Nickelodeon Presents "Bucket & SKinner's Epic Adventures"

Girls Will Crush On Them! Guys Will Laugh With Them! “Bucket and Skinner’s Epic Adventures” Hits Nickelodeon! Be Prepared to Laugh!

Nickelodeon is introducing you to two best buds named “Bucket” and “Skinner.” These characters are about to surf into your hearts and give your sense of humor a real workout. The series, titled “Bucket and Skinner’s Epic Adventures,” premieres on July 1 at 8:00PM. Mark your calendars! Set your DVR’s! Get ready for a summer of laughs when these two wild and crazy guys steal your hearts.

Like most Nick shows that precede them, the casting of this series is dead on and the actors are destined to become household names (Think Miranda and Victoria). Taylor Gray is the love-stricken “Bucket” who will do anything to get closer to Kelly (played by True Jackson V.P.’s Ashley Argota). His best friend “Skinner” (played perfectly by Dillon Lane) is not the sharpest crayon in the box (not even close) but he’s kind hearted and would do anything to help out his best friend “Bucket.” Also thrown in the mix is Kelly’s conniving little sister Piper who the boys try to stay close to in order to get to Kelly. Piper has her own agenda and that’s to get close to her crush, Skinner. Piper is played by the adorable Tiffany Espensen who provides the voice of “Ginger” on “Phineas and Ferb.” And last but not least, there’s “Aloe,” (the very funny Glenn McCuen) the popular guy at school who does not want Bucket and Skinner to invade his space. He also is strongly against them getting closer to Kelly. The set up provides a lot of drama but even more laughs.

Here’s a peak behind-the-scenes for you!

Tune in to see the boys get in to all kinds of crazy situations and somehow manage to get out of them relatively unscathed. If you can call having huge bowls of salad dressing dumped on them, doors slammed in their faces and having to wearing a crab suit… unscathed.

We checked in with Taylor and Dillon recently to find out what it’s like to be chosen to star in a new Nickelodeon show. It turns out that not only did the show give them the career launch that most young actors pray to be given; it also gave the two up and comers a new best friend. Meet Taylor and Dillon below. (Jump to Dillion's profile here)

Taylor Gray

Taylor Gray has the distinct honor of playing “Bucket” in the new Nickelodeon series “The Epic Adventures of Bucket and Skinner.” The ambitious teenager gained his acting experience in a fairly usual way. “I had done a lot of commercials starting out,” he says of life before “Bucket.” “I did another pilot, then some little spots on other TV shows like “Numbers,” “The Mentalist,” and “Hawthorne.”

Landing a role in a film called “The Take” sealed his fate in terms of a career path. “When I was around thirteen, I did a film with John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez,” he recalls. “Before then, I was like ‘Oh, acting is cool.’ I liked doing it as a hobby but after that, I realized there’s nothing else. That’s what I had to be doing. I loved it so much and learned so much from that. That’s when I decided that I wanted to be an actor.”

For a while, the acting bug ran in the family. “We kind of started at the same time, my little brother and I. He did ‘Santa Clause 3,’ so he was on that for a couple of weeks shooting. But that’s the only thing. He decided that he wanted to focus on school now. He’s in high school doing that.”

Though the show is just starting to air, “Bucket” is a name that Taylor heard a couple of years ago when auditions started to find the perfect pair to play this dynamic duo. “It was super long,” he recalls of the audition process. “I remember auditioning for it at the beginning of the year and I didn’t get called back in to read for it until like three or four months later when the casting director had changed. I went through like three different casting directors I remember. I want to say that there were at least eleven auditions. It was a long process but a lot of fun.”

The producers and creators of the show wanted to be sure they got it just right, as did Taylor who put a lot of time and effort in figuring out just who “Bucket” should be. “I remember they gave character descriptions. When they release a breakdown for a role, they have descriptions like who this person’s like and I remember for Bucket it said, like Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan and Topher Grace. I was like ‘No way, I’m not like any of these guys. How am I going to do that?’ I just remember thinking, ‘You know what? I just want to make Bucket as close to me as I possibly can.’”

“After getting the role and going in to filming, we all had our little meetings with Tommy [Tom Lynch, the Executive Producer] and the producers and they all talked about what their vision was for it. We kind of collaborated on that in that sense. I remember them just telling me, ‘We want Bucket to be as close to you, as the person you are.’ So I was like ‘That’s a little weird. It’s not like going after another character. It’s like trying to make it close to your core as possible. So it was a little different doing that but it’s really cool. So I just made up an original character which is like any other normal person.”

