By Courtney Potter
“We’re all in this together” sang the East High Wildcats… and excited fans at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event were together feeling all the feels, as a whopping 13 beloved Disney Channels stars gathered for a hilarious and heartfelt panel celebrating favorite shows and Original Movies of years gone by—as well as today’s hit franchises, including Descendants, and the return of a certain wizard family to our screens!
Moderated by Ashley Eckstein (herself a Disney Channel alum), “Stay Tuned: You’re Watching Disney Channel” welcomed Meg Donnelly, Malachi Barton, and Freya Skye from the ZOMBIES franchise; David Henrie and Janice LeAnn Brown from the upcoming Wizards Beyond Waverly Place; That’s So Raven star Raven-Symoné and her Raven’s Home co-star Mykal-Michelle Harris; Monique Coleman, Corbin Bleu, and Dara Reneé from the world of High School Musical; and Reneé’s Descendants: The Rise of Red co-stars Kylie Cantrall, Malia Baker, and Ruby Rose Turner to the stage for some rapid-fire questions, hilarious stories, and even a smattering of emotion. Below are a few memorable moments:
Several panelists found out they’d been cast in their Disney Channel projects in, shall we say, unusual ways:
“After a long audition process, because of the time difference from London to Los Angeles, I found out at 3 a.m. in the morning,” remembered ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires co-star Skye. “My parents got a phone call. I had a hair mask in; I had pimple patches everywhere! So they said, ‘Freya, quickly, maybe take off some of those patches!’ I was like, ‘What? Okay…’ They said, ‘They need some headshots of you.’ So I stand in front of the wall; I’m posing at 3 in the morning for some headshots—I don’t know how I believed it! And then that’s when they told me, and I just burst into tears. It was a dream come true. I’ve loved these movies forever, and then to get to be a part of it—it’s just such an honor. So we went downstairs and we put on ‘Someday’ [from the original ZOMBIES film] first, and then we just blasted the whole ZOMBIES soundtrack until 6 a.m. in the morning. We had a party! It was such a surreal moment, and I’ll definitely remember that one forever.”
Added her co-star Barton, “I actually had gotten tricked by my manager and my agents. They called me and they said that I hadn’t gotten it. They prepared me for that disappointment—but my mom couldn’t keep a straight face behind the camera. So I immediately knew what was going on.”
Bleu giving credit to Disney Legend Kenny Ortega for fostering the original High School Musical’s success, and on his mentorship of the cast:
“I feel like you have so many cogs that were just all moving in the right direction,” he explained. All of us had worked before; we’d all come from a background in the entertainment field, but nobody was a household name at that point. So you really were watching all of these ‘unknowns’ that were living their best lives. Everyone on set—all of us—were dedicated, hardworking enjoying the process, but we really were authentically living this experience. I think [you can see] that joy is there, and I feel like Kenny not only nurtured that, but he also demanded perfection.”
He continued, “When I think back on my lessons in life, in discipline and how I approach my work, so much of that comes from Kenny. There wasn’t a single moment in those movies where he wasn’t focused on every single little detail, down to our background actors. There were times that he would go have discussions with them; explain to them what’s going on in the scene. He would do a take over again, because the energy coming from the background actors wasn’t ‘correct’—and that isn’t often the case. Oftentimes directors just get the shot, and as long as what’s happening in the foreground is good, they don’t care about anything else. But he wanted every single detail on that screen to be perfect.”
Coleman on how singularly special it was, returning to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series:
As the actress recalled, “In the fourth season, the one that I was in, it had been 15 years [since High School Musical had debuted]—and it really had actually been 15 years, in real life. And so that ‘meta world’ that we were existing in came full circle. When we pulled up to East High School, and I saw it for the first time in all of those years, it literally did feel almost like returning to high school in some way. Before we shot our episodes, Tim Federle, who was the creator, actually reached out and said, ‘You’re going to be coming back on the show and I actually want to hear from you: If you were given the opportunity to say anything, what would you want to say? Either as your character, or as yourself?’”
She added, “I’m a little older than everyone—and so for me, I’ve had a lot of life experiences since then. Having played Taylor McKessie, which was very much like my personality in terms of being an overachiever and so forth, I said to him, ‘I would love to come back and make it clear that your life is not just about your accomplishments; it’s not about what you’ve done. It’s about who you are.’ Because at the end of the day, the thing that is so special is that we get to continue to do this together. After we had shot our scene, Dara and I, when we had it ‘in the can’—I think it’s an iconic scene, it’s so special and powerful to me—Tim literally said, ‘Okay, you guys, we have it. I want to give you one just for you.’”
Coleman continued, “And he allowed us to just literally do the scene and say whatever we really wanted to say—to each other. And just thinking about what it was like as a young Black actress [during the first High School Musical], and how special it is to be able to share the screen with Dara… that moment right before he called action, Tim said, ‘Take up space, ladies.’ And for me, that healed every trauma, every pain point, everything. [I thought about] every door that was opened by the people that had come before me, like Raven and so forth. I felt like I got to heal a part of myself that used to not think that I was enough, by being able to look into Dara’s eyes and think, wow—I’m so happy that you’re here with me in this moment. It was really amazing.”
Henrie on why now is the right time for Wizards Beyond Waverly Place:
“Selena [Gomez, original Wizards… star and executive producer on the new series] and I would just hang out so much over the years,” explained Henrie, “and then I got married and my wife and Selena became close. And Selena would come over, and we’d be reminiscing about old memories and talking about what our characters would be doing nowadays. After a while I said, ‘Selena, we should just have this conversation in front of Disney. I have a feeling it would go well.’ So that’s what we did! We pitched a show idea. And the thing that fueled us the most was wanting to bring back those Wizards of Waverly Place family values in a sitcom format for a whole new generation… The thing that always touched Selena and I over the years was when fans from all over the world would come up to us and say, ‘Hey, we come from a tough situation in life. We come from a really broken situation, and your show showed us that there is this thing called family that can have each other’s backs—no matter what. And it made me want to have a family one day.’ So thank you guys for that.”
Raven-Symoné on how what she’s learned—and how she’s grown—during her time with Disney:
“I grew up watching Flip Wilson, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett,” she admitted. “My parents did not allow me to watch ‘normal’ television. I was only allowed to watch those kinds of variety and comedy shows. So when I was auditioning for Absolutely Psychic—which is the original pilot for what That’s So Raven was called—and knowing that I was able to implement the things that I had studied and learned [from those shows] for so long was an absolute pleasure. I had the bruises and the medical bills to prove it,” she added, to laughter from the audience.
“Disney Channel is one of the only networks that keeps ‘situation comedy’ alive in the way that they do, which I love. And I think it’s important that everybody should know how to prat fall,” she added, demonstrating a perfect pratfall down from her chair onto the stage, eliciting even more laughs from the crowd. She the continued, “But it’s surreal, working with a company that actually allows you to step up the ladder with every single project that you do. I actually got asked to direct an episode of That’s So Raven back in the day because of where I was and how we did things. And I turned it down because … I didn’t want to do it [then]. But as I continued working with this network, now I have an overall deal with Disney; I’m able to produce, I’m able to direct, I’m able to work with young talent and show them what I went through. I learned everything [comedy] that I needed to know from the classics like Flip Wilson, and when it comes to production, from Disney.”