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I'm pretty good, how about yourself? I'm good. So, have you always wanted to be an actor? Pretty much since I was nine. Before then I just was in school plays and stuff, and when I was nine I auditioned for Music Man for the part of Winthrop. I went in and I didn't really think I'd get it you know but I just went to see and it went very well and I got it and I had a lot of fun doing it. So after that I did a lot of theater in Seattle, and somehow it evolved into TV and film and I got an agent up there, and after about three years when I was twelve and people started telling me I should go down to L.A., so I did. Do you live there? Yeah, I live there permanently. Cool, so how can you relate to you character on Do Over? Well, obviously not too much because he's like 35 but I mean a lot of people have said that I'm more mature for my age, like I'm a 35 year-old trapped in a 15-year old's body. Actually I'm 16 now, I keep forgetting to say so because my birthday just happened. Oh! Well happy birthday! Thank you. But yeah so I mean I guess my maturity gives me a bit of an edge, and also his character is like re-living 14, and he has characteristics that everyone can relate to. Like when he's up there giving that speech he's definitely afraid of failing and everyone can relate to that. So at times he's the 35 year old but at times he's also, you know, parts of him are still 14 as in most of us, you know? What's a normal day on set like for you? Well, usually I go into work about 6 or 7 in the morning, I just work until 6 or 7 at night. I don't stop working. I mean I like working a lot it's a lot of fun. I'm not really sure what about it I like, but for some reason I do like doing it. It's a good thing because I do it all day every day. Who are your inspirations? I don't know I guess, I really really enjoy people like actors like Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, and Jess Brudges. Like I love "Forrest Gump", I actually saw it last night, and "The Big Labowski" with Jeff Bridges, I really liked that one and Edward Norton, I just love all of his films. Would you ever consider a singing career? I actually when I came down to L.A., this was before my voice had changed, I put out a little like pop demo that I really didn't like it but I really just did it to see what people thought and I almost had something going with Disney and there was some interest but I didn't really want to pursue it as much but now that I play the guitar and everything I really enjoy that side of the industry and if I could do it and be taken seriously then yeah I would but it's kind of hard to cross over but I think I'm gonna hold off on that for a while. What do you listen to? Anything that's good, really. Like um I used to listen to a lot of rap, but now I've kinda broadened my horizons. I listen to a lot of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Incubus, yeah. I guess anything that sounds good. I don't really just stay in one genre of music. What do you watch on TV? You know, honestly I don't really watch that much TV but um, anything on Comedy Central I love. And of course the WB. Youe know what I really love the Jamie Kennedy Experiment he really amazes me. Yeah he's so creative. Yeah! And you know, he keeps a straight face through all of it and he's like totally believable as his characters. I know and sometimes you literally can't even recognize him. Yeah I know, like it amazes me at what he's able to do. I met him, he's a really nice guy. He's very humble. Would you ever consider like directing or producing? Oh yeah definitely. I mean I don't know if I will, but um, I'm very visual and I'd love to be a director of photography or a director but like it's always really interested me and working on the show I'm finding out a lot about everything behind the camera and I'm interested in it but it's also very different. Are you close with the cast? Oh, yeah yeah. The thing that's great about the show is that everyone in the cast & crew are really good friends. And we all like each other a lot. I mean, you and I hear horror stories about what goes on, on some shows with other people and it's like they hate everyone or there are a few people who don't get along but we're just very lucky to be so close. Everyoneon the cast is great. Josh is actually one of my best friends, we hang out all the time and Natasha is really cool and my parents like we don't "hang out" but I see them every day on set so they're like my second family. So I read you're already in college? That's pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah I took the CHSSPE which is like the equivilant of a high school diploma and I passed that, and that allowed me to take community college courses so I'm taking some classes at Santa Monica College right now. What was it like guest-starring on "Will & Grace"? That was actually the first thing I did while I was down here it was really cool. James Burrows directed that and he's like this high-esteemed director so it was cool to work with him on my first thing down here and you know, the cast are hilarious. I had a scene with Sean Hayes and Megan Mullohy and they were just so nice and a lot of fun and it was just an incredible experience for me. I mean it just turned me on even more to acting. It seemed like a really big deal to me because I had never done anything really big before that. The show is huge. Yeah and at that point it was only in its second season so I really, I'd heard of it but it really wasn't as big as it is now. It was cool that I did that before it got huge. Did you like working on "The Young & The Restless" or "Do Over" more? You know, soap operas are kind of weird like, they're like the way they're acted out it's like doing a sitcom or theater because they have that imaginary fourth wall and um you alway shave to open yourself up but there's no audience and it's obviously very dramatic. What they do is they have several different things going on and you go in one day and film all of your scenes that could be one scene, but what they do is split it up over 5 different things. You only get like 2 sentances for each scene. It's fun and a lot of big actors or actresses start on soap operas and they say it's great training, which it is, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do. It was cool though because people would recognize me and it was fun and I loved everyone but it's not the kind of acting that I really want to continue to do. Cool, so you get recognized in public? Yeah it's uh, it's kind of starting. A few people have recognized me and I mean I like it, I think it's cool. I can see how it could get annoying but I do enjoy it. It's weird but it's cool to like, have people wanting me to sign something when they run into me so yeah it's cool. I'm happy to do it. Well Penn I wanted to say thanks so much for doing this for us and we wish you all the best of luck for your future! Thanks so much it was great talking to you! |
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