So here's the truth about the Disney Circle of Stars.
I was a part of a master all star collaboration
that included all of the current
Disney Channel stars at the time. That has gone down as,
I guess, iconic to a certain time in a certain place.
And a lot of people in my comments.
They ask for me to do a video about it.
So I am doing it today. The circle of life.
Gosh, you know, I loved the Lion King growing up and
the Lion King was coming back. I believe it was coming to Blu ray.
And they at Disney decided that it would be a really great idea
if they did something to celebrate that.
So, lo and behold, they've asked everybody to be part of it
as long as everybody got availability in their schedules.
And that was, I believe, what took the most coordination
was, look, we're doing it at this time and at this place,
and we're going to fit you in for a certain amount of time.
I remember Hilary was really busy.
She had to come in at a specific time and shoot her stuff.
But I think the rest of us
were kind of grouped together throughout the day, all day long.
I had a blast getting to know Raven and Anneliese in the makeup trailer.
I think we definitely bonded by chatting about our lives at the time.
I had a blast in general because A.J.
Trauth was in it and he was on Even Stevens. Always such a sweetheart.
But anytime I saw him, he was always hanging out with Shia LeBeouf.
And they were really close friends at the time.
So I never got to just hang out with A.J.
So it was fun to see him off set and hang out with him that day.
Kyla Pratt and I were able to meet and I hadn't really met her
because she had really done Proud Family
and I hadn't seen her face and I'd only seen her work.
And it was really fun to really get to know her.
And she's such a sweetheart.
Like, honestly, I got to touch base with her again for my channel.
And the girl is just a love.
We got to chat about being moms too, which is just so weird
how the time has passed.
And that is completely OK.
So we shot at a roller skating rink in Hollywood.
It was a really cool nightclub that I felt really cool
going to because I was like, you know, obviously like 16, 17, whatever.
So I also remember the first part
of filming it, which was they were like, hey, guys,
so we're going to do this collaboration.
So you need to show up and we need to record your parts of the song.
So I was like, oh, I hope I get a good part.
When I was a kid, I was a part of a kid's
song group called The Broadway Kids.
And some people now and then will be like, I remember you from that.
And I had that CD and stuff.
And it was a bunch of kids that were on different Broadway shows,
and it was really predating Kidz BOP.
Kidz BOP is very, very popular now.
But interestingly enough,
when you put a bunch of kids together singing, other kids really like it.
I never really thought that the circle of stars
was going to be that big of a deal.
But if you think about it, there was never, ever going to be a time
or a chance that all of these stars who would go on to do really, really
big things. Be in the same building at the same time .
I mean, that's kind of crazy. So it was a moment in time.
I was really happy to be a part of it.
And I felt like I had been working with Disney for a while.
So I was like, yeah,
I'm here, I'm a singer, and I'm going to represent I'm going to be here.
So I was proud to be there.
And I was a little older than some of the other people.
So I show up to the recording studio.
There's no other singers or actors there.
And I'm like, hope I get a good part.
And they're like, oh, you could take this part.
And I was like. Oh, my gosh, I'm going to Mariah Carey.
And so when I say Mariah Carey, it I mean, do a little thing.
You know, it's kind of tricky
because like I had
a lot of recording songs and I was kind of recording at the time.
And so I was like, how do I sound
different and be different than everyone else?
And so I did do a little a little thing. You can see it.
You can hear it.
So we show up to this nightclub and it's a beautiful space.
They've set it up for it to look like a karaoke bar.
And I just thought that was so cool how they had a whole set made just for
us to be able to do this music video.
I remember them having a ton of wardrobe set out for every
single actor. Hilary had a bunch of like pink stuff.
For some reason, they always dressed her in pink.
I don't know. She looks good in it though.
And then Raven, I think had a bunch of purple stuff that was like
Ravens' like purple.
Anneliese I think had like jewel tones and like really pretty
to compliment her hair.
A.J. had like puka
shell, like surfer boy kind of tank top things and whatnot.
And then Orlando came in his own velour jumpsuit
because he just rolled like that.
