I chatted with Alyson Stoner a couple of weeks ago for Disnology and one question I asked her was what advice she would give to kids wanting a career like hers. I thought her answer was one of the best I have heard.

Disnology: Alyson, what advice would you give to kids who want to have a career like yours? I asked Bridgit this same questions a few minutes ago.

Alyson: Well, first of all, I think they need to understand that everyone has a unique purpose. Don’t try to live out someone else’s dream because those aren’t the shoes you are supposed to walk in. Work with your family on what’s best for the time being and if acting is what you are supposed to do, then work on your craft every day.

And since Bridigit just joined the conversation….watching her work ethic and working with her on a movie before, you can see that she is really professional and that she works really hard at what she does and that definitely shines on camera.

Just keep at it and be patient. Wait for the perfect timing and remember that everything happens for a reason. Please don’t give up. The world doesn’t need people who give up, it needs people who push through  and that’s when you come out strongest.

She also talks about how acting is definitely not all about glamor.

Disnology: So, you are saying making a movie isn’t all glamor huh? Tank tops, 30 degree weather and blue lips does not sound like fun to me…or glamorous!

Alyson: On my gosh! Glamor is the farthest thing. It’s one of the most fascinating facts about the business. I mean, we try so hard to put on the facade of glamor, but it’s so far from it. We do put on this facade as actors and then when we get home, we just crash because we have to get up and do it all over again in the morning and at night time. We have those 16 to 18 hour days. Definitely not glamorous!

You can read the full interview here.

Gregory Michael

Grant wasn’t the first and only role on Greek he auditioned for.

IESB: When and how did you get into acting?

Gregory: Honest to God, I was about two or three when I told my mom, “I want to do that.” We were at a little concert and this group was singing “La Bamba,” and I remember yelling, “I want to do that!” I wanted to be up on stage with those people. It was one of my first memories, but I remember being at that show and getting up on stage and they handed me the microphone. We have it on video. And, I sang the song and loved that feeling of being in front of all the people and getting the acclaim and adoration.

Even though it was very primitive, I remember that feeling. As I grew up, I loved singing and doing shows. I put on a show for every day. There were so many shows that I did for my family that they must have been driven crazy, but I wanted to do it. When I got a little older, I wanted to be in the Mickey Mouse Club. I wanted to be in a kids’ group so that I could sing. It was always something like that. I remember having that acclaim with that first performance. I bit the forbidden fruit.

IESB: Was anyone in your family in the business?

Gregory: My mother was a professional singer, but I never knew her as a professional singer. She gave it all up, before I was born. She was in the business and the business burned her really bad. Being a woman in the business, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, was not a good thing. It was always a man’s business. So, she got burned really bad. She had a manager who was giving jobs for my mother to his other clients that were men.

My mother sang with Frank Sinatra and opened up for The Monkees. My mother is this woman that I never really knew. She’s been a different woman, my entire life. But, after being burned, she said, “You’re never doing it. You’re never getting into singing. You’re never getting into acting. You’re just not doing it, period.” And, the more she said, “Don’t do it,” the more I wanted to do it. The good thing was that my mother, even though she didn’t want me to do it as a child, was very supportive of me doing it on a community level with community theater and being active in school.

She wanted me to have a childhood and a real life. She was very young. She started when she was 8 or 9, so she did it for her childhood and she just wanted me to have a childhood and grow up and be somewhat normal. When I hit 18, I went to Penn State University for about a year and a half, and then I said, “You know what? I really want to do what I’ve always wanted to do.” So, I left school for a bit and went to start auditioning in New York City.

IESB: Did you get hired right away?

Gregory: One of my first auditions was for the Walt Disney Company and I booked a role working at Walt Disney World in Florida, where I did theme park shows. I did singing and dancing. I played Prince Charming. I did the castle show in front of Cinderella’s Castle. I absolutely loved that kind of stuff, but I didn’t really know what kind of jump I could make from that into what I really wanted to do, which was film, television and Broadway musicals. I knew that it was a start, so I did that for a year. It was amazing.

And then, I got recruited from that job at Disney to work at Universal doing the same thing. I had a contract there. At that point, my manager, who’s my manager now, told me to go to New York City. I was like, “You’re crazy! I’m going to leave just to go to New York?” And he said, “You should totally do it. I’ll get you set up and I’ll have you meet agents.” So, that’s what I did. I had my sister, who was living in Manhattan at the same, say that I could stay with her, so I ended up sleeping on her couch in her studio apartment and I started auditioning.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Demi Lovato: ‘I went on open casting calls. When I was six or seven, my mom and I would check for open casting calls. There’d be hundreds of kids who all wanted the same part. At that point, the odds are against you. But, when I auditioned for Barney, they really liked me!’

Kellan Lutz: ‘I started as a model.’ When Kellan moved to LA after high school, he knew he wanted to act. But since jobs were scarce, he turned to modeling to make a name for himself: ‘I did a few modeling campaigns, one was for Levi’s, another was for Abercrombie & Fitch.’ He finally was cast in TV roles on shows like Summerland and Heroes, and in 2007, auditioned for Twilight.

Justin Bieber: ‘I made YouTube videos. I started singing just for fun. I never did it because I had to. I entered a local singing competition because it was something to do, I never tried to be famous. I put videos on YouTube so my friends and family could see them and see what I was up to. Now I realize this is what I was meant to do, but I just didn’t know it then. It’s sweet!’

Have you seen the previews for “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief”? It looks like a very cool movie and it has some stars you may not be real familiar with. Borders in Novi, Michigan hosted an event for several cast members including Logan Lerman (Percy), Alexandra Daddario (Annabeth), Brandon T. Jackson (Grover), and Jake Abel (Luke).

Here are some excerpts from their interview, which includes how they got started and some of their earlier projects:

Moderator: So if everybody would just go down the line, starting at the end with Logan, and tell us a little bit about what you’ve done before PercyJackson and the Lightning Thief.

Logan: I’ve done a few movies and I was part of a television show, that’s like really where I started, it was called Jack & Bobby. I’m not sure if anybody really saw it [applause], yeah there was like two people here who saw it. I did a movie called Hoot. I did this movie called 3:10 to Yuma. And Gamer. But Percy, that’s what we’re here for, right?

Brandon: I did a movie called Roll Bounce, if anybody’s seen that movie. I did a movie for the adults, for the parents, called Tropic Thunder. [Crowd applauds] Apparently you let your kids see rated R movies, but uh, okay. .My favorite movie right now is PercyJackson . This movie is really good, guys. You’re going to have a great time. And parents, you can enjoy the movie – we got Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan in the movie.

Alexandra: I’m Alex. I was on a soap opera called All My Children a long time ago. You guys probably haven’t seen it. And I’m on a show called White Collar right now. And, um, this is my first big movie. I’m very excited.

Jake: Years ago, when I was first starting out, I did a Disney Channel movie called Go Figure. I did The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (Twins at the Tipton). And, uh Supernatural. Do you guys watch Supernatural? I’m coming back to that in February, I go back and shoot some more Supernatural.

Woman in the crowd: When you signed for this movie, did you also have to sign on for future movies?

Jake: Ninety-five movies.we gave them our souls.

Alexandra: We have to do Percy Jackson movies until we’re 90.

Jake: It’s up to the audience, it’s up to you guys, the fans of the books and the movie to want to see another one, to go see the movie and bring that draw so we’re allowed to.

Alexandra: But we would love to keep doing them.

Logan: But we are contractually signed on to do three. But we would love to do the whole series.

Source