And That's what you Really missed with Jenna.

And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.

Welcome to and That's what You Really miss podcast, Kevin.

Yes, who do we have today?

Well, your friend, I have a friend of mine, the one and only Lucas Graybill, who you know famously from High School Musical one, two and three icons Iconic Iconic High School Musical, The Musical, the TV show Crazy Series.

He's and many other things.

By the way, He's ridiculously talented and a good, good human.

He's our people.

Jenna, you become friends?

Oh no, I already feel like we are becoming friends.

This is a great combo.

He's really so open and honest about the whole experience and so wonderful to hear.

I've been jonesing to hear about their experience because it seems so similar to ours in so many ways, and I just don't hear them.

Talk about it a lot.

So I'm super excited to have him.

This is Lucas Crapo.

Hello, Hello, Hello.

Have you met before?

I feel like maybe.

Passing twice maybe, but not like actually hung out or anything exactly exactly.

Lucas is a tyrant.

He's not nice, he's untalented.

No, it was I was just thinking.

I was like, Okay, we're gonna probably talk a little bit about Glee.

I need to think about all of the people, and I'm holy, I know so many people, so many people.

Yeah, I mean Max is one of my good friends.

I met Leah when she was doing before Glee, when she was doing a Spring Awakening.

I came on the year anniversary of them doing it, and so no.

I think I was there about a few months after.

It to the after party and met everybody.

And then of course you know Matthew Morrison and you and Chris and yeah, actually.

Do you know everybody?

And I did a movie with Emma Roberts, so.

Through her, yeah, they.

Were reading, so yeah, a little bit of everybody.

So just an honorary member now, like a distant uncle.

I like Lucas and I have been on trips around the world together.

And it took me a long time to ever bring up high school musical because I was like, it's how I am with j C from and Sync.

Yeah, or like I just didn't want to bring it up.

But obviously Glee and high school Musical.

I had like so many questions just because like Glee wouldn't have existed without high school musical yea.

And our experience feels so specific.

However, it's not specific if we have like your whole crew, right, Like you guys experienced everything basically we experienced, but you did it first, and so like you're the only sort of group that we can talk to about like the specificity of being on a musical that became like a pop cultural phenomenon thing and also had a tour.

Yes, yeah, that's imporing.

Was the crazy part, right, Oh yeah, because you do the show or the movie and it's like, okay, yeah, we put all of our work into that and effort and everything, and we have this bonding experience and it was hard and fun and complicated and wonderful all at the same time.

But then you leave it and it's like, okay, that's it.

But when you're on stage looking out on all of these people singing the words, every single one, right, you know, back at you, that's like a visceral in your face.

This has an impact.

That's yeah, that's great.

Yeah, it's something that people who are on a TV show or in a movie don't get to have that experience.

It's so so removed.

L didn't go out on tour, no, right, so take us Backeah.

We just watched High School Musical and I had the greatest time.

I haven't seen it probably since it was first on.

Oh that's great to wait a really I saw it the rough cut when it first and then I never watched it until like three years ago.

Oh gosh, because I was doing High School Musical, the musical, the series.

Yeah, and oh another Glee connection, same choreographer, Yeah, Zach.

So you know, just like, okay, I probably need to like refresh my memory and remind myself what people have been living with.

All of these years.

And yeah, I had a totally different experience with it.

Obviously.

The first time I was like, oh my god, this is terrible and it's so cheesy and I'm awful and you know, all these things.

But now I'm like, this is adorable, and yeah, you know, I see why people need that unadulterated joy.

And justly just it's a piece of cake.

It's just like, yes, rightly colored confetti, Layton.

Yeah cake, Yeah, exactly.

That's why I had the time.

I was texting Jen, I'm like, I'm having the time of my life.

Because I remember, you know, like we we grew up doing like TV or theater or whatever it was, and like, I think I auditioned for high school musical and I remember watching it and being like the judge like this is so cheesy and I can't believe this is pop yet I was obsessed with the music, saying it all the time, and then just watching it now, I'm like, what an idiot.

I was like, this is wonderful.

Kind of same.

I auditioned for Glee so many times.

Oh my god, but I mean, uh, Robert yea, so he every time he came in and he was like, Okay, so I love you, I really want you, but you know, I just have to convince Ryan that that we we can do something totally different and blah blah blah and yeah, be a different thing and yeah we could never do it.

But he, you know, he championed me a lot so.

And you're just stupidly talented.

Oh stop it.

The role I got the closest to is the role that Darren Chris got, and I went back a couple of times for that, and then later when I met him, I was like, he was like, dude, I just gotta say like I grew up like watching you and like this is like so cool, and I'm like, bro, when I saw that you got the part that I was like really going for, I was like, holy sh I could never do that.

That is insane.

So I'm a fan of yours too, So.

It was like this weird lovest thing.

Yeah, what was that early process?

Audition process?

