Hi, everyone.
Welcome back to The Oh My Disney Show.
You might notice that I'm really excited and also about to cry
because I'm here with Corbin Bleu,
who played Chad Danforth in High School Musical.
Hi, Corbin.
Hi, Michelle.
How you doing?
Great.
[laughs] So am I.
Corbin, when was the last time you saw High School Musical?
I would say it's been probably a decade
since I watched the movie in its entirety.
Okay, a full 10 years.
All right.
May I interest you in taking a walk down memory lane
and watching Chad Danforth grace the halls of East High School once again?
Oh, that sounds awesome.
I'm so down.
-I am so excited. -Yeah, let's do this.
[music]
[school bell]
[music]
♪ Living in my own world ♪
What was it like working with Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens?
Well, first of all, I gotta say,
I'm watching them now and they're babies.
It's crazy.
They're just not even-- like they don't even look the same.
It was amazing.
I mean, honestly, this whole cast.
The two of them though had such perfect chemistry together
from the very, very beginning.
[High School Musical theme song]
Oh, there it is.
[laughs] East High School.
The notorious East High.
Should be able to spot me by my hair.
-Yep, there it is. -Yep, there it is.
[laughs]
It takes up the whole screen.
[laughs] It does.
[laughs]
And with the basketball.
Always with the basketball.
It's no secret, but I'm terrible at basketball.
-Really? -I am terrible at basketball.
Watching this film, I would think you were an expert.
I appreciate that.
[laughs]
I carried that ball with me everywhere.
I actually slept with the basketball in bed with me.
But when we showed up on set for our first "basketball" training,
they just went, "Oh, no.
[laughs]
We have some work to do."
But now, I can spin the ball on my fingers.
Oh, you can?
-Yeah! -Wow.
Yes.
Still got it.
It's the best day of my life.
[laughs]
Ms. Darbus, this is our first introduction to her.
Tell me about Ms. Darbus.
Alyson Reed.
She is such a promoter of the arts and she is such a sweet, loving person.
I mean, Ms. Darbus looks like my theater teacher growing up.
I had a-- I totally had a theater teacher like Ms. Darbus.
So in a moment here,
Troy and Gabriella pull out these huge cell phones.
Oh, man.
They're flip phones.
Look at it.
They're flip phones.
[laughs]
It's like a bat phone.
Hey, I think that's a Trio.
I think that's the phone that I had.
I actually think that was the phone that I owned at the time.
You know, there's no apps on that thing.
Oh, no.
You could maybe text.
Make some calls.
So dude, you know that uh, school musical thing?
So was Zac good at hoops?
Zac from the beginning, I felt like, was always was so good.
I don't know if it was because he was really, really good
or if compared to me, I was just like, "He is amazing."
It's like show music.
It's all costumes and makeup.
Oh, dude, it's frightening.
Yeah, I know. I just thought it might be a good laugh.
Yeah.
Sharpay is kind of cute too.
Hey, so is a mountain lion...
but you don't pet it.
I can't believe I remember that.
[laughs]
See, it's coming back.
It's all coming back.
The funny part is, is that is my life.
The show tunes, and the makeup, and the music.
That's what I was going to--
How hard is that to play that character that isn't into it?
It's so funny because my character is so not about musicals
and the whole movie is a musical.
Right. Yeah.
It really was just ironic.
♪ I gotta, Get my, get my head in the game ♪
♪ You gotta, Get'cha, get'cha, get'cha ♪
♪ Get'cha head in the game ♪
♪ I gotta, Get my, get my head in the game ♪
♪ You gotta, Get'cha, get'cha, get'cha ♪
♪ Get'cha head in the game ♪
♪ Come on ♪
Can you tell me what was like
the moment that you found out that you were cast?
Oh, wow.
Uh, everything happened very fast.
You had to go in and sing.
You had to go in and dance.
You had to go in and play basketball.
And all this was probably over the course of like a week and half, two weeks.
And then I think I got called on a Friday
and they said, you're flying out to Utah Monday.
Oh, wow, that quick?
That quick.
Wow, your life just changed like that.
Yes, of course jumping around and super excited,
but at the same time, I gotta pack.
-Yeah. -I got to figure out wh--
I got to figure out my life.
So my favorite Chad scene, Chad is asleep in a tree.
Was that improvised?
