Interview with Lucas and Ashley || 20 May 2006
Lucas Grabeel and Ashley Tisdale play brother and sister in High School Musical, the Disney Channel blockbuster that makes its DVD debut on May 23. This little film has become a skyrocket spectacular with millions of TV viewers and a multi-platinum soundtrack.
Both of these performers have been featured on Disney productions with Lucas on Disney’s Halloweentown High and Ashley as Maddie in Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Now to a generation of teens, they are Ryan and Sharpay, two musically inclined thespians in High School Musical.
Their characters set the wheels of sabotage in motion when they see that a jock Troy (Zac Efron) and a brain Gabriella (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) both want to break out of their cliques and try out for the winter musical. Being a “drama geek” is Ryan and Sharpay’s clique.
Asked about if High School Musical would make drama geeks cool, Lucas mentions that, “It is allowing kids to break out of their shell and say ‘it is okay that I like to do what ever it is I like to do’.”
Ashley told a story she heard that a high school jock, after seeing High School Musical, auditioned for his own high school musical and landed the lead in the play. “I love that,” she said.
Since the film is about cliques and growing beyond your group, Lucas shared about his school days. “I was known in school but not very popular. I tried to embrace the fact that I wasn’t (popular) and say ‘If this is who I am and if I am the kid that is not popular then that makes me who I am and I am going to find the good in that.’ In any situation, find the good in whatever place you are in your life and go for the goals. And don’t worry about what people think because in all reality it doesn’t matter.”
On being popular, Ashley added, “I had moved to California from New Jersey. I was the type of person who didn’t really fit in anywhere. I kind of fit in with all (the cliques). I knew them and I mingled with all of them. However I didn’t grow up with them, I was the new kid.”
Ashley is very close to her family and always refers to them. Her younger relatives seem to look up to her and seek her advice. “I have a little cousin and she is trying to find things to get her in the popular group. I told her that you will find out that it’s not that fun. Just being a good person and make your own crowd.”
Though they are both adolescents, Lucas and Ashley are very conscious about their actions in society. “I have been a role model for little kids when I teach a class,” said Lucas. “I’ve always been around kids a lot. But, now it’s kind of a different thing, growing into adulthood and seeing being a role model from a different point of view. People are going to look at what you wear. You go some place and your picture gets taken. It doesn’t really occur to you because it is happening so fast.”
Ashley added, “I been interviewed for different magazines and its so different, them being interested in everything you’ve ever done in your life. I mentioned that I like horses and there is a whole page on me and horses. I have a dog and she’s featured in like every People magazine.”
And speaking of the magazines, Ashley has been rumored in print to have caught the eye of her co-star Zac Efron, the young man who plays Troy in High School Musical. When asked about the tabloid stories, she just smiled and said, “You just laugh at it. They still ask and it’s still a huge thing. It is kind of funny.” But she assured everyone that she and Zac are just close friends.
Lucas let everyone know the scope of Disney marketing. He noted that along with the DVD and the new two-disc soundtrack of the movie, that there are books and stationary, and T-shirts at Limited Too. Starting in the fall, Disney is to license high schools permission to be able to perform High School Musical as a student play. “Thinking back that high school wasn’t that far back for a lot of us,” said Lucas, “it is really strange to be a part of something like that.” Ashley said that it would “be a blast” to go and see a high school do the musical of their movie and watch someone do her part.
One of the little things Lucas is asked about in interviews is his characters’ perchance for hats. “The way the hat thing worked out was that it was a joke. I did Halloweentown High for Disney Channel and we had the same wardrobe stylist Tom McKinley. So he asked me ‘Do you have anything interesting you want to do with the character (of Ryan)?’ I said, ‘Hats.’ He put one on me and goes ‘All right, we got it’. He went out a got like 50 hats and I wore one in every scene.”
Ashley gives a strong performance as Sharpay, a reading so convincing that she might get typecast. When asked, she answered, “What High School Musical has done is separate me from Suite Life and now they know me by my name. It’s good that they know me as an actress and not a character.”
Asked whom she admires, Ashley said Jessica Simpson for her style and Billy Joel for his music. But for acting, she feels she can relate to Jodie Foster as a performer.
Lucas shared a story about fame. “My sister saw people lip-syncing to my movie at summer camp. She said it was so strange to hear my voice and someone else mouthing the words.” Lucas said that he and his sister did the same thing to recordings just a few years ago when they were kids.
When the idea of High School Musical being a pop culture phenomenon, Lucas said, “I’m glad to see it is an entertaining movie.” But the most important thing is, “Families can get together and watch it.”
