Episode Transcript
I'm not sure I've ever and this is saying something because we've gotten some amazing guests on the show, but I'm not sure I've ever seen our producers as excited as they are for today's episode.
Speaker 2And I am right there with this excitement.
Speaker 1Everybody is so excited.
So we're not gonna wait.
We're not gonna wait.
We're just because everybody knows why we're here.
We're here because yes, Protozoa himself from Xenon and Xenon the Zequel is here.
Let's not even wait any longer.
Oh my god, if we flip on and he's got frosted tips, our producers are gonna just go nuts.
They're gonna go nuts.
I don't, I will never.
We'll hear the scream even through the muted zoom.
Yes, so please help us.
Welcome Philip Riese.
Speaker 3Hi, guys, Hello, how are you good?
Speaker 4Good?
Speaker 1How you doing so good?
Doing great?
I was just saying in your intro we've had some incredible people on this show, we really have, but I have never seen our producers as excited as they are for us to talk to you.
So thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 3You all welcome, You're welcome, most flattered with a lovely interest.
Speaker 5I'm good to hear it.
Speaker 4What did you say?
Speaker 1Well, essentially that that that it was they're so excited that we again, we have people from all the channel everything, all the movies, all the big and they're like texting, we have a text chain, and it was you're not gonna believe.
You said, yes, you're not gonna believe who's coming on the show?
You're not It's been days of this now, and then after.
Speaker 6It was like, no, we've all been just so excited.
You are such a huge part.
Speaker 2Of so many young.
Speaker 6Girls and so many fans out there that I mean, Xenon was like one of the biggest you know, Disney Channel original movies and on.
Speaker 2A replay, replay, replay, and they are just huge fans of you.
Speaker 1Yeah, we also would like to start with an apology because we know you've you're in the midst of an incredible career that's been decades in the making.
But we're going to pretty much just focus on Xenon, So we apologize because it.
Speaker 4Hit something, hit a nerve.
Speaker 3It's beautiful, you know, twenty plus years or however long it's been, and it obviously resonated in many generations.
And I have kids or adults what I'm saying, I've had adults with kids coming up to meet today saying, you know, similar things.
So who wouldn't want to be part.
Speaker 5Of something like that?
Speaker 6You know, absolutely, And I'm especially with Disney Plus now that that all of the Disney Channel original movies are being placed onto Disney Plus.
Now it's got it's like rebirth, this new generation of huge fans that now are also obsessed with Xenon.
And it's got to feel so great to see multi generations of fans coming up to you.
Speaker 2That's so exciting.
Speaker 3Yeah, No, it's very to I'm just curious, you know.
Speaker 4I always ask him why, why?
Speaker 3What was it that struck a chord in you?
Or what was it about the the show that made it so special?
You know, I'll be curious to know.
Did you watch it?
Speaker 4Were you a fan?
Speaker 1I have to say I did, yes, yes, Oh I missed it when it originally came out, but I watched it last night, so it's a little different.
Yeah, I'm a little older than Sabrina, so I was past my age group, but she was right there.
I'm sure I was.
Speaker 6I mean, I think for me, it was you know, obviously the idea of living in outer space like and a huge part of it was just how adventurous she was.
Speaker 2I loved the Xeneon character.
And then of course it's you know, all about zoom Zoom zoom.
Speaker 6Like that song good and truly, I of course think about it nostalgic wise, but when we rewatched the first one, that one we did actually in our first season of the podcast.
Speaker 2The song stuck with me for months after.
Speaker 6It just it's so catchy and it just was it was a great adventure.
I'm I was so excited.
I actually really didn't watch the second one.
I think I phased out of it before the second one came out.
So it was really nice to watch it this time and realize, like, your character played such a huge role, and I loved your character.
We didn't get a chance to really see what your personality was with the character, and you know, obviously he was just this like uber, famous, awesome rock star.
But for you to have the development of your character in the second movie, it was just phenomenal.
Speaker 2It was so fun and you were so big and so great.
Speaker 1It was just.
Speaker 6Like I had a giant smile watching the second one the whole time.
Speaker 2I thought it was amazing.
I loved what you did with your character.
Speaker 5Thank you thing.
Speaker 4Yeah, no, it's nice.
Speaker 3They beefed it up for sure, you know, so they kind of made part of that little the adventure, the road trip with with the two girls.
And then of course you got to have that much duty in there.
We shot it in New Zealand, which was nice.
The first st in Vancouver, this one in New Zealand, it was it was great.
And as for the songs, you know, zoom zoom zoom.
That song was only given to me the night.