I think it was.
I believe we were just waiting for other things to happen.
We were like, what are we going to do in this scene?
And I think Zac and I were talking, and I was like,
I'm just going to try and be asleep.
And he just started messing with me with the leaf
and it ended up being the scene.
It's so good.
Classic Chad.
[door slams]
Yo, what's up man?
What's up?
Hey, so, look, the whole team's hitting the gym during the free period.
What do you want to have us run?
In this scene, Chad has one of his iconic T-shirts.
[gasp]
I come with my own background music.
The T-shirts.
Tell me all about the T-shirts.
So working with the costume department,
we decided, I think you should have all of these shirts.
And we came up with all of these different sayings
and all of the shirts were made.
So you were a part of creating these shirts?
I was a part of creating all of the words that are written on the shirts.
Do you have a favorite Chad shirt saying?
Uh, I worship waffles.
[laughs] That's a good one.
That was, I think, my favorite shirt.
And what team?
Wildcats.
What team?
Wildcats.
What team?
Wildcats.
Wildcats!
Get'cha head in the game.
[whistle blowing]
What I loved so much about playing Chad is,
he is the rallier.
-Yeah. -You know, he's that school spirit.
He's always the one that leads all these chants
and it was so much fun to lead the chant or say something like that
-and then have all the guys behind you follow suit. -Yeah.
Made you feel really cool.
Do you still have your Wildcat jersey?
I still have my Wildcat jersey.
I still have the ball.
I still have my shoes.
A Chad doll, like a Barbie doll of myself.
I have the board game and--
Speaking of the board game, I actually have that right here.
No, you have the-- [laughs]
-If you want to take a gander. -The High School Mystery Date Game.
Uh, there you are.
-Chad in all his glory. -Oh, my god, look at this.
[laughs]
That is so funny.
-There you are. -Look at Lesya rocking it.
Yours says basketball, of course.
-Of course it does. -Obviously.
-Look at this. -What else would it say?
Oh, I'm in the locker. Look at that.
[laughs] There you are, there.
[laughs]
♪ It's hard to believe, That I couldn't sneeze-- see ♪
♪ That you were always right there, Next to-- beside me ♪
[laughs]
-We had the best background actors. -Yeah.
I feel like that's another part of this movie that makes it so good.
Not just the background actors, but even just any small parts in this film.
Everybody brings such a huge element to the film.
Yeah.
I think I actually went to high school with kids like this.
Oh, yeah.
[music]
♪ It's hard to believe, That I couldn't see ♪
♪ You were always there beside me ♪
Lucas, I swear, has not changed a bit.
Yeah, he looks the same.
I see Lucas pretty often
and I swear he looks exactly the same.
If you had to pick a favorite song from the first High School Musical,
what would it be?
-From the first one? -Yeah.
I'm going to say, "Stick to the Status Quo."
♪ No, no, no, No, no, no ♪
♪ Stick to the stuff you know ♪
♪ It is better by far ♪
And I remember when they categorized everybody.
Because all of these, everybody here that you're seeing,
we all hung out all the time.
All these dancers are all the same people
that, you know, are apart of the basketball group.
And throughout all the movies, we all got to know each other very, very well.
So when everybody was categorized into either the jocks, the nerds,
and it was so perfectly done.
Everybody just really took on their characters.
They would call cut
and you'd just have to imagine, it is just a room full of teenagers...
Yeah.
...sitting at tables.
We're trying to film a movie here, so, you know, they need quiet on the set,
and they need focus, and oh, man.
They just had to constantly wrangle everybody.
It was just-- It would turn into like a cafeteria.
Like a school room just full of kids just talking and laughing and.
And they would have to just, "Quiet!"
[laughs]
And to have Kenny Ortega just to be manning that helm.
What was his style? What was his vibe like in his directing?
Well, first of all, don't get in his way.
Especially when the man is-- the creative juices are flowing.
Yeah?
The worst thing to do.
And it happened multiple times over the years.
People finally started to get it.
But he starts moving and somebody's behind him
and he trips on them.
[laughs]
And he just turns and gives the death stare.
'Cause you just like knocked him off his train of thought.
Don't do that.
Oh, this scene.
This is the scene.
This is the very first scene.
Oh, of you and Monique together?
Monique.
That's the first scene that both of us shot in the entire film.
