Joel Moore

So you’re going to be all over the Disney Channel this month. In shows like Spudnik and a guest appearance in Aaron Stone. But can you tell us about the Disney channel original movie, ‘Dadnapped’?
Yes, Dadnapped is a project we worked on a little over a year ago. It stars Emily Osment from our show, I’m in it, Moises Arias from our show is in it. David from Wizards of Waverly and Phil Lewis from Suite Life too so there’s a whole bunch of Disney stars in it. The thing that I’m most excited about is we’re all playing roles that are very different from the ones we play on our regular Disney shows so the fans will see a lot of familiar faces and it gives a chance to see them in a totally different light. So it should be fun.

Can you tell us about the story line?
The story basically centers around Emily’s character, Melissa whose father is a writer, with the sort of teen spy books and they go to a convention hosted at the hotel that I run, I’m the hotel manager and he ends up getting kidnapped by some super fans. And then it all sort of spirals out of control and so Melissa and I try to track her father down and there’s lots of craziness that surrounds that. Ultimately you see that there’s a bigger plot with maybe more evil plans and then you have to wait to see who’s all behind all of that.

Oh! So it’s one of those movies where things turns around in the end.
Yes, there’s a little bit of a twist as far as whose the real bad guy and there’s lots of action. It’s a very fast paced movie, some really cool physical comedy and Emily is just really really charming in the movie.

That’s good. Can you tell us about your character Merv and his role?
Merv is the hotel manager so he’s like right out of college, young guy, sort of wants to be this rat packer so he has this really big pompadour haircut, sort of like an Elvis Presley hair do. And I wore this white jacket and yaknow, maybe he’s trying a little bit too hard to be cool but he starts out the movie trying to be very helpful to Melissa to find her dad. He ends up getting really splattered in the movie. There’s lots of gross stuff that gets squirted all over the place and it gets pretty messed up.

How was that? To have all that stuff splattered on you?
It’s gross. It’s really fun to do movies like that but it’s also really gross when you think about how much time it takes. One of the things I was covered in in the movie was yogurt, so if it takes eight hours to shoot the scene, they basically keep reapplying layer after layer of yogurt on me so at the end of the day, I just smell like a big yogurt cup. It gets really sticky and gross so the amount of time you have to spend in it is bad but the result is good so it’s sort of a trade off.

That’s true. What was the most enjoyable scene to film?
I think there’s a scene toward the end where you get all of the bad guys together and you get Melissa reunited with her dad and it’s sort of the climax of the movie. Everything is either gonna go good or it’s gonna go bad and most of the characters in the movie are in this particular sequence. It was just fun to have everybody together and shoot the climax of the movie.

Can you tell us how it was to work with such a great cast?
It was cool. I really like projects like this or even the Disney Channel Games where you get the chance to mix it up with the other Disney stars. Because we watch each others’ shows and we’ve seen each other in the different Disney Channel movies and to actually get a chance to show up everyday and hang out and see how each other works is really fun. You learn things by the way other people handle their business. Phil Lewis, I think is super funny and it was sorta cool to watch him sort of transform from a hoity toity manager on his show to a really evil bad guy. So it’s really fun to see everyone be different.

It’s nice to see the Disney stars mix it up, even with the different shows with each other.
Yeah, like the crossover episodes where they have someone else from another show on our show and we send a couple of characters onto their show. Those episodes tend to be pretty cool for the fans too.

Yeah, it’s nice cause you get to see the different stories.
We shot one, maybe a month ago, where Hannah Montana sings on the Suite Life boat so there will be an episode where you see Hannah Montana because she’s on the boat performing and then you see an episode in Hannah Montana where she’s there at the same time but you see a different part of the story. I think that’s going to be sort of cool when they air those episodes.

How was it behind the scenes with cast?
Well, we hung out quite a bit when we weren’t shooting but mostly we would walk down to this big mall in Utah where we would all hang out. We would either walk around and go shopping and we saw a ton of movies together or go out to eat and do something that way. I think probably the most fun thing we did was we went out and played laser tag together so you’re just running around shooting each other which was sort of fun.

Moving onto television shows, you play the role of Jackson Stewart, Miley’s older brother on the show, Hannah Montana. Can you tell us about your character?
Sure. Jackson is that character that is the annoying older brother. He’s always getting himself and Miley into trouble because he doesn’t plan his life very well, he’s just a spur of the moment kind of guy. But when it comes down to it, he really does love his family and he’s a really good friend and so when Miley needs him to be there for her, he is. Even though they spend a lot of time driving each other crazy.

