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can't nobody hold us down
Join Date: Apr 2006
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X Factor 2009: Joe McElderry
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Its long, but it gives some info on HSM 2
Quote:
Digital Spy caught up with the main cast - Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Gabreel and Corbin Blue - to find out how the show became so popular.
There have been so many records set by High School Musical. What is the secret to its success?
Lucas: "I think one of the things is that it’s a recognisable story that everyone can relate to… everything from the basic plot to the characters, and the setting of this standard American high school."
Ashley: "Another thing is that it’s a musical and musicals haven’t been done in a good while; I grew up watching musicals and for us to bring it back like we did, modern and with something that’s very relatable, I think that gave it a boost too."
Corbin: "To add on to the musical factor, kids can actually participate in the movie. It’s not just something that they have to sit on the couch and watch, they can actually get up, learn the dance moves and sing along to it, and the music’s very catchy!"
Zac: "Also the fact that kids enjoy it, but I think, even more than that, I think their parents enjoy their kids enjoying it, because it’s wholesome, its very wholesome and G-rated."
Vanessa: "I think adults can also relate to it because of the characters are, you know, pretty (much), y’know, people you went to school with – there’s always a mean girl and there’s always a brainiac girl, there’s always the hot jocks so I think that adults actually found it kinda entertaining as well, and it kinda reminds them of the days they went to school."
How long did it take to learn the choreography?
All: "Two weeks."
You learnt the whole thing in two weeks?
Corbin: "We actually learned it in… because we spent the two weeks rehearsing, we actually learned all the dances within a week. And that was not just learning the dances, Zac and I were also in basketball training."
Ashley: "I have to say, and we’re all in this together, the extras had learned all those dance moves that day – that morning."
Lucas: "In defence of that, the dance moves in traditional musical theatre are not difficult at all. There were no leaps, there were no turns, no pirouettes, no ballet, nothing that was extremely difficult. But it’s the simplicity of having 300 people doing the same exact thing that makes the choreography…"
I think that’s what it is, the whole timing of it. It's just amazing that you can all do it in unison. You touch on the basketball there, could either of you play basketball before the film?
Zac: "We definitely had to work at it. I played when I was, well not younger, I dabbled…but yeah, I was definitely not good by any means…not as good as I appear to be in the movie."
Corbin: "Same here, I tried it for like one half a season when I was really little, and I never went back to it again, and I was pretty much the worst one out of everybody when it came to basketball. We pulled it off thanks to incredible editing!"
Vanessa: "We had a little battle, and the coach said that we would shoot better, so we put them up to the test."
Zac: "So you put them half the distance that we were shooting at! You might as well lower the hoop about six notches and then picked them up at the waist and brought them over!"
Were there any other skills that any of you had to learn before you actually filmed the show?
Ashley: "I think we all kinda knew generally. I mean we all grew up in theatre, we all sang, danced, acted! I learned acting well!"
Zac: "She actually had to learn how to not lead! She had to allow me to take the reigns a bit…"
Ashley: "That’s hard, losing control like that…I actually was un-coordinated, I did dance when I was younger, like I remember doing jazz and tap, when I was really little, because I wanted to do it. My sister was a dancer, she was a cheerleader, my mom was a cheerleader, but I was just uncoordinated. So that’s something I overcame I guess, I accomplished."
How did you all feel when you found out you were working with Kenny Ortega (director)?
Corbin: "I IMDB’d him right away and I was like 'wow'."
Ashley: "I remember when we were at the screen test, me and Lucas were in the room with every like Sharpay and Ryan that were auditioning. I did not know if I was getting in at all and I was just so intimidated yet so excited to be in front of him, it was really cool."
Just moving away from High School Musical for a second, bit of a personal question, but are any of you in any relationships at the moment?
All: "No."
Lucas: "We’re so busy with all this stuff, and running around trying to keep a career together, well not keep a career together, start a career basically, it’s really tough to devote even more time to somebody else, and I wouldn’t wanna do that to somebody."
Corbin: "I agree, I date but I don’t have a girlfriend, I can’t make the time or commitment."
Zac: "Yeah, you just sleep around. There's three girls back in his hotel room right now."
And Zac, you kept quiet there. I'm surprised you're not with anyone at the moment...
Zac: "Oh thank you! I take that as a compliment!"
Vanessa: "I’m not surprised." (laughs)
Zac: "Oh, I’d be with the two beautiful girls that I’m sitting with!"
I was gonna say…
Zac: "No , we’re all too close friends!"
Ashley: "We’re like brothers and sisters."
One big happy family! Did any of you know each other before High School Musical at all?
Vanessa: "Yeah, me and Ashley are dating!" [laughs]
Lucas: "Ashley and I knew each other when we were like four years old back in New York. We both grew up on the east coast."
Ashley: "I was like the link to everybody…"
Corbin: "I knew pretty much everyone, except for Lucas."
Ashley: "I knew Corbin when I was younger, I knew Zac for three years because of a friend who was on Summerland with him. And I knew Vanessa – me and Vanessa did a commercial together. Then I knew Monique, who’s not here, but she was on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney channel, that I’m on. I just didn’t know Lucas."
How long did the entire show take to film?
Corbin: "Two months. Pretty much six weeks of filming and two weeks of rehearsal."
Lucas: "We had five days to record the album, then we flew to Salt Lake for two weeks for dance rehearsal."
