Young Entertainment Mag: You’ve been acting since you were 5 years old. How did you first get into acting? What was it like acting at such a young age?
Reece Caddell: I got started acting because my two older sisters (Cam and Maddy) were working as actors and it just seemed like the next step for me. I was very lucky that they already had an agent and manager and their team let me sign with them, too. Before that, I mostly just made my sisters let me be in their plays and the little videos they made for fun. Eventually we started a Youtube channel together (3 Ginger Sisters) where we did sketches and vlogs. As I got older and understood other actor’s journeys, I became very grateful for how much my sisters paved the way.
And acting has always been so fun to me! As a little kid, it was so cool to get to meet so many nice people, even if I didn’t know how famous or important they were. I remember grownup actors and crew being aware I was a kid and like covering my eyes and stuff if something on the set wasn’t kid-friendly, heehee. And I loved getting to play so many different characters, to get to be dressed up, and who doesn’t love all the snacks on set?
YEM: Were you always interested in comedy?
Reece: Well, I come from a very funny family, so I consider comedy to be a basic survival skill to get attention! I remember watching funny movies or tv shows and seeing people laugh and thinking that being able to make someone laugh was definitely something I wanted to do! When I realized that I could make people laugh, it was a really amazing, empowering feeling, to be honest. As I’ve gotten older and been exposed to different genres, I know I don’t want to JUST do comedy, but it’s been a great place to learn and grow as an actor. I look forward to being able to do more drama and to experience some thriller and sci-fi and all sorts of things!
YEM: You’ve previously appeared on shows such as Schooled and Coop and Cami Ask the World. Did being on these sitcoms help expand your comedy muscles?
Reece: Oh, absolutely. I definitely wouldn’t understand the difference between so many different kinds of comedy at my age if I hadn’t had the chance to work on these distinctly different shows. This past year when I’ve gone from All That back to work on Schooled I would really pay attention to how things look and feel on a single camera show verses a multi-camera show (like Coop and Cami and All That), and sketch comedy verses more dry comedy. It’s been really interesting to get to experience it up close as an actor! And I’ve been able to work with some truly fantastic, very funny people. All the ways comedy works is so freaking cool.
YEM: You’re a cast member on All That!!! Had you previously seen the older seasons of All That?
Reece: When the audition scripts were first handed out, the project was called ‘Untitled Sketch Comedy Show’, and I didn’t realize the various memes and clips of videos I had seen over the years were related to the original All That. My uncle was helping me rehearse a character I developed for the audition and he realized it was likely a show like All That. So we pulled up a bunch of episodes on YouTube and I sat there for hours watching. I can tell you that it is as fun as it looks to be an actor on All That!
YEM: What was your audition process like for the show?
Reece: We had just moved to Tokyo, Japan (for my dad’s job) when my agent had me send in an audition tape for it. It was a huge casting call—thousands of kids sent in tapes. My sister, Maddy, helped me tape it in our apartment in Tokyo. And I remember we were having such a good time creating characters and enjoying being silly. When I got a callback, my mom and I flew to Los Angeles. At the callback, we had to take everything to the next level and develop two monologues for sketch comedy characters we invented.
The Nickelodeon casting team brought us in to work with them before a meeting with the producers later that week. I was nervous, but also really excited at that meeting. You could tell the whole room of casting people and writers and producers and network people were really rooting for us to do our best, so its great to walk into such a supportive room. I walked out knowing I had done my best and was really happy. The next morning, my mom and I flew back to Tokyo. A few days later, I got the call that I booked it! It was so amazing!
YEM: You took over the Vital Information desk from Lori Beth Denberg! What is it like to be a part of the iconic Vital Information segment?
Reece: It is such an honor to step into Lori Beth’s shoes for Vital Information! Vital Information is so iconic!!!! I love doing it. It has a different vibe from the rest of the show. It’s a bit more subtle and you have to be paying attention or you miss the joke. I like that you don’t quite know what to expect with it. I love that a new generation of fans get a chance to experience Vital Information!!
YEM: What was it like to have Lori Beth Denberg hand over Vital Information duties to you?
Reece: I was a little nervous to do it at first, to be honest. I know what a legacy LB has built with it and I absolutely DID NOT WANT TO DISSAPPOINT the fans who have loved it for years. And Lori Beth has been so fantastic as she hands it off to me. From the very beginning she told me to make it my own—which is so generous of her. She has been so supportive of the new cast—all the OG cast have been incredible!!
YEM: On All That, you’ve played characters and have done impressions. Do you prefer one over the other?
Reece: I love developing new characters because you can do so many more things with them, really making them your own. It’s a bit trickier with impressions because, obviously, there is a set way people expect that character to be. But the impressions can be so fun BECAUSE people have an expectation, too, if you do it well. I got to do Billy Ray Cyrus (mullet and facial hair and all) and it was soooo fun because people anticipated what I would do and it got a big laugh. We have some really fantastic impressions on the show! Like we have Ariana Grande and The Rock and Beyonce. The days we tape those are always fun and require a LOT of photos for Instagram, hehe!
YEM: Do you help develop any of the performances you do on the show? Or do the writers assign you impressions to learn, etc.
Reece: A bit of both! We can always give ideas to the writers and pitch different line ideas or whatever. And when we did the auditions we had to come up with original characters or impressions. Like Nathan did Ariana Grande in his original audition and Gaby did Beyonce. Sometimes the writers will ask us if we can do a certain accent or are familiar with someone and you don’t know why until a few weeks later when it shows up in a script. A writer might kinda come up alongside you in the lunch line and say, ‘Hey, Reece! Can you tap dance by chance? No reason….’
YEM: What advice have you gotten from the former All That cast members?
Reece: The OG cast members are fantastic—so supportive! They know exactly what we’re going through and they know what we might be struggling with. All That is such a specific show and it’s really an honor to get to be part of such a long list of fantastic cast members! Mostly, the OG cast has encouraged us to be brave and to commit 100% to a choice we make in a scene. Which isn’t just for sketch comedy, but it definitely makes sketch comedy work and be funnier! Lori Beth told us to be ourselves. Josh Server told us to try new things. And Kel Mitchel told us to have fun!!
