Hanging Out With The Cast Of Disney Channel’s Stuck In The Middle

While I was in Los Angeles last week, I had the amazing opportunity to hang out with the cast of Disney Channel’s “Stuck In The Middle”!  This was such an exciting experience for me because this just happens to be my children’s favorite Disney Channel show right now.  They were so excited, and a little jealous, that I was going to get to hang out and have lunch with the cast, but quickly forgave me when they saw how cool of a mom I was.  As you read through our visit, be sure to check out the videos I got of the day.  Three of the cast members sent personal messages to my kiddos on my phone, which is why I am now the coolest mom of 2016!  Sorry Moms, I took the title last week 😀

We watched a new episode that is going to be coming out this season where Ariana Greenblatt’s character on the show literally takes a bath in a cake.  It is a hilarious scene, so the first question was about that scene.

Question: Let’s talk about that cake scene. How fun was that the film and how long did it take?

Ariana Greenblatt: It was so much fun. It was a little cold but it was like obviously amazing. The cake was so good. I don’t know how long it took.
Kayla Maisonet: It didn’t take that long. I was there watching you doing it and you were having a lot of fun.
Ariana Greenblatt: [INAUDIBLE] I was doing snow angels.
Kayla Maisonet: It only took like 45 minutes.
Ariana Greenblatt: Yeah, snowballs were like out of cake. It was so much fun! I loved it!

Question: So it was amazing?

Ariana Greenblatt: It was amazing.

Question: So how many of you are actually from large families?

Jenna Ortega: I’m from a large family. I’m one of six kids but if you add one of my nephews there’s seven. But my sister just had another nephew so now there’s eight of us. And they’re always over at the house because we babysit them so there’s eight kids in my family I guess you could say. So it’s pretty big.

Question: So, some of you can kind of relate but some of you don’t have big families?

Ariana Greenblatt: I have just a little brother.
Kayla Maisonet: I have a brother, cousins and three dogs.
Cerina Vincent: Actually, she is stuck in the middle just like in the show. I thought that Disney created the show for her and the family because there are so many parallels. It was perfectly designed.

Question: My niece is freaking out right now. I mean, just you have no idea. Do you like being stuck in the middle?

Jenna Ortega: I love being stuck in the middle. I like Harley’s story line because at first she’s kind uncertain of where she’s going with her life. She feels very invisible but later on she realizes that she is very important. She plays a very important role in her family. I think it’s important to know that for those middle children out there who feel like they’re not noticed that they are. And they are very important in the families because they make their families; their families.

The “Stuck In The Middle” cast has a reputation for pulling pranks on set.  Their answer to this question was hilarious plus you can watch it play out in the video above 😀

Question: I have a question for Jenna. My daughter recently read an article about you in discovery girls’ magazine about pranking. Do you guys do pranks on the set?

Group: Yes.
Jenna Ortega: The thing about his pranks though is that they’re not like set up. They’re jump scares. He basically just comes out.
Isaak Presley: Well, I think what they’re talking about is when you pranked me.
Jenna Ortega: Oh, it was April Fools’ Day and we were filming onset. I kept telling everyone, hey guys I have the biggest prank. I’m going to get all of you guys. You guys don’t even know.
Isaak Presley: There was no prank.
Jenna Ortega: That was his prank; that he didn’t have a prank. But a couple of my siblings had to be on set that day. And I said, well we have to get Isaak before he gets us. Isaak is like the biggest Oreo fan. So my siblings and I, we got a packet of Oreos and we opened one of them and put deodorant in there.  Isaak runs in and we’re eating like the normal ones. And he said, “oh my gosh, give me one, give me one.” So, we give him the deodorant one.
Nicolas Bechtel: He shoves it in his mouth. Chews it and then after he chews it he runs to the bathroom.
Kayla Maisonet: He was just like a little girl too!
Ariana Greenblatt:  He didn’t even think twice because he loves Oreos so much.
Isaak Presley: I walked right into it.
Malachi Barton: He didn’t even look at it. Later he’s like, we don’t even have to say anything.
Isaak Presley: I was like oh wait, can I have one? Her sister hands me one. I’m like, great. I take a bite of it. As I’m chewing I’m like having different thoughts. I’m like wow, is this a mint Oreo? This doesn’t taste right. And then, and then I freaked out.
Ariana Greenblatt: Was it used deodorant?
Isaak Presley: I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me.
Jenna Ortega: Evil. That was bad.

Oh my goodness y’all!  These kids are just adorable.  They have a bond and a love for each other that you rarely see in siblings, much less in cast members of a television show!

Question: What’s the chemistry like on set?