Take us back way back.

So you know, I had moved out to la and had a little immediate success like third audition, fifth audition.

Within five months, I was doing a movie like Boom Boom Boom, booking things, and then it was like a two year you know nothing, Tumbleweeds.

And so then this audition comes up and it's I had already done in Disney Channel original movie a Halloween Town.

So this was like okay, I had to go back to work at Blockbuster after I finished shooting Halloween Town.

So I was like, you know, it's it's great, I want to work, but I know it's not going to like, you know, pay my bills for that long.

But yeah, it was a musical and I read the script and I was like, it didn't have any of the music in it, so the magic wasn't connected yet, and I was like, I don't get this at all.

I don't I don't understand what's going on.

Went in to read for Troy, got a call back.

Actually I went in right after Drew Seeley auditioned and it was in the trailers on the Universal.

Lie Oh so okay, confirmed I did audition for this.

Yeah.

Drew Syalley has like one of the best voices I've ever heard, And I mean he was doing all these runs and like just soulful, silky, smoothing, and I'm like, oh man, I thought that he was gonna be a walk in the park, but there is no way.

So I go and I do get a call back and go and I meet Kenny or take At, the director, and I read and he's like, you're you're you're great, but you're not Troy.

You're a Ryan.

Can you take these sides, go out and learn those come back in.

I was like, okay, cool, and I do that, and then we have this epic seven plus hour callback.

Oh my god, very very New York theater style.

Like all of us were in Madeline Clark Studios.

There's like probably forty fifty of us to begin with.

Wow, all going for Troy, Gabriela, Ryan, and Sharpei.

Oh my.

We were like taken in group by group to learn a dance, dance it, and then go back out.

And then we would swap and then they would read names to like come in and do the dance.

And then they were like, okay, if you hear your name, you can stay if you don't see you later, and they just kept whil it down.

Yeah, it was crazy, and then we did once we kind of whittled it down to a few people per role, then we started doing the chemistry reads and so I went in with several different girls to read with, you know, for Ryan and Sharpei.

And I've told the story many times, but Ashley she was amazing.

She was like I know exactly why she got Sharpei because like from the get go she was sharpey.

She gave me notes, like we went outside, we were rehearsing, and she said, I'm going to add a line and you're gonna look like this, and then you say this line like this, and then at the very end, I'm gonna go grab my bags and I want you to like run over and grab my bags and then we'll go out.

I was like really, you're you're telling me what to do it like an audition, okay.

And I walked in with this like oh I you know, the ego was like bruising everything.

But then I was like, well, you got to do it, and it's probably gonna be better if you if you play along with it.

And that was the immediate perfect dynamic that they were looking for for running Sharpay.

I was burying all of this like lifetime of contempt and like, oh so you're gonna call all the shots okay, but here I am being as joyful as I can be.

And uh so that's how it happened.

Wow, what I don't know how anyone survives the day like that.

Well, it was crazy.

I think I was the only one there maybe three other people who didn't have their parents there as well.

Oh my god, that's so.

I moved out to La on my own, you know, with the stick in the little right.

Yeah.

Yeah, and so so yeah, when I got there, I was like, yeah, I went outside and I was like having a smoke break.

That was that was definitely the start of something new.

And then once we got together, it was like an instant family, you know, thrown into this crazy world that Kenny Ortega just he he has this way of curtaining in, like shutting out the outside world, and just like we're living in this fantasy together and we're gonna play, and he let us just run wild with our characters and have so much fun and hard ass work.

Like we were dancing eight hours a day plus, as you guys know, and just drilling these this choreography and the music and everything, and so yeah, it felt so special when we were doing it, Like Wow, I don't know, I've definitely never had a filming experience like this before.

I don't know if I'll have one like this again.

But it's still Disney Channel.

It's a made for cable TV musical that's original.

And then when it blew up, I was like, this is way too much, way too fast.

I don't deserve this.

Nobody deserves this.

It scared the shot out of me, and I was just like, I don't I don't know how to deal with this.

I saw that clip of Kenny recently saying, like, you know, at the end, when you guys wrapped in the gym, he was like, if whatever you guys gave just their translates to like the audience like you guys are about to your lives are about to change.

Essentially, Yeah, can.

You kind of like explain to everybody what that when it was after it aired and how you started to realize that it was such a big hit because like, yeah, numbers.

You know, viewers, you can, you know you can.

It doesn't translate, but when you walk outside, that's different.

So like, what was that like for you?

Yeah, it was strange because from that point everything was done through Disney.

They were telling us everything, be here, do this, shoot this, blah blah blah.

After it came out, I'm hearing from friends and people on the street.

My voice teacher texted me or called me and was like, hey, did you know that your number one on iTunes?

I was like, that's not that's not possible.

Within three weeks, I had a microphone in my face saying or asking your role model to kids all over the world, what do you say to them?

Right?

