And that’s just the way it is. So they’re definitely, they’re an intertwined pair, and they know they’re right for each other, but I think through this movie Tanner and Lela find a journey of self-discovery but together. It’s hard because it seems like they’re on different paths, but they keep intertwining through the whole story and helping solve each other’s problems, so I think it’s like a really beautiful kind of story for them.
Does Tanner have to adapt to Lela’s newfound confidence?
Garrett: So in Teen Beach 2 you’re going to see Tanner and Lela have this new relationship, because Lela is starting to question her role in the ’60s because of the different values that were in place then. Lela starts questioning this, and Tanner has just always kind of taken his place and been like “Oh, this is what guys do and that’s what girls do.” So the first time she questions it, she’s like “Why don’t we go with you,” you know? “All we do is stand around and the guys go off and save the day.” And he’s like, “But you’re supposed to stay here.”
Tanner just doesn’t know any different. So when she jumps in the ocean and he—he loves Lela to the end of the earth, he would follow her into a volcano—so he runs after her and they wash up on shore together. And through this whole adventure it’s a lot of self-discovery. Lela learns what it means to be a woman and to have options and to take a stand for what she believes in. Tanner has this inner, you know, this thing where he learns what it’s like to truly care about people and follow them to the end of the earth, and know that, you know, you can take charge of what you want—but there are things that are more important, and you need to focus on the people that you love so they’ll stay in your life.
What are the challenges for them when they get to the real world?
Garrett: The biggest challenge Tanner and Lela face in the real world is technology. I mean, like cell phones, what? There’s Velcro? There’s automatic showers? There’s, you know, what’s a skateboard? And then just being thrown into like the social economics of the way high school is now, because stereotypes are completely different, so they don’t know what Goth is. [laugh] Like it’s so funny to them, they’re like “Oh, it’s that? Okay, cool.”
Like they just don’t question it, so it’s funny. And chicken nuggets, chicken nuggets are a huge discovery for Tanner for Lela. [laugh] It’s so funny to see how they can bounce that off each other.
What’s happening in the world of Wet Side Story while you’re gone?
Garrett: While Lela and Tanner are gone during Teen Beach 2, Wet Side Story people are vanishing. No one knows what to do. They’re like, “Hey, maybe if we just pretend nothing’s wrong, nothing bad will happen.” But what’s a movie without its lead players? There’s no plot, so there’s no way for the story to move further. So Wet Side Story characters are vanishing so it’s really funny.
Why is music such an important part of any movie?
Garrett: Music is a huge part of any movie because we can only do so much as actors or camera operators or producers, but I think there’s something you get from music that you can’t get from anything else in the whole world. You know, you hear a song and then, like, you’re happy. You hear another song and it’ll make you sad or cry or laugh, so I think 40 percent of a movie is its music, because you’re seeing what’s happening on-screen but the music amplifies that.
What’s your favorite musical number?
Garrett: I have to pick two favorite numbers in Teen Beach 2, and that would be “Right Where I Want to Be” and “Gotta Be Me.” In “Right Where I Want to Be”, you get to explore and it’s this whole new place where Tanner and Lela have options. When you’re an actor looping in a movie, you’ve never had options. You’re just playing yourself. That’s what you get. But now they’re in this world, and they can have thoughts and feelings and decide who they want to be. You know, I think that’s a huge message in the movie. And I love “Gotta Be Me” because that’s where Brady really takes over, and he and Tanner have this really nice moment right before the song.
What did you think of the choreography?
Garrett: The choreography in this movie was really hard. It was really hard, but it was so worth it. The choreography in all of the numbers is really hard but so much fun to do. You know, in “Best Summer Ever” we have these big dance numbers with Frisbees, kind of like in the beach balls section from Teen Beach Movie. In Teen Beach 2, we have Frisbees and leather jackets, and we have these lounge chairs on the beach, and it’s so fun to dance.
Talk about Brady and Tanner’s friendship.
Garrett: So in Teen Beach 2, with Tanner and Brady, it’s interesting because Mack and Lela both are very empowered women who want to make decisions for themselves. And I think the hard part is that Brady and Tanner want to support them, but they don’t know how to without overstepping their boundaries. So I think the struggle with that is learning how they can help them and support them through what they want to do but not overstep.
So Tanner and Brady learn from each other what’s appropriate. And I think what’s really hard, and that’s for any relationship, is you always want to be with somebody like yin and yang. But they’re teenagers so they have to learn how that works.
What is the best part about working with a friend?
