- Hi, I'm Skylar Astin and you're watching "In Studio"
with the Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- Can you please explain to me the concept
behind "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist?"
- Yeah, "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" follows Zoey Clark,
who is a tech person at kind of a startup,
like a Google almost?
And, she one day has an MRI while there's an earthquake,
and this crazy phenomenon happens
while the music is playing in the MRI
where her brain kind of glitches,
all the lights kind of light up,
and then on her way home
she realizes she can hear people's innermost thoughts
through song.
(electronic beep)
- People are singing to me, Mo.
An entire neighborhood just sang
a whole Beatles song to me.
(electronic beep)
- As Max, her best friend,
how many musical performances should
we be expecting from you this season?
- I'd say, there are some where I sing two.
There are some where I sing none.
But I think, on average, I'd say probably one per.
One per ep.
I sing opera.
- Whoa. I was gonna say,
you have an extensive knowledge of music.
Were there any songs that surprised you
or were they any performances where
you actually weren't familiar with the person?
- Yeah, well, I probably am not allowed to say certain songs
but I got to sing a boy band song, which was very exciting.
I got to sing an opera song, which was very also exciting.
And, I had to kind of dig into more of my technique,
even though it was a comedic moment
for my character I'm, like, gonna sing it,
obviously, the way it should be sung.
So that was kind of fun.
I'm trying to think if there were any other challenges.
And I'm not saying there weren't, I just think that it's
just the typical challenges of putting on a musical show
where you have to learn the choreography
and pre-record all the music
and all of a sudden you're in this, like, theater factory.
You're like, popping out musicals on a weekly basis.
'Cause, you know, these things take,
stage musicals take years and years to develop
and we were doing one, you know, per episode.
So it's kind of cool.
- Yeah.
And, you know, so explain to me .
'Cause you do theater, you do movies, you do television.
Can you explain the difference
between putting together a song and dance number
with choreography and music in television versus theater?
Because, I assume that the experience is very different.
- Yes, and this has even been more different than other TV
or movie musicals that I've done.
- [Marya] Oh yeah, how?
- Well, obviously, the camera adds everything.
So you're not performing-
- Besides ten pounds? (laughing)
- Exactly, exactly.
Anyway.
Yeah, so, a lot of times when I've done stage musicals,
it's obviously performed out
for the entire audience,
whereas this, you know, we're trying to adjust it to camera
and see what works.
But with this, we tend to do these really long,
steady cam shots that are basically oners.
So there's a fun thing where we don't cut away
from the scene and there's just, now,
a song happening and then I sit back down
and we're back in the scene again.
And it needs to have that seamless, ethereal transition
for our tone to work musically.
- Yeah, how does that feel on set when you kind of have
to nail all the choreography and then just
go back into the acting?
Is it, like, a celebratory moment when you get to say cut-
- Yeah,
I love it.
Well, first of all, Mandy Moore is our choreographer
and her entire Team Dance, as we call them,
they're incredibly supportive.
I love when we do musical numbers because they're on set
and they're such a wonderful energy.
And, they always clap after every take, which is fun.
They give little adjustments and we have, kind of,
an inside line.
And then I hear what the director has to say,
hear what the camera man has to say
to make certain adjustments.
So, it's definitely like a work in progress but when
we get it, it's so satisfying.
And, it's happened every time.
I mean, we're done with season one
and we actually did a very ambitious sequence
to end the season.
That is a very, very long take.
And it's an entire musical number
with I think, pretty much the whole cast.
- [Marya] Oh, that's something to look forward to.
- Yeah, we're going out with a bang, for sure.
- Yeah, yeah.
Are you jealous of anybody else's performances?
- Stuff.
- I noticed that Lauren Graham gets some great scenes.
- She gets some bangers, yeah.
I'm trying to think.
I know Michael Thomas Grant did an Al Green song
and I was like, oh that's awesome.
But honestly, I'm so excited for everyone.
Everyone really gets to spread their wings on this show
and that's exciting.
I'm so excited for people to see Lauren Graham sing
and to hear Mary Steenburgen sing.
And, to know and hear.
You know me and Alex Newell
that people are more familiar with us singing.
But then there's some new faces that you haven't heard of
that are gonna blow you away.
And, like, everyone has their own energy that they bring
to their character and it's really,
it's really a good group.
Okay, look at me.
This is it.
Work your magic.
Feel the glory.
In it to win it.
(coffee spilling)
I don't know why I'm nervous.
- So tell me a little bit about Max compared
to Jesse from "Pitch Perfect."
- Yeah.
- How did you play those two characters,
how do they compare?
- Yeah, well Max, obviously, is a little older than Jesse
but, like, I think that Max kind of starts off
in this low ambition place that Jesse doesn't have.
Jesse, like, wants to be a hero all the time
and just like has, like, this abundance
of confidence where Max, I don't think has that.
Maybe with Zoey he feels comfortable but he's really,
like, doesn't have any, like, hopes and dreams.
And especially when we meet Max, and like,
when we get to know him throughout the season,
that kind of starts to develop.
And we get to really kind of have a coming
of age story with Max.
So, I think that's really cool.
I think Max is like, secretly really smart.
