LIE FIDELITY
ACTOR FIBBED ABOUT PLAYING GUITAR FOR ROLE Disney star took lessons for remake
Derek Alexander
Disney star Thomas Doherty has revealed how he lied about being able to play the guitar so he could land his latest big role.
The Edinburgh-born actor was offered the chance to play Liam in a remake of High Fidelity after he fooled executives into believing he was a musician. Thomas, 24, impressed at his audition for the part only to be left panicked when they asked if he played the guitar. The Descendants 2 star set about booking lessons so he could get the job. He said: “I went into the audition, and the final question was, ‘ Do you by chance play the guitar?’ “When you’re a musician, you just say yes to everything. So I learned how to play the guitar.” US streaming platform Hul u is s c r e en ing a gender- f lipping version of
High Fidelity, which originally starred John Cusack in 2000.
Thomas plays 19-year-old musician Liam, who has a fling with Zoe Kravitz’s character Robyn “Rob” Brooks.
In one scene, he recorded a song at New York’s Electric Lady Studios with super-producer Jack Antonoff but did not recognise him despite being a fan of the indie star’s former band Fun.
He added: “I obviously knew who he was, but I didn’t recognise who he was.”
“We were filming at Electric Lady… I think Jack works there, so we went into another studio and he was listening to his own music and working on two things at the same time. I got to hear some of his new stuff.
“I think I seemed like a fangirl when I eventually did come around to saying it.”
Thomas – who is also a fan of the Cusack film and the Nick Hornby novel it is based on – said he was a bit nervous about the remake.
He added: “When I heard that they were remaking it, I was a bit like, ‘Don’t touch it’. But then I heard that Zoe was involved, so I was like, ‘ I’d love to audition for it’.”