Bad Hair Day Movie talking with Leigh-Allyn Baker #BadHairDay

Disney original, Bad Hair Day Movie, produced by Leigh-Allyn Baker and starring  Laura Marano was the topic of my exclusive interview with Leigh-Allyn Baker at Disney. She talked about the Bad Hair Day Movie, Amy Duncan and even dropped her signature, “Ba-Bam!”

At my house, Leigh-Allyn Baker is bigger than Kevin Costner. She joins us at the table every night as part of my 11-year old daughter’s repertoire. If you’re not sure of who Baker is, you don’t watch enough of the Disney Channel! Baker is the matriarch, Amy Duncan, on Good Luck Charlie. If you do know, her, you probably cried with me when the show ended last year–I may still be crying, I miss the Duncans!

We pulled into the parking lot of the Disney Channel and enjoyed the lobby for a few moments. There was a DJ doing her thing and movie posters around the perimeter walls. We were here to see Bad Hair Day and meet the talented Leigh-Allyn Baker.

A ride in the elevator landed us on a floor decked out in Disney characters. There were 101 Dalmatians, Mickey, and these adorable characters.

From these three, we walked up a ramp to enter the screening room.

Immediately inside the room, this is what I saw.

My heart skipped a beat. I felt so fortunate to be standing in the room with my daughter’s idol, Leigh-Allyn Baker.

We took our seats in the intimate screening room, Leigh-Allyn Baker sat next to Andrew Kardon from Mommy’s Busy, through the entire feature. Right there in the front row.

After watching Bad Hair Day, it was time for a Q and A with Leigh-Allyn Baker.

I’m going to tell you that Leigh-Allyn Baker is gorgeous in real life. She is petite, smiles wide and is extremely animated. When she began talking, I immediately melted. She truly is everything I want in a role model for my daughters. She is someone I found genuine, funny and engaging.

She began the Q & A sharing her appreciation of this room of 25 bloggers. Her appreciation for getting to watch the movie with US!

“It was really fun for me to watch Bad Hair Day with all of you because I’ve never seen it with an audience so it was really refreshing to me. I mean, I helped–I sat for six weeks with an editor for this movie and so I have seen it so many times and in the middle of it, you think, ‘Oh, this is a great movie, it’s so refreshing for Disney’. Then after you have seen it a hundred times you’re like ‘Eh, it’s okay.’ So you totally don’t know. You lose perspective. So it was such a fun ride to watch it with you guys and feel your energy, and hear you kind of predict different things or get a kick out of things. It was really interesting.”

The original script for Bad Hair Day was quite different from what we saw as the final movie.

Leigh-Allyn Baker also shares what makes this movie so different. (spoiler alert)

As you can see I feel like this film is, you know, is fraught with comedy and heart and great messages for girls. You know, she doesn’t end up with her prince charming. She chooses MIT. Heck yeah, she does!  I loved all the computer lingo. It was fabulous. 

Just to have a film for Disney Channel that adults can watch with their kids that has a unique different message. Like ‘let’s go out on a limb and do something really different for the channel and see what the response is’, and the Disney Channel was brave enough to do that because this is very different for them.

Then her humor started to come out. When she talked about getting more involved in the executive producing role, and not just being part of the action, she opened with,

“As my husband said,  ‘they’re finally gonna pay you to micromanage everybody else.’!”

“I mean you guys know Amy Duncan is — I’m sure you can tell when I adlib or when I riff on Good Luck Charlie. You can tell in here too. I know you all laugh when I do certain, silly things, ‘BA-BAM!’ So I just wanted to see what other creative elements I could bring to this.

Baker lives on the edge and talks about how fun Bad Hair Day was to make!

All of it was really fun. It was, it was! This movie was a ride to make because it was done in 22 days.

BAD HAIR DAY – Disney Channel viewer favorites Laura Marano (“Austin & Ally”) and Leigh-Allyn Baker (“Good Luck Charlie”) star in “Bad Hair Day,” a buddy comedy about a high school tech-whiz whose prom day abruptly shifts into a wild ride across town, thanks to a down-on-her-luck cop and a jewel thief. Leigh-Allyn Baker also executive-produces this Disney Channel Original Movie, premiering FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13 (8:00 p.m., ET/PT). (Disney Channel/Jonathan Wenk) LAURA MARANO

Then she goes on to talk about a scene in Bad Hair Day.

