You never know what you get when you agree to do an interview with a young celebrity, especially one who is so good at portraying his pompous alter ego. But Sterling Knight couldn’t have charmed me more — nor be any less like his Sonny With a Chance character, Chad Dylan Cooper.
Sure, Sonny centres on Camp Rock star Demi Lovato and follows the casts of two kids’ TV shows — sketch comedy So Random! (which stars Lovato’s Sonny) and tween drama Makenzie Falls (which Chad headlines) — but Knight has benefited from the show’s success.
The 21-year-old actor managed to score the lead in the Disney Original Movie StarStruck, where his character played a pop-singing teen idol who falls for a girl who shuns the spotlight. But it’s his Disney series that he calls home.
Knight dishes on life as a theatre kid, playing a jerk, bantering with Lovato and The Incredible Hulk.
TVGuide.ca: How did you get started in acting?
Sterling Knight: I was a theatre kid in Texas. It was just something fun I did; I didn’t really think too much about it. I was still doing school, I was playing all sorts of sports, and it was just an activity for me. As I got older, I realized I really, really loved it and it became my creative outlet. After a while, I realized to do something that you really love for a living is such a rare thing, so I had to seize the opportunity and try and do something with it. Thank God that it’s working out a little bit for me.
TVG: So you were a theatre kid; you must like working in front of a live studio audience?
SK: I love it. That’s my favourite part of the week, when the audience comes in. To feed off their energy … they love it when we screw up. The only thing I miss about theatre is that if you screw up on stage, you’re not supposed to let anyone know you screwed up. For us, we do another take, but in theatre you have to improv your way through it which is a very, very exhilarating feeling and experience to go through.
TVG: OK, that sounds scary, not exhilarating!
SK: I loved it. I did a set on stage for 10 minutes by myself because someone forgot to come on stage. It was great!
TVG: What did you do?
SK: I just started talking to the audience. My role was a paperboy so I started trying to sell these fake papers that I had. Made some money, too! [laughs]
TVG: What has the second season of Sonny With a Chance been like?
SK: It’s been a lot of fun. We had a fairly long hiatus [between Season 1 and 2]. I hate being bored, so it was nice getting everyone back together again. It was definitely a bigger production. Sketches have been bigger and funnier, the characters were developing more and the stories were getting a bit more complicated. It’s been very exciting.
TVG: What’s your favourite part about playing Chad?
SK: He’s such a jerk.
TVG: Right?!
SK: He’s such a jerk! It’s amazing, I come in every week and I read the scripts and I think, “Oh my gosh!” I feel like our writers are venting through Chad every once in a while.
TVG: And you’re not anything like Chad …
SK: No, I try not to be. My mom would have some very strong words for me. But the great thing about playing Chad is he’s so different from myself and there’s this ridiculous freedom involved in being that brash with people.
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TVG: Is it fun bantering back and forth with Demi?
SK: It’s great. We do that on occasion offscreen as well. We’re very similar, and we’re both very opinionated and we both like to argue and that can get dangerous every once in a while.
TVG: Yeah, your timing is perfect together. Do you ad lib anything?
SK: No. It’s a sitcom and usually improving or ad-libbing is frowned upon. It’s a big no-no as far as [the writers] are concerned. But every once in a while, on a blooper take, we’ll go off on each other. But everything stays lighthearted and fun. |
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TVG: Would you ever want to do some So Random! stuff where you show more of your comedic chops?SK: Yeah! The interesting thing is, when we shot the pilot, the entire concept of the show was completely different and Chad wasn’t even a character. The character I originally played was named Stewart and he was a member of So Random. So when I signed up initially, it was to be a member of
So Random! and do sketch comedy, which worked out because I had just finished a run of a sketch comedy show me and my buddies were doing at a theatre in Hollywood, so I was right on line with the sketch comedy thing. But Chad’s been really fun, like when he guest-starred on
So Random! in Season 1. And Season 2 has been really hysterical, too.
TVG: Do you have a favourite episode so far?
SK: We had Lou Ferrigno guest-star, which was kind of epic for me. I got to do a scene with him, so that’s something I’m going to be telling my kids about. I was in a scene with The Incredible Hulk and he grabbed me; that man’s arms are as big as my entire body!
TVG: He’s humongous. [laughs]
SK: He’s massive! I don’t know how he does it. He’s in his 50s or 60s now, and he’s just huge. Ripped!
TVG: Did you ever watch him on King of Queens? He made Kevin James look teeny. [laughs]
SK: Yes! He’s — argh! He’s enormous. And very, very strong.
TVG: So, what’s a day on the set like for you?
SK: It really depends on the day. The thing about our show is we have great hours as far as the industry’s standards are concerned. Mondays through Wednesdays, we have rehearsals and run-throughs, we go through some rewriting to try and tighten up the script. Thursday, we pre-shoot and we’re usually shooting all day. And then Friday, we shoot a little bit, have lunch, then we load in the audience and we film the rest of the show.
The nice thing about working on a sitcom is that it’s a very reliable schedule. Monday is a Monday, Tuesday is a Tuesday, and so on and so forth. It’s fun to have a bit more normal of a schedule.
Sonny With a Chance airs a one-hour special Friday, August 20, 8 p.m. ET and repeats Saturday, August 21 at noon, Family.
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