High School Musical - Kenny Ortega Talks 'HSM3'

[Darlene]

In his long career as a choreographer and filmmaker, Kenny Ortega has worked with everyone from Gene Kelly and Francis Coppola to Michael Jackson, Cher, Elton John and Madonna.

Yet, he's had his greatest success to date as the director of the phenomenally popular High School Musical films, the third of which, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, arrives in cinemas later this year.

We met with Ortega on the set of the new film and asked him what's in store now that High School Musical is making the jump to the big screen.



Q: What is going on at East High in this third film?

A: We're on a different plane in terms of our story and the stakes that our kids are dealing with. We come in during spring, at the end of the basketball season, so it's this transitional moment and our characters are looking toward the future, to college and their lives beyond school, and wondering what's going to happen to their friendships and their relationships.




There's a line in our movie, "Everybody knows you don't take the girl with you after high school," and that's a big issue for Troy and Gabriella.



Q: You're surely not saying that Troy and Gabriella are going to split up?

A: [Laughs] That's the question: what's going to happen to them next? But in the meantime, we actually get to watch Troy and Gabriella fall in love in this film. In the first film, their relationship was just two weeks old by the end of the movie and they were juniors in high school, so it seemed appropriate to me that we ended with the possibility of a kiss and nothing more. In the second film, we spent time watching them simply enjoying being with each other. In number three we're watching their feelings for each other really blossom and develop, and that's a lot of fun.



Q: High School Musical 3 will be the first of the High School Musical films to debut in cinemas. Is that going to make a difference to what we see on screen?

A: We have more money and a little bit more time, so this film is going to be bigger and more multi-dimensional. You'll see that especially in the dance numbers. We've got a number on the basketball court, up on a rooftop, in a junkyard, in a tree house, and there's a great range of styles, which has been great fun for me. There's a little bit of Broadway in there, a little bit of funk and hip-hop, as well as ballet and ballroom. It's been much more challenging for the whole cast. Just to get the waltz right is way more difficult than people probably think.



Q: Are the cast members all natural dancers?

A: They're up there on screen alongside professional dancers, so they have to be at the top of their game. They come in and sweat and fall on their faces and get up and keep going till they get it right, and they have all improved from one film to the next, especially Zac. When Zac came to us, he wasn't a dancer. He'd done some musical theatre in high school, but he'd had no real training and it's like he's a different person between the first film and High School Musical 3. He's jumping and turning and he's really stretching himself out on the floor, and he's more soulful as well as more technically proficient. It's just been the most exciting experience working with him on the choreography for this film.



Q: How has the huge success of High School Musical impacted the cast? Have they changed?

A: Sure. They've grown as people and as actors and they now have albums and concert tours and other motion pictures in their credits.
Certainly on the second film there was this feeling of, "Whoa! What's happening here?" But in other ways they haven't changed at all. They practice, they rehearse, and they come to set prepared and excited about the work.

They're not out partying and clubbing and honestly, I say this very sincerely, not one of them is in it for the celebrity, not a one of them. I'm so filled with joy just coming to the set to work with them.



Q: Let's go back to the beginning. Tell us about the casting process on the first film.

A: The one thing that I can say is that the minute I met Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens at auditions and I paired them up together, there was something about their chemistry and their connection with each other that was just right.

We went through a number of auditions and the final audition took seven hours -- we had them dance, play basketball, do improv, sing, work on a scene – and every time I tried to split those two up and put them with different people, it just wasn't working.

At the end of the process, all of us, the casting directors, the studio, my producers, all of us, we just sat there and we said, "They're amazing, they are Troy and Gabriella and they are meant to be together."



Q: Does it ever surprise you that the High School Musical films have caught on like they have when in some ways they are so old-fashioned?

A: I think there's room for Superbad as well! [Laughs] But I don't think High School Musical is at all old-fashioned, it's just that no one had made a film like it for a while, which is very different from it being old-fashioned.
What's happened is that we've reawakened this yearning for a certain innocence, a certain fantasy and hopefulness and joy. People were ready to see that again.



Q: So how does it feel to have turned a new generation on to the musical?

A: If I have, then I can't think of anything better. You know, my parents met at a dance and probably my earliest memory is of the two of them in the lounge at home, swing-dancing, salsa dancing, waltzing, and me thinking, "That's love, that's happiness". That feeling has never really left me.




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