I'm like, I live in a moldy apartment that I'm constantly sick from and I'm struggling to pay my rent.

So I didn't think that I was a role model.

It's interesting.

Obviously we were thrown in the deep end, and we learned to swim, and it took some time and definitely had some pitfalls and whoopsie daisies where Disney had to get involved and be like, actually, please don't put that in the article.

But now, because of all of that, Disney has a program like whenever you get hired for a pilot or a movie, they gather you all up and sit you down and talk about how to give a good interview, how to you deal with your social media fans, red carpets, like the whole thing.

Yeah, And oh man, I wish I had that.

It would have been so much easier.

It was literally like the scariest thing because at the same time, you know, part of like the little kid in me who never thought that would happen, is like, dude, this is crazy, Yeah, like this is like more than you ever dreamed of.

And then so much of the critic inside me was like, like I said, judging it, labeling it, saying you don't deserve this, and runaway fast because all of these people.

We were just surrounded every day by thousands of people saying telling us how great we were.

And you know, sometimes you take that and you get in a big ego.

Sometimes you take that and you're like, I can't trust anyone because none of these people are telling me the truth.

They're just wanting something for me.

And then there's a mixture of the both, you know, and my pendulum was swinging back and forth the whole time, trying to figure out what was real and what was not because we were perceiving the world from a vantage point that very few people get to see.

And that messes with you.

It messes with your reality and you know, friends and relatives, you know, all of that stuff.

Money.

I never thought I would ever have money, and thankfully I had great managers who set me up with an investment person, and like I put, I just took it all away.

Was just a forever.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spend any of it.

So, yeah, thank you for asking that, because so many people don't realize that they're really you know, other than a few instances now, or if you've already grown up being an influencer and that's how you got famous, you don't.

If you're just an actor, especially a young one thrust into this and then thrown into the lions den, you don't know how to properly rephrase the question and then you know, be eloquipped and poised and all of those things.

It's difficult.

It takes time.

Yeah, what's interesting is like for us on a TV show, you're like locked away on stages for nine months, and so if the show's out there, you're never interacting with the public.

Really, you guys shot this movie and like a vacuum, had this incredible experience and then you're done, like that's it.

And I remember the experience of like watching the movie the night it came out on Disney Channel and how you guys were instantly famous, just like to me, you were also like I now know all these people's name, I have bought all of these songs on iTunes, like they are famous, and like you were in every single magazine.

You're like getting paparazzi, and I think what people forget.

It's like, yeah, you're like I live in a moldy apartment.

I'm just trying to become an actor.

And it's not like all of a sudden because you guys are overnight famous that you all of a sudden have like huge paychecks.

You can take care of yourself mentally financially, like none of that has come yet.

Yeah, Disney did give us all bonus checks a few months afterwards, amazing good.

I had a very old school manager and he was like, you know, back in the day, they would, you know, it's send the producer over with a brand new car, like you might get a Cadillac.

Kid.

I'm like, I don't think so, but but it was more than what I would spend on a car, right, the biggest check I've ever seen.

It's changed my life.

Yeah, that's incredible.

That's how they should.

I mean, that's nice to hear it, because I feel like that's how they should treat people when they have this success like this.

I just learned that not all of our bonus checks were the same amount, and that that hurt my heart, Like not out of jealousy that I should have gotten more.

I probably got, you know, more than some.

I know that I got more than some.

So when you're putting all six of us through that.

Machine, right, it should just be what it is.

Why would there be any discrepancy?

Was right?

And I mean this was like last week, So yeah, I don't love that, But I'm hoping that now because of people speaking out and people being open about you know, yeh wage, Yeah, that isn't the case anymore.

A lot lessons were learned on high school musical.

I'm sure now.

I feel like our contracts were based off of high school musical an American idol combined.

Yeah, exactly.

And the music isn't that crazy like.

The music, yeah, portion of it.

That's why I want to talk, Like, so you said you originally read the script without any music.

What was your guys's process, Like you had dance rehearsals before, because I feel you shot the movie in a pretty quick days.

Right, Yeah.

We recorded everything in la first without doing anything.

Then we went to Utah and got into the studio and they had the finished products of the songs and we would learn the choreography to those.

I spent what four days recording the first album like so quick?

Yeah.

Wow.

The first time I ever walked into a recording studio, I was recording We're All in This Together.

Yeah, And thankfully it was We're All in This Together, and not the original lyrics, which were Everyone's a Winner, Everyone's a Winner.

No does know about those songs?

Is that in theory?

I feel like in theory they shouldn't work as well?

As they do, like they're almost corny, but they're so good.

I don't feel like there's something about watching them in the movie.

I was like, all of these I don't know how.

You know when somebody tries to write a song for musical and it's just like a little too generic.

None of that doesn't happen to any of those songs.

They chose the right people to write.

Each song's great.

