Ross Butler – Teen Beach Movie 2

By: Lisa Steinberg

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

A) I think Teen Beach Movie 2 comes out in June. I’ve also been working on something called “K.C. Undercover.” It’s a Disney show and my story arc begins at the end of May.

Q) Please tell us about your role on “K.C. Undercover.”

A) K.C. is a really fun project. It’s a half hour sitcom on Disney Channel and my character is Brett Willis who is kind of a spy. He takes KC under his wing. I’m training her because I was named “Junior Spy of the Year” and I’m the more experienced guy. We get into a bunch of adventures and you will have to tune in to see how my storyline arcs.

Q) Have you studied comedic timing or is it something that has come natural to you?

A) A little bit of both. When I was growing up, before I started acting, I loved to watch a lot of comedies. I grew up with Ben Stiller and Tom Hanks. I didn’t really watch as many sitcoms, but I watched comedic actors and I loved to emulate them. I think that sort of came natural to me in a way. I also studied how sitcoms are almost like a map. You have to know what beats to hit. It’s a little combination of both.

Q) Was there anything you added to character or improvised for the role?

A) With sitcoms, there isn’t too much that you can improvise on because it is all meticulously written. So, with “K.C. Undercover,” no. But I did get to bring a lot of myself to the character, which I enjoyed. He is a very confident character and loud. He can be obnoxious. That was something I enjoyed because it was a little bit of me and a little bit of me making fun of myself. That was where I was really able to define who I am and make artistic choices.

Q) Where do we pick up when we begin Teen Beach Movie 2?

A) I’m a new character. I am one of Macks friend from before the original Teen Beach Movie takes place. When this movie starts, I am one of the first guys that Mack runs into when she goes back to school. My character is named Spencer and he is the studious kid who kind of has his whole future planned out.

Q) What made you want to be a part of the film?

A) I knew that the first one did amazing. It did really well so I watched it before going in for the audition. I loved the dancing and the energy. I could see how the audience was really drawn to it and how everyone liked learning the dances on their own. It just looked like a lot of fun. So, I went into the audition and I booked it. Once I got there, I got to meet all the cast and learned the dances. I don’t sing in the movie, but I am a part of one of the dance numbers. It was pretty much everything I expected. It was a lot of fun and that was what I was looking for to.

Q) How was it getting to balance the acting with the dancing?

A) Having to balance the dancing was a bit tough because I am not a professionally trained dancer. I did grow up dancing and taught myself how to break dance when I was younger. My mom used to dance as well so I grew up around it, but was never trained. It was a little bit tough because it was fast paced dancing and then we also rehearsed on hard floor. When the day came to film, we had to do it on the beach and I was not prepared for that at all. That was a little bit interesting. For the character, I was raised also to be an engineer. I always wanted to be an engineer so I was doing a lot of extra circulars and a lot of SAT prep. I feel like in that sense I connected with Spencer a lot. We have a heavy focus on what we want to do after high school. So, it wasn’t hard to link into him.

Q) Was there instant chemistry when you joined the cast or did you know some of them before?

A) I didn’t know any of them before I went in. I knew a few of them just because I had watched the first movie, but this was my first Disney venture. This was even before “K.C. Undercover” so it was a little intimidating at first because I was going into this family who had already made a movie together. But the first day I arrived, instead of going straight to the hotel room from the airport I asked them to take me directly to set. They immediately took me into their family and it was a really quick transition. They made it really comfortable for me. I was able to focus more on being creative. They are just a really good group and we all hung out together after set. We all had a lot of fun singing and dancing, even when we weren’t filming. It was a really good time and they were all amazing to work with.

Q) What were some of your memorable moments from filming?

A) One of my favorite moments was during a night shoot on the beach. They were shooting a bunch of scenes and I had a couple hours off and so did a lot of the dancers. A lot of them were local hires because we shot in Puerto Rico. They were all professionally trained dancers and some were salsa instructors. In some of the downtime, me and some of the cast members got some salsa lessons for free while we were hanging out on set. I brought out my portal speaker, played some salsa music and they taught us some steps. That was a really fun night and at the end the people who were shooting came over and we all got into it. It was just a great, great night.  There was one awkward moment between Maia [Mitchell] and I where we had to conversation where the camera was like three inches from her face. Normally when you speak to someone, you aren’t three inches from their nose. We were having an in-depth conversation and I had to be really loud and happy, but three inches from her face. We had a hard time getting through it because I had to be in her face the whole time. We were giggling because it was an interesting moment.

Q) What was it like getting to work with director Jeffrey Hornaday?

A) This was my first time working with Jeffrey and he has done a lot of projects having to do with dance and music. Getting to work with him was awesome.

Q) Will you be doing anything special through social media for the premiere?

A) I actually haven’t heard yet. I think we are going to have some live tweeting action the day of or the day after. I have heard there is some promotional stuff happening, but it is up to Disney.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about the movie?

A) I’m just really excited for the movie to come out. I think everyone is going to like it. It is definitely on par with teh first one, in my opinion, if not better. the dancing is great and so is the choreography. We had a great choreographer who worked on some of the Step Up movies. the music is really catchy. We’re all really proud of what we came up with when we were shooting.