Vanessa: "Altogether for us it was like two months, for other people it was like a month and a half – it varied."
Lucas: "We only spent three weeks shooting."
Ashley: "Yeah we only spent three weeks shooting, then I had to get back to the Suite Life. They had to cut me off and send me away!"
You mentioned singing there. Zac, could you clear up the business of whether you did or didn’t sing in the show? I’ve been reading reports that that there was dubbing and so on, but do you want to set the record straight?
Zac: "Yeah. To set the record straight, the majority of what is sung in the movie is definitely sung by someone else. His name is Drew Seeley, he’s a great guy. But yeah, I sing like the beginnings and ends of all the songs, and hopefully I can fix that in the future. I’m gonna sing in Hairspray which is the next film I’m doing. I’m gonna sing all my own stuff, two songs that will be on the album, and then all the various other songs. That will be all me, thank God. So yeah, I’m excited, can’t wait."
And how do you feel about working with John Travolta? He’s such a legend…
Zac: "I know! Exactly, he’s such a legend, that’s what I always say. Just to meet him, I would have flown out to Canada just to do that! It's great. We sat down, we’d just finished the casting table read, the big one before we start filming, and there was so much magic in that room. It was just incredible. In one row the entire cast was sitting in front of the various audience you have at those things and it was Christopher Walken, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer and Queen Latifah and I was just sitting there in the same cast as these guys."
At what stage are you now with Hairspray?
Zac: "We started in July, we started early July, and we had two months of rehearsal and we’re just about a week and a half into finally filming. The rehearsal process for this movie was longer than it took to rehearse and film High School Musical, which was absolutely crazy. It was completely unnecessary I think, by the way. For a lot of the time it was just to appease some of the actors. But no it’s going great, the cast is finally coming together."
Do you know when it will be released?
Zac: "Yeah I just think they set a date; it will be summer of ’07. I don’t know the date exactly."
Vanessa: "That’s when High School Musical 2 is coming out!"
This interview has been a dream, because I was just about to come onto High School Musical 2! I don’t need to be here! When do you start filming for High School Musical 2?
Lucas: "Sometime between January and March."
Zac: "It's probably gonna be early February, end of January."
What can you tell us about it at this stage?
Vanessa: "I don’t know, we haven’t even read the script."
Zac: "It takes place in the summer, its probably gonna be called School’s Out For Summer, it takes place in a country club."
Ashley: "It’ll have like a pool, a kitchen, a gym…"
Zac: "And of course there’s a big talent show at the end of the summer, and you know, problems ensue when we’re all trying to scatter around and do that."
So that’s filming next summer, or is it released next summer?
Zac: "Released next summer."
When are you filming until?
Zac: "Probably just another month."
Ashley: "Maybe two months. I mean the Disney Channel really likes to…I mean they’re gonna give us some more time, maybe four weeks in training, but it’ll maybe just take us two months to film it."
And what would you say to a third, because I’ve read somewhere that Kenny Ortega wanted to do a trilogy.
Corbin: "Oh, we have to see"
Ash: "It depends where all of us are individually, you know."
Lucas: "Yeah there’s a lot of us to all be at the same place at the same time. I mean they wanted to shoot the sequel of High School Musical in October of this year, and it's just not possible for all of us. We’ve all got our own things going on; it's just hard to get us all in the same place."
Vanessa: "But we’re very happy to be doing this sequel, and we’re very excited."
Again, I’ll move away from High School Musical, what do you all like to watch on TV. Are you all big fans of Desperate Housewives, Lost, Prison Break?
Ashley: "24 for me."
Vanessa: "I dunno. I really don’t watch that many TV shows, I’m not one of those people who sits down to religiously watch a show."
Lucas: "I hate television so I don’t watch it, but I will rent DVDs of television shows occasionally, or buy them off of iTunes. My roommate just bought all the episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It’s absolutely brilliant. We also bought Extras off iTunes and I’m so excited because I hear that the second season is gonna premiere while we’re here I think."
Zac, you’re tipped to be the next Justin Timberlake, what do you make of the comparisons? Obviously it’s a compliment!
Zac: "Oh yeah, wow. It's huge, you know once again he’s an amazing artist, to even be spoken in the same sentence is… no, it would be incredible, he’s had an amazing career, and a long lasting one at that, and I can only aspire to follow in his footsteps."
I also read somewhere that Simon Cowell once offered you a record deal, did that actually happen?
Zac: "No, various record deals present themselves after you’re involved with a movie, and, aww shoot, I don’t know how much was said, so I can’t say he did or he didn’t. I’m gonna avoid that, but record deals did present themselves."
And Vanessa, Gabriella and Troy never got to kiss in the first High School Musical, I think I’m right in saying.
Vanessa: "They didn’t show the kiss that happened in the first High School Musical."
Were you frustrated that that never…
Vanessa: "Well, ok, the thing is that we did, it just didn’t make it into the movie. They chose the clip where we didn’t; it was supposed to be that me and Troy weren’t supposed to kiss, but Corbin kind of, I think, missed his cue, so by the time he was supposed to come in, the, the..."
Zac: "The lips had locked!"
Vanessa: "Yes, thank you!"
Zac: "But overall the movie, I mean it fits, I think it almost works better without a kiss. It's unneccesary."
Vanessa: "It leaves you wanting more, it means people choose the sequel!"
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23-09-2006, 01:36 PM
Thanks
Tis ok.
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