NBC’s Hairspray Live! is currently in rehearsals with the ensemble cast hard at work preparing for a live airing of the popular musical on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 at 8pm ET. Hairspray Live! stars a mix of musical theatre veterans and young actors, including newcomer Maddie Baillio who earned the role of Tracy Turnblad at a casting call with over 1,000 hopefuls. With the live musical production just a few weeks away, Baillio joined Dove Cameron (‘Amber Von Tussle’), Garrett Clayton (‘Link Larkin’), and Ephraim Sykes (‘Seaweed’) on a conference call to discuss their characters, their co-stars, and why they love being a part of Hairspray Live!.

What is the best part of being cast in Hairspray Live! and what does it mean to you?

Garrett Clayton: “I’ve always wanted to do the show but I think what’s really cool about this – and we’ve all kind of said it, we really have – I guess we’re obsessed with each other as a cast. We’re all like super stoked that we get to work with such like fun, awesome, cool people.”

Maddie Baillio: “My favorite thing I think about playing Tracy is that she’s like the ultimate underdog so everyone can relate to her. So, I’m happy to be that for everyone.”

Ephraim Sykes: “I think I’m excited to play Seaweed because he’s so close to home to me. Like, my first love has always been music and he also has a mindset that is about everybody’s the same, everybody’s together, love, and he’s able to bridge gaps of hate and misunderstandings and sort of find his way through, bring people together through music and dance. That’s what I love to do the most.”

Dove Cameron: “I am super stoked to be a part of this production in general, speaking about things that are still extremely relevant in 2016 and more relevant than I think any of us could have even guessed going into this. It became more relevant as production went on, you know, regarding everything going on politically and the way that things are starting to move these days. We’re all very pleased and blessed to be able to speak on that in such a positive light in a way that keeps things going with a cast that is bringing the eyes of a younger generation towards that message.

We definitely have a lot of stars in this, but a few younger (ones) that bring a young demographic, which is beautiful. It’s always a beautiful thing to pump out a positive message to the generation that will become our new adults in a couple of years. That’s something that I think all of us are very excited for. And, yes, definitely just in general this cast, I mean you couldn’t get any better. We never want to go home at the end of the day and we’re all excited to be at work at the start of the day. What more could you ask for?”

Maddie, you’ve had the opportunity to meet with some of the previous actresses who have played Tracy. What advice have they given you?

Maddie Baillio: “Yes, so about a week after I was announced that I got the part of Tracy, I was in New York and Marissa Jaret Winokur, who played Tracy on Broadway and got a Tony for the role, she reached out to me and said that she was in New York watching Matthew Morrison’s play. She invited me to come over so we could just chat for a second, and that one second turned into four hours. We just sat on this couch and she just talked and I just soaked it all up. She gave me a lot of advice, actually. One of the best pieces of advice she gave me was that Harvey (Fierstein) is always right; always listen to Harvey. And, she was so true about that. She was like, ‘You won’t want it to be that way but it is that way. That’s just the way it is.’

I spoke with Ricki Lake, who was the original Tracy in the John Waters film. She told me to always just say yes to everything, to every opportunity. She said that sometimes you’d say yes to things but then, like, she’d wake up the morning of and decide not to do it. She said that really bit her in the butt. So just to always say yes to everything – to everything. They gave me a lot of good advice. And, they’re going to make cameos in the show!”

What was the audition process like and how did you hear about Hairspray Live!?

Maddie Baillio: “I was in New York for two years for college and I saw an open casting call ad on Facebook that there was going to be a big open audition for Tracy for Hairspray Live. And this was one of my dream roles, so I really wanted to do it but I was also really, really nervous because it was my first professional audition. It was my first audition outside of school. I decided at 3am the morning of the audition to get up and get ready and go do it. And on the sheet – on the ad – it said that you should also prepare a short portion of ‘Good Morning Baltimore,’ so I prepared my short portion on the subway ride to Telsey & Company, which is the casting agency where they were holding the audition in New York.