Garrett: I think the best part about working with friends, ’cause I really do believe that we’re all really close after working together for so long, that it’s that comfortable feeling; like when you come home after a long day of work, and you see your family, and you know that whatever you do, you have people around you who love you, and there’s no judgment.
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
Garret: In a friend, I look for a couple qualities. How fun are you? [laughs] ’Cause what’s a friendship without fun? Honesty, and the kind of honesty I mean, like when you’re like “Hey, does this shirt look good?” And then a real friend would be like “No, don’t wear that,” and that’s the kind of friend I look for. Right? Honest, fun people.
What’s it like to play Lela again?
Grace Phipps: It’s great to be able to play Lela again. I feel like I’ve known her for so long now that it’s really easy to just slip right back in. I’ve had Lela in my back pocket for so many years now. I feel like I know her back and front. And that’s what’s really the most fun about getting to let her grow in this one. She grows a lot in this one. Lots of good Lela.
What’s your favorite part of Lela?
Grace: I think the thing that’s most fun to play about Lela, and the thing that I think I’ve grown to like most about Lela, is that she’s so wide eyed and she expects the best out of people. She’s so pure of heart, and yet she’s very industrious and she’s very motivated to do things. So, she’s not just observing the world through rose colored glasses. She really like wants to take charge, and she wants to change things and make her own destiny.
Tell us how Lela’s changed.
Grace: Lela’s changed a lot between the first and second movie, but all of her change has been internal before the movie starts. She still has to go through the same blocking every day, and she still says the same lines, and she still does the exact same things as she would’ve in Wet Side Story. But she has different thoughts because she’s been exposed to Mack. And Mack inspired her in a lot of ways.
How do you feel about Lela and her role in this?
Grace: I really love the way that Lela’s written in this sequel. I think she’s given so much heart, and I think it’s really fun to follow along on this journey that she has of realization and waking up and really learning who she is and how to be happy. And this journey of Lela finding fulfillment and having the ability to do that for the first time I think is really beautiful, and I think it’s going to be really fun to follow along with that because I think everyone sort of goes through that.
Everybody has to have a moment of waking up, and everybody has to have a moment of coming
into themselves and realizing how to find fulfillment. Everyone has to be able to grow up and learn more and find out what it is that makes them happy, and I think it’ll be fun to follow Lela on that journey.
How important is having a “strong woman” theme?
Grace: Lela learns from Mack that she can make her own decisions and really take ahold of what her life can be, and she doesn’t have to be told that it’s okay to want something. Lela sort of learns from Mack that she doesn’t have to wait around to be rescued by a boy. That she’s just as capable of rescuing as a boy actually is, and that she can do anything that she wants in her life.
Lela’s from a movie, and she’s from a 1960s movie. But even in Mack’s world, she still will have to work that much harder to be able to make decisions in her own life and be in charge of everything she wants. And Mack really works hard and she’s able to do that. But Lela learns to be able to fight for what she believes in and fight for what she wants to do. And she also learns to not be ashamed to do that or have to not express everything she wants just because she’s a girl.
Tell us about the theme of girl power in this movie.
Grace: There is a lot of girl power in Teen Beach 2, probably more girl power than I’ve ever seen in a script. In Teen Beach Movie Lela gives the advice that you have to bake a boy a pie for him to like you. And in this one she learns how to solve for pi. Lela in Teen Beach 2 really learns that she loves learning, and she learns the power of education and has so much fun taking in all of this knowledge—and knowledge is power, and she’s just so thrilled at everything she learns, even the stuff that’s scary to learn because growing up and knowing more is always scary.
Talk about the theme of owning who you are.
Grace: Another thing that Teen Beach 2 sort of touches on is this sense that you have to own who you are. We have this song “Gotta Be Me” in the movie, and Mack has learned and is learning how to really make sure that all of her needs are getting met and that she’s reaching her goals, and her goals are very powerful. She’s very set to be successful, and she’s so smart. And Brady also has that. I think Brady has that in a less conventional way.
But I think Brady this time gets to learn that he is also doing amazing things. And just because you’re not taking a conventional path doesn’t mean you’re not as motivated.
So they’re both very passionate. Both Mack and Brady are very passionate about what they want to do in life, and that’s really all that matters. It’s not that you’re doing things in the exact same way that people have always done, as long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing and you are driven. I think that would make them—that’s what makes them get along.
What scenes in the movie highlight believing in yourself?