Even though the actors on the show are still relative newcomers to the business, their inputs and opinions are taken very seriously on set. “It goes both ways,” Taylor emphasizes. “We’ll read the whole script the way we feel like it should be read. Then they’ll come say what they feel like. Maybe this line should be a little different. But they leave it up to us to decide how things should be gone about. It’s really cool. We definitely have an input. And when new directors come in, they’ll ask us sometimes ‘So how do you normally do this?’ If it’s things that have been referred to in past episodes.”

What better way to learn more about the actors then to ask the people who work with them every day? Taylor has nothing but praise for his co-stars… especially his new best friend Dillon. “I’ll start with Dillon,” he decides when asked to describe his co-workers. “I’m definitely by far closest to Dillon than anyone. I’d say in the last year, out of any of my friends, closet to Dillon. We’ve spent so much time together and I’m so glad it was with him. He’s super, super nice. He’s just a fun person to hang out with. Like he was saying earlier, I heard him mention something about… we have a lot in common. We talk at the same time. We have a lot of the same interests. I’ve found that we think the same way in certain senses. It’s cool to have someone that is just so close to you that you can talk too and talk about anything with and who is also going through the same things that you are. He’s just a lot of fun to hang out with every day.”

“I love Ashley! She’s awesome!” he says of Ashley Argota, a Nickelodeon vet having a slew of “True Jackson V.P.” episodes under her belt. “She’s super, super nice! Also, she’s very mature. She handles every situation very calmly and professionally. She always seems to know what to do. It’s really cool because we can be a little crazy,” he pauses to correct himself. “A lot crazy at times! She’s like the perfect balance to that cause she’s always calm and knows what to be doing. She has let us know what to do in certain situations which was really cool.”

“And then Glen,” he continues. “Glen is a lot of fun! He’s just a total goofball. [He] does things on his own agenda and it’s just really fun to hang out with him. We don’t get to spend as much time together because he didn’t do school with us or anything and we’re not always in scenes together. I love hanging out with him. We see him at events all the time, every day on set, we eat lunch together a lot. We play a lot of basketball together. He’s really cool and a lot of fun.”

“Dylan and I did school with Tiffany for the whole beginning of the show,” he says of the youngest cast member on the show. “We spent a lot of time with Tiffany. She’s awesome! She’s just very nice, very smart little girl. It’s cool to see someone like her… you don’t find a lot of little girls who are like her.”

Aside from working with the fun cast, what does Taylor love most about being on the show? “I’d say… getting to do all of these stunts. Growing up, I would try these stunts at home. I get to do these stunts with an audience. And that’s probably the coolest thing. People get to watch me try these fun things. Performing for people, like for the audience, that’s definitely the best part. That’s the whole reason I wanted to do this, that’s why we’re in this I feel like. I just love to entertain people in any way possible. So if I can do it to 200 people at once in audience, that’s just awesome.”

Now that several episodes are in the can, Taylor is just looking forward to the show finally hitting the airwaves. “I’m looking forward to kids being able to see the show. I just really hope that kids want to watch this show. Like they can go home from school and be like ‘Oh, I want to finish my homework really fast because I know Bucket and Skinner will be on in two hours and I can’t wait to watch it.’ I think that is the coolest thing right there.”

The cast and crew have been hard at work so spare time is hard to come by. “Yeah, it’s been pretty busy which is kind of crazy,” he confesses. “It’s different than what I’m used to before. Weekends have become a lot more valuable than they were before.”

“I’d say catch up on a lot of sleep,” he says about what he does when spare time does surface. “I hang out with my family a lot on the weekends. We’ve been invited to so many fun events which is so cool and a lot of fun. I’ve also been surfing a lot. I’ll wake up sometimes early in the morning and go surfing before I figure out what I want to do with the rest of the day on the weekends which is a lot of fun.”

The hectic taping schedule will prevent Taylor from vacationing anywhere this summer, not that there is any place he would rather be at the moment. He does, however, reflect on his favorite summer vacation for us. “Every summer our family goes on a big summer vacation trip. The most fun one and the most memorable was when we went everywhere on the East Coast. We went to New York, which we’re in right now; it’s pretty amazing I gotta say. We went to Boston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Maryland. It was just the most fun trip! We drove so many places, visited family and did all these things together. The coolest part was we went to all the baseball stadiums in all the different cities. My Dad, my brother and I were all huge baseball fans. My sister and my Mom, they were great sports and went along to every game and had a good time. It was a lot of fun.”

