Jason Earles Interview

courtesy of Disney

By: Sindy

Sindy::Hi, Jason, where are you calling from?

Jason: I’m in Temecula, California, it’s an hour south of L.A.

Sindy:: Good city name! So you play Jackson on Hannah Montana—what’s it like to be part of such a huge show?

Jason: It’s really unexpected and a bit humbling. When we started, we hoped it’d be a show kids would like watching and hoped it would stick around for a few years. We wanted it to be a show kids and parents could watch together so we’re all humbled and proud that we’re able to achieve that.

Sindy:: You did a voice for the Space Buddies movie, right?

Jason:: Yeah, Spudnik! I think it comes out on DVD today so I’m going to watch it for the first time.

Sindy:: Wait…so you didn’t get to meet any of the dogs?!

Jason: No, that’s the crazy thing about voice work—I never met any of the other actors, not even the director! It was all done over the phone.

Sindy:: : Cool. Do you want to do more [kwlink 5563]voice work[kwlink]?

Jason: Oh yeah, I love it. Can you think of a better job? You get to show up in your pajamas and you get 15 tries at it if you don’t get it right the first time.

Sindy:: True, true. So do you like dogs?

Jason: I do, I have 2 cats but I consider myself a dog person. The dog is new, he’s only six and a half months old, so we’re still figuring each other out.

Sindy:: What’s his name?

Jason: His name’s Andy and he’s an Australian Shepherd.

Sindy:: Cute! Can you tell me a bit about Disney XD and the new Aaron Stone show?

Jason: Disney XD is the new network geared toward boys and Aaron Stone is the first big show. It’s about a kid who’s amazing at video games, but it turns out the game he’s really good at is a screener to see who has the skills to take on these real-life crime bosses.

Sindy:: Whoa, that sounds like Ender’s Game! Did you ever read that book?

Jason: No, but have you seen The Last Starfighter? It’s a little bit like that. So everything he can do in the game, he can do in real life. The company that put out the game has all the technology that’s in the game, so there’s crazy weapons and martial arts. I play Hunter who’s sort of his android protector, but I get damaged and my programming goes haywire. I go into Terminator mode and think I’m supposed to destroy him instead of protect him.

Sindy:: Did you train for the fighting scenes?

Jason: Yeah it was cool, it was my first time doing that. You’d start fighting with the stunt doubles and they’d ask you to hit them harder cause it’s easier for them to react. So by the 3rd or 4th take you’re just wailing on these guys!

Sindy:: Haha, awesome! Are you big into video games?

Jason: Oh yeah, well we have a lot of downtime on the set of Hannah Montana, so if Miley’s rehearsing her scene, I’ll be in my trailer with my Playstation. Right now I’m playing a game called Deadspace which is a sci-fi, outer space, survival kind of game—it’s pretty intense. I bounce between that type of games, RPG, and sports games like Madden football.

Sindy:: Nice. Well thanks so much for talking with me, Jason, it was a pleasure.

Jason: No problem, thanks Kidzworld!