But I mean when we were recording Bop to the Top, I literally turned to Kenny and I was like, Kenny, shit, zap zop flop like a mop scooter around the corner.

What He's like, Honey, these are children who wrote these songs, and they are they're projecting this, this make believe thing that there.

This is their idea of a Vegas song.

I'm like, oh, okay, I get it, but will kids get that right right years later?

Period?

I only got it.

I watched it last week.

I was like, oh, I also just really enjoyed watching you.

I like, I haven't seen it since I've known you.

And I was like, God, damn, he's good.

No, seriously, I was like, you are.

It's not all of you are so good.

It's not easy to like pull off that like joy, that campiness, but like you still believe it.

It's not too much.

I don't know.

I think what you were saying, like Kenny, that you all just go for it with all your characters, whatever was happening with the chemistry on set between you, whatever Kenny was instilling in all of you, like it all clearly we felt it as an audience, well.

I appreciate that.

It just was perfect for like timing of like Okay, I've done a couple of things, but I still was very green.

Yeah, but everything in my heart, I just wanted to be a serious actor.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

And so I was like, Kenny, can we talk about Ryan?

He's like yeah, going through all these notes that I was making this up, and it ended up being amazing because we had this amazing conversation about Kenny and his life and why this character was so important to him.

Because the first thing I said was like, okay, so Ryan's gay, right, And he's like, well, I mean I don't know what do you think?

And I'm like, well, I mean the dialogue does kind of suggest and I you know, for me, I knew a lot of the you know, I was one of these Thespian guys, but I knew the other ones, you know, just whatever, it's just this is That's that's what I thought.

And he was like, well, okay, we could do something that other people have done before and do this stereotype of what we know, because obviously it's two thousand and five, it's Disney Channel, say anything out right, but you know, we could do this over the top thing that we've all seen, or we can show someone who is in exploration and in discovery and finding out who he is.

And I think that represents a lot of people in high school, gay, straight, or anything else.

And I was like, that's brilliant.

I love that.

And there's so much that ended upon the cutting floor that was like all of those different ranges of that and I love what ended up coming out there.

But you know, it was one of those situations where I didn't really know what version of Ryan was going to come out, say the movie, but all through it it was just like, so he started telling me about his well, this is how I felt in high school and with parents and all these things, and I was like, okay, I'm pulling all of that in.

I'm pulling all my my Thespian background.

Together, the Jazz Squares is straight up out of two choreographers of mine in high school, one in high school, one at the community theater.

I don't know how both they didn't know each other, but both of them put jazz squarers in every single number.

It's the thing.

Easy for kids, especially the ones who aren't great at dancing, to make it look yeah.

But you know, all of us in high school were like eye roll.

And so I was like, Penny, I have to ask, can I put this thing in about jazz squars?

And I told him the whole story, and he's like, I love it.

Let's add a line, let's make it a whole thing, and let's have sharp Pey hate it.

So yeah, and the warm ups and all that stuff that's straight from like my theater warm ups.

You know, so good, growing up, so brilliant.

It was amazing that that he allowed us to just put so much of our.

Oh yeah, so there's so much truth in it.

Like we all knew that kid.

If you were at Thespian watching high school musical, which most of us were, we were like, I am that person, and like I take myself just as seriously as they do and it's ridiculous, but it's so good and it felt so right.

I'm so glad that it did.

No, you did, so the journey after the success, right, there's the tour.

There's high school music tour after the first movie.

Yeah, we did the US arena tour.

How many weeks was that?

It was thirty shows in sixty one days?

That yeah is I had people.

Two weeks before we had our first show.

Again, I know, like.

That movie came out, became the success it became, and then within like a couple of months, arenas were sold out.

Came out in January, and our first show was in November.

Oh nuts, yes, nuts.

And we sold out almost every show.

You're like, oh, we're doing this like really fun movie, you know, twenty four days and we see you guys again.

And then you're like doing the top arena tours as rock stars with people screaming, and you're like, oh, wow, this is really popular.

That's crazy.

What was the tour like?

Yeah?

Oh man, I mean the first thing I told my mom when I was a kid that I wanted to be was a karate teacher and a rock star.

Yeah, yeah, you know, I wanted to.

Have both receptions, right, you know.

No, it was everything and more and it was the hardest two months of my life, but it was the best two months of my life.

That's when I knew, like, yeah, okay.

In March, we did the Today show Good Morning America back to back and I taught America how to do We're All in This Together dance like that.

That was like a holy crap.

But when, like I was saying earlier, when you're when you're on stage and people are singing these songs back to you, and I remember this guy, I might tear up doing this because I always do.

I don't know why.

This dad was in the front row with his daughter on his shoulders and we're doing We're All in This Together, and he's just balling.

I could just see that he was so happy to like share that moments, sponsort or whatever.

And I was just like, wow, yeah, first hand impact, you know.

So that and then there was also like being on a tour.

