Jordan Fisher – Teen Beach 2

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) Teen Beach Movie 2 and “Liv and Maddie” are my most recent projects.

Q) Were you working on both projects at once?

A) “Liv and Maddie” started when I finished Teen Beach 2. We wrapped the movie in August and pretty much immediately I started working on “Liv and Maddie.” That’s when my work with Hollywood Records started to bubble and take shape. Since last August was when the double, triple, quadruple duty started for me.

Q) How are you able to balance all of the projects that you work on?

A)  I’m very blessed and very lucky to have a really good team that understands the brevity and the power and family where I’m concerned. They understand how much they mean to me and the time I spend with them. You can only work so much and only do so much. Every once in a while I will say that I need a day or two to chill and relax. Everyone is really good at doing that and clearing the schedule to do that. There has been a little less of that lately because so much is going on, but the reason I moved to Los Angeles in the first place was to do what I love for a living and now that’s able to happen I’m very lucky. I’m lucky to be able to say that I do what I love and that’s how I make a living.

Q) Please tell us where we pick up with the story in Teen Beach Movie 2.

A) The movie picks up three months after the first movie ends. The storyline is what you would imagine it would be if you watched the first movie. We all wash up on the shore in 2015 and have to figure out how to get back to our movie. The way we end up in modern times is a lot of where the drama takes place with the story. Lela (Grace Phipps) feels she is destined for greater than playing a chick in a 60’s dance movie so she ventures out to find Mack (Maia Mitchell) who really inspired her to have a voice and do what she loves without being afraid to hide it. She finds her way into modern day and Tanner (Garrett Clayton) follows suit. We all end up in Mack and Brady’s world and we have to figure out how to get back to West Side Story before we all evaporate.

Q) What have you added to your character that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) I didn’t necessarily add anything, but what is great about the Disney network is that they are really good at utilizing peoples’ gifts and abilities. You’ll see a lot more in the cast of what you didn’t see in the first film. I have a hand full of songs in this one, which I’m really excited about! You’ll see tricks and things that people get to showcase in this film that they didn’t in the first one. It’s really exciting for us and we all really loved that.

Q) Please talk about the choreography and routines you had to learn.

A) Christopher Scott, our choreographer, is incredible and world renowned at this point. He was nominated for multiple Emmys so he pretty much knows what he is doing at this point. He has got a crew of dancers that are really quite superhuman that can pretty much do anything that Christopher dreams up. For the cast, a lot of us grew up in theater and with a bit of a dance background. So, we get to really kind of strut our stuff in the film, which is really great. Rehearsal process is pretty intense. It’s pretty much a month straight of conditioning while we learn our choreography. Before we started filming we had a month of conditioning and choreography so that dancing on a beach didn’t seem like that impossible a feat. It was really cool and definitely was planned the way it was supposed to be planned and executed the right way that you see it as a result in the film. You can see the hard work we put into it and there are a lot more dance numbers this time around, which is really exciting. The choreography, music and everything is kind of amped up to an eleven this time around. We’re all really excited about.

Q) Who do you wish you had gotten to film more scenes with for this movie?

A) I really love the dynamic between Seacat and Butchy (John DeLuca). I think that the rivalry is so much fun. You kind of have the leader of the Jets and the leader of the Sharks in West Side Story and it migrates to the surface. It’s cool to see the two rivals go toe-to-toe. It is a lot more friendly this time around, which is great. Once things start to happen, we step outside of the script and storyline of West Side Story, you see the real Seacat and Butchy try to figure things out. That dynamic is fun for me. What we do have together is pretty funny though and I don’t think people are going to be disappointed.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming or behind the scenes?

A) We all just loved hanging out and being together. I think some of my favorite memories were probably just chilling in each other’s hotel rooms and just jamming. Everyone is so musically inclined that we would all just get together in front of a piano in one of the hotel lobbies and we’d bring a guitar down and just sing. We’d jam and have a good time. That would lead to late night conversations and all of a sudden it would be two or three in the morning! We would just talk about life, laugh and crack up. Those are some of my best memories of being in Puerto Rico. We’re a big family. You put a bunch of people on an island for two months and tell them to make a movie of course they are going to get close. It was a lot of fun and that’s definitely what happened in the first film. To be able to go back and relive all those experiences was really fun.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will receive?

A) Definitely! We’re already starting to see some of that because the movie is On Demand so a lot of people are actually able to see it a week before it comes out. To see people who immediately get to see it and respond is really exciting. It’s going to be in everyone’s faces world wide and that’s really cool. It’s fun to see on my Instagram that people are watching it and to see they are having viewing parties all over the world. It’s nice to see how people respond and how much they love it. It holds a special place in our hearts, as a cast, and we hope that people appreciate this one as much, if not more, than the first one.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure to share with fans?

A) Tons of thanks, really. I really appreciate you taking an interest in me. Be sure to follow me on social media. I’ve got some fun announcements I get to make in the near future. Keep watching “Liv and Maddie” and enjoy Teen Beach 2. Keep up with me on social media at @Jordan_Fisher because I have some pretty cool stuff coming out!