Not to say Jesse isn't,
but, I think they both have a similar,
like, earnestness and charisma.
But,there are definitely differences.
- So, I would like to play a game with you.
Can we play Skylar's Extraordinary Playlist?
- Yes, for sure.
- Okay, excellent.
I'm gonna give you an emotional event.
- Okay. A good song?
- And you tell me what you would be breaking into song with.
- Okay.
- What song would you be playing if you wanted to pick
up a friend who's depressed?
- Hmm.
Maybe "Better" by Khalid?
♪ Nothing feels better than this ♪
Maybe.
Pharrell's "Happy" is for no reason is my head.
I don't know why I'm seeing "The Lion King" in my head
but I can't find an actual song from it.
- [Marya] This is a good stream of consciousness that's
happening.
- Yeah, this is how I think if you can't tell.
Sometimes I'll just, like, see a color and that's not
at all an answer to your question.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe I'll come back to it but right now I'm gonna
go with Khalid "Better."
- Alright, I like that.
You've got a movie role that requires you to put
on twenty pounds of muscle.
What's your training montage song?
- Rocky.
"Rocky War" from Rocky four.
There is a song that I used to listen to before all
of my baseball games, actually,
and it's really corny
and really eighties but it is like,
I can literally do the entire,
like, all the trumpets and the violins.
I, like, know it all by heart.
It's like eight minutes long.
It's epic, check it out.
War.
- Excellent.
You find out someone has smashed into your parked car
and didn't leave a note.
- Like, I'm seeing, obviously, the "Lemonade" thing
where Beyonce smashes somebody's car.
Why is "I Just Can't Wait To Be King"-
No, I'm kidding.
"I Can't Get No Satisfaction."
Of course, I'm seeing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats,"
but that's not applicable.
Again, another, like, baseball into a windshield moment.
"F You" by Ceelo Green?
Right?
Is it problematic? No.
It's a good song.
- That's great, I love it.
You have nice, positive twist on it.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I like that's it's a positive song that's actually angry.
- Yeah.
- It's like, fun but angry.
- Yeah.
Because, we have an audience to uphold here.
Yeah.
- Your parents tell an incredibly embarrassing story
about you.
- Hmm.
Okay, well, I ate a nickel when I was younger
and they had to fish through my poop
for several months to get it out.
(laughing)
So, that's true love, as my mom always says.
And, like, yeah.
It was so awful.
Am I going further in this story?
I guess.
When I'm like, five years old I have to go
into my parents room and be like, I went!
Like, are we, now let's start the awkward thing.
And the gloves, it's awful.
So, thank you.
- So what's the song that embodies that? (laughing)
- Oh, my God.
"Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo" by Sal from "South Park?"
- [Marya] Perfect.
- Let's like, we'll make it like Christmasy fun.
(laughing)
Cause like, we can't lean into it.
It goes, like, it gets upsetting.
- Okay, last one.
Your friends threw you a surprise party
at your favorite restaurant just because they love you.
- Hmm, "That's Amore."
Like, I imagine it's at an Italian place.
I see my New York friends there and, like, my family there.
And it's just like we're going, we're, like, leaning right
into the Italian of my heritage right there.
- Okay, so, last question to you: when was the moment when
you knew that you wanted to be a musical performer?
Is there a moment?
- There is.
My first musical I ever did was "Godspell."
I was coming from, like, an athletic background where
I never did a play before.
And, the entire rehearsal process was kind
of a culture shock for me cause I just,
like, theater kids are so expressive
and, you know, I obviously grew to like, love them,
they're my people but,
at the time I was just like, wow, they're so different
than all of my other friends.
And just all the lines I had to memorize
and I was just so consumed with the minutiae
of putting on a show.
And my director, Tim McDonald, who I still keep
in contact with, he was my first director ever,
he had this moment where he wanted me to come out,
like, when the curtain comes up.
There's an empty stage
and just the ghost light in the middle.
He wanted me to be dressed as the custodian of the theater
and he wanted me to, kind of, broom out, you know, the area
and kind of look around and notice people in the audience.
He was like, "I want to make sure that you, like,
make eye contact with at least five people before you start
your monologue and then as you do your monologue,
the outfit comes off and you become
this leading character that
you will be for the rest of the play.
And at the time I have no idea why he's doing
this exercise 'cause I'm doing it to an empty theater,
you know, in rehearsals.
So I'm like, one, two, three, four, five, first line.
But on opening night, and I know this sounds corny, I saw,
like, my aunt.
I saw someone from my community.
I looked at a stranger.
And like, slowly understood the relationship between, like,
performer and audience.
And it was so brilliant of him to do that.
And he didn't explain why, he didn't spoon feed
me the purpose but it was in that moment,
throughout the rest of the play where
I had that thing that you can
only really get through theater
and, sometimes, in certain scenes, on TV or film
where you completely lose yourself in the character.
And you, there's this weird thing where you kind of have
a daze where you're there but you're not there
and you come off and you're like,
Whew, that was amazing.
I wasn't thinking at all and I had that
for the entire performance
and that was a feeling that I could never replace.
- Skylar, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you.
- Check out "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" on NBC.