Now Taylor is having the time of his life bringing a great new character to life on the small screen. He encourages anyone interested in acting to just give it a try. “I’d say… have fun doing it,” he says when asked about advice for aspiring performers. “Don’t be afraid of anything. Try anything and everything and just have fun. I think that’s like the best advice in a lot of cases. As long as you’re having fun doing things they usually turn out with positive results. Have fun and don’t ever give up if that’s what you like to do.”

He’s thrilled to be on a network that was so influential to him growing up. “In one word, I’d say it’s surreal,” he says of being part of the Nickelodeon family. “It’s just pretty amazing. I grew up watching Nickelodeon all the time. ‘Drake and Josh’ was my favorite show. It is so cool to be a part of it. I can’t wait for what’s to come!”

Find out more about this great young actor by visiting http://www.Nick.com or following him on twitter: www.twitter.com/_Taylor_Gray_

Dillon Lane

Dillon Lane is an Arizona native who figured out very early on that he was meant to be a performer. “I was having a Rock Band party on my table with my little brothers and my whole family when I was like four. We were all just like singing, and music, and jumping around, and having fun. Me and my family used to do that. Just kind of mess around and that was the moment when I realized I kind of wanted to be an entertainer. That’s what I wanted to do. I started auditioning then.”

Pursuing his passion would have to be a family affair, given that a lot of traveling would be involved if he wanted to be in the television industry. “Being from a different state, my family always helped commute back and forth to California and stuff, so I’ve always had the support of my family, and my close friends. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the support of my mom and my whole family to help commute back and forth from Arizona to California and help me fulfill what I have been trying to accomplish. I’ve been extremely lucky to have the support system that I do,” he says gratefully.

The travel aspect picked up when he was put in the running for the role of “Skinner” on Nickelodeon’s new series “Bucket and Skinner’s Epic Adventures.” “Like I said, I was very fortunate to have the family that I do because I have family in California. At the time, I wasn’t living in California and would have to come back once a month or twice a month or once a week sometimes for all the auditions for ‘Bucket and Skinner’ since it was so long. I needed somewhere to stay because hotel fares were starting to get expensive. So I stayed with my Aunt in California. No matter what time we got in she’d always leave the door unlocked for us. I’d always have someone to come home to and it was really nice.”

All the traveling paid off because he was finally cast in the life-changing role of “Skinner.” “I found out by phone call,” he recalls about how he learned that the role was his. “I was at lunch with my Grandma, and I got a phone call from my manager. I answered it, and usually they call just to check- up, and stuff. I assumed it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. When I answered my mom was on the line, and a few other family members. They were all like really excited! At that point I knew I got the role. It was a really cool, exciting moment, that caught me off guard. It seems to come at the most unexpected moments. Like when you least expect it is really when it happens.”

His family then gathered to commemorate the special occasion. “Some family members, like my grandparents, came over we had some dinner at our house and just kind of celebrated with a small family event,” he says.

“I didn’t necessarily do any research,” he says about preparing to go to work for the first time. “Mainly what it was… I read the breakdown, which is like the character bio, and kind of envisioned kind of like a persona of a different person. Part of that is like a Spicoli or Michael Kelso-esque care free vibe. That’s kind of what I initially saw. So I went to my acting coach and said ‘This is a really cool audition that I have and I’d really like to develop the character that is really unique.’ I asked for some help. We developed a voice and an image… just kind of like different mannerisms, a different person. From there ‘Skinner’ was born.”

Dillon describes “Skinner” as “A very optimistic person. He’s not the smartest person in the world. He’s just a care free, kind of happy guy! As long as he has good food, his best friend, some good times, and people to spend it with, he’s the happiest person in the world! He’s just a unique person I guess. He just has a bunch of different qualities about him from his style, to his outlook on life, to his hair and just a personality that’s entirely unique!”

Knowing that Dillon is an intelligent and hard-working young man, are there any similarities between him and “Skinner?” “Definitely!” he says quickly. “I consider myself an optimist as well. I do look at the world as the glass is always half full. That is how ‘Skinner’ acts and kind of how I made ‘Skinner’ to be!”

A lot of work goes into making each episode of the series. Dillon gives us a rundown of how the week-long process of filming each episode breaks down. “Each new script starts on a Wednesday. We get a new script and we have a table read on Wednesday morning. After the table read we rehearse the script all day. The writers go and revise the script. That night we get a new script and start rehearsal for the same script the next day. Thursday we rehearse all day. Then we have a producer run through, which means all the producers come on set and they watch us run through the entire script. So they revise the script again. On Friday we do the same thing, we rehearse all day again. Then we have a network run through, where network [executives] from Nickelodeon come and they watch the entire run through. After that, they revise it again.”