I got there at 6:45 thinking that I was going to be one of the first girls in line because it started at 10am, and I was 343 in line and there were over 1,000 girls there by the end of the day. I sang my short portion of ‘Good Morning Baltimore’ and I thought I nailed it, and then they asked me to sing the end of the song, which I did not know so I made up a lot of the words. But, they still asked me to do a callback a couple of days later. And then four callbacks later, I got the part. So I am living my dream. I’m so thrilled and blessed to be a part of this amazing cast.”

Garrett Clayton: “I had been poking and prodding my reps when I found out the show was even happening. I kind of let the notion go that I was not going to be able to audition just because nobody ever thinks they’re going to get their dream part. The production asked me to send in a self-tape. It took me about a week to make the tape that I was solid and felt good about sending. And after about two months of hearing that I’m still in the mix, they set up a callback with the whole team behind it that ended up getting canceled because somebody couldn’t make it to LA, so I figured somebody else got the part.

Then about two weeks after that, they e-mailed me the night before and said, ‘Can you come to a dance audition?’ And it was with Brooke (Engen), the assistant choreographer, and we FaceTimed with Jerry Mitchell, the choreographer. He watched me do a little bit of ‘Nicest Kids.’ About two weeks later, they offered me the part, which is kind of a little bit surreal because at the time I was…the night I found out I got it I was at A Chorus Line at the Hollywood Bowl. I was just checking my phone on the way to the bathroom and my reps kept freaking out saying, ‘Call us,’ and ‘Kiss Today Goodbye’ came on. So me, as the big theater nerd that I am, had a little bit of an emotional moment because I was listening to ‘Kiss Today Goodbye’ at A Chorus Line at the Hollywood Bowl when I got Link.”

Ephraim Sykes: “Mine is not so quite involved. It was really weird. My agent gave me a call, I think it must have been early July or something like that, maybe even late June or so, very early on saying that they would like you to send in a tape for Seaweed. I was doing Hamilton at the time and I was just like (doing) a bunch of other parts. I thought there was no chance in hell that I’d be cast in this, honestly. I was like (they’d cast a) superstar name because I heard that Ariana Grande was going to be in it. I had heard that Jennifer Hudson was going to be in it, all these other people.

I was like, ‘There’s no way in this world that this is going to happen for me, and I don’t even know if I can sing that high,’ because his song’s like kind of crazy. So, I actually turned it down at first. I was like, ‘No, I think I’ll hold off because I’m in the middle of a crazy eight-show-a-week and I don’t feel like killing myself for something that I didn’t think I would really get. Cut to literally maybe two months later, like early August and I get a call from my agent again saying, ‘Hey, Ephraim, casting really would like to see if you’d just send in a tape, just submit. They just want to see and hear you do this.’ Because I guess they were having a hard time finding somebody or matching somebody up with tiny Ariana. So I was like, ‘Okay, well I guess I’ll give it a shot.’ So I feel like because they asked me again, they would have to at least consider me or have to at least look at my tape and not just throw it out the window.

So I was in my living room (and) I had one of my best friends come over. I was like, ‘Look, man, we’ve got one take for this because I don’t know if I can sing it twice.’ I happen to collect records, like old records, and I have them hanging all over my wall. We were going to shoot it in my apartment – badly lit. You guys have to see this audition tape; it’s really terrible. So my friend shot it for me. I went ahead and just screamed it out one time. He was like, ‘All right man, I think that was it,’ one take and sent in my tape with that song and the audition material and sides. And literally like a week later, the day that I stopped doing Hamilton, I found out that I got this part and I collapsed. So, that’s what happened.”

What have the rehearsals been like and have you had any time to kind of just bond as a cast?

Dove Cameron: “We’ve had so much time to bond as a cast.”

Garrett Clayton: “It’s the best. When we decide to do stuff together, it’s like wicked fun. It’s so exciting.”

Maddie Baillio: “Yes, I’ve been in rehearsals. I did two weeks of rehearsals in New York and this is like my fifth week here, and literally every night after rehearsals for the past couple of weeks we’ve all gotten together and like watched a movie or had game night. We have had so much cast bonding.”