Speaker 1Before, really really yeah.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 3And Susanda Pass is the executive producer.
And in her previous career she was she managed the Jackson five and you know she was part of Motown.
She was married to Berry Gordie, so Michael Jackson and all that stuff.
Just you know, you had proper music wait behind it.
So they got someone great to write the music and then they if I remember, the night before, the song came for whatever reason, it was delayed and they needed the dance.
They needed the song, the dance, the whole performance, the whole thing.
But they forgot to ask if I could dance one thing.
Of course, you know, as an actor you say, yeah, I can dance, I sing, I ride a horse, bareback horse.
So he came to this choreographer and it's fantastic and boy, and it was this, It was that you just like Shart sayed into this onto the soundstage at the end of the stays shooting to rehearse the scene, the song, the performance, and I just have two left feet.
Speaker 4He was this thing.
Speaker 3There, you're gonna go d You turned with the guitar up in the air, you dropped to your knees, you know, and then the band you do the same.
Speaker 4And oh my god.
Speaker 3And I just saw Suzanne, who's just used to watching Michael Jackson dance right just looking at me with her entourage and.
Speaker 4Just like, what have we gone here?
So in the end they just told the band, the band wrot far better than I.
Speaker 3The band could do all the moves and protozore just you know, three steps left, steps right, a little bit, shoot.
Speaker 4Your guitar up in the air.
Speaker 6And it worked, It worked, worked, It absolutely worked.
Speaker 1I have a So then okay, let's let's we we do like to ask this of Aver because we are going to focus a lot on Xenon, but we also like to know all of our guest's origin stories.
So how did you first decide to become an actor?
Speaker 3Well, I think of something I was always interested and I was always interested in movies and film, entertainment, the theater, all of that stuff.
So that was the kind of first, you know, first kind of the scenes planted and I realized, you know, acting is possibly a job.
I started doing teen workshops and stuff like that in London where I grew up, and then puberty here and you realize there's other things to do.
So I kind of reacting by the wayside.
And then I would say around about nineteen twenty.
But I still love film and cinema and everything.
But I say about round twenty nineteen twenty, I went to.
Speaker 4See a.
Speaker 3We'd see a ballet.
I've never seen a ballet in my life, and I just had such great respect for the dancers on stage.
I had no idea what the story was.
It was way beyond me, but just that form of expression, and I just like, you know what, I literally came out.
Speaker 4I was sweating.
Speaker 3I was like, I need this, I need to do something akin to that.
I was doing something very very different, and I went home.
I said, I think I got to go to acting school, acting classes, acting college.
Speaker 4All of that.
I got to do it, you know.
Speaker 3And I wanted like the support of my family, and they sent go for it, son, because my grandmother was actually was a dancer.
My mom, I think, tried acting for a minute, so and that's kind of it.
And then I did that, and I studied at an American school in England, and then I transferred out to the US and I continued in my studies here and I was going to go back to London, and then I got a few jobs and one of them being zen On, you know.
Speaker 6So I was like, oh wow, was was zeno On your first intro into Disney?
Had you auditioned for them at all before or prior to it?
Speaker 2Do you remember?
Speaker 5Well?
Speaker 3My very first job I got in England was called Stick with Me Kid this show, and that was a Disney show shooting in England, and I did one episode there but it wasn't I don't even know if it showed in the UK, and if it showed, you know, Twiggy the yeah Na six.
Speaker 4I played her headdresser long line.
I got the job because I was.
Speaker 3Working in a hotel and Dan Petree Junior, who wrote Beverly Hills Cop Donald Petree, you know, he's a legend.
And he was staying in the penthouse and and I was working room service.
I think, oh my god, we have the writer of Beverly Hills Cop is staying here in London, England.
I need to talk to him, I said, if he orders anything, I'm taking that trend.
And I did, but his wife was there, so so I ended up writing a note to him, I want I'm an actor, I want to be an actor, and bout these and I just put it under his door.
And then the next time I went up with the train and the wife opened, but Dan was there, and she was so sweet.
She goes, oh damn, look it's Philip.
Philip who wrote you the note about acting.
I said, Liz, I don't mean to be a pain, but you know, if you have five minutes I made you know, I love to just pick your brain.
Speaker 4You wrote one of my favorite.
Speaker 3Movies, and blah blah blah, he said, of course, and he took time out.
One evening, I went up to the room and for an hour he told me about being an artist, being an actor, or a writer or whatever.
And he was directing as well.
And he also gave me this audition for this.
He was in town to do this Disney thing.
He was the big American producer, and he gave me an audition and that was the first role I got.
Speaker 2You know what that is.
