if you could do a screening at East High
because I'm I'm it's easy for me to get to
East High, so I could go, like dos open to
the public screening? Like let's go, like who wants to?
That would be so fun, be fun, right for all

(58:37):
the for the for the next generation.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
That like that would be amazing. Because I didn't realize
that was a real school until we went. I was like,
oh wow, this is English schools are not like American schools.
That was like, whoa, our schools are tiny Compe school.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
I always found it interesting. You guys don't have sports
in your school.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
No, we you It's slightly different ones though, Like my
first school, we have like cross country where you just
go run out in the fields like three hours of
the teachers come back in two hours. And we do
like netball and hockey football which would be soccer for
you guys, rugby, which is like like, so we do
like different in the school. Yeah, in the school.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
Okay, so you have like like everybody goes to the
game and gathers up and homecoming.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
So much that it's more like you'll be shipped in
a coach to another school to there's not much like
it's more like the parents that want their kids to
become professional football players or rugby players. It's definitely not
like the team. The school doesn't get behind the teams
look like the school doesn't get behind them.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
There's no, it's not like the sports are in the
school and the schools talking about it pumping them up or.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
No, it's more like the assembly on Monday morning, like
the year eleven boys one against you know, Giggleswick School
on Tuesday. Well done, Okay, moving on, like.

Speaker 6 (59:55):
That's interesting, interesting, like doing I wonder if there are
cheerleaders in schools now, because I think that's kind of
like a high school musical effect there.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Certainly. Yeah, I feel like there's cheer teams and stuff
now and the effect of those American shows that have
come over to hear the school, there was no if
someone expressed too much excitement and people.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Have yeah, yeah, I hear a lot of people say
like they're quote in the yearbook, you know, like we
have our yearbooks and then you have your senior picture
and your senior quote. And people say, well, that wasn't
anything like high school musical.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
Yeah, I love it because mine was like theater school.
People do go around my school like we were singing
and dancing in the corridor, So I had a little
taste of that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Yes, I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
I love that. I contest there are schools like that
because maybe not in La but my son is going
to a school in Utah like this this year and
he showed up and all the cheerleaders are outside and
the drill team and the student government like walk come
to school, how you doing? You have it a great day?

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
And I was like, oh my gosh, I got video
of it. I'm like, is high school musical. This is like,
oh bright colors that everybody's happy and cheering and like
this is amazing. This is a it's a scene from
a movie, from our movie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
Yeah, we inspired in the UK. We like be quiet,
stop running in the corridors on.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Oh well, Jim, but thank you for your time. I
really appreciate it. And it's such a fun thing to
give to everybody. Uh this this little insight and some
new stories and passing on from making a plane circle
around l A like.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
That's I was so nervous.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
That's crazy. That's crazy. Well, thank you, thank you, and
let's be in touch. We got tiktoks too, we got
scripts to talk about. We've got I'm a message and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
People are going to their reception. They're gonna die. It's
gonna be amazing die.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Okay, good, well we got we'll get a little reunion
perfect Give him, I'll gi him a couple of the
you know the coach. I have done that a few
times in my life.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Since Corbyn recently because I went to see his playing
he was in The Great Gatsby in London, so I
saw him.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Saw him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, it's amazing, that was the show.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Yeah, Western, he's brilliant and he's amazing. But people were
also like, wow, I'm surprised he was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
He was great.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
I'm like, well, yeah, he's like I think they just
think he's like a happy guy from the TV musical.
He's like very well trained.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
I think he was the only like like original cast,
like he came in like kind of like a Broadway
trained guy, like he could tap dance really well, and like,
yeah he was. He's really good and he's killing Broadway.
He's been on a bunch of Broadway shows now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
Yeah, yeah, he was amazing at the West n the
run was like sold out as well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
So definitely really corn well, Chad making me proud, make
me coach proud. Well. I don't want to say by Gemma,
but I know our time is up, and I'm so
glad we have reconnected. I haven't seen you live since
she's the premiere.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Yeah, about fifteen years ago. Sixteen years ago, no, seventeen. Oh,
I can't keep count.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
That's wild.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
We look exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
No one's aged a minute here, so that's as good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
I didn't think anyone has. I actually think everyone looks
the same. Like when I saw you got Allison on recently,
I was like, oh, looks exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
Like yeah, yeah, okay, Jemma, Well I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you so much. And uh gosh, you know, I
figure every time there's a year with a zero on
the end, we got to come back and celebrate. So uh,
if we don't do anything special again for the next
ten years, just just know I'll come. I'm coming knocking
for a little surprise for the Wildcats on the thirty

(01:03:46):
year anniversary. So great, that's love to you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
I'll talk to you soon. Bye, Jemma, have got more
ha