Nickelodeon Presents: Night of the Living Fred
He’s Back!! “Fred” Tries to Save His Town From Evil in the Nickelodeon Movie “Night of the Living Fred!”
Fans can’t seem to get enough of Internet sensation “Fred” (played by Lucas Cruikshank), so Nickelodeon is treating them to a special Halloween-themed “Fred” adventure. On October 22, the family-friendly network will premiere “Night of the Living Fred,” a follow-up to the super successful “Fred: The Movie” original film that premiered last year.
In this new made-for-TV movie, Fred has a funny feeling about his new music teacher, Mr. Devlin. The hyper-active boy thinks that this new man in town is vampire and has come to take over the town. No one believes Fred (probably because of his over-active imagination) and dismiss his concerns altogether. Could Fred really be on to something? Or is this just another crazy scheme to get attention?
The film also stars another Nickelodeon favorite, Daniella Monet (Victorious), as “Bertha” and “Modern Family’s” Ariel Winter as “Talia.” WWE’s, John Cena, returns as “Fred’s” Dad.
We recently caught up with the mastermind behind “Fred,” Lucas Cruikshank,” to find out more about the movie and what comes next for this character that has captured the world’s attention.
“From a very young age, I’ve always been really interested in performing, comedy, writing and all of that,” Lucas says when asked how “Fred” came into being. “I lived in Nebraska and I always wanted to be an actor or like a comedian or something, but I always thought that it was like really far fetched. It would never actually really happen because I lived so far away from any sort of entertainment capitol. I knew it was going to happen somehow, I kept telling myself.”
“I had always made little random videos with my sisters and stuff with my Mom’s camera. Then, for my 13th birthday, I got a digital video camera. My Mom gave it to me because I had asked for it. I don’t even think she really even knew what it was. I really didn’t even know what it was. I just knew that I wanted to make videos and put them on the computer and edit them and stuff. I had never heard of YouTube and then someone told me about YouTube. It was way before YouTube is what it is today. No one really knew about it yet, it was just beginning. I put stuff on there and I thought that I would just show it to my friends, link it to my Myspace and show like my one hundred friends on there or something and make some of them laugh. I really didn’t understand that it could reach any computer that had Internet. It was definitely a surprise when all the views started rolling in.”
"Whenever someone wants me to prove to them I'm the most manly man alive I inform them that I drive a mini cooper." Follow Fred on Twitter twitter.com/#!/LucasCruikshank
Being from a large family (he has five sisters and two brothers), Lucas had plenty of material and was fascinated by his younger brothers throwing tantrums. He created a hyper-active six year old character named “Fred” and sped his voice up with editing software on his computer. The videos were a huge hit on the Internet and passed from friend to friend. Lucas was the first YouTube user to hit one million subscribers.
“I realized it was way bigger than I ever thought it would be when I started getting recognized in public,” Lucas states. “Before that, I saw the views on the videos on the computer screen but it was kind of just like, it didn’t really seem real. Yeah, it was like so many views and I was so excited, but it didn’t seem like it was real because I live in a small town and everyone’s known me, so it wasn’t any big deal to them.”
“When I left my small town and went shopping or whatever, in the cities near where I live, and kids came up to me and called me ‘Fred,’ I was like, ‘Wow! This is really like blown out of proportion. I can’t believe this is actually happening.’
The videos not only brought public recognition, they landed him a guest appearance on “iCarly” and eventually the two “Fred” movies. “Well, basically, it’s just a continuation of the first movie,” the performer explains when asked to describe this new film. “Hence the title ‘Night of the Living Fred,’ it has kind of a Halloween vibe. It’s perfect for the time it comes out because it comes out October 22 and Halloween is October 31, so it’s perfect. Everyone will be in that weird Halloween mood. It’s still a comedy; it isn’t a horror movie or anything. They don’t think Fred could be scary!”
“It’s basically about… Fred has this neighbor that moves in next door to him. Fred, being crazy and obnoxious, has in his mind that this neighbor is something totally evil and is going to possess the whole entire town. So his tries to convince everyone at school and all of the parents that this guy is evil. He gets himself in this huge mess. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in it again and there’s even some new characters. It was just really fun to film. I’m excited for the fans to see it.”
He couldn’t wait to get on set with top-notch co-stars. “I was so excited that they all agreed to be a part of the movie. John Cena had worked on the first one. It was cool to work with him again. I was still kind of scared of him. He’s a really cool guy but I was just scared because he’s just so muscular he could like kill me with his hands. Working with Daniella and Ariel, that was also really cool. I had met Daniella briefly at events and stuff but it was cool getting to work with her. She was so funny as the character ‘Bertha.’ So it was awesome. Ariel, I’ve always been a huge fan of ‘Modern Family’ so I was so excited when I got the phone call that she agreed to do it.”
Lucas has a hard time narrowing down a favorite scene from the movie. “There were lots of fun scenes! One of the fun scenes was Fred’s like this vampire towards the end. It’s like this huge scene. It took us like four nights to shoot it. They couldn’t get it done in just one. Plus it was raining, so that kind of disrupted the film schedule. It was cool getting into that whole get-up and looking almost nothing like myself. It’s how I look on the promo on Nickelodeon on-line. It was really cool.”
“It’s always fun being on any set,” he continues, “Especially this one because I had worked with most of them before. I was totally comfortable with them. We had already performed together so it was a totally fun environment.”