But I was like, what?
Where's my clothes?
I don't really love the clothes that I wore in that. I look back at
it and I'm like, couldn't I have found something cuter?
Like I have a flesh colored top and this like ”meh”
cargo pants skirt situation.
So then we start to film.
And they're going super slow mo, which they do in music videos
so that things can look extra sassy when you play it back.
We all have our own solos and take our turns up on this karaoke faux stage.
And then on the flip side, they shoot a master
shot of us all sitting together as if we hang out all the time.
The truth is, is that like
we never hung out with each other if the people weren't in our cast.
We probably didn't see them like unless they went to this one bowling
alley in the valley
where everybody hung out, which is Jerry's famous
deli or Universal City Walk,
which was the other place that everybody went to.
When you're underage and don't want to get in trouble,
but kind of want to get in trouble, you went to Universal City Walk.
And now I'm sure all of the places have changed.
It was really good to hang out with the people outside
of their work because on their sets,
everybody has a different dynamic and on their sets, they're the star.
There definitely is a little confusion when you have that many
individual stars all together in one room
and they have their agents there, you know, or their momagers
or whoever is like
looking and making sure that they get their screen time
and that they look pretty.
And like all this stuff,
I was a little bit older, so my mom kind of
started to really kind of sit back and not really bother me as much.
But I was like, I'm just here to have a good time.
That's kind of was always my mentality.
Maybe I should have been a little bit more laser focused on my brand
and all that stuff.
But I think it's important for you to be good to work with.
First and foremost, it's like, is the crew good?
Is your director happy? Are you happy with your performance?
Great. Like, that's definitely the first
and foremost thing you need to worry about, because that's your job.
Here's the thing.
When I look back at that, I'm like, I didn't brand myself.
I didn't really have my own sound and I didn't really have my own look.
And it kind of became very apparent to me
that I was kind of struggling with that at that point in time.
And, you know, I had also been struggling with it for just overall
my casting. Overall my sound,
of original music that I was trying to produce and stuff.
So that was an interesting and also telling time,
you know, like when you're
against all these other people and you're like, what's my thing?
You know something?
I guess looking back on it, I could have probably experimented
more with my sound and my style.
I don't know what I would have done differently
because I feel like I was living true
to myself in the ways that I like dressed on a daily basis.
I was just really casual.
I didn't really have any kind of specific look other than like
when people knew me as Ren Stevens.
They would think of me
as sort of this very polished, glossy hair, you know, girl.
But I was coming out of that, see?
So I was trying to figure
out my own thing and I was thinking I was going to be
more like a Sheryl Crow.
But then again, this is Hollywood and it's Hollywood today, too.
It's the industry as a whole.
The media industry is that everybody has to have a brand.
Even someone who posts on Instagram as a small business owner
or just anybody, they have to have a brand.
I learned that very distinctly
the day that we filmed the Circle of Life video.
What I realized was even though everybody was super talented
and looking great and doing their own thing,
we were coming together for something more important.
We were coming together for a moment in Disney's history.
You know, a lot of people and a lot of kids
that were young at the time and are now grown look back
and be like, this blew my mind that you guys were all a part of this.
Out of all the things that I've done and look back on, I'm really kind of
proud of that moment. I had a blast shooting that.
I think it was a moment in time that everyone that was there filming
could appreciate that we had made it to that level of being able
to use our own individual identities to come together and just have fun.
I do think that sometimes when you're working in a team setting,
you really got to put your ego aside and you've got to think about the joy
of the project itself and being there and having this moment
where it comes together for you, be present like that.
And then those are the moments I feel like when I was present
that feel still so vivid in my mind.
I would want that for you.
I would want that
if you had a really good experience for it to be vivid in your mind.
So stay off your phone is definitely a good starter.
Like I try to do that with my kids, especially when it's important times.
It's tricky because like you want to film everything for them to remember.
But as much as you want to do that, you definitely want to try
to be present in important moments in your life , because in the future,
you will remember the good times. Put away the differences and the ego
and just enjoy life.