Descendants 2 Interview with Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, China Anne McClain, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart and Kenny Ortega

I think the fact that I was able to meet with most of the Descendants 2 Cast made my daughter just a tad bit jealous…”tad” being an understatement. All of them were so sweet and extremely grateful to be a part of this sequel. From what I gather, we can expect a lot more from the film and given how good the first one was I can only imagine what they have in store for us. Since we were able to meet most of the cast on their own, I figured I’d share my favorite quotes from our interviews.

Dove Cameron

“What’s beautiful about having such a broad cast of characters is that we all have our really unique storylines. One of my favorite storylines actually isn’t my own, it’s Lonnie’s, and you’ll see that when the movie comes. She has this beautiful, empowering message for girls that gets me every time I see the movie.”

Sofia Carson

“You’ll see a different side of Evie because in the first film, when we met her, Evie was very much her mother’s daughter. She was very consumed in what she looked like and she was sadly willing to believe that her reflection in the mirror is what defined her as a person. At the end of the movie, she realized that as girls, [our looks do not] define us. That doesn’t make us more important or beautiful or special. It’s who we are in our hearts and to be the fairest of them all is to be fair inside. In the second movie, Evie has really grown into herself. She is strong and independent. She’s smart. She’s a fashion designer. She has made her dream come true without a prince and she’s become a leader. At the same time, her best friend Mal, [who is like] her sister, is lost and really confused. Their relationship is really beautiful and important and it’s a story of girl power, which I love.”

China Anne McClain

“It’s cool to play a villain. This is my very first time [playing one] I think. We all have those feelings inside that we just want to unleash on people sometimes, and that’s the definition of Uma’s character. She has always bottled up feelings that she randomly unleashes on people and is not sorry for it at all. So, it was fun playing that and it was really cool. She’s really cool.”

Cameron Boyce

“After the first movie we knew we were going to do the second one. The whole time we were thinking, “Okay, how are we going to top that? How are we going to make something that’s bigger and still better?” You don’t want to just go bigger but you also want to go [deeper with] the characters, but the physical sets themselves are just insane in the second one. You guys haven’t seen anything [like this]. I’m really excited for you guys to see it.”

Booboo Stewart

“I feel like this [lesson] is touched upon the first film, but even more so in this film. Young boys are very [competitive] and they want to be the best. And Jay, in the first film, is a [typical] guy. He wants to be the best. Just having an open mind is such a different, rare thing for a young boy to have. So I’d like it to not even be a question that young people should have an open mind. It just should be how it is. Jay’s opening the door for the people to follow. I [want to] make sure young boys come out of it with more of an open mind.”

*I have a tendency to find a catch phrase that I love and use it all of the time. One of the latest ones is “You do you boo boo”, that being said one of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t say that to Booboo. Seems like a missed opportunity to me.

Kenny Ortega (Director)

“Did any of you ever see “Dirty Dancing?” That was a big part of my youth. I grew up in the ‘60s. I was born in 1950 and I was dancing in my middle-school gymnasiums. When I got the job to choreograph that movie, the director Emile Ardolino said, “What does Dirty Dancing mean to you?” and I said I just remembered when we would go to our Saturday night dances in middle school, that the teacher would come up on the stage and, and say into the microphone, “If there’s any dirty dancing out there the lights are on, the music is over and the party is off.” Sometimes we weren’t even dancing for 20 minutes and the lights came on. But for me, dance was conversation. Before I was a choreographer I danced and there were things that I couldn’t say, that I didn’t know how to say, that I was afraid to say. But I could dance them and so I could communicate through movement. And I think that was always a big thing for me – was that dance was an opportunity to communicate and to have conversation. And that’s what I love about doing it, you know?”

“Where the words stop on the page, the dance can continue to evolve characters, can continue to evolve relationships, can continue to tell story, so that by the time you get to the end of the dance you’re further along than you were when you started it.”

My daughter is super excited about its premiere this Friday July 21, 2017 on ABC, Freeform, Lifetime, Disney XD, or Disney Channel! *and so am I!