Can you describe the relationship Miley and Jackson have and how it’s changed over the seasons of the show?
I think it’s sort of that hate/love relationship. We pick on each other as much as a brother and sister can. But I think as the series has gone on that we appreciate each other more. We still pick at each other but I think we’re probably quicker to defend each other and if Miley is really in trouble I think she really knows that she can count on Jackson to be there. And Jackson feels the same way about Miley.

Yeah, you can definitely see through the seasons how much they’ve grown closer. Is there anything fans should be in store for? Like developments in the Stewart family or the show in general?
Well this whole third season I’m pretty excited about. Everyone’s a little bit older and in the first part Jackson is gearing up to go to college. The second half of the season he starts school at a community college. All the other kids on the show are old enough that they are starting to drive and they’ve got more freedom. I think, just the story lines and our problems are starting to get older like the characters. So I think everyone is starting to slowly grow up and bigger decisions have to be made in what we have to do in our lives. We’re excited about how the movie that comes out in April is going to give the chance to show where the Stewart family comes from. You get a look at this town in Tennessee that produced the Stewart family before they moved on to Malibu. So I’m excited for that too.

How do you feel about the success of Hannah Montana since it started?
It’s pretty overwhelming. I think when we first started, we just wanted kids to watch it and sorta like it and hopefully stick around for a couple of years and it really turned into this whole life phenomenon. I’m really excited about the fact that whole families sit down and watch the show. It’s not just 14 year old girls that watch the show. Ya know, brothers watch the show. Parents, uncles, there’s a lot of really good jokes for the kids and really good jokes for older people to watch the show and you’re not gonna see anything really offensive. And I think it just came together in the right way at the right time to turn into a really big show. I think we’re all very humbled and proud that the direction the show has taken.

You mentioned the Hannah Montana movie that was filmed. Can you tell us about that?
Yeah, it really is a story about a girl who loses her way and needs to remember where she came from. So I think Miley ends up taking the Hannah persona a little too seriously and starts to forget about the good things in her life and her friends and why it’s good to have good family. It was really just all about this Hannah Montana persona, so we take her back to Tennessee to help her remember what’s really important in her life. And you’re gonna meet a bunch of new characters and there’s a bunch of great music in it. And it’s not just shot in a little sound stage. It’s a movie that we took out and shot out in the world in Tennessee, in Santa Monica and really pretty locations. It’s a beautiful movie, great music and it’s funny too.

Is Jackson going to get himself into trouble?
Of course he does. Probably one of the most fun and scariest, most difficult things shot for the movie is that I end up working in a petting zoo for part of the movie. And I’m teaching these kids about an Ostridge and I have a really big fear of birds, especially 6 foot tall birds with brains the size of a walnut. I don’t really think you can train an Ostridge so I think they just do whatever it is they’re gonna do and I was so afraid it was going to attack me. The very first take that we shot with a scene with the Ostridge, it bit me in the face. I had a big giant welt on my face and I knew I had to spend the rest of the day shooting with the Ostridge so we just covered it up with make up and I was really nervous and on edge for the whole day but we ultimately got what we needed to and everybody was like “I can’t believe you kept going after that Ostridge bit you in the face.” But the show must go on, right?

Yeah, that’s true!
Yeah, we were supposed to have it peck at this hat I was wearing and it just ducked it’s head underneath the hat and went and bit me in the face.

That definitely doesn’t help you’re fear of birds.
Haha, yeah, it didn’t help at all.

How did it feel filming the movie instead of an episode like on a stage?
It was cool. The pace of it is completely different. On the show, we do an episode every week so when we’re rehearsing we get to experience the entire story every day and in the movie, we might shoot two scenes in a day and it might take you six hours to shoot one scene so you just have to slow everything down and you have to focus a little bit more on where you are in the story so you’re performance makes sense when you put the whole movie together. So it’s just sort of getting used to the fact that you’re not going through so much material everyday and you just really have to be focused and you just have to be ready to go when they’re ready to shoot. I think that was probably the biggest adjustment to make.

Which would you say you enjoy more? Filming for TV or for film?
I like them both. They’re both so different, it’s hard to compare. It’s like apples and oranges. I think there were some really cool things we were able to do on the show and you’re allowed to do completely different things in movies. You get to take a little bit more time and make it more refined a little more in the scene. I suppose with television which is so fast, it’s more like you’re acting on instinct then suppose with a lot of rehearsal. So I don’t know. I don’t think I have a favorite. I have enjoyed all of my experiences with both.