Ariana Greenblatt: Family, just straight up family.
Nicolas Bechtel: Siblings.
Ariana Greenblatt: Off the set we hang out at dinners. And we really love each other.
Jenna Ortega: We see each other Monday through Friday so it’s like we’re always together.
Isaak Presley: Saturdays and Sundays.
Jenna Ortega: It’s like they’re my second family.
Joe Nieves:  And that happened right from day one. Right from day one it happened. It was immediate and fantastic.
Isaak Presley: I know for Malachi and I, we’re only children. So like us walking into this as only children, we’re walking into this big family. It was actually like adopting a family.
Ariana Greenblatt:  We’re like family.
Malachi Barton:  I was just going to say, just like Isaak and I, what he was saying it’s like that in real life, we don’t have any siblings. So it’s like interesting but it’s really, really fun to have siblings on set.
Question: Are they really like this all the time?
Group: No.
Cerina Vincent: I will say that back to family, I’m not a mother in real life.
Nicolas Bechtel/Jenna Ortega: But you’re the mother to me. She’s very motherly.
Cerina Vincent: I always wanted seven kids. And it just like was a weird childhood thing, you know fantasy sequence in all of us.  And I have them all but in a different form. It’s really cool. We’re bonded.
Group: Yes. I think so too.
Ariana Greenblatt: Like onset she gives us tickle scratches.
Jenna Ortega:  We’ll be filming and once they yell cut, all the littles will run over and go like this. And she’ll just like take turns scratching all of them.
Malachi Barton: For the only children on set that don’t have siblings kind of like again what I was saying is that it’s amazing how you can have siblings when you actually don’t have siblings.
Cerina Vincent:  Love is love.
Isaak Presley:  And to say what you were saying about is it actually like that? I mean, what’s great is that because we’re like a real family we have everything which really helps bring the on set chemistry. I mean we have the bickering and we have the jokes and we have the emotional moments together that really help bring that to the screen. If everything was happy and joyful 24/7 I feel like it’d be very phony. But because we experience all the emotions that kids do it really helps onscreen.
Nicolas Bechtel: Ditto that.

The next question was my question.  My kids, especially Hannah, love Stuck In The Middle. They were more excited about this interview than any of the others, so I had to bring her into it with me 😀  Of course mine had the longest answer.  Being there and listening to the cast talk about their love for each other, then reading back through it while formulating this post was just an amazing experience!

Question: My kids, love y’all. I have a 10-year-old daughter and she’s freaking out right now. And it’s funny because we use lines from your show like in our everyday life. Well, she’ll come in and we’ll use this often. She’ll come in freaking out about something. I’ll be like, I could take you seriously but your eyebrows. It’s my favorite thing to do. It completely throws her off. It’s great.

