Exclusive Interview: Skylar Astin Chats Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, Original Music, and Spring Awakening Reunion

Skylar Astin is known for his pitch-perfect performances on the stage, on screen, and in the studio. Past credits include projects like 21 & Over, Ground Floor, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and dozens more.

This holiday season he reprises his role as Max Richman in <Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, based on the Emmy-winning series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Skylar about Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, how the fans championed this movie, and the Spring Awakening reunion.

PC: Season 2 ended on a major cliffhanger with Max gaining the ability to hear people’s thoughts and desires through music. Will we get to see that explored in Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas? How will that affect not only Max but his relationship with Zoey?
Skylar: You absolutely will see Max hear people’s thoughts through songs. He certainly earned it. You’re going to see him take to it in a different way than Zoey.

Zoey experienced a little bit more in the way of frustrations and struggles with it. She’s not really a music person. She’s more of a podcaster. Max will see it as an extraordinary concert that he gets to experience. Only later does he realize that there is also a responsibility that comes with the power.

PC: With Max being on the opposite side now, did that change the way that you approached this character?
Skylar: I really like playing with the cerebral tendencies that the power gifts Max. But also, as an actor, I selfishly really liked being able to have a front-row seat to these songs. I think Jane [Levy] has done an incredible job through the entire series. I really do consider every single song a duet because of Jane’s incredible acting. She’s a part of every song. I wanted to be present and active and to try to never take focus but to also understand that there is a device and a vehicle for Max in hearing these songs. These aren’t arbitrary songs—or else the person hearing them wouldn’t carry them with them into the next scene.

PC: The fans have really championed this series. What has that response meant to you? What has it meant to you to get the opportunity to step back into this character again?
Skylar: I feel very grateful. I feel very grateful to Roku for being the hero and picking this up. But I am very grateful and gracious to the fans because Roku wouldn’t have even had the thought if it weren’t for all the fan support. It’s really humbling to know that something I care so much about and that the cast, team, and crew care so much about really shines through the screen—so much so that the fans feel that there’s unfinished business. It’s very rare that you have a show that ends abruptly and then you get the opportunity to go say goodbye to the character and dance it out one last time.

PC: There have been so many great musical numbers throughout the series. If you had to pick your favorite, which would it be and why?
Skylar: In Season 2, I really liked the “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, “I’ll Make Love to You”, and “Moment Like This” sequence because it was one full act of television. It felt like a play. It took a minute for us to all crack the code on how to play it, how to stage it, and how to shoot it. I’m really happy with how that turned out. Something else that I really liked being part of was the “American Pie” sequence at the end of Season 1. It was over six minutes long, one shot, and it never cut away. We did the entire Don McLean “American Pie”. That was something that I’ll look back on in my career and be like, “I can’t believe I got to be a part of something like that.”

PC: Austin [Winsberg] shared in other interviews that this might not be the end for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and that he has ideas for future movies and episodes. If we’re lucky enough to get more, is there an aspect of Max and his storyline that you wish to dive deeper into?
Skylar: I always wanted to know more about his family life. We scratch the surface with Alan, his father (played remarkably by Chip Zien). We saw that with the “Numb” musical number in Season 2. But I would love to meet his mother and his siblings and get to know more about his past and a bit of his torture there. From a musical perspective, I want the chance to sing every genre. I’ve done opera on the show. I’ve done rock. I’ve done piano ballads. I can do a lot more too.

PC: You also started releasing your own original music in 2021. If you could pitch one of your own songs to Austin, which would it be and what would that number look like?
Skylar: Actually, breaking news, there’s a little Easter egg in this Christmas movie. We are not going to do one of my songs as a musical number, but my character does happen to own a bar. In the very deep background, you might hear one of my songs being played at that bar.

PC: Very cool.

Skylar: That’s exciting. They did a huge favor for me there. There’s a song that I wrote called “Without You”. That would be a great song in either a piano or EDM version. There’s something that I have yet to release that I think would be great, but I can’t speak to that yet.

PC: With this being a holiday special, what are some of the traditions that you love celebrating with your family and friends?
Skylar: Well, I’m Jewish. Hanukkah is very important to me. It’s such a wonderful holiday to me because it falls in a different place every year. Sometimes it’s really close to Christmas. Then, sometimes it’s closer to Thanksgiving, like this year. I’ve always believed that the holidays are what you make of them. Even with my family all being older now, we still always find the time to celebrate Hanukkah. Whether it’s on the actual day or a makeshift celebration where we’re all getting together to make it a special moment. That might be a little untraditional—shifting the dates around—but I like that spontaneity and improvisation. No matter where you are, as long as you’re with family and the people that matter the most to you, that’s your holiday.

PC: What do you hope audiences take away after they see Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas?
Skylar: I really want audiences to feel a sense of pride over getting this done because they truly are the producers of this movie. I’m really excited for them to see Max as Zoey’s boyfriend. They’ve earned it. Max has earned it. There are some things that I can’t really talk about thematically that are real big takeaways. It’s almost like you have to wait until the end of the movie to really take that all in. But I think people are going to well up with emotion, joy, and pride. In typical Zoey fashion, we’re going to leave you wanting more.

PC: Having embodied this character for two seasons and now a movie, has anything surprised you about the process? What have you learned about your own craft?
Skylar: It’s to roll with the punches. Even when we feel like we have it completely dialed in, there is always some instance where we don’t get the music demo in time to start working on the choreography. Sometimes, we have to put the cart before the horse. It’s about being flexible. Sometimes musical numbers are pulled up because of a weather delay. We’re not talking about any ordinary scene that you could pull up. It’s not memorizing two pages, it’s manufacturing a musical number. It’s a total beast. But I think this has sharpened my skills even more for when I return to the stage, if I do more musical movies or projects. I’ve learned a lot about being a part of a team and being a part of a really incredible cast. I feel very gracious for this whole experience.

PC: Speaking of musical projects, you just recently got to reunite with the cast of Spring Awakening. What was that experience like? What can fans expect from that reunion concert?
Skylar: That was a very affirming trip and concert. It was weirdly normal. We snapped right back in. All the same inside jokes, all the same harmonies in the back of our head, and the piece is incredibly moving. We really created it. Frank Wedekind’s play was the starting place, but the characters really shifted based on the people who were playing them. It’s really in our bones. Being able to go back and explore, remember, and reflect was an unforgettable experience.

To keep up with Skylar, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music. Watch Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas on Roku today.

Photo Credit: Adam Hendershott