Speaker 1That's a great story.
That's a very good story.
Speaker 2Story, that is a story from a movie.
Speaker 7Wow.
Speaker 3He was the first person I went to when I came back out and I told him I might come to LA and he goes, well, you know, it's a big deal.
Speaker 4And blah blah blah.
Speaker 5I said, well, he.
Speaker 3Said, you probably weighed a lot more tables out there as well.
Whatever it takes.
So I met him when I was out here in LA and by that time, I think it was the head of the Writers Guild.
And again he set me up with some meetings with Jane and Janet Hirschison who you know Castle John Hughes movie.
Speaker 4Yeah, you know, so these.
Speaker 3I find that when you make those decisions, those life decisions, and you're not quite sure how it's going to the how about it?
But you know it's kind of necessary to stay true to yourself.
The kind of universe comes along and says here, here we go.
Speaker 1We'll help you out.
Speaker 4Wow.
Speaker 6We will be taping a live episode of Magical Rewind at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1If you live in the Southern California area or if you can be in the Southern California area on December fourth, we have an opportunity for you to join us.
Between now and November twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, you can enter for your chance to win tickets to attend the Coast one to three point five private holiday Party at Disney California Adventure Park on December fourth, twenty twenty five, including an overnight stay at the Disneyland Resort Hotel for a family of four and two day one park day tickets to Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park.
Speaker 6Plus you'll have the chance to meet us while we're taping an episode of Magical Rewind inside Disneyland California Adventure Park.
Speaker 1Visit Coast one of three five dot com forward slash Magic Rewind Now to enter for your chance to win.
Now, when you were growing up, I know that Disney Channel was they kind of they brought it to the UK.
So were you watching the channel growing up or was this something that was kind of new to you.
Speaker 3It was kind of new to I mean I love my Disney movies for sure, but the channel itself, No, I was watching more MTV.
Speaker 1I think, right, Oh.
Speaker 5God, that was kind of my vibe.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is so okay.
So you get an audition, you hear about Xenon.
What is the first thing you think when you read the script and you see this character.
Speaker 3Well, if you're English and in your early twenties, you get to play a lot of musicians, this kind of was a default thing.
So I had also just done a play where I had this kind of character, a bit of swagger and Oasis were big back then, so I kind of created this character already.
It felt akin to it felt in my wheelhouse.
So I kind of pivot.
I kind of transplanted that onto Protozo because he wasn't written necessarily English, he wasn't written with that much.
Speaker 4I don't know what you're a swagger?
Speaker 3I guess is what you call it, because I remember I went into the audition and the guy's like, yes, it seemed more like a sting, like a very I ain't doing stink You and he was open to it.
Ken was brilliant, he was open to it.
So I read it and I was like, you know, I got a handle on this.
It's maybe not what they're expecting, but I think I got a take on this.
And it was one of those things I just went in.
I did it for the Castrooders.
She brought me back and everyone was in the room and it just sung.
You know, there's something you know, you guys know, sometimes it clicks and sometimes it and this one I just felt I think I got it.
I remember there was a moment that was summer.
I played three musicians, three versions.
I went, that's why I did the blonde hairs.
I gotta do something different with this guy, right.
Speaker 2Okay, so that was you.
Speaker 1That was your idea then to do the hair?
Speaker 3Yeah, because actually tell the truth, it was from a previous role I did maybe a month prior with with Luke Wilson.
I did a comedy with Luke Wilson and I had the peroxide blonde hair bit like Johnny Boy in Train Spotting if you're Billy Miller.
So I did that peroxide and then that audition came, So I went in with kind of blondie hair.
They like that, and then they came up with the let's make it all spiky.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 6Oh my, I have to ask because it actually showed quite a few shots this last movie of like Closer and the Perfect like the precision in the perfect squares of the spikes.
How long did that take in hair and makeup to get prepped?
There?
Speaker 4Longer than the girls really.
Speaker 5Was.
Speaker 3I had the early morning call times, especially in New Zealand.
We had to shoot a lot on a location and on that beach in the Piano.
Speaker 4From the Black Sand.
Speaker 3Yeah, a lot of the stuff on the beach was at that was there, which was beautiful, but it's quite far from Auckland.
Speaker 4It was like a two hour drive.
Speaker 5Oh my call time was to do the hair, to.
Speaker 2Do the hair.
Oh my gosh, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1I love so you shoot the first movie?
Speaker 5Yes?
Speaker 1Does anybody have any idea what this thing is?
Is there any kind of inkling of what this could become?
Oh man, people are going to love this or is it just well?
