Intro from the ABC Family Press Release

ABC Family will present the television premiere of “Another Cinderella Story” on Sunday, January 18 (8:00 – 10:00 PM ET/PT). A high-energy, comedic twist on the classic fairy tale, “Another Cinderella Story” stars Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) as downtrodden teen Mary Santiago, Drew Seeley (the “High School Musical” concert tour) as pop idol Joey Parker and Jane Lynch (“Talladega Nights,” “For Your Consideration,” “Best in Show”) as Dominique, Mary’s evil legal guardian.

This re-imagining of the traditional fairy tale steps up the action to present-day Beverly Hills, where Mary, a humble yet sweet servant girl, dreams of being a world-class dancer. Standing in Mary’s way is her cruel step-mother, Dominique, a washed-up diva, and Dominique’s daughters, Bree and Britt, who do everything they can to crush Mary’s dreams. The terrible threesome conspires to keep Mary off the dance floor—and mopping the kitchen floors.

But when Joey Parker, pop’s Prince Charming, returns to town and announces that he will be hosting a contest to find the most talented dancer to perform in his new music video, Mary’s hopes are revived. In order to increase her chances of winning the coveted spot, Mary sneaks into the studio where Joey is teaching girls the moves and watches him through a one-way mirror. Though he can’t see her, the two of them share a passionate dance together.

Later, Mary and Joey share an unexpected encounter at the school’s masked Black & White Ball, but it is cut short by the demands of Mary’s evil step-mother. As Mary frantically flees the ball, she drops her MP3 player and Joey, determined to find out who the mystery girl is, begins his search by asking girls to identify the top songs on the MP3 play list. Will Joey find his princess? Will Mary’s step-sisters’ sinister plan to sabotage her work? Find out in “Another Cinderella Story,” a dazzling, dynamic remix of the classic tale!

“Another Cinderella Story” is directed by Damon Santostefano (“Bring it on Again,” “Three to Tango”) from a script by Erik Patterson & Jessica Scott and is produced by Dylan Sellers (“A Cinderella Story,” “Agent Cody Banks”). Clifford Werber, Ilyssa Goodman and Neal Dodson serve as executive producers.

Drew recently took time out of his schedule to answer questions about the process of making the movie.

Question> What made you want to be a part of the movie?

Drew> Oh, let me count the reasons.  I love to act, sing, and dance, and it was a project that came along where I got the opportunity to do all three at once, you know, and even get to write some of the music, which was amazing, because that’s kind of how I got started, you know, with … ABC Family, doing some writing with High School Musical, so bringing that around two years later to write all the music and co-write a lot of music for this film was a lot of fun.

Question> How did you prepare for your role in the film?

Drew> I practiced my dancing a lot with Selena.  We had a lot of rehearsals, like two weeks of pretty intense rehearsals right before we started shooting, you know, learning tango and all these different kinds of dance from Michelle Johnston and Stella Choe and Kelly Konno did all the choreography to the movie, so they kind of whipped us into shape really quick. 

Question> Do you have a most memorable moment from filming Another Cinderella Story?

Drew> Most memorable moment?  There were a lot of memorable moments, but one thing that was kind of cool was a lot of my family lives in Vancouver, so I had three of my little cousins and my aunt be extras in the movie, so they got to come to set and hang out and weasel their way into some of the background of some of the big scenes, so that was funny watching … seeing them in there.

Question> We know that you sing, dance, and act.  Do you have a favorite of the three?

Drew> It kind of changes every day.  I started dancing before anything else, you know, when I was like 7, and then did my first play, Showboat, in Toronto when I was 11, so I kind of got my feet in the water back then.  Then the last thing that came was really singing and music, and that’s what’s carried me over the last couple of years, and I love doing all of them. 

Question> Do you have a preference as far as doing TV or movies, and what’s the difference between the two for you?

Drew> Well, I’ve done a couple guest star roles on TV shows, but I’ve never been a series regular, so I can’t really say.  I’m sure that would be nice to have some kind of steady job, but I love to travel, and I love being in different places, so I kind of like doing a movie where you can be in one place that you’re not – somewhere that you’re not used to for a month or two, and then try somewhere new, and go back to your life.  Filming movies so far has been amazing and probably number one.

Question> What would you say to people convince them to watch the movie?

Drew> I would just say, I mean, it’s just a lot of fun.  It’s just a really fun movie.  It’s not trying to be a remake of the Hillary Duff, Chad Michael Murray version, although that is playing at 6:00 p.m. the same day on ABC Family right before our movie.  But it’s a modern take on the classic Cinderella story, so I think people young and old will be able to relate to it, and it’s got some great dancing and great music.  Yes, I think people that tune in will be surprised and hopefully in a good way.

Drew> You know, a lot of people ask that, but it really was never an issue for us.  I just hope everybody kind of enjoys seeing the movie as much as we enjoyed making it.

