Why 'Vacation' Kids Call Acting 'Coolest Thing Ever'
https://youtu.be/QoGfCFCgb3Q
Almost as far back as they can remember, Steele Stebbins and Skyler Gisondo knew they wanted to be actors.
"When I was in kindergarten, one of my best friends was an actor, and I saw him on a commercial, and I was like, 'That is the coolest thing ever!' " Stebbins, 12, one of the stars of "Vacation," tells Made in Hollywood Teen. "I was just so fascinated by it. I asked his mom how she could help me, you know, like, get into one commercial. I didn't even care if I was in the background. I just wanted to be in a commercial. And it just went from commercials to, like, maybe some more commercials, and then to some music videos, and then just kind of kept on going up from there."
Gisondo, 19, who plays his brother in "Vacation, also remembers being drawn to acting when he was "like 3 or 4 years old."
"I was just so fascinated by it - the way TV and movies worked," says Gisondo, who also has appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2." "I would just kind of sit down and watch the same movie over and over and over, four times a day. I'd memorize the whole thing. I latched onto 'Westside Story.' I was born in Florida, and we were in L.A. for a vacation. I was like 6 years old, begging my mom, let me be on TV - however that works. So we sent our pictures to a few different agencies and took on a few different meetings, and one thing led to another and here we are."
Once they set their eyes on "Vacation," they wasted no time catching up on what they’ve missed in the franchise so that they’d fit right in with their roles.
"Once the audition process started, I went back and watched the original films to get a sense of vibe," Gisondo says. "They hold up. They're not dated at all. I'm a very big fan of the original films. One of the things I think I love about this movie and the original script is that they did a great job of incorporating some of the old callbacks and respecting that, but also being very fresh and different."
Stebbins, who also just completed the film "Within," was much more familiar with "Christmas Vacation" than the original "Vacation," but once he watched the latter again, he "loved it," he says. "It was awesome." -- Written by Dahvi Shira.