Okay, that was great, Now on to the next.
Speaker 3Well, that's kind of how I felt when I put everything into it.
But then you know, you just move on.
But when we did it, we did a screening with a full audience at the on the Disney lot on a Saturday morning.
Speaker 4And it just worked.
Speaker 3Yeah, this is this is flying by.
There's a real just the lovelier spirit to the piece.
And then we came out and then I thought, I'm when it aired.
I remember the night it aired.
Speaker 1Where were you I was.
Speaker 4That's a whole other story, but I was what I watched it on TV.
I watched it on TV with a friend.
Speaker 1I won't I won't ask too much more, but I'm guessing that's a great story in itself.
Speaker 3I think it was a slow burn.
Speaker 4I would.
I think even they'll admit it.
It was a slow burn, you know.
I think the kids watched it.
Speaker 3But the idea of it just being a rewatch and everyone going back to it, and the fact that it didn't live on a streaming service.
Speaker 4At that time, you had to wait.
Speaker 3Yeah, and then I would start hearing rumblings walking to auditions.
Even the casting directors were calling me in because of that.
But then just going to going anywhere, just like, Wow, this is landing, This really is landing.
Speaker 4I kia.
Speaker 3This lady came from behind the counter gave me this big hug.
I loved you on this and then it just became almost daily, and I don't belonged hair, right, So it took a moment for them to realize.
Speaker 5That I was that guy.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, so crazy.
Speaker 1It's still resonating.
I can tell you because right before I popped on here, I was in a meeting and there's nineteen people on a zoom and I said, I'm so sorry, I have to leave.
I'm interviewing the actor who played Protozoa and Xenon, and half of them, Oh my god, are you kidding me?
Wait right now you're doing You're going right now like where I was like, yeah, going right, Oh okay, that's the coolest thing, and they're like, mid story, I'm like, no, I really have to go, I really have to go.
So it's been resonating for decades.
People love this franchise.
Speaker 2And right after it it came out.
So you're saying it was like a daily.
Speaker 6Did it sort of feel like you were actually Protozoa the rock Star?
I mean the fans, especially being younger, and then you know their moms loving that their kids loved the movie and love you, and you know, what I mean, it had to have been like sign my kids T shirt sign anything, right, were you just getting like signatures after signatures?
Speaker 3There's a lot of signatures and yeah, it's just a lot of Yeah.
When the moms are fanning out a little more than they did, it's a funko pop now, you know.
Yes, so that exists.
I mean I would say the weirdest.
I mean, it's all great, right, No, I love it.
I love the fact that people responded to the show.
The films has nothing to do with me, and the fact that I.
Speaker 4Was just part of it.
Speaker 3Who doesn't want people to see your work in such a positive way.
But I was in London and I went to well, I was in Stratford.
I went to see Shakespeare's Hunt.
Right, I went on location.
Let me go see where Shakespeare lives, the greatest writer slash artist of our of our of all time.
Speaker 4Right, let me go there.
Speaker 3So there I was taking a little tour through whatever his kitchen was.
And I think his father was a was a biger, I.
Speaker 5Know what it was.
Speaker 3But anyway, he's there and I'm going through all like all this stuff was and there's about four girls over.
Speaker 4There, and the whispering.
Speaker 5I'm like.
Speaker 3Walking and I come to the end of it, and then one of them kind of kind of came up to me.
Speaker 4She said, you pretty as are.
Speaker 5Yes?
Speaker 3Oh my god, And they start fanning out in William Shakespeare.
Speaker 4This this is.
Speaker 5What it was.
Speaker 4It was all about Xenon.
You know, of course this Trump's Shakespeare.
Speaker 3Wow.
Speaker 1Just so the first this movie comes out, like you said, it's a bit more of a slow burn, but you can tell it's a hit.
It's big on the channel.
People are loving it.
You hear there's going to be a sequel or a sequel coming out.
Uh.
How much different was shooting the second one?
I mean was there was it kind of like you could tell there was more money involved, you could tell they were going on a grander scale.
Or was it kind of exactly like it was shooting the first one.
Speaker 5No, it was a little more.
Speaker 3Definitely there was a you know, newer location.
There were more locations.
We were over on the other side of the world.
This time we shocked for the same amount of time.
I think they were just I mean, this is how long ago it was.
They were just prepping Lord.
Although there were start shooting Lord of the Rigs in that same area, similarity and not.
Of course, no one knew what that would become.
So I remember that a new director, lovely director who's no longer with its, called many Koto, So he was great.
So there was you know, every director brings their own sensibility to the piece and the tone to this said.