Bus, you guys using across.

The country, and we took like private jets sometimes because we had to go from wherever we were to the Billboard Awards in Vegas and then back when we did the show in Vegas, Kenny had a nice little surprise for us that, oh, I don't know, Michael Jackson's gonna come and see the show with his kids.

So we were all in the dancers dressing room.

He's like, everybody go in the dancers dressing room and around the corner comes Michael Jackson and his kids and we're like what and we shake his hand.

We was like, hey, how's it going, and we like They had built a curtain around the sound booth in the middle of the arena and then it goes dark before we start the show.

They kept it dark for like an extra forty five seconds, which was really creepy to have all those people in pick as they brought him in and I'm wearing all the Fedora's Corbyn's popping out of the thing.

Other than us like having our heels screwed into the floor and the lean.

We were doing all of this Michael Jackson stuff because Kenny did all of his shows, so you know, I'm like doing this thing like okay, we had been doing it several times and then I look out and I'm like, I see him.

That is so weird.

I don't know that's but he.

Did, you know, Kenny came backstage afterwards and was like, Michael loved it, and you know what, guys, he said, he's like so inspired he wants to get back on on stage into a tour.

So wow, So it's your fault, it is, no.

No, it was truly a magical moment.

I Like, immediately I was like, you know, a million of people have gone to see Michael Jackson, but how many people have has he gone to see in an arena concert wise?

So just an incredible thing.

I mean, that was just a couple of the moments.

There was extremely low moments too, because you know, you're you're out on stage, you're getting all of this energy, you're putting all of this energy out and your body is just like buzzing, and then you get done and you wipe down, you take your mic off, and then you go outside and there's screaming people on your side where crass it takes pictures and blah blah blah.

And then you get to the bus and it's like, yeah, whoa, my body doesn't feel right because it's not doing what it has been doing for the last four hours.

What's going on?

What's wrong with me?

And Yeah, that up and down for that extremely short and intense amount of time.

Yeah, was hard on you.

A very singular experience.

Yeah, but oh my.

God, did I love it so great?

How fast after did they say, like, oh, there's going to be a second one?

I think pretty soon because the tour was really successful, like this down yeah a movie.

We had like four days off and then we went into the studio to record the.

Second sounds familiar, yeah, and then yeah, and then we did the second movie.

And I want to say we did have a month or two Well, no, we were in it was summertime.

So yeah, we went right back on tour after the movie.

Wow.

But it was a stadium tour in South America and Central America, so we had to go back into this the rehearsal and like deal with adding fifty feet of extra stage on either side and my practice running back and forth right, Oh my goodness, man.

I mean since it was in South and Central America.

I was the EMC of the show, so I spoke mostly in Spanish.

I had teleprompters, thank god, but yeah, I had to like rush up on that and and translate most of the things that I had done in the in the US show to like condense it, make it more thing, because you can't just go on talking forever to a stadium of people.

And when we did Brazil, I was like taking a crash course in Portuguese two hours before the show, praying that I remembered it.

And that was our That was our biggest show.

It was almost one hundred thousand people, so pressure ult and every country we went to had a slightly different dialect or accent or whatever, so I, you know, was just drilling the differences of that.

Getos.

You know, don't mess that up because these people, if you do it right, they will feel instantly so much more seen in love.

No pressure.

Okay, my god, wow.

Yeah that what's crazy is like how quickly that, like a year and a half before, if somebody had told you you'd be doing that, you like you're on drugs.

Yeah, I mean after I shot the movie, I went with my friends to Europe and was just like going around sleeping in hostels and people's beds and or people's apartments and stuff, and you know, like, all right, this is just whatever.

I had no idea that, yeah I couldn't.

I wouldn't be able to do that.

No anyway, right right, But yeah.

Wow.

Going into the second movie, I imagine now because you guys are a proven successful brand internationally, the stakes are a little different, and I imagine, like going into it is different, the scale of it in so many ways.

It's you know, if you would have asked me day of wrap after this second movie, like what was your favorite one to do?

I would have been like, the first one was really hard, but that definitely would be it.

But now looking back, I would say the second one because I forget, you know, I'm able to forget all of the stress and the pressure.

But there was so much, Like we didn't we shot for six weeks.

We didn't have a day off.

We had one day off Easter.

All of the other days that were off days we were still doing photo shoots, interviews, all sorts of things.

So like it was, it was maddening.

It was intense after a tour too.

Well, that actually helped, you know, the momentum that we just got on a train and they just kept saying, Okay, do this now, do this, now, do this now, and yeah, And I do actually think that that really helped.

And we were all in the spirit and you know, seeing the impact firsthand and getting to like be excited about going back to these characters and what we could do better and more of I think two is the best movie, and I think that's weird that, you know, not all.

Trilogies have that, Yeah, most do not.

Yeah, but like the music is so great.

