The Verge: Asher Book

Now how did you get from growing up as a performer to suddenly wanting to go to business school? Were you looking for stability?

You know, when I was acting as a little kid, I kind of wasn't thinking that far ahead. I was basically just following my gut, and I never felt like any of my decisions were forced. I had never dreamed that I wanted to be on Broadway or that I'd be an actor or singer, Even how I got in the business is kind of crazy: I was six years old, and my neighbor came over one day and said there was an open call for Chip in Beauty and the Beast. I thought it might be kind of cool, but the only reason I wanted to go was because my sister was doing ballet at the Kennedy Center [nearby]. I showed up in jean shorts, missing a few teeth, this total cattle call kid, and somehow walked away booking it. For the next three years of my life, I was on that tour. We were just riding the ride, and the fact that I kept getting responses and kept getting new jobs, that's what kept me in the business.

So did you ever have a normal junior high or high school experience?

Actually, here's something cool: I actually went to the original Fame school in New York for my middle school years. When I moved to LA, I got to go to a normal high school for freshman and senior year. It was fun, I got to play football, basketball, I was on student leadership...I really got to do all the stuff any kid would do in school. I loved high school, and I think that's what I wanted. I told my mom that I was trying to audition at the time, but I wasn't really putting my full 100% into it. For me, school was a safe place for me to have fun during those years and just enjoy being a kid.

When they greenlit this movie, they were tossing around comparisons to American Idol, and since that we've had Glee...

I love Glee! Actually, one of my boys, Kevin [McHale] is in it. He's the guy in the wheelchair.

Oh, no kidding?

Yeah, he's one of my good friends. Yeah, I love that show. It's right down that alley of people liking music and dance and all that stuff right now. You know, when I was young, there was West Side Story and all these classics, but I feel like there was definitely a period of time where people kind of missed out on musicals. I think people want to relate a real story to go along with that, and I think what Fame really emphasizes is what artists actually go through. There's a work ethic, a passion, and the ups and downs of being in this industry. Our movie has all those elements. It's not just a happy-go-lucky kid walking down a hall and singing.

If this were an interview with a teen magazine to promote VFactory, what kind of different stuff would you have said?

"You can definitely tell the readers that I'm single!" [Laughs] I'm always talking about relationships, what I see in a girl, what I like in a girl...I realized early on that [teen magazine questions] are always about a girl. It's funny to me.

Have you had to write out your "ideal date" eight thousand times?

They try to ask it a little different every time, but yeah. "What do you like to wear on a first date?"

Are you ever tempted to just go crazy with your answer? "My ideal girl would wear chain mail, and I would take her to Medieval Times."

[Laughs] I think I should do that sometime. Then again, I'll probably look at the magazine after and think, "Why did I say that?" ♦

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