Joshua Bassett was one of the breakout stars of High School Musical:The Musical: The Series, but he almost didn’t do it!
The 25-year-old singer and actor played Ricky Bowen across all four seasons of the Disney+ musical television show, and was nominated for two Emmys, winning one, for songwriting.
While the actor did end up starring in the show, he revealed in a new interview that he originally didn’t want to do it. He also shared that he auditioned for the Zombies movie, as well as the Avatar movies!
“I had kind of given up on the acting idea. I wasn’t really pursuing it. And then my sister’s friend from college messaged me on Facebook and said, ‘We’re casting this movie Zombies and I think that you might be a good fit for one of the roles.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, right. I don’t know. I’m going to film school, bro. Like, I’m not going to act.’ And then I went up for it. It didn’t end up working out, but the next day I had a call back for Avatar 2, 3, and 4,” Joshua shared on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio.
“I didn’t book them, but it made me realize, ‘Oh, maybe I can do this.’ And so I went through very rigorous, like I had like over 200 auditions in a year and I was driving up to LA every day. And I was kind of just like seeing how this goes. I was like f-ck it,” he continued. “I was like, ‘Let’s just see where it leads.’ And so I didn’t necessarily, wasn’t shooting for Disney per se, but you know I ended up, you know, having pretty good luck with Disney and it ended up working out.”
Joshua then shared how he was going up for another TV series at the same time he was up for HSMTMTS.
“Funnily enough there was another show that I was up for when I was going up for High School Musical. I remember when I got the audition and I was like, ‘Oh god, like they’re going to ruin High School Musical.’ Like Disney loves to milk a franchise. I was like, ‘Oh god, they’re going to they’re going to ruin it. It’s a cash grab,'” he said. “And then there was this other show. I won’t say what network, but I was convinced it was like my thing. I was like, ‘This is a deep show.’ It’s like edgy and cool and I really wanted this show. I did not want High School Musical. They were going to screen test me and Disney found out. And so they said, ‘We’ll see you the next day.'”
“So they brought me in for a screen test the next day. Ended up booking High School Musical. And ironically, you know, High School Musical went on to be four seasons,” Joshua continued. “I won an Emmy. It ended up changing my whole life. And the show that I thought that I wanted on the cool network that was edgy barely had one season. It totally flopped. The reviews were terrible. You just, you don’t know what you want.”
Joshua was nominated for Outstanding Original Song for a Children’s or Young Teen Program two years in a row at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, and won the first time for “Finally Free” from season three.
More recently, Joshua returned to the musical world and starred as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors on off-Broadway.
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