Musical Notes
DAYS alum Olivia Rose Keegan (exclaire) previews her latest project, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES.
Soap Opera Digest: So, were you a fan of the movies and the series before you were cast in season 2?
Olivia Rose Keegan: Of course I was. I was alive in the early 2000s! That’s the thing about HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. I don’t even remember a particular moment it came into my life — it was always there. It was just ingrained into the culture at that point, so everywhere I looked, it was just part of life. As far as walking onto that set and becoming part of it, it just felt like a fever dream; it was magical. It can be an intimidating situation because everyone’s filmed season 1 together but any of those feelings melted away in two seconds because every single human in the cast and crew on HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL could not have been more warm and welcoming and personable and just so kind. So truly, what you see on your screen when you watch the show and feel that warmth, I truly do believe that comes from the actual warmth that’s there on set and off set. It’s an incredible place to be.
Digest: Describe your character.
Keegan: Lily is a scary girl [laughs]. She’s sweet and goofy and obviously good at the heart but is often overtaken by her competitive nature, her violently competitive nature. It’s really funny, a lot of my recent characters have this sort of evil or mean undertone to them and I’m like, “What energy am I putting out into the world? What am I doing?”
But it is so fun to play and the thing about those characters, and especially on HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, it’s not one-dimensional, just like all the characters on the show. Lily is a human and you can draw up and make as many layers to that as you want and I think, hopefully, through the season, people will see different twists and turns and different sides to her personality that show through. All the mean girls are just insecure deep down, and everyone has a reason they are the way they are, so it’s not an excuse for going around and manipulating people but it’s a reason, and hopefully it will be interesting for people to see into that a little bit.
Digest: So, she’s not setting any beds on fire?
Keegan: Never say never but I can go with a probably not!
Digest: What do you remember about finding out you got the job?
Keegan: I was actually at the orthodontist getting work done on my teeth and I had that mouth expander thing that holds it open, so that thing was in my mouth and the orthodontist was doing some stuff. It was after the callback, I was antsy, didn’t know if I had gotten it yet, and then all of a sudden, my manager Facetimes me and I’m just sitting there and he’s like, “You booked the job!” And I start crying tears of joy, me and my mom are there, she’s with me too, and we’re flipping out and my orthodontist is getting a little upset at me because I’m moving around — and rightfully so because he’s trying to get work done — but it just felt like a beautiful fever dream that I never felt.
Digest: It’s an exciting new chapter. How did it feel to leave DAYS behind?
Keegan: It was bittersweet; I still consider everyone at DAYS my family and have so much love and gratitude and appreciation for every moment I had there. It taught me almost everything I know, and I basically grew up on that show so it’s a huge part of my life and it was definitely bittersweet, but I also knew what I was getting myself into. I
left DAYS before I found out I had booked HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, so it’s always just taking a risk on yourself and making an investment in yourself and hoping that things happen. DAYS was such a beautiful, incredible home and boot camp and everything in between, so it was scary to leave that behind but I have no regrets. It’s also so exciting to experience other sides of the industry. Soaps are a very particular animal. They have to be filmed a certain way and to experience the way HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL is filmed and so many other shows like that that aren’t soaps is such a fun thing.
Digest: When you started at HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, who took you under their wing and showed you how things worked?
Keegan: Me and Olivia Rodrigo hung out a couple of times when I was new on set and she was the first person who I got pretty close with, and she’s just the most wonderful human I’ve met. She is just such a beautiful person inside and out and so that really helped me become more comfortable around everyone, just feel like it was my home. And as soon as Andrew [Feldman] came along, Andrew, Rome [Banks] and I immediately clicked. Obviously, Andrew and Rome knew each other beforehand, but we had a lot of fun together and our schedules were sometimes pretty similar and when we go out there, we stay in the same hotel so it’s kind of like that college experience I always wanted but never had. The last trip out there, I walked into the hotel room and Andrew texted me, like, “No way!” And I’m like, “What?” And then he knocks on the door and it turns out we have conjoined rooms and I’m like, “This just feels like a college party!” It’s been so wonderful.
Digest: Who are you still in touch with from DAYS? Keegan:
Obviously, Victoria [Konefal, Ciara]. Insane that I even got to work with one of my closest friends in the first place. It just doesn’t ever feel like work when it’s like that and that’s how I feel on HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, too. It’s just, “How is this even work? How is this a job?” But yeah, I keep in touch with a couple of people from DAYS. I still consider all of them my family and have so much admiration and respect for everyone there.
Digest: You capped off your run on DAYS with an Emmy win in 2020. What did that mean to you?
Keegan: Oh, man, was it the cherry on top. Especially in the year of the coronavirus. It was obviously very interesting to not be there in the auditorium or walk the carpet or anything like that, but it was wonderful because I got to spend that night with people that I wouldn’t have been able to spend it with if it was a ceremony as usual, and my family, it was so wonderful. I still can’t believe that it’s real. If I want it to sink in, I have to spend a solid five minutes, like, thinking about the depth of what happened and how, oh, like, yeah, that’s an Emmy. That’s what that means. So yeah, it feels
like a fever dream still, for many reasons. Digest: Where do you keep it? Keegan: I move her around, keep it fresh. I wake up and I can look at her. It’s good for bicep curls. She’s heavy. The weight, too. It’s a solid curl. Digest: What do you miss the most about the soap job?
Keegan: There’s a lot of adrenaline rushes that come from working under pressure like that and you kind of have to learn on the fly to flip on that switch, trust your instincts, say, “Screw it. I’m just going to go for it.” Which you get to do elsewhere, too, but it’s just on soap operas, that’s kind of the constant. So you feel like you’re on this constant high of adrenaline. It’s a different kind of high on adrenaline on HIGH SCHOOL
MUSICAL but I definitely miss that. And yes, it was just so, so comfy. It was a family. Digest: Do you feel it prepared you well for other jobs? Keegan: Oh, my God. You can’t ask for better prep. I could not be more grateful for that. It’s a sink or swim world, and if you can learn how to swim in it, you’re doing good. Digest: What were the highlights of your run as Claire?
Keegan: My last storyline, not the most recent stint that I did [when] I went back to do a little stint [that aired in 2020]. My last run as a series regular. She wasn’t actually just surface-level mean girl. Not that she ever was; it really went into the psyche and it was understood, “Oh this girl has mental illness.” And to be able to portray that and really dig my nails into all of that and hopefully represent it in some way that hopefully affected people, that is the dream as any artist. At the end of the day, we want to move people or inspire people or tell a certain story that changes somebody’s life or affects somebody’s life in any way, so if that was powerful enough to be that for anybody, then I’ve done my job and that’s all I can ask for. Digest: What are you up to now?
Keegan: We wrapped season 2 [of HSM] so now it’s back to auditioning, the whole grind. Some people are so incredible and productive with their quarantine time and write 10 different scripts they always wanted to write and produce different things. I need structure and I need to be working. But I’ve gotten a little into watercolors. And it’s been really nice. And taking in content — TV shows, movies, reading plays — [doing an] online acting class and trying to keep myself as busy as possible. And finally, we see the light at the end of the tunnel now and we’re starting to progress back into normal-ish life again, which is nice again and the pace is starting to pick up, which is wonderful.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES is available now on Disney+.