Ephraim Sykes: “I second everything she just said. We like to go to each other’s houses and meet people’s moms together and play crazy games. We are bonding so much, and truly our actual friendships and relationships are transmitting straight to the stage and to the camera, I think.”

Dove Cameron: “Yes, that’s definitely something that we’ve all really remarked on. And then especially because we have such a diverse cast, in terms of sex and age range and background and experience. You know, it’s not necessarily something that you would expect from this particular group of people just because it is so diverse. It’s not like a sitcom where it’s only four or five people and they’re all sort of the same age or whatever. It’s a very interesting, fun, wide cast, and we’ve all fallen madly in love with each other. We’re FaceTiming each other, dinner every day, sleepovers, all that fun stuff. It’s the best. It’s exactly what you would want.”

Ephraim Sykes: “She’s right. And it feels a bit like theatre camp.”

Garrett Clayton: “It does. It feels like a really weird drama program where everybody is way too experienced and wicked famous. So we’re all kind of having these weird moments where we take a step back, and I’ve noticed each person kind of like has a moment where they have to catch their breath and realize where they are and who they’re with. It’s really magical.”

Dove Cameron: “Mine for me was when Harvey Fierstein was teaching me how to accurately stuff my bra. You know what? Everybody has their moment in life. That was mine.”

If you could take any one prop or costume home, what would it be?

Garrett Clayton: “Maybe my blue suede shoes for ‘It Takes Two.'”

Maddie Baillio: “Yes, I would take Garrett’s blue suede shoes.”

Dove Cameron: “Yes, I think all of us would take Garrett’s blue suede shoes.”

Ephraim Sykes: “No, I got this crazy, ridiculously extra blue suit that I want to just to hang somewhere like in this suit hall of fame. It’s between that and my switchblade.”

Dove Cameron: “I want all of Amber’s wardrobe because I’m one of those people that would wear strange (outfits). I would go to the supermarket in like full-on ’50s garb – or ’60s garb. So I really love Amber’s baby blue dress and her yellow dress and all that. I don’t know. I really like all of Corny’s wardrobe. I’d probably take Corny’s outfits or maybe Ari’s gum. I don’t know, there’s a lot, you know? A lot of good stuff.”

What was your feeling coming in and working with Jennifer Hudson, Ariana Grande, and Kristin Chenoweth?

Maddie Baillio: “I am still such a big fan girl of everyone here. I have to remind (myself) literally every day that these are just people. But my first Broadway show that I saw was Wicked and this is before I knew that I could like print out lyrics online or that there was karaoke. So I bought the cast album and that night I went home and I wrote down every single lyric of every single one of the songs that Kristin Chenoweth sang. That was like a big deal for me and that was when I really, really fell in love with musical theater.

Kristin Chenoweth is playing one of my like arch-nemeses in the show, so that’s insane. And then Jennifer Hudson during her huge song – she’s grasping my hand and singing – she’s singing to my face and my hair’s flying back; I’m getting really excited just thinking about everyone in the show right now.”

Ephraim Sykes: “I still am freaking out a little bit every day when I think about who I’m standing next to, especially when I get to hear them. Like the first day I met Ariana Grande was in Capitol Records at the studio and she comes in and she’s like, ‘Hi.’ And they’re like, ‘Okay, let’s get behind the piano and sing something.’ I’m like, ‘I will not. No, like what do you mean?’

It still makes me quite nervous. Honestly, my mom being Jennifer Hudson, I had the same moment as Maddie. She’s holding my hand singing ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ and just like crushing it because she’s singing this ridiculously high note. I kind of hide my notes. I don’t know if you know what it means to try to hide your note while you’re singing, but I was trying to hide.

But they’re such cool and down-to-earth and real people, and they inspired me to completely just trust myself. And, I am who I am. I am who I am for a very specific purpose, even when I don’t know what that is. So they’ve shown me how to trust myself and just give whatever I’ve got and keep having fun. But, yes, I’m crapping myself.”

