Twenty Minutes with Sterling Knight

What was interesting, though, was at 21, Sterling Knight is so much more of an old soul than I expected him to be. He plays a teenager on TV, but he most definitely does not fit the mold of the bubble-gum sensation I was expecting. I think it’s the hair. I kind of expect everyone with Bieber-hair to listen to Ke$ha and use phrases like “Oh. Em. Gee.” 

Sterling is a self-proclaimed “bad twitter-er, if that’s even a word.” He says that he can’t get into the whole self-validation aspect of the twitter game, and just laughs when he sees friends – both celebrity and non-celebs – comparing how many followers they have on twitter. He actually does have a twitter account – S_Knight05 – but it may be hard to find it amongst the many fake Sterling Knight accounts out there. He and I agreed that it’s almost like it’s giving people a new way to celebrity stalk. And no, in case you are wondering, it doesn’t bother him that some of the fake accounts have more followers than his.

Knight moved out to LA at 14, and says that his first audition was a humbling one for him. Fourteen is kind of a cocky age and he says the director didn’t really seem to be paying much attention to Sterling and his audition. He says, “So, at one point I turned to the director and said, ‘You know, if you have something better to do….’ and the director thanked me because apparently he did have something better to do, and he left.” Obviously, he didn’t get that job. But, clearly this bad audition experience didn’t stop Sterling Knight from going on to guest-starring roles on Grey’s Anatomy and The Closer, a role in the above-mentioned Leslie Mann/Zac Efron joint, 17 Again, and a starring role as the somewhat obnoxious Chad Dylan Cooper on Sonny With a Chance.

Some of his answers really surprised me. He most definitely does not listen to Ke$ha and opts for more eclectic music and lately has been listening to a lot of OLDIES. When I asked him what someone born in 1989 thinks the oldies are, I was just checking to make sure we were on the same page. And we were. He was talking about The Temptations, the Beatles, Smokey Robinson, the Monkees. The real deal. We both discussed that it would be a travesty for the younger generations to start thinking of 80s music, or punk, or 70s metal bands as oldies. 

When I asked him to tell me something most people wouldn’t know about him, he hesitated for a minute, and then revealed that he’s a little bit of a nerd. I pressed him on this, because, it seems like that’s what all actors want you to believe. But then he admitted to watching tremendous amounts of The History Channel and having a huge collection of non-fiction books about the Korean War and World War II. (And this is where I fell in love). I asked if he was watching The Pacific on HBO and we both discussed how awesome the mini-series is and how historically accurate the show seems to be. He actually auditioned to be on it, but apparently, he looks too young. 

We talked about wardrobe on the set and that he’s the type of actor who just shows up on the set all “dress me” and doesn’t really put much thought into it. Except for the skinny jeans episode…the Skinny Pants Syndrome…

I mentioned that we watch a lot of his show around our house and Emily is dying to know if his character Chad will one day get together with Demi Lovato’s character Sonny. Obviously, all Emily wants is for that to happen. Sterling laughs and says that it certainly seems to be what the fans want, but without being able to give anything away gives a very politically correct answer of, “well, you’ll just have to watch and see, won’t you?” 

And we will, Sterling. We both will. 

And you can watch him too. New Episodes of Sonny With a Chance premiere Friday nights at 7pm ET on Family in Canada. He can also be seen as Hollywood’s big pop sensation Christopher Wilde in the Disney Channel original movie StarStruck.