7:45 Mountain Standard Time, are we synced?
Whatever.
All right, then we are on a go mode for lunch period, exactly 12:05.
Yes, Chad, we're a go...
but we're not Charlie's Angels, okay.
I can dream, can't I?
[music]
-We were so nervous. -For that scene?
It was nothing.
It's just like this tiny little nothing of a scene.
-And-- -But when it's your first one.
Oh, man, it was our first one
and we finished that scene and Kenny was like, that was great.
And both Monique and I were like, "No, can we do this again?
Can we do this again?"
♪ You, I can't believe ♪
Vanessa's diva moment.
♪ That I could be so blind ♪
♪ It's like you were floating ♪
Oh, the poster.
-This poster is the greatest thing -Isn't that amazing?
I've ever seen in my whole life.
Isn't that amazing?
First of all, we're huge.
And look, it's just him and his blue eyes.
Yes. Do you know what happened to that poster?
I don't know what happened to that poster.
Could you track it down?
[laughs]
Do you want to hang it up in your bedroom?
Yes, I do.
[laughs]
We had a team meeting about how we haven't been acting like a team.
I mean, us. Not you.
Oh, I love this scene.
This is Chad's heartwarming moment.
We just want you to know that we're going to be there,
okay, cheering for you.
Huh?
Yeah, if singing is something you want to do,
we should be boosting you up, not tearing you down.
Yeah.
So what was it like getting everyone packed in this theater to watch this scene?
Did you get a watch fro?
Yeah, this was a really cool scene.
This was a really, really cool scene 'cause up until this point,
this was the first time that we all cohesively got to work together
and have these really sweet, solid moments together.
Nobody-- It didn't feel-- You didn't feel the separation.
♪ In a way that's different , Than who we are ♪
[applause]
And what a group of people,
and how magical it was that you all came together to do this.
We just met.
Like I watch this, and it's-- it's the start of something new.
It is the start of something new.
Congratulations, Wildcat.
Oh, what about your team?
We won too.
[gasp]
Yo, the team voted you the game ball, captain.
Yeah, thank you. Thanks a lot.
And then Chad just--
I just break up that kiss.
Come on. [laughs]
It's all right, we're saving it.
Oh, it must be your lucky day.
gasp]
Chad just asked me out.
So this scene, we're all yelling and screaming
because there's so much chaos going on and celebration,
but in order to get our dialog,
everybody celebrating in the background is dead quiet.
Oh, okay.
So what you're watching
is actually us talking like this, as if, you know,
-there's stuff going on in the background. -As though there's noise.
But there's not really anything going on in the background.
[laughs]
But we're just really excited and screaming.
And then, everybody in the background is just--
[laughs]
♪ Together, together, Together everyone ♪
♪ Together, together, Come on, let's have some fun ♪
What was it like, what was the energy like here in this moment?
Oh, it was just so big.
And we knew that this was the big finale of the number.
And we knew what the words meant too.
Coming together and not judging other people for what they do.
Really being able to be your best self and be free doing that.
♪ Wildcats everywhere, Wave your hands up in the air ♪
♪ That's the way we do it ♪
♪ Let's get to it, Come on, everyone ♪
-This just seems like a big party. -And then, just partying.
Oh, that was--
-That is all it was at this point. -Is this all improvised?
This was all just improvised.
[music]
You know, I grew up watching musicals and loving musicals.
And being apart of this film and then even, a decade later, watching it
and feeling the goosebumps, and feeling the energy,
and knowing that I'm getting this feeling of watching this musical, that I was apart of,
that was a feeling that I experienced growing up watching musicals,
it's really cool.
It's a dream come true moment.
Yeah, it really is.
[music]
Well, this was amazing.
Thank you so much for watching High School Musical with me.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for taking me on that journey down memory lane.
I mean, thank you for bringing Chad Danforth to the world.
I thank the world for allowing me to play Chad Danforth
and for everybody that was apart of this film that made it so much fun,
that I can look back now and have so much nostalgia,
and so many fond memories over it.
And to all the fans out there that made High School Musical a possibility
and fell in love with us as much as we fell in love with you guys.
So I'll leave you all with a, what team?!
Wildcats!
What team?!
Wildcats!
What team?!
Wildcats!
Get your head in the game!
You're awesome, Michelle.
You are awesome.
[laughs]