Grace: In the movie, some of the characters, I think particularly Brady and Tanner, sort of lose a sense of their worth. They become self-conscious, and then that’s actually the problem in and of itself, because Mack doesn’t feel like Brady is being honest and open with her, and she misses that in their relationship. And really it just comes from insecurity and the idea of feeling like you’re not enough. But of course the people in your life love you, and they think that you’re enough, so this idea that you’re not enough, it doesn’t help you.
What happens after Lela and Tanner wash up on the beach?
Grace: So, when Lela and Tanner wash up on the beach, everything is new. And what’s the most fun about that is everything that you would think would be new is new; anything that hasn’t been around since the 1960s. For instance, Lela and Tanner definitely have never seen Velcro or anything along those lines. You may think video games. Everyone talks and gets answers from a tiny space box they keep in their pocket. Everything is crazy.
But beyond that they’re not just people from the 1960s who haven’t seen new inventions. They’re characters in a movie, who have never been to school. Who don’t really have last names. Who don’t have parents. So, they’ve never done anything like go to school. [laughs] And so, everything around them is new, and it’s either scary or it’s exciting or it’s something they wanna change or something that maybe they wanna be able to keep for good.
So, it’s harder for Lela and Tanner in the real world?
Grace: So, Tanner and Lela have existed in a world where they just have to say their lines for a very long time. And they’ve never gotten an opportunity to learn. I think that Tanner and Lela are both very, very smart, but they’ve never had to be before. And Lela definitely has a big motivation to try to learn as many things as she possibly can. She wants to explore, and she wants to learn calculus. I think if Lela was an actual person in high school and not a character in a movie, she would probably be involved with student government, and she would probably really want to get into politics and learn everything.
And she’d be so excited to go to college. And she’s that person in her heart I think already as a character. And then when she’s given the opportunity to learn, it’s the most exhilarating thing that she’s ever seen. There’s so much out there that she’s never imagined being out there, and I think she’s just so thirsty for knowledge in this movie. And Tanner thinks everything around him is so cool. And I think they both for the first time get an opportunity to be smart and educated and to learn things and be happy about learning things, when they’ve always just known what they’ve always just known and that’s been the whole thing.
What do you admire about Maia?
Grace: In Teen Beach 2, Mack and Lela get to a point in their friendship where they sort of get to be inspired by each other. And I think any real life friendship needs that, too, where everybody needs a moment to get advice or sort of inspiration from their friend.
What are three qualities you look for in a friend?
Grace: The three qualities I look for most in a friend are funny, reliable, and smart.
What has it been like to reunite with the cast?
Grace: We’ve known each other for so long, and we’ve known each other so consistently, it’s not like we haven’t seen everybody for years now. It’s not like we haven’t seen anybody since we shot the last time. So, it’s kind of just great to be able to come back and do it again. And like I was saying, I sort of feel every once in a while I’m hugging John like, “Oh, big bro.” It’d be like, “Wait, you’re not actually my big brother.” But I don’t have a big brother. So, he should do it. [laughs]
What’s it like to be back in the world of song and dance?
Grace: I haven’t had to have dance rehearsal for a lot of things since Teen Beach, but I think I’ve sort of like tried to keep it up a little tiny bit. And it’s been good. The dance numbers are fast and they’re crazy. But we’ve all been working really hard on them, and I think they’re going to be really good. I mean, Chris Scott is amazing. Our choreographer’s amazing. And it’s great to be able to be doing a musical again. I love doing musicals. I’ll always do musicals.
Describe the music in three words.
Grace: The three words I would use to describe the music in Teen Beach 2 are “sassy,” “splendid,” and “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” [laughs]
Describe the comedy in both movies.
Grace: I think the comedy in Teen Beach 2 is so strong because you already know the characters so well. It’s so great to be able to see them have so much more fun and get to see them do all these crazy things. Right now we’re shooting with two Wet Side Story characters singing a song for the first movie to try to get the plot going again. And, of course, it’s crazy and it’s really funny. I think this movie is just going to be so good and everyone in it is so good.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Butchy and I love Butchy. Everything Butchy has to say cracks me up. I’m not a person who really breaks in a scene. Like I don’t like start laughing in the middle of a scene very much. It’s hard sometimes with Butchy b
ecause it was like “Oh, big brother.” [laughs]
Do you have a favorite line?
Grace: Oh gosh, my favorite line? I love all the lines. I think the writers did such an amazing job. I was so thrilled when I read the script. I think it had so much heart, and it has so much funny at the same time, and neither distract from each other.
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