Garrett Clayton: “Well, literally everyone has been a homie so I’m not worried about that. I guess I didn’t know what to expect, really, but my favorite way of explaining listening to Jennifer sing – and everyone in this group has heard me say this – it’s like I imagine my skin peeling off my face with her and her incredible voice. When she sings I just feel it’s like when a plane is taking off and your skin is shaking and the water is running off against the side of the window and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is happening.’ But instead of me being inside the plane I am the plane and Jennifer is the wind hitting me.”

Dove Cameron: “I had already obviously worked with Kristin before as her daughter strangely enough, first time around, in Descendants, so I had already fallen madly in love with her. I’d already been through my process of being like, ‘You’re Kristin Chenoweth and I can touch you and look at you every day and accost you with my many fangirl questions.’ So that part I had been through. But I had no idea what to expect from Jennifer or Ari. And both of them – and I keep telling my mother this – have turned out to be like the most normal, adorable, down-to-earth, down to hang. They seek you out. It’s not like they’re not incredible and accessible. It’s like no, they are really good friends. Good friends like not of mine, but just like good friends in the world. They are good friends to the people around them.

They’re really caretaking people. And yet they don’t walk around in the world like world-famous vocal divas. You wouldn’t even know unless they were just ripping in front of you and ripping their faces off, which they do. That’s kind of like a moment in time as well. You sort of have to stop and be like, ‘I’m glued to this spot.’ It’s definitely been an education in all ways, professionally and personally.”

What was your relationship with Hairspray before you got this role and how has that changed?

Maddie Baillio: “When I was like nine or 10 I went over to my friend’s house and I’d always call my mom if I was going to watch a movie with my friend that was overrated G, because I was really sheltered. So I called my mom and asked her if we could watch this move called Hairspray. It was the original John Waters film and she said, ‘No, no, no, no,’ because there’s like so much making out in the show. So I didn’t even see the original Hairspray until two months ago. But I saw the 2007 film and I fell in love with Tracy’s spirit, and I loved how funny the show was.

But our Hairspray, while rehearsing for our Hairspray we’re not just focusing on the funny and the campy parts of the show. We’re really, really, really focusing on the real relevant parts of the show which is going to make our Hairspray unlike any other Hairsprays ever seen.”

Dove Cameron: “My relationship with Hairspray…so this is funny and it’s always great looking back on real-life circumstances and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I can actually say that in an interview.’ I went and I saw the 2007 version of Hairspray in theaters, which means I was really young and I was doing theater camp every day for Les Mis. I went with my whole little baby cast afterward. Yes, very little baby cast. It was like a children’s production of Les Mis. The most darling children you’ve ever seen. It was like these 11-year-olds dying. But we all went to go see Hairspray because it was right down the street from our theater – our tiny, tiny little theater. I loved it so much that I went back again that night and again the next week.

I went out and I bought the poster, like the gigantic seven-foot poster, and I hung it up on my wall. It was the only thing other than a Green Day poster up on my wall. I loved it so much. I was obsessed. I bought the soundtrack. It was my favorite musical forever. So, this is a really cool thing for me, you know? My little baby theater camp brain is kind of exploding.”

Dove, you’ve become a person associated with spreading positivity and being a light for people, but you’re taking on some villainous roles. How do you get in the mean girl mindset if it’s so different from you?

Dove Cameron: “I believe that everybody has that kind of like sweet spot of their true essence. Everybody has that concentrated version of themselves that is like…I always imagine it to be this sort of golden pool of light or energy or liquid. It’s like that’s them. It’s like their essence. I sort of picture it like in their tummy or their chest cavity. And you can always tell when someone is really in their pocket; in their vibe when they’re emanating their true selves. They’re like really putting out a pure version of their energy. That’s why I love performers and performing and being around artists so much, because they kind of live in that zone. And like a mean character or someone who is intense, because I would definitely call Amber a villain. I would definitely say that she’s very mean.

I would say that Mal is sort of complex. Like Garrett said to me the other day, she’s the anti-hero. But to play a character that’s, yes, a little far away from my personality or something that I don’t really have access to, in my range of daily emotion I think it just sort of relies on tapping into their golden thread of who they are and what makes them – because I have that. Everybody has that. Directors always say to make a character your own, you have to play yourself as you would play that character. And that’s the only thing that’s going to differentiate you from the next girl who walks in the room. You can’t play it how you think they want it to be played or how she’s going to do it, you have to play it in a way that only you can.