It's so colorful and fun, and you know, yeah, we were working our butts off, but we were living all on a cul de sac in a country club.

It was like gorgeous in the middle of nowhere.

I mean, Saint George is a decent sized city, but there's nothing around it except beautiful red rock mountains.

So yeah, there was there was a lot of that also comfort knowing like we've even if this doesn't do as well as the first one, like we're not, I'm not gonna like, I don't have to go back to the moldy apartment because I know that, Like my life is a little different now.

And and I mean, where when do you get a chance to wear a white tuxedo and play a grand piano in a pool?

I don't know.

Ask Mat Morrison.

He had to wear a white taxedo in a pool.

One glad And so you know, you guys got we.

Just after.

Okay, baseball.

When do you get to do a baseball musical number?

That's like.

The sport numbers were.

Really knows how to shoot dance well, really knows how to film.

You know the reason why we did that.

J Kelly, Jean Kelly.

So Geene Kelly gets called from the student.

Hey, we we've got Frank Sinatra coming in to do guys and dolls.

But he doesn't know how to dance.

Can you teach him how to dance?

He's like, what sport does he like?

He likes baseball, Well, let's go to a game.

So we went to a game and he's sitting there and he's like, all right, Frank, look at all these moves that these guys are doing and think of them as dance moves.

And then he was like, through baseball moves, taught him how to dance and came that story and was like, okay, we're gonna do that in the second movie.

So crazy.

Wow.

Yeah, we had a discussion about how so many not to bash modern movie musicals.

So many people don't know how to shoot dance well.

And obviously Kenny, thank you a master.

Yeah, and watching high school musical, I was like this, this is how you shoot dance.

Yeah, I can't even imagine, you know, like when we had directors come on and and I feel so bad for them because it's not often that you get to shoot.

Obviously, doing TV, you come in, you have very little time to prep and you have to just like shoot something and turn around.

Yeah, and people are not used to shooting dance obviously.

Luckily, I think we had a pretty good formula of how to do it, so people sort of had their handheld through that.

But because musicals aren't that normal, people just don't have that experience.

You worked literally with the person who has the most experience doing it, Like I just want to not like shooting a musical number with Kenny, obviously, the rehearsal was intense from what it sounds like, like, what was the shooting process.

Like, Well, the shooting process started in rehearsal because Kenny was always the camera.

So, you know, we worked with Bonnie's Story and Chuckie Klaypow, two of my favorite people in this entire world.

They you know, the three of them choreographed stuff and then they would they would teach us and work with it and we work, work, work, and then Kenny would come in and say, oh, let's change this a little bit, Let's change that a little bit.

And then while we would just run it over and over again, he would just be like looking and even if we're dancing and he walked right through us, we would have to move right and if we hit him, oh boy, you do not want to hit him or bump into him or back into him.

Even like you have to be aware that he is there all the time because he's like, you won't know where I'm going to put the camera and if I've got a steady caim weaving through you, guys, you need to be able to be aware of it.

So always always be aware and not just move out of the way, but do it with soul and feeling.

And it just made me think of dirty dancing so much because it's just like but yeah, it was we were being taught how to be on set before we got on set, which was great, yeah, and then yeah, doing it.

It was like, you know, whenever we were shooting a musical number, it was like, Okay, get ready because we're going to be sweating all day because we've got to get the wide and we have to get it perfect before we do any coverage.

And then you know, as the movies went on, we had you know, four or five more cameras right at legit.

But still it was it was not only about getting the moves perfectly, because we were running through that stuff so much.

By the time we got to the shooting.

He's like, before we did, we're all in this together.

He's like, all right, guys, you know these moves.

We've been doing it for weeks because even while we were shooting, we were still rehearsing that stuff.

And he's like, this is this is it.

This is our last number that we're going to shoot, and it's the last number in the film.

This is the culmination of the film.

This is where our spirit source.

So I don't want you dancing from your brains or your bodies.

You have to dig and find some some inner joy and whatever.

We're all in this together means to you find that and dance through that, and we're all for you.

He's like, he would always yell like this is some film forever.

Yeah.

A little so he was like a little pressure like coach, you guys gotta give it your all, but also such like a warm, loving parent being like you guys are doing great and you've got the stuff down.

Now, now it's time to play, and it's time to give a part of yourself.

Yeah to children who need to be inspired, who want to be uplifted and joyful.

And yeah, that was a little bit much for in my head, like made for cable TV movie musical maybe Ken.

Yeah, But at the same time, I'm like, Okay, when do you get that When do you get that opportunity when someone putting a film camera in front of your face saying, hey, do some really cool choreography and dance from your heart?

You know, like Okay, So we all got on board and it was Yeah, it was a dream.

It's illuminating to hear your journey feels like oddly similar in a lot of ways in what we went through and feeling like something is really special, but then also just not being fully equipped for any of it and kind of just on the train and it's NonStop and you're just on it, right, You're riding it for as long as they keep.