Isaak Presley: An hour and a half of makeup.
Nicolas Bechtel: Yeah, he looks so weird. You look like an alien.
Question: How does that feel more that y’all are like in everybody’s household? We live in South Louisiana. Y’all are big down there.
Ronni Hawk: What part?
Question:  Lafayette.
Ronni Hawk: Okay, Baton Rouge. Okay.
Question: What’s the feeling of that?
Group: Great. It’s great. Grateful. Overwhelmed.
Jenna Ortega: I think our story line is very sweet. What we’re trying to get across to families is you should celebrate being a part of a big family. Like,  it’s not such a bad thing as people make it out. And to affect people like all around the nation is amazing.
Kayla Maisonet: It’s wonderful.
Jenna Ortega: I’m pretty sure I speak for all of us when I say this was like a dream of ours to be on a Disney Channel show. So the fact that we’re walking down the street people are like, “hey, Harley, you want to grab a photo? Hey, Jordan you know like reach out.” It means a lot to us.
Ariana Greenblatt: It makes me happy, I just smile.
Malachi Barton: When I was little I would just watch the Disney channel and be like, wow, I wonder how they do that.  And it’s like now we are in this position that we’re actually on a Disney show.
Isaak Presley: Well, we recently got our wand ID. And I know that when I was little like watching the Disney Channel my friends and I were joking about it. We were like “hi, I’m Isaak Presley and you are –“, and we’d just joke around. And it would be like just a dream, it’s every kid’s thing. And then you’re standing there and I remember, I was shaking because it was like, you were there what every kid’s dream to do is.
Nicolas Bechtel: Okay, Isaak just stop. She’s going to start crying….If she starts crying….
Jenna Ortega: I’m happy and excited to be there because when I was younger I took twirl with the baton or whatever. I would look in my mirror and when I first said I wanted to be an actress I told my parents, I want to be on the Disney Channel show, you just watch. They’re like, ‘okay Jenna’ like slow your roll.  I’d twirl my baton and I’d go, ‘hi, I’m Jenna Ortega and you’re watching Disney Channel’.  Isaak was the first one to go up and I was shaking off camera.  Nicolas was like, Jenna, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, calm down.
Nicolas Bechtel: Chill, chill.
Jenna Ortega: Ronni was going and I was screaming. I was so excited by the time it came to me. I did the first one and then I started bawling.  The makeup artist was like, ‘Jenna, you’ve got makeup on, be careful’.
Isaak Presley: Well, I’m the first one and obviously I have the nerves because I’m the first one who of the cast to get (my wand ID). And Jenna’s  getting all emotional.  I’m starting to get emotional. I’m like, Jenna stop.
Kayla Maisonet: And there was like a glass wall so whoever was going you could see.
Jenna Ortega:  Our faces were up against the wall. We’re like watching.
Ariana Greenblatt: I think I was four when I was watching the wand ceremony. But then I just videotaped myself. I went in the kitchen and then I propped up my dad’s foot. And oh look, I think I took a pencil or something. They’re like, hi, I’m Ariana and you’re watching Disney. And I did it. And then I think I started a video. I don’t know what to be.  Am I really here? So after I did I’m like, oh my God. I’m like, real.
Malachi Barton: And the whole cast like we just have –. They just have everyone’s back.
Isaak Presley: We were all rooting each other on.
Jenna Ortega: Yeah.
Isaak Presley:  I was equally as excited for Nick to do it as I was excited to do it or anybody else.  You know you can kind of see them and you’re all like how Jenna was crying and she wasn’t even up there yet. I mean it’s just, you know, we’re all very connected.
Nicolas Bechtel: And it’s kind of off subject but it’s really cool when even the parents walk up to you and they say like we love, my family watches –. I love your show. And so when we started off we thought it was just going to be a kids’ show. And only kids were going to watch it but now we have parents walking up to like oh, you’re one of my favorite characters. You’re one of my favorite characters. You’re one of my kid’s favorite characters. It feels so good to know that it’s not just kids who watch the show and appreciate your hard work but it’s the parents too.   Yeah so it’s really realistic.
Jenna Ortega: I think that was our goal.
Kayla Maisonet: Yeah, it’s a family friendly show that everyone can watch.
Cerina Vincent: We have to credit the writers too.
Group: Yes.
Cerina Vincent:  We get to say their lines. They really created a different kind of a show for Disney. And the writers are brilliant and the jokes are funny and it’s real. And we have a production team that wants to keep everything looking real and feeling real. So it’s cool to be a part of –. It takes a village to create this.

The next question was for Airana Greenblatt.  She plays Daphne Diaz in Stuck In The Middle.  She is adorable, and squirmy LOL

Question: I have a question for you. You’re trouble. Was it hard to learn to be trouble or did it come naturally for you?

Ariana Greenblatt: Well, sometimes it just comes naturally. I’m not like Daphne trouble in real life. But around the table we just start busting out laughing. And it’s like, like Daphne –. We don’t get to do that in real life. Like shave someone’s eyebrows off. Swim in cake….

Malachi Barton: Swing on a rope in a gym.

Ariana Greenblatt: Swing on a roll in a gym. It’s like so much fun. I loved it.

Malachi Barton: It’s especially, like when we first ever started stuck in the middle, and I remember I got a call from my agent saying hey, it got booked for season two. I was like, mind blown. I was just so happy that I could just hang out with all you guys more.

Ariana Greenblatt:  I got emotional. But then in season two I’m like, really? I couldn’t, because I was in Florida and I heard it and I’m like, oh my gosh. Straightaway I face timed him, I’m like, we got picked up for season two. And I was jumping in the bedroom. He was jumping in his bedroom.

This question was so sweet because it really captures what a family they have all become 😀

Question:  I love watching the two of you beam at them. Every time they do something I try and look at your faces. And you could just tell that you beam with pride.

Nicolas Bechtel:   She’s the most believable mom for every TV show.

Cerina Vincent:  Thanks.  And Joe was saying last night, we were at the event.

Joe Nieves:    We went to an event last night and it was the first time where it’s been over a year now since we shot the pilot. And just watching it, it was the first time where I was really proud of them. They all looked beautiful. They handled themselves so well. I was beaming with pride for my TV show children. I was really happy. They were gorgeous.

About Disney Channel’s Stuck In The Middle:

Stuck in the Middle The story revolves around Harley, who lives life in the eye of the tornado that is her family. She may be a middle child, but Harley has big family life figured out, that is until the day she needs everyone to be in one place, on time, for her event.

You can find out more about Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle on their official website!