Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell are a bit of an odd couple. And I say “couple” figuratively, since the two aren’t actually reported to be dating (an increasing rarity in these promotional showmance times we live in). Teegarden is, at 21, already a consummate media professional. An actor in film and television from the age of 14, she recently spent five very big years of her young life living in Austin while filming the critically beloved NBC series Friday Night Lights, currently airing its fifth and final season. Talking with Teegarden feels like chatting with the button-cute president of the FBLA: she is bright, quick, and upbeat. But ironically, playing a teenager for five years meant she had to miss high school herself. “I was working,” she says ruefully.
McDonell, on the other hand, is new at this. The well-spoken NYU-trained actor, 24, got his first film role when he auditioned “as an experiment” for a small role in the Jackie Chan movie The Forbidden Kingdom while living in China to study contemporary art. This was followed by another small role in Joel Schumacher’s Twelve. And now, he suddenly finds himself playing the romantic bad-boy lead opposite Teegarden in Disney’s Prom, which the studio is hoping will take off like High School Musical. He has also been cast as the younger version of Johnny Depp’s character in Tim Burton’s upcoming Dark Shadows film. It seems like big things are in store for him. But for now, he is brooding through his exhaustion.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell on “Prom””