I have to sort of tap into my golden pool of energy that is authentic to me. But then just play that light through the lens of someone who was brought up by a mother who stunted her growth emotionally and told her the only way that she was going to win was by stepping on other people. And you know, she’s sort of animalistic. She definitely has like a screw loose. You just have to tap into your own and then filter it through a filter of a character. But, again, Amber is just kind of crazy. Like, she’s just uncomfortable. She’s very off-putting. But I don’t know if I actually would even call her a villain. I think that she’s just messed up.”

How are you similar to your character and how are you different?

Garrett Clayton: “I think Link really enjoys dancing and performing and wanting to share that which he knows about himself and feels most comfortable doing, with the world. I think where we’re different is he has to learn that sometimes the right thing isn’t always the easy thing to do. And, there might be consequences. Whether they’re good or bad, you have to stand up for the right things. And me as Garrett, I learned that when I was younger. But I think this is where Link is having to learn it now, so that’s where we’re different and the same.”

Maddie Baillio: “I think I’m like Tracy in the fact that she’s like the ultimate optimist. She sees a rat on the street and she thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. And something that’s different is that when I was younger, I was bullied a lot and I let that stop me from doing things that I really wanted to do. And Tracy, she never lets anything stop her and she’s bullied constantly. So because she doesn’t let anything stop her, she gets the guy and she gets to be on the show and she changes the world. I think a good message for every kid out there is just don’t let anyone stop you.”

Dove Cameron: “Well, I am different from my character in practically every way. I would never say she’s misunderstood because I think she has a pretty clear message that is very understood throughout the production. You know, I sort of believe that everybody in life, I don’t really believe in bad people. I think that there are good people who have things happen to them. We all start at like a baseline and then what happens in our lives affects how we perceive the world and ourselves and everything around us. With Amber’s circumstances and how she was brought up and how her mother lived vicariously through her, I think that anyone would sort of grow up and turn out to be the person that Amber did.

I can relate to her in the sense that I’m a product of my environment. I think that my environment just happened to be much healthier. But, you know, I’m very driven and very goal-oriented, but I would never say that I relate to her in too many ways.”

Ephraim Sykes: “I definitely would say I’m very similar to Seaweed in that again, I love music. Music is my first and true love. And, I love dancing. It’s therapeutic for me. Music and dancing are things that make me feel good, literally from the inside out. I love people and I don’t see any kind of colors. You know, I don’t know about difference. I don’t care who you are or how you think. If you’re cool people, I’m cool people. Let’s hang out.

I think the only thing that makes me different is I think Seaweed is a bit more outgoing. He saw an issue with Tracy (and) immediately and reached out to her and invited and included. And I was a little bit more outgoing, and I don’t want to say of a performer than I am, but he’s a bit more of an extrovert. Like I said, my art and my craft for me sometimes can be very therapeutic and I can be kind of introverted with it. And I kind of can want to keep it to myself. I’ll like dance in the corner and I might not make a move to make sure I actually go over there and get her to bring her in to then change the story. So I think that’s the only thing that makes us different is just a bit more activism if you will, and extra effects of readiness – these words that I’m making up – than I have in my own life.”

Dove, how did previous versions influence your version of Amber?

Dove Cameron: “I tend to want to put my own spin on a character while also treading lightly in terms of the relationship with the fans. You know, you definitely want to honor past incarnations. But I’ve seen a lot of productions of remakes of just anything, you know, a variety of things, and I’m sort of like, ‘If I’m going to go see it again, I want to see something different.’ And you know you never really want to see an actor – at least I don’t – do the exact same thing as someone else because that was the last person’s interpretation. Art is supposed to be forever living and moving and breathing and growing, so I try to do both in whatever project I’m in. I will definitely be trying to do that here.

I think (with) Amber I’m taking a more comedic route with her. Comedy is something that I have had a lot of fun with in my career, and so I tend to skew in that direction anyway.”