Going, and then at some point it.

Stops, right and you're like, Okay, I guess it's time to get off this train now.

Yeah.

I think a lot of us because it was so intense for that three and a half year period of time that as soon as it was done, I mean even in between, we were all trying to squeeze in other movies and projects and things.

As I've said before, I was trying to be a real actor, you know, like Corbin and Vanessa and actually all put out albums, right, and I've been writing music since I was twelve.

Like that was like a dream come true to get a record deal.

But at the time, for some silly, whatever reason, I don't regret it.

I didn't do it because I was like, I want to focus on acting and moved out to LA to be an actor, and I want to act.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, we all choose different busses to jump on and trajectories and all of those things.

But there was a lot there was this deep feeling of like, Okay, I've been I've been eat, sleep and breathing this thing for for so long.

Even though it wasn't I gotta I gotta go like big left hand turn, you know, do something totally different so that people don't think that this is all I can do.

Ye looking back, I even heard Rain Wilson talk about this on his podcast when you're in it.

You don't realize the relationship that your fans have with your character and how comforting it is to see they can watch it over and over again and continue to feel that camaraderie in the connection.

You can have your feelings of angst and frustration with this daily grind, but if you like trying to remember that the character is the thing that you get to play and that you get to do, and anytime someone asks you to do more of it, like that's a gift and no regrets.

But like, yeah, I mean, that's why every time any high school musical thing, when Ashley called me to do Sharpey's Fabulous Cure, yep, without question.

When High School Musical the musical series called like, yep, let's do it, you know, because yeah, any chance I can have to play this character, I will.

Yeah, It's made my life.

There's still there's so much it's still out there.

People still love it.

Like it hasn't gone anywhere in the last five years.

It has only grown.

Yeah, there's something the timing of nostalgia plus people having children that I've been doing a lot of conventions in the last year or so, and I can't tell you how many moms come up, young moms and they're like, I grew up on high school musical and now we've got Carolyn and she just loves it.

Oh and it's like, what it's been that long that can happen?

Yeah, because there's still not a lot out there that has filled that night, right.

Yeah, well, I mean it was so pure, like they don't even kiss in the first movie, So you don't get a g rated thing unless you go back to the forties, and then there's always chances that there's gonna be stuff that doesn't really yeah, you know.

So yeah, it is special to have that squeaky clean thing that any parent can feel comfortable.

But now there's this like history and I can feel it from people like and I didn't under actually this is so My favorite movie of all time is Waiting for Guffman, which is about a small town, fictitious town in Missouri, which is I'm from Missouri, about a community theater putting on a play, an original musical based on for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town.

And it is it's perfect, perfect, It is perfect in every single way.

I can quote every line from it, and I've seen it a million times and it's my movie.

And doing these conventions, Parker POSI was at one of them, and I have seen everybody in these green rooms and I don't come up to anyone because you know, it's like the safe space and you don't want to bother anybody.

But I was like, oh, man, I cannot go without saying something to her.

I waited for a good moment.

She was done eating, she was going up to grab a coffee, and I was like, hey, Parker, I'm a huge fan.

And I just have to say, like, Waiting for Gotain was my favorite movie all time.

I'm from Missouri, like Blaine is, like I grew up doing like that was that was my experience.

Like we had a run and Sheila, we had a quirky Saint Clair, you know, like we had a Livy May You're just incredible blah blah blah.

And I'm like showering her and she's like, oh, that's so sweet, and she was so nice and everything.

And thankfully her assistant came up right afterwards and she was like, oh my god, I watch Halloween Town every year all the time.

I love that stuff.

I was like, not look like a good thing.

I'm not looking like a crazed fan who just like happened to squeeze into the green room or something because she had no idea who I was.

But anyway, so I get done and I'm sitting at the lunch table and Priscilla Presley is also a client of my agents, and so we've done a lot of conventions together.

I've gotten to know her and we're kind of chummy, and so I was like, oh, man, Priscilla, like I just met Parker Posey.

That was so cool.

And she's like, oh, yeah, that's nice.

And then my agent pulls me aside and she's like, Lucas, you like yesterday Parker went up to Priscilla and was like, she did exactly what you did to her.

And after it was like, oh, that's crazy, like world twisting moment.

But then I had this insane, joyous, exciting feeling in my soul like it was just like, oh, that was really cool, and I'm so glad I did that, and I'm so glad that she was sweet and kind and all those things.

It was just like a perfect experience and I was like, oh my god, I get it.

I actually know the feelings some of the people have when they come up to my table and they they're kind of flustered and they don't like I had experienced that, and it was such a beautiful gift, and I was so glad that it was Parker Posy, you know, I mean.

You never know who it's going to be either.

I've met a lot of famous people, but.

You met the most famous person probably evert.

Into your concert and saw you perform.

I was I was a little starstruck.