Now for some random questions. What are some of your hobbies?
I love to go snowboarding. I like listening to music. I see tons of movies. I watch way too much television. But for all of those slacker things that I do, I try to go to the gym and stay sort of fit, it’s really easy to get out of shape when there’s a lot of free food on the set. You can eat all day if you want, so if you eat all day and you never exercise, you can sort of get a little pudgy. You can watch episodes of season two, I put like ten or fifteen pounds from the beginning of the season to the end so when I watch some of those episodes I go, “somebody needs to go hit the treadmill.” So this year I’ve been trying to be a lot better about taking better care of myself so I spend a little time doing that. But the thing I do the most is I play a lot of video games. I download apps from the apps store on my iPhone and I play them at the airport all the time and I’ve got computer games for my mac book and I’ve got my Playstation 3. It’s pretty much wherever I’m at I want to have some sort of system that I can play some game on cause I just play em way too much.

What’s your favorite video game right now?
Right now I’m playing this really gross game called Dead Space. It’s the survival, horror zombie type of game. It’s so fun. It’s just gruesome and gross and dark and spooky. It’s like playing a horror movie as a video game. It’s almost like watching a movie. The graphics are so good and the story telling is so good that it’s like you’re playing a movie. That’s how I felt. I played this game Metal Gear Solid 4 and it was like a big war movie and the story telling was awesome and the graphics were amazing. So yeah, I’m a big fan of those sort of games. I play a lot of sports games too like Madden Football.

That’s pretty fun. What’s a movie you can watch over and over again?
I can watch the Lord of The Rings trilogy like in a constant loop. I can watch those things everyday. I can watch the movies and then on the DVD, they’ve got these great bonus features with all the hours and hours of the behind the scenes footage and how they shot it. How they did the special effects and I can watch those DVD’s every single day.

Any actress of actor you’d like to work with one day?
I would really like to work with or get a chance to watch Michael J. Fox work. I’ve sort of always looked up at him and I think I’m a similar type of actor. If I could have a career, something like his, I would be just so ecstatic. He’s just so naturally funny and charismatic. The way he’s able to deal with Parkinson’s and still act when he chooses to. He’s been such an amazing voice for that cause and I have so much respect for him. I would love to get a chance to work with him or just be able to sit there and watch him work.

Yes, I read that, that you’re comparable to a young Michael J. Fox.
Yeah, we’re both sort of smaller guys and the physical comedy. If I ask people what type of actor they think I am, that tends to be the closest comparison. If I could someday live up to that, that would be awesome.

Is there a quote or piece of advice that you really live your life by?
I always tell myself ‘why not me?’ Because I figure good things have to happen to somebody, right? So if you’re gonna audition for something and there’s a thousand people that are gonna audition for it, as opposed to being discouraged by that, I just tell myself “why not me?” It could easily be me just like anybody else so I’m sort of willing to try things even though there’s that risk of failure because I figure ‘hey, somebody’s gotta get it, why not me?’

Do have any advice for any young people trying to get into the acting business?
I think the big thing is persistence. You’ll get told ‘no’ so many times before you’re told ‘yes’ and most of the time it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s circumstances beyond your control so if you really have a passion for it and you love it and you have enough confidence in yourself that you can get past all those no’s then it’s something you pursue. If you can’t and get really down on yourself, you should probably find something else to do but I can say that even though you’re given a lot of no’s that one yes feels better than a thousand of all the no’s so for me, it’s always been worth it to keep trying. Because I know that those times you actually get to do it, it’s so exciting, it’s so fulfilling that it’s worth all of the rejection.

Also, the last question I have for you today is do you have a facebook, myspace or website your fans can reach you through?
I don’t have anything really at the moment. There’s a fan myspace page that I’ll give out information on appearances I’m doing. I think it might be Jason Earles Fans as the page. But I am currently developing a Jason Earles website that’s going to have lots of interactive stuff where people can post things, ask questions and give me feedback about things they like or don’t like. And I’ll try to give behind the scenes pictures and behind the scenes little videos and a really cool forum to interact with the fans. As soon as that is launched I’ll let everybody know where to go because that will be the best source of cyber hanging out with me.

That would be cool to have the behind the scenes videos.
Yeah because we do a lot of publicity things and appearances where you get a chance to meet the fans. I think it would be fun to show the fans what it’s like to schlepping through the airport and meeting people while you’re traveling. Things like seeing the event and what people say when they up and you sign pictures and just to get a chance to see what that whole experience is like. I think it would be cool to do behind the scenes at the show where you can take fans through a typical rehearsal day and have other members of the cast say ‘hi’. So I would love to have all that stuff accessible to the fans. I think this website would have the opportunity to do that. I think it’s just going to be JasonEarles.Net or JasonEarlesOnline.com. It’ll be something like that but as soon as it’s actually up, I’ll let everybody know.