- Hey, I'm Joshua Bassett.
And I'm here with BuzzFeed to talk about my firsts.
Let's get into it.
(lilting music)
First memory rom filming the pilot
of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
That is such a great question.
The first day of filming, we filmed in Big Red's basement.
Me and Larry did a scene
and we know our characters were supposed to be best friends.
We barely knew each other,
but we immediately had chemistry,
and it was such a cool thing to shoot.
And then Olivia shot her,
I think it kind of, you know, on the ukulele.
So Larry and I stuck around and watch that,
I may or may not have cried, but no.
Okay, I cried, whatever I cried.
It was beautiful. Are you kidding?
Everyone there was emotional.
It was really cool.
It's just she did a lot.
It was like the most, it was so special and, yeah,
it was just a beautiful first day, and it was really cool.
First impressions of your HSMTMTS castmates.
We all first got together
for the table read shortly after,
I think, Larry booked his part.
He was the last one to book it.
And I had already read with Larry
and read with Olivia for their roles.
So I was familiar with them.
And then I knew Julia beforehand, and I sort of knew Sofia.
It was the most special experience when we all got together
and did the first table read.
I just remember the energy in the room was palpable
and everyone was just freaking out
about how great everyone was.
And it was just an immediate bond between the cast.
So that was my first impression of that,
which is not the worst way to start off a series.
First time you realized you wanted to be a performer.
I started doing musical theater when I was like seven,
but I didn't really think about it.
I was seven, you know,
so I just did it 'cause my sisters did it.
But I remember when I was nine,
I played Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka,
and I was doing a dance number
and I had to do this move,
and my shoe fell off and I had no time, like, pick it up.
So I kept dancing and walking around.
Everyone saw that my shoe was on the ground.
And then when I came back around,
I was doing this other dance move.
And as I did it, I stepped into my shoes seamlessly,
and the entire crowd was on their feet, cheering, screaming,
'cause I did not miss a beat.
It was one of the most amazing memories of my childhood.
I just remember that moment being,
whoa, that was crazy.
I would say that was probably the first time I was,
whoa, this is really cool.
I actually really loved performing.
First role you really wanted, but didn't get.
I mean, I started coming out to LA when I was about 16.
There were, I mean, there were a handful of roles.
I was really close to the role
in Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
It was down to me and Ross Lynch.
And he got it, I'm super happy for him.
But I was definitely really hoping for that one.
There's a couple others,
but that one, I guess, stands out to the one
where I was,
I got really close
and I was really excited about it
and it just didn't work out.
But ultimately everything worked out.
First song you wrote for your new EP.
I think it was Sorry.
'Cause I wrote that one about two years ago at this point.
Yeah, that was definitely the first one that I wrote on it.
But the entire EP, I've written over the span of two years.
But if I had to go back, I would say, Sorry.
It was the first one,
which is cool 'cause it's the first song on the EP.
First memory on the set of Grey's Anatomy.
Well, I remember my audition for Grey's Anatomy
which was really special.
The casting director was super kind to me.
And I remember walking out of there being,
there's no way I'm getting that.
There's just no way.
I think I booked a vacation or was trying to go
to San Francisco and they call me,
and they were like, you know, you finally got it.
And I was like, of course the second you book a vacation.
But I was like, I'm more than grateful
to be on Grey's Anatomy.
Long story short,
I just remember it being the most tight-knit set
I'd ever been on.
Literally everyone had it together.
The crew they'd been working
on the show for, what, 20 years?
I don't know how many years the show has been on,
but, like, for forever.
All the stars never,
everyone was so gracious and nice and super welcoming.
And it was a little bit scary and intimidating,
but mostly just super cool to see them in their environment
and see how professional everybody was.
And they were all really kind.
So that was really important and special to me.
Oof, geez.
I'm the king of giving the longest answers
to the simplest questions.
First time you realized you were famous.
That one's funny.
I don't really know.
I was at Disneyland one time.
I had gone a week before and nobody cared.
And then when I went,
it was to the point where I was surrounded by so many people
that security had to take me through the back,
into the backstage of Disneyland.
We couldn't really go anywhere in the parks.
So we would just go on the ride through the exits.
But yeah, so that was an interesting one.
That was a little bit of a shock to me.
'Cause like I said,
I'd been to Disneyland one or two weeks right before
and nobody cared.
First person who believed in me.
Probably my dad.
When I was seven,
he taught me how to play drums for my church.
And I played every week with him.
I don't know how I played drums when I was seven.
I mean, he believed in me and he told me I could do it.
And so I was like, okay, I can do it.
And then I did.
So I would have to say my dad.
First celebrity crush.
The first one that comes to mind is Hilary Duff.
Pretty sure I've just always had a crush on Hilary Duff.
You know, weirdly it was Secret Agent Cody Banks.
I wanted to be Cody Banks when I was younger.
Hillary Duff is Hillary Duff.
It's perfect.
First time you were onstage.
I think it was for my first musical, High School Musical.
So yeah, I would say that.
First time you were starstruck.
Why am I thinking
of the Starstruck Disney channel movie right now?
Dude, I literally, I don't know.
I'll tell you when I wasn't starstruck was
when I met Jennifer Lopez and I didn't know who she was.
I was eight years old,
and she tried to give me a hug and I was like, nope.
And I went away and my dad was like, what are you doing.
He said, "You just rejected a hug from Jennifer Lopez."
And I was like, I don't care, I don't know who she is.
I guess I was anti-starstruck.
I was a background actor on the set of one of her movies.
And they had placed me next to her and her costar.
And I had sort of been talking to them
over the course of the day.
And so when I was leaving, I went to go say goodbye.
I hugged the guy for whatever reason,
'cause he was like super cool to me, like super nice.
J.Lo was nice, don't get me wrong.
But she was just doing other things.
But then when J.Lo would want to give me a hug.
For whatever reason, I was like, nope.
And I literally said no.
And I walked away like, yeah, crazy.
I'm hoping that it will be on late night.
I don't know, this is my vision.
Just that on late night television,
me and Jennifer Lopez are going to get that hug.
First quarantine binge-watch.
Tiger King.
Who didn't binge Tiger King as soon as it came out?
Literally was glued to my TV.
I did not get up, except to use the restroom.
I didn't even drink water.
I just used the restroom
and watched the entire Tiger King.
First song you ever wrote.
First song I ever wrote was a song for a girl
because I needed to ask her to formal.
And she had turned down two guys before me.
So I was like, okay.
I was like, if she turned down these two guys,
who I personally thought were attractive.
I was like, if these two attractive guys
are being turned down by this girl,
then I got to step up my game.
And so I wrote a song like in 20 minutes on ukulele
and then me and my friend drove her house the next night.
And I just remember driving home and being like,
okay, that was super easy to write a song
that didn't matter at all.
What if I actually tried writing a real song?
And so that was how I kind of got the idea
of I can totally do this.
Why am I not doing this, you know.
Ah, shoot, I don't think I have my ukulele.
I actually sang it, weirdly,
for my High School Musical audition.
They had me sing it when I was in the final round
of auditions with all the producers,
because in the original script, Ricky asked Nini
to something via ukulele,
and I was like, dude, this is crazy.
'Cause in real life I asked a girl to formal via ukulele.
And so they asked me to play the song.
So I did, so yeah, I dunno.
I'm sure it's somewhere on the internet.
Thank you so much, BuzzFeed.
These were my firsts,
and make sure you check out my new EP,
Joshua Bassett, out right now.
Thanks.