Question> As far as writing the music for Another Cinderella Story, what were some of the inspirations for those songs?

Drew> Let’s see.  Well, New Classic, the inspiration was, Damon Santostefano, the director, kind of gave us some notes, and told us we needed a big theme song kind of for the end dance that brings Mary and Joe together.  So I was sort of thinking – the concept for New Classic is kind of, you know, you take – there’s nothing more classic than a sense of self-confidence.  There’s nothing more sexy than that, so I think that Mary has that, but then also she makes it new by bringing her own kind of style into it and giving it her own spin, and that’s kind of what she sees in me too, so sort of find each other or help each other find ourselves through that, and that’s what that song is about. 

Question> As far as the songs, are those all written by you, cowritten by you?

Drew> A little bit of both.  I love collaborating and cowriting, and I’m working with a bunch of cool people.  I’m in the studio with this guy, Mike Daily, today, who has done some stuff with the Plain White T’s.  And I just recorded a song a couple days ago with this production team called the Heavy Weights for an album that’s coming out.  I don’t know when it’s coming out, but it has something to do with The Wizards of Waverly Place show.

Question> What music do you like that might be a surprise to people?

Drew> I’m a big fan of a lot of … like Hall & Oates and Phil Collins and The Police and that kind of thing, so I don’t know how many readers are familiar with a lot of those bands, but I get a lot of inspiration from that kind of stuff.

Question> Were there any funny or embarrassing moments on the set?

Drew> Yes, there were some funny things.  I mean, we were supposed to be shooting in Beverly Hills, but we were in Vancouver, so for the night scenes, we had to suck on ice cubes between takes so our breath wouldn’t show when the camera started rolling.  That was a little odd.  And wore these t-shirts and Selena had a dress on, but there were camera guys standing right underneath us right off frame with like giant heaters.  They’d point them at us.  It was freezing. 

 I had to drive a stick shift car, which I don’t know how to do, and that was kind of embarrassing because I had to stop a millimeter from the camera, and I could not get it right, so we ended up having about ten crew guys push us into frame and stop me right at the right time.  Selena got a kick out of that too.  I was usually the butt of most of the jokes, but … fun….

Question> When you were filming, what would you guys do for fun in between takes or maybe after a day of filming?

Drew> I would make a B-line for the table.  I filled my pockets up with Gummy Bears.  We had some long days, so Gummy Bears got us through with a sugar rush.

Question> What you would like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

Drew> Just thank you.  I’m just no different than a lot of other people that are out now lately just trying to get work, and I’m just very grateful that I’ve been able to put out products, you know, be involved in projects that I’m proud of and get a chance to do this, which is what I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really living my dream, and it’s just really only because of the fans and the people that are following what I’m doing, so I’m genuinely grateful.

Question> What was your favorite part with working with Selena?

Drew> My favorite part?  Let’s see.  I think the most fun was probably the final scene of the movie, the big concert scene because we had 200 extra people in there, a full crowd, and we got to do the dance and the songs full out with a band and dancers and the lights going and everything and the fog machine.  It was just really exciting.  It really felt like a real concert, and we got to live inside of that for about a week, so that was my favorite part.

Question> Do you still keep in touch with any of the other actors or actresses that were in the movie with you?

Drew> I do, yes.  Actually, Marcus, he plays D’Funk in the movie, called me the other day.  He’s doing some performing too.  We actually have a song together on the soundtrack called 1^st Class Girl, so he’s doing some shows, and we were talking about doing that.  I keep in touch with him.  I keep in touch with Selena, and a lot of the other cast are from Vancouver.

Question> You had mentioned that you started off pretty young.  What was your inspiration or kind of your interest in performing?

Drew> I don’t know … know if that’s what you want to do with the rest of your life.  Maybe you do.  Maybe you don’t, but my parents kind of got me into dancing and then a little bit of acting when I was about that age.  I think maybe like freshman year of high school or eighth grade is when I decided this is what I wanted to do, and I actually took my own effort to go try out for all the school plays, and I did all the school musicals and that kind of thing.  It’s probably like 13-ish, 12, 13.

Question> How often do you get back home?  Does your family still live in Ontario?

Drew> My parents live in Orlando, Florida.  Most of the rest of my family still lives in Toronto, so I get back to Orlando a couple times a year, probably the same with Toronto.

Question> How did you first get discovered for the voice in High School Musical?

Drew> Well, I cowrote that Get Your Head in the Game song and demoed it out.  I was in the studio working with my mentor, Ray Chan, and he was working on the song, and I happened to be working on my own project the same day.  And I asked him, can I help you cowrite this, and he was gracious enough to let me do that.  Then we didn’t expect High School Musical to be High School Musical.  I don’t think anybody really did, so I guess the people at Disney heard my voice and knew me from doing that demo, so when the time came around to do the concert tour, they gave me a call, and I got to tour the world with the rest of the cast.  It was the right place at the right time.