But I was just happy that I had more things to do, you know, and I had the song.
I really like that song too, And at this time I asked to move a bit more.
Speaker 5I got rehearsal time.
Speaker 2Did they set you up with proper rehearsal.
Speaker 6Time is the question, of course, Yes, yes, give me a little bit of time to learn, you know, the choreography, the movement everything.
Speaker 7Yeah.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3And by that time, you know, we had become Holly who plays Aunt Judy, we'd become good friends, and Stuart Clanklin, the commander, and the girls they were you know, they were hitting it that that teenage as well, so they were very different even two years prior.
Speaker 5Oh really, yeah, that was fun.
That was all fun.
Speaker 3You know, you get to work with people that you'd seen as a kid on TV.
You know, these some wonderful character actors list in that movie.
Speaker 1Yeah, now, we did the research.
So you obviously lip synced the songs, but was there ever a chance that you were going to sing them or was that never even a possibility.
Speaker 3They may have asked and you sing.
I would have said no, and then they I mean, you don't want to hear that you think my dancing's bad.
Speaker 1It's well, yeah, no, that's the channel does that sometimes Because like zac Efron, the first high school musical was lip syncing, he was not allowed to sing.
So it wasn't until he went to them and said, look, I can actually sing.
Let me sing in the second movie.
So I didn't know if that was the same with you, because I'm the same way.
I don't sing or dance, so it would be all fake for me all the way around.
Speaker 3I never even thought about that.
I didn't want to say.
I just didn't want to put that pressure.
I just know how I mean for me to be for me to sing that song, it would have taken a moment, It would have taken a real moment, yeah, of practice for me to be truly comfortable and still be protozo the.
Speaker 2Voice of the music, though.
Speaker 6I mean, I had to look back into the research that we had to know whether or not that was you singing, because it was a very similar tone to your voice.
Speaker 2I mean it was so, I mean, it passed so well.
Speaker 6I mean I really did, so, you know, I mean you could have just been like, yeah, that was me.
Speaker 5I have done on occasion that was me.
Speaker 6It was.
Speaker 1Oh man, that's okay.
So then the second one comes out, and that one was kind of an instant hit.
Yeah.
So did you notice that that that one kind of hit right away as opposed to slow burn of the first one.
Speaker 3Yes, definitely, because they were already talking about at number three almost immediately.
Speaker 5So yes, and that came out.
When did that come out?
Two three?
Speaker 1And the second one?
Yeah, yeah, I think it was two thousand and three, So yeah.
Speaker 3Thus through so by that time, so before it came or maybe it came out, and then I booked.
Speaker 5Then I was off.
Speaker 3In China for about nine months shooting the first American show to be shot in mainland China with Dennis Hopper.
So that was kind of cool, and that I made the documentary on that experience that was kind of bonkers and amazing.
And then and then I came back and I booked twenty four, so that kind so now I'm going a little roll here.
And then I booked Nip Tuck, which no one knew that was going to be what it was.
Speaker 5So that's really the only reason I didn't do Z three.
I was on Nip Tuck at the time.
Speaker 6Oh really, was there a like in the script?
Was there a possibility for you to be back?
Speaker 5Oh?
Yeah, I was in Z three, There's and some others.
Speaker 2Yeah, they recast Oh they recasted three third.
Speaker 1I don't know any but yeah, I know that they recast it.
Now, how we Were you bummed that you weren't able that they recast you, because obviously it's your scheduling.
But were you bummed you couldn't do it?
Speaker 4Yeah?
Speaker 5I mean maybe we could have made it work, but I get it.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I was this is this is where I was heading now, So that was fine.
And the guy who played me, he's still is a friend now.
He actually became a friend down the road, Nathan.
He's a lovely guy.
Oh wow, And that's not an easy job to go in and do something like that.
I felt for him, you know, and I thought he did a great job.
Speaker 6Raven was recasted in this sequel.
Yeah, how was it spending time with the actors, you know, was there a different vibe with the girls?
You know, obviously I'm sure her and Kristen had had a connection in the first movie, and then now there's a recast.
What was it like on set with the recast?
Speaker 5She was great.
Speaker 3I forget her name, but she was lovely, delightful, you know, and they'd come with their mums because they're young, right, So, and we're on location far from home, so we're all hanging out.
Speaker 5We're all doing excursions and oh what kind.
Speaker 2Of excursions did you guys get to do?
Speaker 3Oh my god, there's there were these New Zealand that there were these things Roadchua.
There are these guys, these hot guys as there have you been?
Speaker 1No, I was supposed to go and that's one of the places we were going to go.
