–SO-M, along with some other online bloggers, recently had the chance to visit the set of ABC Family’s new comedy, “Ruby & The Rockits.” Check out some highlights from the onset interview with Austin Butler. Austin plays “Jordan Gallagher” in the show. You can also catch Austin in the movie Aliens in the Attic opening in July.
What was the audition process like for the show? When I saw the audition, when my manager told me about it, I didn’t want to go in because I didn’t sing, and they wanted me to sing. And so I was like, “Let’s see how this is going to go.” My manager convinced me to go, and I went, and —they thought I was all right. So we went through all the auditions. And I didn’t really know Shaun or David by just looking at them, and my mom of course went crazy when she heard that I was going to be there.
And so I went in there, and I did the thing, and I remember seeing David and Shaun. And I kind of knew Shaun because I had looked on YouTube videos, trying to see him, and I saw him performing at the Grammies in tight, white pants and stuff. And then David, I remember him laughing at my song because I picked this really emo song on purpose, because that’s kind of how my character is. So I picked this Death Cab for Cutie song that was really emotional. It was fun.
Do you play guitar? I do. I’ve been playing for about four, five years.
Do you have any youtube videos? I think I might. I think I made one as a joke. I don’t do it as much as I would like. I’d like to be one of those people who has a lot of funny YouTube videos. I have a friend, Robert Hoffman, who has—he was in Step Up 2: The Streets, and he’s like the main guy in that, and he does all these YouTube videos that are very viral. He does this one where he dresses up as a ninja and jumps out at people and runs through the streets. It’s really funny. It’s called “Urban Ninja.” Yeah, it’s really good.
Girls are starting to follow you around, like when you went to Disneyland recently. Are you getting used to being a teen idol? I’m not used to it, for sure. And it’s not as bad as I think—I mean, not that it’s a bad thing, at all. It’s a great thing. But it’s not as excessive as Shaun’s and stuff was. Yeah, it was really a surreal experience because when you go out like that and you’re actually filming in a public place, then it brings a lot of attention to you and then people started going, “Oh.” Because normally they would just kind of go, “Oh, I don’t know who he is, really,” just by looking at me. But then they’ll say, “Oh yeah, now I know who that is.” And so it kind of brings their—it brings you into their mind.
And then once one person starts, then it grows into this crazy thing. And so it was really a surreal experience to have all these people wanting—like, groups of people there. It was just insane.
Read the rest of the interview HERE.
“Ruby & the Rockits” premieres on ABC Family tonight at 8:30pm EST after a new episode of “10 Things I Hate About You.”
