Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Julie Bowen, and Margaret Cho Talk Prom Pact and Dissecting Classic 80s Movies
In Disney+’s Prom Pact, a high school senior is surrounded by 80s-themed promposals while she’s focused on her lifelong dream of going to Harvard. When she’s waitlisted, she schemes up a way to get close to the most popular guy in school to get a letter of recommendation from his senator dad. Kristen Maldonado of Pop Culture Planet spoke with actors Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Blake Draper, and Margaret Cho, executive producer Julie Bowen, and director Anya Adams about tapping into classic 80s movies, promposals, and friendship.
Prom Pact is Julie Bowen’s first film under her new production company Bowen and Sons. “[It was] timing more than anything. We were wrapping up Modern Family and my two friends from Modern Family — actually my producing partner Rachael Field and our writer Anthony Lombardo — came to me with this idea,” said Bowen. “I hadn't figure out the next step and I got excited about the idea of a female protagonist who was complicated, nerdy like I was in high school. But not nerdy in the way that they always had with the glasses, she's like a self-assured geek who doesn't care about social life. I liked that idea.”
The film both pays tribute to classic movies from the 80s, while also addressing the issues they have had. “I really enjoyed the 80s takedown scene most of all when when Mandy and Ben go head to head and he tries to defend 80s movies and she just says, ‘Ah uh,’ said Bowen, while director Anya Adams said: I love that moment too because I do feel like, I love these 80s movies, but when you go back and watch them there's some definite cringe-worthy moments. It was our chance to Infuse the feeling, the feel-goodness, the realness of the characters, and the actual experience appearance of high school without maybe dipping into problematic regions and still exploring what it's like to be a young person and driven in a school and find love.”
The cast shared their favorite scenes to film in the movie. “Peyton's favorite would be the scene with Milo [Manheim] in the car where they’re both singing and screaming to the song. Both very tone deaf I might add, but I guess they had fun,” laughed Blake Draper. “You only knew about 25% of the lyrics, is that right? And I would even say that the laughs in the film were actually real.”
“Well, Blake's favorite scene in the movie is his promposal, obviously. He’s a bit of an egotistical maniac. He likes to see himself dance around in his underwear,” joked Lee. “He was actually excited about it the very beginning but then as it got closer then he got more and more nervous about it. Then when the day finally came he was really nervous until he got one out, you know? We shot a take and then he started gaining more and more confidence and having a good time with it and by the end of the day he was sad when it was over.”
Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Manheim star as best friends in Prom Pact and potential love interests in season 2 of Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. “Milo and I have […] crossed paths so many times over the years because of both growing up on Disney Channel, but Prom Pact was the first time that we actually spent like a substantial amount of time together and actually got to know each other. He's such a fun person to be around. His energy is so infectious and gives me energy. Working with him was so much fun and, because he's so easy to get along with, we developed a very strong relationship very quickly and very effortlessly,” said Lee. “Then it was really fun to start with that foundation of our real-life friendship and then build these complex, dynamic, fictional relationships on top of that foundation. So getting to do so in Prom Pact and then a very different version of it in Doogie was super fun. I hope he continues to follow me around wherever I go so that we can do it more.”
A character pining after their best friend was a classic trope in the 80s that they subverted in this film when it comes to Mandy and Ben’s friendship. “iI's so important for me as a storyteller to be able to put stories out there, to put content out there, that's showing people that there are all these different types of relationships. There's all this different type of love and that is manifested in young people, as well as older people,” said Adams. “We don't get to see that a lot with teens [with] just these platonic friendships of support and care and growth. I feel like Prom Pact does that really well. I hope audiences see that and and love it.”
Manheim wasn’t the only Doogie alumni to star in Prom Pact. Margaret Cho appeared on the first season and expressed her excitement in working with Lee again. “She's such an innovative spirit. She's just a great actor and so different in the way she approaches material,” Cho shared. “The way that she plays this character is so funny and cool and so nerdy too, but in a very cool way. I really enjoy working with her. She's just so magnificent and just so beautiful. It's a real joy.”
Cho revealed she took inspiration from a classic 80s teacher for her role as Ms. Chen. “To me, the movie has a lot in common with Pretty in Pink,” she said. “My character I modeled after Annie Potts in Pretty in Pink who was just such a great archetype of the cool adult in that film.”
Prom Pact is streaming on Disney+.