I had to cancel.
I was there going to be going for a convention.
Speaker 2Wait, what is it?
Speaker 3These hot hot jets of water that come from the earth, these natural Yeah, you know, by.
Speaker 1The way, Shadia is the name of the Shadia.
Speaker 3Yes, she's lovely, lovely.
So yeah, so we did that.
We did these boat trips, wine, you know, wine tasting.
I think I what's good I am.
Speaker 5I'm gonna say I mowed a lamb.
Speaker 3I I sheared.
Speaker 1Lamb is a totally different thing, by the way, I do see that.
Wait, you shared a lamb sheep?
Speaker 5I think it was a little old.
Yes, we went to We're in New Zealand.
Speaker 3It's what they do, right, They lamb, they shear, lamb, they do all stuff.
Speaker 6That is so funny that someone set that up for you guys to do.
Speaker 1Have you never done that?
Speaker 2Have I never done that?
Speaker 5Oh?
Speaker 2Yeah, will and I have?
That's going like going to the movies.
Have you done you've done that?
Speaker 1Are you never shared a sheep?
Come on and everybody shares a sheep?
I can see you not mowing a lamb.
But that's different.
Speaker 6I just I can't even imagine.
I can't even get a picture of what that would look like.
Speaker 5It was.
It was good.
I did quite a well good job.
I think the said, well done.
Speaker 2There you go, next line of work.
Now do you do you?
Speaker 1You have kids?
Right?
Speaker 5I have a boy?
Yes?
Speaker 1And has he seen Zina?
Speaker 3He's seen I think he gets to you've seen at least half of it.
He said, He's not too interested in what that does.
Speaker 2How old is he.
Speaker 5He is fourteen in ten days time.
Speaker 6Okay, so even when he was little, he wasn't interested in watching you do zoom zoom zoom.
Speaker 3I know, really were his teachers and I'm picking him up from school like, oh my god, you guy's purtozoa that's cool.
Speaker 6Yeah, he's like, did you see zoom zom zoom?
Speaker 2They're like, yeah, is.
Speaker 1He following in your footsteps?
Is he an entertainer?
No?
Speaker 3I mean he's very outgoing, definitely an extrovert, but there's no desire to perform yet, which is fine, Which is totally fine.
Speaker 1Okay, So you talk about all these people recognizing you.
Now we sat at the beginning and you've mentioned some of them.
You've gone off and done some pretty extraordinary, extraordinary things.
You're talking about twenty four and Nip Tuck and some of kind of the greatest television shows for the last decade or so.
Were you on set with anybody who was recognizing you from Xenon?
Speaker 3Well, it was I was on Pretty Little Liars, the spin off that they did with Sofia Carson, and I guess she was a big fan of Pretty So I actually.
Speaker 5Played her father.
Speaker 3On a number of episodes, so that was and she got me to dance.
She's the only one who did it.
She got me to dance the dance with her.
Speaker 5And then.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh, it's and then who was I don't know, it's you know, it does happen, and sometimes they don't get it straight away, right, and then it's someone whispers to them.
But it's always been Sofia and all of that cast and Pretty Little Eyes were yes, spin off, I should say that was.
Speaker 6Right right during the time that they were all one and home Friday night waiting for that new dcom to hit.
Speaker 1And well, were you on Glee?
Speaker 3Yes, I did an episode in Glee.
Speaker 5That was nice because working with Ryan's company.
Again, that was good because that.
Speaker 1Seems like Glee would have been.
You would have walked down to that set and everybody was.
Speaker 3Like getting everyone's names, but as I'm sure they forget mine.
Speaker 5But I I yeah, that again was a Again it's that's it's that age.
Speaker 1Group, right, yes, age exactly, but.
Speaker 3That age so it's like thirty five year olds, so even we're getting younger there, it's like recently even that young teenagers.
Yes for stopping me, which is new at this stage.
In twenty twenty five, because it's been a moment, right.
Speaker 6Right, But it's it's that Disney Plus, I mean, and they're even today.
I turned on my Disney Plus for my kids and there was I mean, obviously I'm rewatching all of these dcoms, but there was the the one with Tyra Banks and Lindsay Loewen, like that was the main one on my screen was like one that was also done like twenty years ago, you know, so.
Speaker 3They change the tiles about what they changed the tiles on the on the and.
Speaker 1Also based on what you watch.
So because we're watching all of these d coms for for a job, I now turn on Disney Plus and it's like it looks like I'm a fourteen year old girl frankly, because it's like, yes, it's crazy.
It's like, why aren't you watching Cheeah Girls One World yet?
