Nolan Sotillo
Nolan Sotillo made his big screen debut this year when he starred in Disney's Prom - which is out on DVD now.
I caught with the actor to talk about his experience on the movie as well as his plans to launch a music career.
- Prom is about to come to DVD here is the UK so for anyone who has not seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
Prom is basically a story revolving um, a group of high school students that are getting ready for the big night of prom and prom is basically.
It’s like the last night that you’re with your friends and everyone really wants to celebrate because they’re seniors in high school, and they’re going to move onto college, and they probably won’t see each other again so there’s a lot of pressure in asking a girl and like, asking the right way - because you have to come up with a clever way to ask a girl to prom, it’s kind of like tradition and so, it kind of has a lot of sense of urgency I guess, in a way.
- We see you take on the role of Lucas Arnaz in the film so what was it about the character and the script that drew you to the project?
Well the script in and of itself was just, I thought it was incredible you know, the first time I read it - there were so many story lines - because I mean really in life we don’t realize that other people are going through the problems that we are, just the same, but we’re too like, closed up a little bit because during our teen years we’re kinda of shy, we’re kind of figuring everything out.
Its kind of incredible how all these story lines come together with Prom and how everybody should be going through the same problems and some may know that others are going through it and some just may not realize it and I kind of feel like it was like a door opener for me and it kinda made me realize that other people are experiencing the same things in life as me.
And um, you know, Lucas is just such a real character, he has his one best friend and that’s really who he depends on in life, and then this girl just comes into his world and totally flips it around, he doesn’t know what to do because he’s just so head over heels for this girl, and he’s so nervous around her he can’t even fathom any words to talk to this girl.
When he tries to speak he stutters... it’s so charming though, to the girl. Eventually he has to pick between his best friend and the girl and um, he thinks he makes the right decision, but in the end it may not be.
Yeah I mean it’s kind of like classic films... Say Anything, Pretty in Pink, Fifteen Candles, it’s like one of them that maybe nowadays we kind of look over, but honestly, right when prom comes, there is so much pressure, and it’s incredible how many people are going through the same thing that we don’t really realize.
- The movie is directed by Joe Nussbaum so how did you find him as a filmmaker?
Oh I love Joe. Working with him was awesome, and when I met him at the call-back, I feel like we hit it off very well, and we talked about the script and, it was just wonderful.
And he kind of let us make our own choices, but he really wanted something specific with the scene. But let’s say we were to knock heads at some point with an idea in the scene.
We would still wanna go with what he was saying but he would definitely allow us to bring in other parts that maybe weren’t directly written in the script but we thought maybe our character is feeling this and we were really able to talk to him and figure out exactly what we wanted to do as a team.
- And what was it like on set with so many great young actors?
It was the best experience of my life having worked on on set. They call it work but, I mean, it was during the summer and it was like summer camp.
We were having a blast shooting all day and then on the weekends when we weren’t shooting we would all hang out with each other and be a family. It was such a pleasure working with everyone.
I didn’t get to shoot scenes with everybody on set but I hung out with everybody on set. And like, I would bring my guitar and just sing and play guitar all day when I wasn’t shooting... it was so fun.
- If you had to go to a Prom this evening which famous lady would you like to have one your arm?
Haha, I got to get a suit together. I think I’d take Taylor Swift, if she would say yes. She is wonderful.
- You can also be seen on YouTube posting covers as well as original songs so how much is music something that you want to pursue? Will we be seeing you on a label anytime soon?
Music is definitely something that I’d like to pursue. It’s probably, I mean, the acting and music are the two biggest things in my life.
So yes, it’d be something that I’d be very interested in, signing with a label and making an album. Like I said, it’s such a big part of my life.
I’m going to continue posting on my YouTube which is youtube.com/nolansotillo. So I mean, if I get signed and come out with an album, it would be just another.. that is a goal of mine.
Prom is out now on DVD!
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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