Descendants Sons and Daughters: Cameron Boyce as Carlos

By: Lynn Barker

If your mom taught you to be deathly afraid and suspicious of dogs, even a tiny mini-poodle would freak you out. Just one more thing to overcome for Carlos, son of one of Disney’s most hated villains Cruella de Vil. Hey, killing puppies for their coats? Ewwww.

Disney favorite Cameron Boyce, who just turned 16 in May, is known for playing wacky Luke on the TV show “Jessie” and is now starring as Conor in the Disney XD series “Gamers Guide to Pretty Much Everything”. We spoke to him in person way back in 2010 when he was co-starring with Adam Sandler in the movie Grown Ups and now, in Disney Channel’s movie “Descendants” Cameron gets to dance up a storm while trying to be his own man as the son of one of the most hated of Disney villains.

Check out what this cool and talented guy had to say about fantasy films, working with “High School Musical’s” famous director/choreographer Kenny Ortega, fun on set and more.

Kidzworld: Your 16^th birthday is coming up (this interview was done in early May). Got any fun party plans?

• Cameron: I’ve rented a space in downtown L.A. and I’ll get some friends in and rent a ping pong table and have a tournament or something. (We hope this happened!)

Kidzworld: Is it really fun and more challenging to be playing a fantasy character after so much time playing Luke on “Jessie”?

• Cameron: I feel like when you play a character in a fairy tale it’s a lot more freedom (than a reality character like Luke). You can do whatever you feel. Kenny (Ortega) helped us a lot at giving us layers for our characters and helped us develop them. We just took it from there and went out and did it so it was a lot of fun. The whole experience with the fairy tale just makes it visually cooler and the story is cool so it’s a little more fun. You can play with it a little more.

Kidzworld: You also film “Gamers’ Guide”. Are you just exhausted or do the two shows not overlap?

• Cameron: Well “Jesse’s” over so I’m doing “Gamers’ Guide” on the Disney XD right now and jumping in between that and promoting “Descendants” at the moment. It’s fine.

Kidzworld: How was working with “High School Musical’s” Kenny Ortega as director and choreographer?

• Cameron: It was kind of a crazy thing when I figured out that Kenny was going to be on the film. I was shocked and he immediately started talking about all of his stories with Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson and James Brown and I’m like “Oh my gosh! This guy is just incredible” and I’d seen him on (the Jackson documentary) This is It so I was honored that he noticed me.

Kidzworld: Will you be doing any dancing in “Descendants”?

• Cameron: Oh yeah. There are a couple of numbers. The first one is a really awesome dance number “Rotten to the Core” and another one.

Kidzworld: Your character Carlos is tech-savvy. Are you?

• Cameron: Not one bit (he laughs). It’s called acting. I can really only type with my index fingers only.

Kidzworld: Is Carlos crushing on any of the girls in the film?

• Cameron: Actually, I don’t think so but we left a door open, I think.

Kidzworld: What do you think of Carlos’ “look” in the movie, the silver or white hair etc.?

• Cameron: It’s white hair. I would never wear what Carlos wears but, for him, the outfits were amazing. And, Kenny told us he was going for a ‘70’s punk rocker look and the cool thing about Carlos is he only wears shorts in the movie. He never wears long pants ever. It’s was summer in Vancouver so it was all right.

Kidzworld: These villains’ kids have basically never left their sides on a prison island so is Carlos kind of a mama’s boy? How old are the kids in the film?

• Cameron: They are high school ages. Carlos is a little younger than everyone. He’s a little bit of a mama’s boy but it’s mixed emotions with all of the villains’ kids to be honest because we come from this isle where it’s kind of watch your back because no one has it. Our parents don’t really have it either. They kind of use us. Like Jay (Boo Boo Stewart) will go out and steal something on the island and bring it back to his dad Jafar and that’s how it works. They don’t know any different. Even with this great opportunity for the children (to go to a cool school off island) the parents are still making it all about themselves. That’s how it’s always been.

Kidzworld: It will be fun to watch them overcome that. Carlos seems to both hate and be afraid of dogs. Is that accurate?

• Cameron: That’s accurate. Again, the parents do what they want with their children and Cruella puts this into her son saying dogs are like lions and they’ll eat your face off. So he’s gonna be scared. He’s kind of terrified of dogs at first.

Kidzworld: Do you personally have a pet dog?

• Cameron: I do. I have a big girl. I think she is an Anatolian Shepherd but I’m not positive. She might be a mutt. Her name is Sienna.

Kidzworld: Did you have a favorite Disney villain growing up and you don’t have to say Cruella just cuz she’s your mom in this film.

• Cameron: I had a few. I really liked Jafar because I really liked “Aladdin”. He’s kind of cool.

Kidzworld: Any pranksters or were there jokes pulled on set?

• Cameron: There were a few pranks but we were always joking around on set. We were pretty close so there was always something happening in between scenes. We were all jokesters.

Be sure to watch Disney Channel’s “Descendants” starting July 31^st!