And I'm like, because they haven't assigned it to us yet.
Speaker 5Your experience on one of those on that then.
Speaker 1What on?
Speaker 5Yeah?
Speaker 3What was with you know, doing work for that age group for that kind of demographic?
Speaker 5How is it?
Speaker 3And it's staying with you, right, It stays with you maybe more than other shows for adults.
Speaker 6Absolutely, yeah, and again the generations are multiplying just because of this new resurgence of all the dcoms that are on Disney Plus, and the kids are they're loving them, they are.
It's so great to know when there's younger kids that are watching, you know, movies like Brink and Xenon and Smart House and they're seeing.
Speaker 1These awesome and cheetah girls and yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, sure yes.
Speaker 6And for me, I it's the moms that see it and go, oh, you've got to watch this movie.
And so then they get their kids into it because they were fans, which is it's wild.
Speaker 2But I absolutely love it.
Speaker 6It's so exciting, and I know that's exactly what it is with Xenon as well.
Speaker 1Well, that's why you know you're getting older, is you know I had that this weekend.
Somebody came up to me and said, excuse me, can I take a picture with you?
And I said sure, and we took a picture and she looked at me and she said, my dad loved you.
It's like, okay, yes, you.
Speaker 5Just got to own it, right, Yeah, you're honored.
Speaker 1You're honored that it's still generational.
And that's one of those things about Xenon.
Is again no joke.
I just told you.
On that zoom there was a bunch of mostly women in their probably mid to late thirties, who their facial expressions physically changed into a little girl.
When I said I was interviewing you, their eyes popped old.
Speaker 2Oh my god.
Speaker 1It's just it takes you.
That's one thing Disney does better than anybody, is it takes you back to a time where you didn't have to worry about anything.
You were just running home to watch something and it was you didn't have to worry as an adult of what your kid was going to see, and you could just put on the Disney Channel and they were having the time of their life.
So I know exactly what you mean.
Being involved in something so big as Xenon has got to be great for you because it is.
It's something that generation after generation after generation are just finding these films and it's helping to shape who they are.
Speaker 2What I really love.
Have you watched Xenon recently?
Have you watched either of the movies?
Speaker 1No?
Speaker 5No, no, while no.
Speaker 6Well, so when we're watching it, what I love, and we actually talked to Stu Career, the writer as well.
When you watch it back especially the technology, like the electronics, like.
Speaker 2The iPad that they have that you talk about.
Speaker 7Your going, this is years before we're talking about anything like this, and they've got all these like really cool things and you're just like in a smart house in that movie as well, like there's like a ring doorbell that is now existence, and it's like it's wild that you're going, how are they like creating these ideas.
Speaker 2And it's years before.
Speaker 6And that is what I think is really amazing about Xenon is it feels like not far off when you watch it.
I don't think it looks like a movie that was made twenty years ago.
I definitely in the sense of for a kids movie, it looks very relevant because of all of the electronics that are in it, which.
Speaker 2Is so cool.
Speaker 5They got a lot right there.
Speaker 3They did get a lot right in that and in the tone of I'm sure someone was budgetary but it worked well.
We all just assume, you know, by this time they'll be flying cars and everything.
But no, the progress in digital and yeah, it has gone leaps and bounds, but there's still we still live.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's still.
Speaker 3Elements of analogue right around this I.
Speaker 6Will say, watching this second movie.
I'm going, I'm getting I'm not super confident on how they're going to have these aliens come across, Like, I'm going, how is Disney Channel on a Disney Channel budget back then gonna give.
Speaker 2Me an alien?
Is it literally gonna be a person in a green sea?
Speaker 1Yeah?
You're wondering if door.
Speaker 6And it actually the way they did it, I thought it worked.
Speaker 2I was so pleasantly surprised it was.
Speaker 1Okay.
So well, first of all, thank you so much for joining us.
As I think for our last question, let's say they call you and they say they're doing another Xenon.
What do you think Protozoa would be up to now and would he come back?
And would you be open to doing it?
And also, like maybe even because I know your career has gone not just as an actor, but you've also done some pretty wonderful things on the directing side, would you also maybe be open to taking the helm and directing the film.
Speaker 5Oh, I would love to direct it.
I'd love to direct it.
Speaker 3Protozo would be a manager now, right, he would have pivoted to management.
And he'll have his who has a couple of bands going and this and that, and he'll be championing the next vital artists.
Speaker 2Maybe his son is the lead singer.
Speaker 3Maybe yes, yes, yeah, there'll be more more constants in out of Space.
Maybe there's a maybe he'll come on and do the final song.
