Q & As


What Would your fans be surprised to know about you?
Jason: I can make weird burping and popping noises.

If you could be an animal, what would you be?
Jason: I'd be a cat. I love the way they can jump off a table and onto the ground, and you dont even realized they've jumped..

Have you ever been to the White House?
Jason: I've never been, but it feels like ive been there because of the Cory set.

How about your favorite vacation spot?
Jason: Definitely the Caribbean, but I really want to visit Australia someday.

Which High School Musical character can you most relate to?
Jason: Chad [played by Corbin]

Do you believe in love at first sight?
Jason: Yes, I do.

qna by: Tigerbeat Mag

Q: You recently played a character named Virgil in the TV movie Minutemen. He is a math whiz, right?
Jason: Totally, absolutely a math whiz. He comes up with the idea of quantum acceleration, I believe it’s called. And he uses that on his rocket cart when he’s driving around on the football field the first day when they are trying out for football. But then he also uses the quantum acceleration when he creates the time vortex, which is what allows us to go back in time. I don’t know what quantum acceleration is, but it must be pretty powerful. I wish it existed.

Q: If you could go back in time, is there anything you would change?
Jason: You know, if I had a time machine, I don’t know that I would go back and change anything as much as I would go back and relive past experiences. Honestly, if I could go back—let's see, how long has it been, a couple months—if I could go back in time and redo Minutemen, like if I could re-film and live all those experiences again, I would, because it was so much fun.

Q: Were there any embarrassing moments while making the movie?
Jason: I think that the most difficult scene to film but probably that's going to be the funniest on screen was the scene where Luke and I are hanging from the lamb statue. I really wish I could have been on the ground to see it because I’m sure it was hilarious. I’ve seen pictures and it's just hysterical, it's really unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. So it was kind of difficult to be up there and just kind of, like, knowing that everybody is staring at you and you’re in this cheerleader outfit but you try not to think about it. You try and focus on the scene. And then once you're down, you kind of just try to forget about it. Yeah, I think that was one of the most difficult scenes to film.

Q: Did you do a Rubik's Cube in the movie?
Jason: I didn’t get to do one in the movie, but I did it off set and off screen on location all the time. We would go back when they were setting up shots or whatever. We’d go back to our chairs and they'd just give me a Rubik's Cube. I had a Rubik's Cube that I brought to the set every day. Then they would just mess it up for me and I would just do it again over and over, and I love doing it.

Q: How fast can you do it?
Jason: Fastest record, I think, was 37 seconds. Usually about a minute. I haven't been practicing as much lately. Probably I could still get it in about a minute, but my record was 37 seconds.

Q: Is there a formula for solving the Rubik’s Cube?
Jason: There’s a formula, but it’s got to do with patterns. A lot of people will think that there’s math involved. I don’t really think there's math as much as there is memorizing steps. Because at the end, it gets to the point where you just have to see where you have to put everything and then you have to do a set of moves, that’s literally how I solve it. In the beginning there’s a lot of placement; you have to know where to put things so that when you fix them, everything will go back into place and you can move onto the next piece. It's complicated.

Q: We heard that you were in Math Olympics. Describe that.
Jason:  Oh, Math Olympics! I think the last time I did Math Olympics was like third or fourth, maybe fifth grade! I think they give you a test or something to do in class, and they give you a certain amount of time to do it, and depending on who performs best, you go to this place probably a 45-minute drive away. You get there and there’s all these other kids and you go into, like, a little classroom and basically do the same thing—you do the same thing that you did in your class, you get a test and you get a certain amount of time to do it and you have all these kids from other schools. So it's a really cool experience, and they grade all the tests or whatever and they have an award show for who performed the best in each class, in each section. I think there were complications and word problems; there were two different kinds of—two denominations, I guess. Yeah, Math Olympics was fun!

Q: Did you get any awards?
Jason: I think once I got like third place, I can't even remember.

