- Hey, guys! It's Peyton Elizabeth Lee--
- And Joshua Rush--
- (both) ...from Disney Channel's Andi Mack!
- And today, we are checking out Generations React to Andi Mack.
- (FBE) So big thanks for being here to react back
to our Andi Mack episode.
We'd like to know if you've ever seen any FBE shows before.
- Oh, yeah, for sure.
Um, the one with Billie Eilish is one of my favorites.
- It's a classic, definitely.
And I grew up with Kids React and Teens React.
Those were always my favorite things and I would watch those all the time.
- (Cyrus) Last night, when we were watching
Andi and Jonah--
- I know this scene always gives me chills.
- (Sergio) ...this show! Oh, my god. I remember this.
- (Tori) This is Andi Mack! I love this show.
- (Buffy) Cyrus, do you like Andi?
- (Kristine) Oh, he was so scared.
- (Buffy) You like Jonah. - (Sydney) Oh!
- (Buffy) You like Jonah. - (Tida) Jonah's a boy, right?
He's gay!
- That's great. I love seeing that.
Kids my age and kids Cyrus' age and kids even her age
are having the realization that they're gay,
so I think it's fantastic that kids are being able to remove
that stigma for themselves.
- It's really cool to see kids who are watching the show
and who just accept it immediately, because, again, like Josh said,
there is no stigma against-- - Naturally, there really isn't.
- It's because of what people tell you and because of what you see on TV,
and what you see in real life. It's really exciting
to just see these little small victories
that sort of give you a little insight into what the world
might look like in the future.
- (Tida) He's gay! - That's so cute.
- Me reading the scripts. - (Tori) You would never see this
in a Disney Channel show when I was watching Disney Channel.
- (Paulette) This scene gives me goosebumps.
These kids are really good.
- (Cyrus) I feel weird. - (Mikaela) Aww.
- (Cyrus) Different.
- (Sergio) You're not different, Cyrus. Come on!
- (Buffy) You've always been weird. - (Holgie) Weird is good.
- Weird is good.
- (Buffy) You'll be okay. I promise.
- (Lucas) Oh, wowzers.
Those waterworks are starting to come.
I hate when people that are gay and lesbian,
they say that they're different but they're not really different.
Is this a try not to cry challenge, 'cause if it was, I would have--
- I want to be this kid's best friend.
- Me and Sophia, the cast mate who is actually in that scene,
she and I lived in the same apartment building
at the time and we actually spent almost the entire night before
preparing and getting ready for that scene,
so it's really great to see that they all felt that.
- I think we were all really excited just to be able to portray this.
He's not just saying, "He's gay," you know?
He's just saying he has these feelings for this other boy,
which I think is a really authentic, real portrayal
of it, so that was very exciting, and seeing that people
are receiving it in the way we wanted.
It's really cool.
- (Kristine) Oh, god. Is that Jonah? He's so cute.
- (laughing) Everyone's reaction. - We know!
- (Cyrus) That's gefilte fish, skip that, and I'm gay.
- (Sydney) I guess that was the right time!
- (Kristine) Okay. He seized the moment.
- (Jonah) Okay, cool.
- Such a "Jonah" reaction, too. - "Oh... okay, cool."
- "Dosh. Dosh." - "Dosh."
- (FBE) There are some who feel that kids should not really be shown
things like this when they're young.
Why do you think that some adults don't want kids to know
about people who may be gay?
- (Tida) I don't know. I think kids should be seeing this.
It's perfectly fine! - That's right!
- (Lucas) I feel like the people that don't like gay people
and everything else, it's probably because they
didn't learn when they were young.
Like, I'm glad my parents taught me that everybody can live their life.
- Parents that have wanted to shelter their kids
and sort of have their kids see what they want them to see, you know,
but I think it's important, like this kid said,
that kids are exposed to the real world and see
what life is really like, especially in such, you know,
an innocent way.
Andi Mack is dealing with anything that kids shouldn't see, you know?
It's all in a very, you know, age appropriate way.
It's so exciting that Disney Channel wanted to make a show like this
because there is not a single channel, at least in my opinion,
that reaches as many kids around the world as Disney Channel.
- (FBE) We want to know for you, a kid in 2019, what do you think
when you see a character talking about being gay
on a show for kids?
- (Sydney) The more we act it's a big deal,
then the more it's in real life, you're like, "Oh, my gosh.
This is such a big thing," when it should be like,
"That's just how the person is."
- (Bradley) I think it's okay.
I really am proud of the writer-- - Terry!
- Terry!
- (Lucas) Everybody should just accept it
and move on in life because it's nothing big.
It's not like the end of the world's happening
because he's gay.
- That kid is perhaps my favorite person.
- That kid is woke. Very woke. - Did you say "woke"?
- I said "woke"!
- No, but these kids know what's up.
Come on! They're so well spoken.
- (FBE) Even if you were in support of this being
in a children's program, can you see any validity in
the concerns that some people have?
- (Paulette) Parents should exercise their own individual controls,
but, to be honest, I don't know.
I find it incomprehensible that some kid is gonna see it
and quote unquote "turn gay" because they're watching this.
But don't try to prohibit or limit other people from seeing it.
That's where I draw the line.
- Talking about people turning gay--
- That's a crazy thing that we hear a lot about,
is like your show is gonna turn my kids gay.
- I even got a tweet that someone's kid came out
to them after watching the show.
That kid was already gay.
- He was definitely gay before the episode.
This show is giving this kid the confidence
to be proud of who they are.