I'll still find a way to get wangle himself onto stage maybe for an encore.
Speaker 5He probably won't be able to fit in a leather panther.
Speaker 3So yeah, and me as an actor, I'd love to do something like that again.
Speaker 5I think they tried.
Speaker 3Over the years, and I have no idea why they could make that happen.
They've tried to do a show.
Speaker 1That's the thing.
That's what Stue told us was that there was actually sold as a television show after I think the first film, and then something happened and he was just told, no, we're not We're not doing it.
Speaker 5Yeah, it's kind of it.
Speaker 3It buggles the mind why this hasn't turned into a show or something else.
You know, because of this, this is constant.
There's an appetite for it.
Speaker 6You know what's amazing too nowadays it would be spot on, right in trend for you to come back with those bleached tips.
Speaker 2I'm not kidding.
Speaker 6I see so many like junior high kids.
Especially for some reason in my area, it's a lot of baseball kids that when they go to do their big tournaments, the whole team bleaches their hair, and then their moms are going, they're just their moms are like.
It just wigs me out to see them grow it out, because that's how the boys wore during our days.
Speaker 5Is that?
Speaker 6Thank God, it's still will do the bleach tips.
Please, if it ever happens, promise right now, all the fans, you will bring back the bleach.
Speaker 3Because I'm a committee doctor, I'm all in.
Speaker 2Thank you, thank you, that's all.
Speaker 1I ask you so much for joining us.
This is really really cool and taking us down and giving us some some of the behind the scenes stuff that happened on Xenon and Zene on the zequel.
Speaker 5You're welcome, You're welcome.
Well, don't me to meet you, Sagreen.
Speaker 2Yes, you too, Thank you so much.
Speaker 5Okay, thank you too.
Speaker 3Zoomzoom bye bye, and all of our producers just freaked out.
Speaker 2Bye gosh, she did it.
Speaker 5He did.
Speaker 2I wanted to ask him, but I got nervous and then he did it.
Oh my god.
Speaker 6We got a zoom zoom zoom from proto here on Magical Rewind.
Speaker 2They you are welcome, You are welcome, you are.
Speaker 1It's your favorite thing that's ever happened on this podcast.
Speaker 2I yeah, I can't believe you did it.
I can't believe the shock.
Speaker 1This is amazing.
Oh that was really cool.
I also love and one of the things I've learned about, especially through this podcast, is that we have yet to meet someone who's like, ugh, I hated being in Disney Channel movie right.
I can't believe it.
I don't like to talk about it.
I don't want to be involved with it.
This was a horrible experience all the way everybody is like, this was so much fun and I love being part of this.
I would do this in a second.
I love how people are still finding it.
There's something about being on the Channel specifically, huh, that for people.
And there are huge stars that have come from the Channel, obviously.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1I don't think any of them have really turned around.
I'm one or two here or there, obviously, but most of them look back on it as a wonderful experience.
Speaker 6Yes, and for so many people as a huge stepping stone into what they ended up doing for the remainder amount of their career.
Yeah, and to start like and I swear for me, it's like to be able to look back at the things I did and I was in such a great environment, being mentored by such amazing people and being inspired to do more, you know, to just to to really just keep going.
Speaker 2It's just it's amazing.
Like the channel is just awesome.
Speaker 1Awesome, it really is.
It's a pretty it's in the world we live in now.
It is a particularly happy place it is, and there's nothing wrong with that.
So well, everybody got a zoom zoom zoom.
I know that all the producers, everybody freaking out.
They're just they There were squeals.
There were literal squeals, because I heard one from Sabrina, which means that they happen to other places as well.
Speaker 4So uh uh.
Speaker 1Mind, Well, bringing joy to the people, that's what Yesny does.
Thank you so much everybody for joining us.
I don't know wherever we do next time.
No one's gonna squeal the way they squealed this time, although they may, because I think the next movie that we're doing back on our other feed over there for the first time is hocus Pocus, which I've never seen and I know how important this is to people.
Speaker 2It just sticks with me that you never watched never never it is it so good?
It is so good.
I cannot wait for you to watch it.
Speaker 1It's even worse that I've never seen it because my best friend at the time, Jason Marsden, is the voice of Banks the cat.
Speaker 2That's right, you said that before.
Speaker 1Still still haven't seen it, and uh and yeah, knew one of the actors, so yeah, it's it's I'm glad we're finally doing this, yes, which which will be great.
So join us over there next time.
And until then, everybody, zoom zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom zoom.
It's obviously it's not nearly as good as protozoas, but got it doing my best.
Thanks everybody, Bye bye,