Yeah, I mean I think anybody would.

Hey, I'm so excited to see the show.

Kenny was like, what's your favorite song?

Oh?

All of them?

Oh, but that was like Paris and Blankets first show that they had ever seen.

Crazy.

Wow, that's that's wild.

And now they're all, you know, crazy amazing musicians of themselves.

And you know, it's really lovely to hear you talk about this experience.

And I'm sure Jenna feels the same way, because I think we also now feel the same about our experience with or just how grateful we are for that opportunity and like grateful that people were ever interested in it.

People are still interested in it, and because the show obviously changed our lives.

It meant so much to us and it's really wild to think about just, you know, the connection between high school musical basically birthing when we were doing press.

I don't even know if I ever told you this, but when we were doing.

You had to answer that question.

One they ever prepped us for.

The question was literally the only note we ever got in the beginning was when we go out to talk about it, try not to mention high school musical.

But if you do mention high school musical, you can't explicitly say we're the anti high school musical, but we are sort of like where the satire.

Yeah, And so that was the whole first season was about like, oh, we don't just break out into song like high school musical does, but also high school.

Yeah.

But then like Jenna and I were watching high school, like this is much more grounded than.

We have a bully.

It's also like you guys are in a real school.

Most of the time you're singing on a stage when you would normally be singing.

Vanessa always Gabriella, she always she was definitely the musical one of like not doing anything.

And then like song my dream song, yeah, yeah.

But I just it's I love that we've been able to become friends, and I love that you are like so integrated into the Glee family, and it's just it's very reassuring hearing your experience, and well.

I really appreciate that.

I remember, you know, when we were doing press, probably for the second or third one.

Yeah, A lot of the times they were like, so what do you think about Glee?

God, high school musical paved the way for Glee?

I mean, you did?

You did?

Did I?

Back then?

I was still auditioning for Glee, So I was very diplomatic.

About I'm sure.

I'm sure you know there's.

A lot of great musicals out there, and I'm sure that you know it definitely struck a chord.

But who knows, you know.

I I love Glee.

I think it's great.

Yeah, we did what we can't say why changing?

Yeah, And I'm.

Really really authenticity is so much more of a thing now, whereas like I can't, Oh my goodness, if I was authentic back then, I was some mixture of myself and a Disney version of myself and Ryan all put together that I had to come up with.

That was like my media character, and and that.

A real trick on your Yes, Psyche, what's real?

And people grow up with the relationship they have with your character, and then they see a relationship, you know, they gain a relationship with you doing interviews, and then they meet you in person and they're like.

What, yeah, yeah, that's right.

We ask everybody who comes on the podcast.

Generally, usually it's about Lee.

What is feeling like Lee leaves you with?

But as we move into this new chapter of watching other music shows, I'm curious what the feeling is that high school musical leaves you with?

M You said it earlier, It is just absolute gratitude.

It's an immense feeling of I mean, I look back on so many parts of my life and they seem like movies themselves that I've watched.

It doesn't seem like it's my actual life.

And every now and then I sync up with the virtuality simulation that we're all living.

Yeah, that we may have created ourselves, who knows.

Sometimes it kind of lines up and I do get to like really feel like that was me so much the time it wasn't.

It's like that's somebody else.

But whether or not it's me or it's not me, it's still is that like overwhelming sense of Wow, I'm so lucky and so appreciative that that that happened and that I got to do that, and that I get to relive a lot of those things with meeting people today who who are still impacted by it and kids who are still who are watching it for the first time.

Now, you know, Yeah, it's an amazing gift.

Well, thank you so much for chatting with us, for thanks so much for having us wonderful hours.

We're gonna have to watch the second and third.

Oh yeah, We're definitely doing the second.

Because I've never been more excited.

Well, I remember just trying to be like a cool kid, like I guess I'll watch the second one.

I guess I'll go to the movie theater watch the third one.

Fully showed up and it was like.

I would would have done the same exact thing, exactly like this thing everybody.

Yeah, and yeah, I was.

I wish that we could do this flopped because I talked the whole time, and I know that that's like you know what, No, I've heard stories from you know, so many of you guys in the cast, But I would love to deep dive and have this conversation on the flip side.

So maybe after we watch two and three, we'll have you back and then we can just talk about everything else.

Yeah, it's nice.

Actually, you're sweetest, you're the best, so stupidly talented.

O, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for spending so much time with us.

Hey, my pleasure, Bye bye.

What a sweet man.

What is an incredible experience, and what a sweet human.

He's so well spoken, he's always just like humility and like he's always himself.

I know it sounds so dumb, like he's so genuine, and I really appreciate it.

I love that, especially like just the success he's had and.

Yeah, yeah, I'm still really grateful and positive and wonderful.

So thank you Lucas for spending all the time with us.

And we hope you guys enjoyed our conversation.

And that's what you really miss Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you really miss.

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