By: Lynn Barker
We’re on the cell with Daryl Sabara. You know him as curly red-haired spy kid Juni Cortez from the Spy Kids movies. A new one of those will be out soon but we’re on the phone now with Daryl to chat about his really fun and totally relatable MTV movie “Worst Prom Ever”.
Do you hope your mom doesn’t pick your date? Are you planning a great fantasy night with your boo and hoping you don’t get dumped? Cute Daryl, now 18, is telling us all about his own prom experiences, his pet peeves on a date and he’s also spilling details on the new Spy Kids 4:All the Time in the World and the sci-fi actioner John Carter on Mars!
Worst Prom Ever CastCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: Hi Daryl. This MTV movie is very relatable. We’re not saying teens should go nutz on prom night and go for drugs or booze or hook ups but everybody knows that does exist. This movie reminded me of those classic John Hughes movies of the ‘80’s like Pretty in Pink. Is that how you see it?
- Daryl: That’s what I’ve been saying and totally what I felt when I read it is that it really is one of the closest things to a John Hughes film I’ve read since watching those movies. I totally agree. I think it is a little more realistic but my senior prom was awful!
Kidzworld: Oh no! What happened?
- Daryl: It was crazy. All senior year everyone talks about prom and how great it’s gonna be and the expectations just build. Mine totally did and I went with a really good friend of mine and I invited her in a cute way. Her favorite candy was Starburst and she only liked the red ones and I wrote out my name in red Starbursts to ask her to prom and gave her a red rose. We were talking about how excited we were. It was great up until prom night. I got there with a corsage and she just wasn’t into it at all, not taking pictures or anything. I ended up having a fun time with other friends.
Worst Prom Ever red carpetCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: Oh no, that is a little like your character Clark in the movie.
- Daryl: Yeah, he does all these cute, romantic things and then gets dumped!
Kidzworld: Did any of Clark’s other experiences ever happen to you?
- Daryl: Not exactly but I also went to prom as a sophomore when a senior asked me and both times, coming home from prom, all the kids were talking about how excited they were to party but, they got in the limo both times and everybody fell asleep after talking about all this partying they were gonna do. They just crashed! I was really excited to be hanging out with all these seniors and they are just knocked out. Nobody drank or anything when we got there to prom because my school has these breathalyzers and they’re on lockdown now. So, we were going to finally have a wild time and they were snoring.
Daryl Sabara TuxedoCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: Funny but a bummer! You shot this TV movie in New Orleans so what did you and the cast do off set for fun?
- Daryl: Well, I was shooting Spy Kids 4 at the same time so I did a couple of weeks on “Spy Kids” then I’d shoot Monday through Friday in New Orleans and fly back to Austin on the weekends. I had one weekend. I missed a Voo Doo music festival but I got along really well with Chloe (Bridges from “Camp Rock 2”) and Haley (Ramm from Skateland and Red State) and the director Dan (Eckman) and all those Derrick (comedy team) guys. There was a movie theater really close and on all our downtime we would just chill out and walk to the movie theater and just hang out there and in the hotel watching internet videos and I had my guitar with me so I would play and make up songs.
Kidzworld: Who was the big jokester on set and what did they pull?
- Daryl: Everybody was one. All those Derrick guys then Eugene Cordair who played the limo driver and John Gemberling who played Dirty Steve are all comedy guys, always doing funny, silly things. It was like a college experience for me. I felt like I was going off to college and hanging out with dorm mates.
Kidzworld: Are you or can you be a big romantic like your character Clark?
- Daryl: I think I can. I love girls/women and I respect them a lot but I like to do cheesy things like the Starbursts. That took me a long time.
Worst Prom Ever Jail SceneCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: Ever break up on a text?
- Daryl: No! That is so lame. It’s my generation. We’re the worst but I always feel like I never have it come out of nowhere. I always tell a girl what I’m feeling. I always like to do it in person, the most respectful way.
Kidzworld: What must a girl never do on a date with you or she’ll never get a second date?
- Daryl: I guess my pet peeve going out with a girl is if they have bad taste in music. If they aren’t a Coldplay fan, they won’t get a second date. That’s exactly what I use to determine. I’ll wait a little bit and mention Coldplay and one girl was like “Oh, God (negative sound)”. I was like “Oh yeah, this is doomed”.
Worst Prom Ever Cast funnyCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: By the end of the film your character Clark is good buds with characters Neve and Heather. Are you the type of guy who can be just friends with a girl?
- Daryl: All my friends are girls. I guess I’m missing a few dude genes but I just look at some guys and go “I don’t relate to you. I don’t know what you’re talking about”. So, Chloe and Haley and I got along really well. We were like a tri-pod. It made it really fun for the scenes. Chloe and I would be excited when we’d get to have a chemistry moment together.
Kidzworld: In the new “Spy Kids” film, did you and Alexa Vega just bounce right back into character after all these years?
- Daryl: We did. It was crazy. That was what I was nervous about. “Oh, man. I hope we have the same chemistry that we did on the other ones”. She’d just gotten married (to longtime boyfriend Sean Covel). She got married on a Sunday and we started filming Monday. I think she had her Honeymoon later. I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years but honestly, we got there first day and it totally clicked. It was really cool to see. When we were younger, we acted more like brother and sister and fought a little bit, sibling rivalry. On this one, we’re both adults now so we went out and did adult things and had lunch and caught up. It was very cool.
Kidzworld: How has Juni Cortez changed since the last Spy Kids film?
- Daryl: Well, Juni, kind of like me, has been growing up. He left the agency and retired then he has to come back. It’s a little mysterious. You don’t really know what Juni has been up to but I think he was just growing up and learning more about himself and traveling.
Worst Prom Ever Limo SceneCourtesy of MTV
Kidzworld: You also play author Edgar Rice Burroughs as a young man in the upcoming Pixar movie John Carter on Mars. Is this live action or animated or what?
- Daryl: I’m so excited for you to see it. There should be a trailer out soon. I play Edgar Rice Burroughs and, in his books, he incorporates himself in the Forward by saying that John Carter was actually his uncle so his stories are from John Carter’s private journal and he’s sharing them with the readers. So, in the film, I play Carter’s nephew and help introduce the film and do some narration. It’s part live-action, part motion-capture technology. It’s Pixar’s first live action film. It’s exciting. I feel so lucky to be in it. I bookend the movie. All my appearances are like a period piece because it takes place in the late 1800’s and I’m in college.
Kidzworld: Cool! Why will teens really enjoy watching “Worst Prom Ever” on MTV on May 10th?
- Daryl: I think it will be fun to watch these three characters and see how wrong a prom night can go. Hopefully teens can relate like myself and be like “Oh, man my prom was awful” or they can have a good laugh, having fun with these characters and feeling great about their own prom because theirs was so much better.