Though he writes, directs and stars in all of the Internet videos, Lucas admits the movies are a much bigger ballgame. “Yeah, it’s definitely a collaborative process with the movies,” he says. “Like it isn’t just me, I was only 17 when I filmed this and 16 when I filmed the first one… I definitely wouldn’t have been able to take on a whole movie by myself. It’s cool to work with producers, writers and directors and seeing their take on the character. We all just work together.”
"My mom is harassing me for resigning in a game of iPhone scrabble against her before it was over." Follow Fred on Twitter twitter.com/#!/LucasCruikshank
Being that the movie is launching Nickelodeon’s holiday programming, we wondered if Halloween was a big deal to Lucas? “I’ve always enjoyed Halloween,” he says, enthusiastically. “Even though I’m too old to dress up and go trick-or-treating, my friends and I still do sometimes. I don’t know what I’m going to be yet but me and my friends are planning on doing something fun for Halloween. We’ll probably hit up a few houses for Trick-or-Treating. We’ll leave most of it for the little kids,” he assures.
Because he’s so busy creating entertainment both on the Internet and on television, it’s hard to think of this talent as a regular high school senior in Nebraska, but that’s what he is right now. School is still a top priority and Lucas admits that sometimes the balancing act between work and school is difficult. “I’m a senior in High School. It can be pretty tough sometimes. Most of the time it’s pretty cool, all of my teachers at my high school are really cooperative with sending homework to my on-set teacher and that sort of thing. It’s still kind of hard to do like algebra homework, and not sitting down in a classroom and seeing her do examples on the board. The teachers have been really cool. I can email them if I have any problems and that sort of thing. I still get the homework done.”
“I guess I just like to do what any other kid likes to do,” he says about filling his down time. “I like to just hang out with friends. Go see movies. Go to concerts. I like lots of different kinds of music. I mostly like to electro-pop, music that you can dance to. Every once in a while, I listen to slow music but I’m never usually in the mood for that.”
If you happen to run into Lucas while out and about, go ahead and go up and say “Hi.” He’d be happy to talk to you… just don’t go all paparazzi on him (or anyone for that matter). You wouldn’t want anyone to treat you that way would you? “One time I was at a restaurant and someone was videotaping my while I was eating. I was like ‘This is really awkward. Maybe this isn’t appropriate.’ There’s been a couple of times that kids have come up to me and asked if I was ‘Fred’,” he says of other unusual fan encounters. “I was like ‘Yep, I do those videos’ and that sort of thing. But then their parents will come up to me and be like ‘Why are you lying to my kid? We know you’re not Fred. Why would Fred be in Nebraska?” Then I feel bad. I’m seriously him. I’m not lying to your kid.”
This brings up a good point about how Lucas is a shining example of how it doesn’t matter where you live if you aspire to be a performer. If the talent and drive is there, you can find a way to get your work out there to be seen. “Never give up!” is his advice for aspiring actors, writers, musicians or anyone with a dream. “I thought that it would be really hard to do since I was in Nebraska, but it still happened. There’s always hope and anything can happen! As for posting stuff on-line, if you are going to do that, just have fun with it, don’t really worry too much about the views… or the subscribers or any of that… you should just be doing it for fun.”
With the success of “Fred,” Lucas is starting to think about what should come next. He’s already guest-starred in another Nick series as a completely different character. “That was really fun” he gushes about the role. “The ‘Supah Ninja’ kids are really cool. I had never done a show where there were stunt rehearsals and weapons involved so it was really different but really fun! That set was a blast!”
“I definitely want to do something outside of Fred,” he says about what the distant future might hold for him. “I’ve always enjoyed writing, so maybe I’ll write something else. I know that I will do it eventually.” There are a couple of footsteps that he might like to follow in one day. “I really like Judd Apatow and everything he’s done, and his career… how he produces movies and writes them. I think that would be so much fun. I like his work so much. Also, Diablo Cody who wrote “Juno.” I think she has another movie coming out too. I’ve always really liked her writing style, like how she’s sarcastic and witty. I really enjoy her writing.”
"People who still say "winning" so aren't winning" Follow Fred on Twitter twitter.com/#!/LucasCruikshank
The smart young man also knows that people look up to him, as well. “I’m aware that when I post tweets or videos or interviews or anything, that I have a young audience watching, so I don’t want to do anything outrageous or anything to disappoint them. I always have that in mind.”
For now, Lucas is concentrating on continuing to bring more “Fred” to the fans. “For ‘Fred’ online, I started this Internet talk show on my YouTube channel where ‘Fred’ interviews different celebrities or other people on the Internet and asks them totally obnoxious questions that you should never ask in an interview. We’re hoping to do a ‘Fred’ animated Internet series. I think that ‘Fred’ is already such a cartoon character as he is… that he will really translate well into animation.”
“A long term goal is… I have always wanted to write a movie, so I hope I can do that some day,” Lucas says, as our conversation is coming to a close. “Whether I’m collaborating with someone or doing it by myself, I think that would be really fun to just do some script writing and that sort of thing.”
Given all that this young talent has already accomplished, we have no doubt that we will be seeing his name on the big screen one day. In the meantime, we will just enjoy the antics of the crazy character he has already contributed by tuning into “Night of the Living Fred” on October 22 at 8:00PM EST.
Find out more about the movie here: http://www.nick.com/shows/fred/