Interviews

Interview: Teen Beach Movie Taught Garrett Clayton How to Bring Himself Into His Roles

Clayton currently stars in The Play That Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theatre.

Linda Buchwald

Linda Buchwald

| Los Angeles |

February 4, 2025

Garrett Clayton (on floor), Mary Faber, Paige Robitaille, Michael-Leon Wooley, Regina Fernandez and Sterling Sulieman (on sofa) (© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)
Garrett Clayton (on floor), Mary Faber, Paige Robitaille, Michael-Leon Wooley, Regina Fernandez and Sterling Sulieman (on sofa)
(© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)

Garrett Clayton, known for roles like Tanner in the Teen Beach Movie franchise and Link Larkin in Hairspray Live!, is finding a lot of joy in doing The Play That Goes Wrong at La Mirada Theater, especially during such a difficult time for Los Angeles. “We were in rehearsals through the fires in the city, and I think for a minute there we were contemplating how do we do this while all this is going on, but it’s so important to have joyful things like this. It’s nice to have something that people can go to that gives them a little bit of a mental break from a lot of the weight of the world at the moment,” he says.

In The Play That Goes Wrong, the Cornley Drama Society is putting on a production of the murder mystery The Murder at Haversham Manor and, as the title suggests, things quickly fall apart—but the show must go on. Clayton plays Max, the newest and younger company member. “Our biggest task was a) how good of an actor is he allowed to be, and b) where do we balance out what he’s learned and his lack of experience,” Clayton says. “We almost made Arthur the gardener Scottish, but then we thought Max can’t be that good of an actor yet, so we can’t do that. He’s just trying to learn what the word ‘blocking’ means, let alone doing more than one accent.”

TheaterMania spoke to Clayton about comedy, Teen Beach Movie, and what happens when things actually do go wrong in The Play That Goes Wrong.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Trent Mills, Garrett Clayton, and John Sanders (© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)
Trent Mills, Garrett Clayton, and John Sanders
(© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)

Even though this is The Play That Goes Wrong, everything has to be in sync for the show to work. Can you talk about the rehearsal process and getting to that point?
We describe a lot of the blocking in the show as choreography between us and the stage crew. It really feels like we’re all doing a dance. There are so many things that require specific cues for safety and for it to be perceived as real as we have worked to make it look. I will say, though, for all the things that went right on opening night, basically within five minutes of my entrance, my pants split down the butt crack and I was having to adjust all of the blocking and staging so that I didn’t flash the audience and every time I was offstage, they were trying to sew my pants back together in the quick minute or two I’d have in between my next entrance. So, while I was doing The Play That Goes Wrong, I was certainly having an opening-night challenge.

I saw the show opening night and I didn’t notice. Were they able to fix it?
Luckily, since I change characters in the second act, I didn’t have to worry about it from that point, but because we didn’t have enough time to properly sew them back together, every time I’d move, the stitching would rip back open. It was a test in how well can you figure out how to make a problem work. But it’s a funny memory.

Did you grow up liking comedy, and when did you first realize that it was something you could do?
I always loved people like Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller. I used to watch a lot of their stuff. I even did my senior portraits trying to imitate Jim Carrey looks. When I was a kid, they used to call me a smart-ass a lot, so I think maybe I leaned into comedy naturally as a person and it’s bled into my work a lot and I’m really grateful that it’s taken such a big place in my life.

Garrett Clayton and Regina Fernandez (© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)
Garrett Clayton and Regina Fernandez
(© Jason Niedle/TETHOS)

I think Teen Beach Movie is Disney Channel’s best musical franchise. Did you learn anything from those movies or from working on the Disney Channel that you’ve applied to your theater work since then?
First of all, thank you so much. They hired me on to be Tanner, but they let me inject so much of my personality and comedy and life into that character, and that was the first time I really got to see what so many great artists say, that you have to put yourself into the work. Because of that experience, in all the work I do now, I try and find that, and I think it’s those pieces of truth that have really been the standout roles for me in my career, the ones that I can really pull from my life. The producers and everybody came to me after and they said Tanner wasn’t supposed to be as big of a character as he became and they ended up doing more for me because I made more out of it.

Did you put any of yourself into Max?
I would say a lot more of the innocence of Max and the earnest qualities are definitely a lot of the much younger parts of my life and personality and how badly he wants to do well at all costs and getting wrapped up in loving being there. There are times when the audience claps that I’ve been given full permission, if I feel like it, to clap too.

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