Q: Was math your favorite subject in school?
Jason: It was close. Math has always been kind of an "eh" subject for me. I've never really enjoyed it, but it's not extremely difficult for me, but I think science has been my favorite subject since kindergarten. I've always loved learning about the world around me and how things work and how everything works together. That's always fascinated me.

Q: If you weren't into acting, what do you think you would do?
Jason: It’s funny because I was just talking about this last night. I think the idea of being a lawyer has crossed my mind, like that's been an idea that I've had since maybe fifth grade. But as I started to learn more about it, it's becoming less and less interesting. I think something like a marine biologist would be really cool—because that kind of science has always been particularly fascinating and interesting. Like, when I would go fishing, I would love to catch the fish and then just stare at it for a little while, because watching a fish fascinated me. I've always loved going to aquariums. So, something in that field, I don't even know what I would do, but something dealing with fish or marine life or something like that would be incredible.

Q: Is there any place, like a beach place, that fascinates you in terms of the sea?
Jason: Absolutely. I went on a cruise in the Caribbean, and that was some of the most amazing snorkeling I have ever done. Like, seriously, we went off the shore—I think the first time I went snorkeling was in open water. We drove out in a boat for a half hour and then we were in the middle of the ocean. And I had never snorkeled before, so I didn't really know how to do it. I kind of freaked out in the middle of the water and I didn't get to do it and I was disappointed at first. But then we did another one that was off the shore, so I kind of got the feel for it and got used to it and there are some incredible fish in the Caribbean. I'd just love to follow one. Like, you see a kind of medium-size one, and that's the yellow dorsal fin and I didn't even know what kind of fish it is, but I'll just follow it, you know, I won't try to touch it or anything. I'll just watch it like I used to do when I was fishing. I just stare at the fish. I can watch them for hours. And I literally did. I would go out there and I wouldn't want to come back when we were done. I could spend an entire day out there snorkeling. The water is so blue when you're looking at it from the top, and it's so clear when you're in it. It's unbelievable.

Q: You are a yo-yo virtuoso. What is your best yo-yo trick, and have you ever designed a trick yourself?
Jason: Designing a trick is a little bit like taking a basic trick and just kind of twisting it around a little bit. I think my favorite trick to do is called a barrel roll. When I was first learning yo-yo tricks—you know, the Walk the Dog and Rock the Baby and Eiffel Tower and all that—I never heard of a barrel roll and I had no idea what it was. It’s kind of difficult to explain. You get it going on the strings and you just pop it from one string to the next and you just kind of go back and forth and you just keep going around in a circle kind of a thing. It's very difficult to explain, but that's my favorite to do. And people see you take out your yo-yo and they expect stuff like Walk the Dog or Rock the Baby, like they expect you to be able to Rock the Baby for like a minute, but then you do that and then they go—their whole idea of yo-yoing is turned upside down. That's awesome; I love that!

Q: Are you concerned with the environment, and are there any specific things that you do or can advise kids to do?
Jason: I do recycle, and I think that is a very good thing to do. The trouble is, I don’t know what [else] I can do, you know? Sometimes you know you want to do something and you know there are things to do, but I just don't know. I’m still trying to figure out what I can do in my area, you know? And I think that’s what I would say for kids to do is just kind of look around and a do a little research about what’s actually going on in your area or in any area. Do some research and I’m sure the Web sites or books or whatever will give you some ideas.

Q: Have you noticed things that have changed because of problems with the environment?
Jason: If I’m driving to work sometimes, I can just look over the San Fernando Valley and there’s always smog. And cutting off your shower time is really good too. Even if you cut your shower time off by like a minute, it’ll save so much water, and that's really cool.

Q: What would you spend your last $10 on?
Jason: Hmm, last $10. I think I would get two hamburgers from In-N- Out. I think I would get two Double-Doubles, and then I would have one for when I get hungry and another one for when I get hungry again.

qna by: scholastic


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