“We have all weekend to memorize our lines,” he continues. “Monday we start filming. We pre- shoot everything that’s too difficult to do in front of a live audience. Tuesday we rehearse, all day until five o’clock. At five o’clock the live audience comes in and we film three to four hours in front of a live audience.”

Having the audience there raises the bar for the actors who are excited about performing in front of a crowd. “The energy is substantially bigger when we’re in front of an audience,” he confesses. “When we have episodes that we can’t do in front of an audience, all of our energy is definitely a lot lower. It’s a lot harder for us to bring it up and act like we’re super excited and stuff. But when you have an audience there, screaming your name, and clapping, and laughing, and having just a great time, it really boosts everything!”

Like Taylor, Dillon only has nice things to say about his co-workers. “Well, Taylor is Bucket, obviously,” he begins when asked to describe his co-stars. “He’s, I guess the closest way to describe it is like… one of my brothers! I spend every day with him. Probably one of the nicest people I know! I have more in common with him then I do with a majority of the people I know! We finish each others sentences. We say the same things at the same time. We can talk without saying anything. Just by looking at each other, we know what the other person is thinking. Taylor is just kind of in my head I guess. He is one of my best friends!” “No pressure” I joke, because Taylor was sitting right beside him during the interview. “I totally just lied,” he jokes back. “Give me my thirty bucks back,” Taylor quips in true “Bucket and Skinner” fashion.

“Ashley is… I like to call her like our big sister,” he says, continuing the dish on his co-workers. “She’s the person that’s experienced all this and she’s been through all of it before. She’s been kind enough to just kind of take us all under her wing and explain the whole situation and show us the ropes. She’s definitely helped us embark on this journey!”

“There’s Glen, who is just like a big goofball,” he says of the actor who plays “Aloe.” “He’s like the sweetest kid in the world. He’s like extremely nice! I don’t think there’s anyone that he’s ever met that he didn’t walk straight up to, introduce himself and start a conversation with, and just become best friends with.”

It’s hard for Dillon to pick a favorite episode from the shows that have already been filmed. “To be completely honest I love every episode we’ve done. So every time we get asked this question I try and think back on all the episodes. It’s always different, but I think of one, and that one is just my favorite! Someone brought up today an episode where we get in detention on Saturday and we can’t go surfing when there’s a huge storm, so we’re super bummed. The whole episode is spent with us trying to break out of detention, and Bucket is actually trying to get in detention so he can be with me. Then we have to try to break out of detention. I think that was one of the coolest ones, because it shows what Bucket’s willing to do to be with Skinner, and what they’re willing to do together just to have a good time.”

Though the two are actors, the friendship you see onscreen is real. “On our days off, and on the weekends, sometimes we get to go to some really cool events. We get to go to some cool charity events, and some premieres and stuff. When we’re not doing those we like to catch up on sleep! Taylor and I have a lot of similar friends so sometimes he’ll come and stay at my house then we’ll go and hang out with some friends. Then I’ll stay at his house and we’ll go hang out with some of his friends. Taylor and I hang out a lot!”

While most guys their age are planning beach vacations or trips with friends, Dillon won’t be taking a vacation this summer which is fine with him. “We are filming all throughout the summer, until the first week of August. A majority of my summer will be spent on set filming, but I just moved to California so in my book that’s pretty much a vacation to me!”

“I just feel blessed to be where I am today” the young actor reasons. “To be a part of Nickelodeon is an honor. I grew up watching Nickelodeon and I grew up watching their shows, and relating to those shows, and watching those things with my little brothers, and cousins, and friends, and stuff. To be a part of that and knowing that when our show airs little kids will be watching it hopefully, and people will be able to relate to it, and have fun maybe. Taylor said this in an interview a couple of weeks ago… one of the coolest parts of thinking we’d get out of school and we’d run to the TV and be like ‘I hope Drake and Josh is on!’ If a little kid somewhere does that and gets home from school, ‘I hope Bucket and Skinner is on!’ If someone wants to watch our show and finds entertainment in it, I think that’s one of the coolest parts!”

Tune in with your best friend to the premiere of “Bucket and Skinner’s Epic Adventures” on Nickelodeon on July 1 at 8:00PM. You’ll laugh. You’ll relate. You’ll find two new great actors to appreciate for a long time to come.

Find out more about this great young actor by visiting http://www.Nick.com or following him on twitter: http://Twitter.com/DillonLane3

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