- (FBE) The show deals with a lot of other topical issues,
all geared towards a younger audience, so we have some more to show you now,
starting with a clip from the very first episode,
which is also kind of the initial premise of the show.
- It's you! - Oh, no.
- It's you! - Oh, no. It's baby me.
- Do you remember reading the pilot for the first time?
- (Tida) Whoa! - (squealing)
- Look at you! You're so tiny!
- (Tori) Aww, this show's so dramatic. - Look at how little you were!
- Just a little bean.
- (Bex) I'm your mother. - (Bradley) That was unexpected.
- Did you know I didn't read the whole pilot before I auditioned?
- Right! They had you-- - I didn't know.
I didn't know this scene, that Bex was actually Andi's mom,
until the eighth time I went in for the show.
They gave me the episodes of this scene to cold read
and I was just freaking out because, I mean,
we already knew that the show was special,
but then after this, I was just like, I have to be a part of this
in any way possible.
- (Mikaela) Wow, what a premise for a Disney show!
- (Andi) You're my what?
- (Paulette) That's what I would have said.
"You're my what? Are you kidding me?"
- (Andi) Mom!
- (Paulette) "Jesus, I'm telling mom on you.
Oh, wait."
- (Andi) You all have been lying to me--
- Spicy bean. - (Luca) Ooh, girl.
Andi, you better talk to them! - Yeah!
- (FBE) Do you think a kid show talking about this
would have been allowed to be made or aired
specifically for a kids demographic, maybe earlier when you
were growing up? - (Holgie) No. No. No.
- Flat out.
- (Holgie) We weren't ready for it. We weren't ready for a lot of things.
- (Kristine) They sorta kinda touched on it
on a very after school special kind of way,
like a very special episode.
At that time, I didn't think that it would be in a kid's show.
I couldn't see it because it hadn't really happened.
- There's this idea of the very special episode
in television, and I think it's even on TV tropes, too,
where it's like this is an episode with a very special storyline
that has to be handled very gingerly, and what I love to see
is people feeling like we've broken that mold
a little bit.
We have a character with a learning disability.
We have a character who's gay.
We have a character who has a parent in the military.
We have a character who has panic attacks.
We have-- - Gun safety.
- Gun safety. We had a deaf character.
So we've done tons upon tons of these episodes
that you might call "very special episodes,"
but for us, they're just another day at work.
- (FBE) So finally, do you think that shows
made for children will, over time, have more storylines
like you saw today, and more diverse characters--
- I hope so. - (FBE) --LGTBQ+
and even go further, or do you think that they should limit
what type of characters are portrayed for kids?
- (Holgie) Well, I don't like putting limits on anything.
- (Lucas) There's gonna be more storylines,
and if there's a limit, I will do a protest and--
- I love him!
- (Lucas) ...sign the paperwork. - I will sign the paper.
- (Lucas) ...Disney Channel Studio and be like, "This is
bajillions of people that signed this paper.
You better bring back the storyline." - I love him!
- The shows are just reflections of the real world, you know?
They're little glimpses into what the world might look like
and what it might feel like if you weren't the person that you are.
- I would say 99% of probably the response
to our show has been just overwhelmingly positive,
so I was just really glad to see that reflected in the video.
- Definitely. I think it's also cool to see such a variety
of people, you know, from age to gender to walks of life,
you know, and seeing how different people
sort of see it differently.
- (FBE) So first question, what do you hope people take
from Andi Mack when they're watching?
- Hopefully, through our show, we're, you know,
getting kids to connect with these characters
and then, in turn, hopefully connect closer
to their family and with their friends.
- The group of kids out there who are gonna see that
and be like, "Oh, hey, that's me," and it's those kids
who I really-- I care about all the viewers of the show,
but that little group is the ones that I hold
closest to my heart.
- (FBE) This next question comes from one of our Twitter followers,
@RamenBreena, if you could write an episode
of Andi Mack, what would it revolve around?
- (both) Ooh.
- Recently, I went to China with Adventures by Disney,
and it was really cool to sort of see because I had never been there before,
but, you know, my dad's side of the family
is from China, so I feel like an episode where Andi sort of
gets to tap into her Chinese heritage, I feel that could be really cool.
- (FBE) While the show has been praised by many,
there are also those who are critical of the show
and the storylines presented.
How do you and your cast mates deal with that type of criticism?
- I clap back at them on Twitter.
- I don't really look at most of it, to be honest.
I don't really go through my comments. I don't have a Twitter,
so, for me, it's just about focusing on what I'm doing--
and I think seeing those negative comments
sort of reflects life, you know, and how there is still that part
of our world that is sort of closed off to that,
and so I think, if anything, that just gives me more motivation
to keep doing what we're doing and try to, you know,
change those people's minds through our show
and through, hopefully, things we'll do in the future.
- (FBE) Finally, we wanted to give you a moment to talk
not only to the viewers of FBE, but everyone out there
who watches Andi Mack, who may see this.
What has their feedback and response meant to you and what
would you want to say to them?
- I remember seeing the first petition,
something like six months ago, for an FBE Andi Mack reaction video,
and so seeing, when I saw that this video
came out, I was so excited and I immediately tweeted about it.
I'm so glad that we have this incredible, active,
almost ravenous fanbase out there.
- Thank you guys so much for all of your positivity and love.
You know, it just fills my heart with so much joy
to see people that love our show and love what we're doing.
So thank you for making what we do possible.
We get to do what we love every day because of you guys.
Thank you so much, FBE, for having us.
- (FBE) You can watch Andi Mack on Disney Channel
Fridays at 8:00/7:00 Central. - (both) Bye!