They Wanna Be "Yours, Mine and Ours"

Young actors Sean Faris, 23 ("Reunion" and "Life As We Know It"), Drake Bell, 19 ("Drake and Josh" on Nick) and Katija Pevec, 17 (Sleepover and the new Nick show "Just For Kicks") got to learn what it was like to be part of one huge battling family as they enacted reluctant step-siblings in the new blended family comedy Yours, Mine and Ours.

We learned that the young cast had a blast in one wild scene in which they got to cover each other, everything in sight and a pig with blue paint in a huge paint-tossing free-for-all. They also had fun in a big...the folks are away so let's throw a killer party... scene where Drake got to sing with the band. The actors ended up bonding with each other family style by the end of shooting and still keep in touch.

In Beverly Hills, we had a fun chat with the trio who do things like finish each other's sentences and make comments on each other's hair and wardrobe. (Katija and Sean play bro and sis from dad Dennis Quaid's family and Drake plays Renee Russo's son). Katija, blonde in the film, is really a knock-out brunette, today in blue velvet jacket over white tank, brown shorts and really high wedge heels. Cutie Sean was in green zip up sweater, silver cross and rings and wore jeans. Good-lookin' Drake was GQ in deep plumb velvet jacket over tee and jeans.

TeenHollywood: You are all doing TV as well, two Nickelodeon shows and Sean on "Reunion", how did they find you for this movie?

Drake: Miranda (Cosgrove) who plays my little sister on "Drake and Josh", auditioned for it before I did and she booked it [got the part]. She came back to set and said 'oh, I booked this movie' and I was 'oh, cool'. Then I got to go and read for it and go meet Raja [the director]. It went very well and I left and found out I got it. It was really great to go back to our set and say that we'd be working on the movie together.

[Here, we have a discussion between Drake and Sean of the fact that Drake's jacket pockets are sewn shut even though he keeps trying to put his hands in them].

Sean: Seems like they left the whole casting process in Raja's hands because I never met a producer. I had one meeting with Raja and the next day I had the movie. I was actually the last one cast. You guys had already had table reads [where the cast gathers and basically "reads" the script out loud].

Drake: I was cast after the table reads too. We were already on set and wondering who was going to play your part.

Sean: I had just gotten back into town from Vancouver from "Life as We Know It".

TeenHollywood: Did each of you end up with allegiances to your families in the movie like the Norths versus the Beardsleys?

Sean: Oh no.

Drake: Not really because none of us are actually like the Beardsleys I think. Most of the cast is more like the North family [more Bohemian, free-spirits]. We all got to hang out and bond. We got along really well. It was really great meeting all these new people.

TeenHollywood: Katija, you were a blonde in the film but you are a pretty brunette now. Did they make you a blonde because Danielle Panabaker of the other family was dark-haired?

Katija: No, I did it because I was bored. I had it for the whole movie and once the movie was over I was completely over it and wanted to be brunette again.

Sean: I must say, I'm diggin' the brunette.

Katija: [big smile] Thank you.

TeenHollywood: How was working with Dennis and Renee as your parents?

Drake: I think they sort of emulated their characters. Dennis would come on and be about getting the job done and being very professional and Renee would come on stage and want to play first and hang out with the little kids and be very personable.

Sean: With the older cast, she had her own one-on-one time with us. She had a personal relationship with everybody.

Drake: She was really into making sure that everyone felt comfortable and was happy.

TeenHollywood: Does anyone come from a big family?

Drake: I have three brothers and a sister and I'm the youngest. My siblings were all sort of out of the house by the time I came around. The next brother after me is the only one I got to live with for a long time. I was the youngest and got picked on. [the others say 'no' they don't have big families].

TeenHollywood: What kind of mood was Dennis in on days when he had to be covered with goop? Seems like the poor guy was always falling in something you kids left in his way.

[all three say 'he was good']

Sean: He would just sit there and you could see dollar signs floating around in his head that reminded him 'okay, it's not so bad. I'll go jump in the goop'. I think he actually had more fun on the days he had to jump in the goop than the others because it let him really let go and enjoy himself with all the kids. The little kids were bonkers running around in circles. Sugar was the drug of choice on this set. The days that he got covered in goop or had to dive into the goop, I think he liked those the most.

TeenHollywood: Sounds pretty wild. In the movie, Renee's family passes a "talking stick" when a family member wants to say something and the others have to be quiet. Was there a "talking stick" on the set?

Sean: Well, there should have been. The children were very loud on set. Richard the Assistant Director was the talking stick. He would yell 'quiet'.

Drake: We'd have to have a bull horn because there were so many kids in this lighthouse. It was like you were at Chucky Cheese or something.

TeenHollywood: How much did the scenes have to be choreographed when all the kids [18 of them] were in one scene?

Drake: The paint scene was sort of spontaneous. We had our places where they wanted us to be but everything else was just 'make a mess'.

Sean: But Raja did a great job on the set-ups, planning it out. A lot of times it would take a long time but with kids it can take forever but Raja was right on point every day. He knew what he wanted and how he wanted it done.

Drake: His patience with the kids was amazing.

