Taking the crown for new feel-good super-heroic family viewing
Disney star Peyton Elizabeth Lee leads new superhero film Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals. She takes Georgia Humphreys behind the scenes of the Disney+ movie
The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions have led to families watching TV and movies together perhaps more than ever before. And now there’s a brand-new Disney film, being released on streaming service Disney+, which its star, New York-born Peyton Elizabeth Lee, believes has something in it for everyone of all ages to enjoy.
Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals has a princess at the heart of it – but she’s not exactly the Cinderellatype character you might expect.
Sam is second in line to the throne of the kingdom of Illyria.
Just as the teenager’s disinterest in the royal way of life is at an all-time high, she discovers she has superhuman abilities and is invited to join a secret society of similar extraordinary second-born royals charged with keeping the world safe.
“Sam is super independent, she’s super outspoken, which are two things which I would say I am,” says 16-year-old Lee, known for playing the title role on the Disney Channel series Andi Mack.
“And she also sort of struggles with those qualities, because they’re such great qualities, but they can also be difficult qualities if you aren’t channelling them towards the right thing and the right purpose.”
Lee explains how, at the beginning of the film, Sam “has this whole rebellious thing going on.
“She’s very, ‘I’m going to do what I want because I want to do it’, and in a sense, that’s great that you have that confidence in yourself.
“But she doesn’t really know what she’s doing with all that energy and that angst inside of her, and it’s not until she finds the secret society and finds this purpose that she really is able to say, ‘Oh I have all these great qualities and this is where I can use them and this is where they can shine’.
“Which I think is definitely something that I can relate to, figuring out how to use what you’ve been given, and make something great of it.”
The star adds that most people will be able to relate to Sam’s experiences in the film, as everyone has been a teenager at some point, and a fundamental part of that is feeling a bit out of place.
“And I think for Sam it’s even intensified, because your normal teenager has her friends looking at her and has her family looking at her, but Sam, she has her friends, she has her family, and then she has an entire country who’s looking for her for guidance, to set a precedence, to be a good role model, and so I think that they are all things that… they weigh down on her.”
The story explores how, with guidance from their Secret Society instructor James, Sam and a new class of royal recruits must first learn to harness their new powers at a topsecret training camp before they can save the world.
Lee and her castmates went through a “tonne of training” for their roles in the action-packed fantasy superhero film.
One particularly memorable scene, which included a lot of stunts and choreographed scenes, involved a laser assault course.
“That was a tonne of fun to film because it brings this other aspect to our characters and to the film, this level of physicality, which you don’t see in a lot of films, and which I had never done before,” recalls Lee.
“All of the stuff I’ve ever shot has been very personal stories, and never these sort of big sets and big scenes, but it was really fun to add that element to the whole thing, and to be able to actually do a lot of the stunts ourselves.”
Was filming scenes like that harder than she expected?
“I would definitely say it was challenging, and it’s sort of one of those things you just have to throw yourself into – you can’t work up to it, it’s just like this is what you’ve gotta do so just go for it. And our stunt co-ordinator was great about making us feel safe and comfortable and all of that.
“But definitely, there was a level of, ‘What am I doing? I’m so out of my comfort zone right now’, which I think, in the end, is a really cool
Everyone’s pushed to their limits together, you’re all thrown into this experience, there’s lots of emotions
thing.” A brilliant set of young stars are acting alongside Lee – Faly Rakotohavana as Matteo, Niles Fitch as Tuma, Olivia Deeble as Princess Roxana, Isabella Blake-Thomas as January and Noah Lomax as Mike.
Discussing the dynamic between them, Lee notes how “it was interesting to see how art was mimicking life” because, as the cast were getting closer during shooting, they were playing out how the Secret Society were getting to know each other as people rather than just teammates.
“We’re all from completely different places, some of us are from LA, some of us are from New York, Noah lives in Georgia, Olivia lives in Australia; everyone was all over the place.
“But when we came together, it was really interesting to see, again, just how much you really have in common with anybody in this world, which is, again, a theme of the film, so it was a very weird experience, the same thing happening, both in real life and in the film. “Filming is a super bonding experience,” she follows. “Everyone’s pushed to their limits together, you’re all thrown into this experience, there’s late nights, lots of emotions, so you definitely get very close to the people you’re working with.”
Lee seems so much more grownup than 16; it’s easy to forget she’s that young until, asked what’s been giving her fun during the difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic, she replies: “I mean, I’m in school, so that takes up a lot of my time.
“But I had been baking a lot before school started, which is something I love, and this gave me a tonne of time to be doing that.
“I love chocolate chip cookies, so I made a bunch of different versions of those. You’d be surprised how many different ways you can make them. It was a shock to me.”
Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals is available to watch on Disney+ now