TeenHollywood: Which scene was the most fun for you..the party?

Drake: The party scene was fun but I think the paint scene was the most fun. It was the most fun the first time we got to do it but by the third day of putting the clothes back on, it was like 'okay, we get it now'. The initial throwing of the stuff was awesome. 'Now we get to act wild and be crazy after sitting in our trailers for a while'. It was fun.

TeenHollywood: Was the pig mean or funny?

Drake: The pig was great... loud.

Sean: Its squeals were loud and it bit Slade [Pearce..one of the kid actors] a couple of times. Slade was the one who handles and plays with the pig. He's a little animal wrangler. He turned around and got a dog after that.

TeenHollywood: Drake, was it known up front that you were going to be playing your music at the party?

Drake: That just came about. Raja was looking for a song and band for the party scene and he couldn't find anything he liked. Then he heard a couple of songs by the band Hawk Nelson and he liked the sound but wanted a song that makes you think you're at a party when you hear it. He called them up and said 'I like your ideas for these songs. Can you do this?' They wrote a song for the movie. Raja came to my trailer and said 'I want you to go onstage with them'. I got to hang out with the band that day and learn the song and go down to Capitol Records and record it and sing through the same mic Dean Martin sang through and play on Nat King Cole's piano. It was really cool.

TeenHollywood: You wrote the theme song for your TV show, right?

Drake: Yeah.

TeenHollywood: Do you want a separate music career?

Drake: Yeah. I just put out my record like three weeks ago. It's called "Telegraph". I have my own record label, Backhouse Records and I have my own production company Backhouse Productions that scores Britney Spears' little sister's show "Zoey 101". We just scored the "Drake and Josh" movie of the week which comes out early next year.

TeenHollywood: Katija, have you ever been a cheerleader like your character in the movie?

Katija: No I haven't. I'm not a cheerleader type. I don't have anything against them but I think they are distracting. If you're watching a game, they are just distracting to me. I've never been a cheerleader and never will. My friends and I promised each other we'd never let each other do that. If one of us did decide to, we'd know something was seriously wrong.

TeenHollywood: Uh oh, cheerleaders are gonna be on your case. Are you athletic in other ways?

Katija: Oh yeah. I love sports. I like surfing with my friends. I'm not really good at it but I definitely enjoy it and volleyball at the beach.. I live in a beach community so that's fun and I play soccer on the Nickelodeon show.

TeenHollywood: Did you draw on any cheerleaders' behavior that you know of?

Katija: Definitely like the cheerleaders at my school. It's kind of really bubbly, a really overly excited personality. You just are always jumping up and down. That's kind of how I portrayed her. My voice in the movie ended up going an octave higher every time she screams. It's piercing but it was fun.

TeenHollywood: How did you and Danielle [Panabaker] really get along?

Katija: We got along really well. We ended up becoming really close, actually. We all got really close with everybody on the set. The guys had a lot of male bonding moments.

Drake: We'd go in in the morning and they had to shoot the kids first so we'd end up sitting around for like eight hours. We'd go to work and be like 'oh bummer man. I've got to go watch DVDs in Sean's trailer'.

Sean: We watched like the entire season of "Nip Tuck". We'd get there in the morning and by the time we'd get to the set we'd be done with an entire season of like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or something.

TeenHollywood: So were you girls busy dishing about the guys?

Katija: Of course there was boy talk.

TeenHollywood: Sean, how is 'Reunion' going?

Sean: I don't know. We had to go off for four weeks for the World Series and baseball playoffs and as far as I know the network loves it but they aren't really promoting it. I heard unofficially that it's going to be picked up. We'll see. They bought four more scripts.

TeenHollywood: No hope for more than one season for you?

Sean: Absolutely not. We're all under contract for a second season only to segue the storylines.

TeenHollywood: Aren't you guys kind of isolated up there [Vancouver]?

Sean: There's plenty to do. I'm friends with the whole cast, like hanging out with them and I respect them all but I have my own friends up there as well because I was there last year for "Life as We Know It" and it's just really hard going back and forth. Six months, here, six months there. I'd rather come back to L.A. and plant my roots and do a couple of films around here. I have one apartment in Vancouver and one in L.A. so I'm literally taking money and throwing it out the window.

TeenHollywood: How many episodes aired before the World Series?

Sean: Three episodes aired and then Bush pre-empted us to give a speech about the hurricane which was idiotic. Everybody already knows what is going on Bush, thank you very much. It blocked our last episode before we went off that was supposed to be the big cliffhanger of who was murdered. We never had the cliffhanger so it just kind of faded out and people probably thought it got cancelled. They need to learn how to say, 'it's going off but they're coming back'. It's got a great concept and people are interested in seeing it.

TeenHollywood: Katija, what about your new show on Nickelodeon?

Katija: It's called "Just For Kicks". It comes out early next year. We did 13 episodes and it's pretty much about four girls who are complete opposites and don't get along but they all love to play soccer. And, because they end up on the same team, they put aside all their differences for the love of the sport. They become friends and go through girl-like changes together. Boys happen and come and go and they juggle school and life in general growing up.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.