That was a legit car chase people. Twenty. Two. Days. It was not an easy task. Most people they say with film it’s hurry up and wait and you sit around. This was hurry up! and hurry up! and as you can see, it’s mostly Laura and I through the film so there was no time to kind of sit back and relax.

But, I would say the most fun was just adlib-ing. It was the first time Laura and I worked together but we hit it off so well.

We had such good chemistry. You could see in the bloopers when she’s riding with me in front of the bicycle and me laughing maniacal. What you don’t see is the three people that she’s almost run over. Like seriously, like literally, I’m in the seat pushing people out-of-the-way. It was hilarious. It was such a funny day.

While Amy Duncan no longer is in our living rooms, Leigh-Allyn Baker is doing more than acting and producing, she does voice-overs for video games. She talks about which she likes to do most.

I have an animation series called the Seven D which I play the Queen Delightful. If you haven’t seen Seven D, it’s really good. Check it out, Disney XD and Disney Channel. So my favorite? To produce, to executive produce and act because you really get to have your hand in all elements. Down to, ‘No!I want Liz’s dress to look like this. I want Monica’s dress to look like this. I want the shoes to be like this. What if this joke goes here? What if on this scene we have them build the relationship and it’s really because of her mother.  You get to just really live in every element of the movie down to editing it and sitting in on the final mix.

There are so many talented young actors in this town but Laura Marano has a certain maturity and skill set that I think was really necessary. We needed a girl who could pull off being in the lead for Prom Queen and Miss Pretty Perfect and could also pull off knowing how to work that computer. A girl who had to have the smarts and the thinking and the brain stuff going on. Laura just came in, and she just knocked it out of the ballpark. It’s not easy to find young talent that can go toe to toe in comedy with an adult. You guys saw it on Good Luck Charlie, and now you see it here. That’s what it looks like. She did a great job.

What sits in the shadows for Leigh-Allyn Baker? Will she now focus on more of a producer role?

Honestly I can’t see one without the other. I really can’t. I’m not ready to not be acting because, as you can see, I have so much fun.  I don’t know what happens to me, but there’s this other thing that takes over my brain and I’m just having a blast and I just start saying things. Sometimes, I think, “Did that just come out of my mouth?” So I really can’t see one without the other at this point.

We’ve seen her adlib on Good Luck Charlie and she talks about just how much liberty she has when acting.

When that camera’s rolling and I’m standing in front of it I have all the liberty I can handle. There’s nothing they can do at that point. I would say that after working with Disney Channel for five years that they have a lot of trust in me, and I have a lot of trust in them, and so it allows me quite a bit of liberty. They gave me a lot of freedom and yet there were times where I was afraid to push the envelope and they were like, “No. Go!”

Then Leigh-Allyn Baker became my hero. She became like every other mom I know. She talked about being with Disney for five years, and if staying within the Disney range is something she wants to continue; is she turning down other roles?

I have turned down certain roles. I haven’t become a prude, but I will say this, there is a lot on television– murder, sex. It’s like it makes up prime time television. There have been parts that people have expressed in interest in with me and it just didn’t feel right given where I worked, to do those roles.

Right before I finished Good Luck Charlie we had been in talks about doing a spin development for a while. I knew immediately that I wanted into this, and honestly, I just felt really comfortable putting my whole heart and my whole focus on this and my kids. You can get too busy and it’s not worth it.

I would like to develop my own series. Actually,  I’m working with another gentleman, my age, who used to be on the Disney Channel. I won’t tell you who, but hopefully it will develop into a show.

As mothers, I think we all talk about, balancing our career with our family.

I learned that in season one of Good Luck, Charlie. I remember going to work and just missing my baby. I just had a baby–Griffin, my oldest, and I remember just missing him terribly all day. Then when I got home, I was rocking him to sleep at nigh, which is my favorite part, and I remember looking at him. I was thinking oh, I can’t believe that I missed that at work and I missed that and I should have been focused. I realized oh, my gosh I’m not a hundred percent there at work and I’m missing the enjoyment there and I’m not able to be a hundred percent  with him here. I’m missing the enjoyment here. From there on, simplicity rules.

And what would a Q&A be without everyone’s favorite matriarch, Amy Duncan, being the front and center stage?

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that about Amy Duncan’s behavior.  Amy Duncan is really my most, most, most feminine side and then, Liz is really me at home. I mean, I have two boys. I know how to get down and dirty and run amuck with the guys.It’s just really fun for me also to show that I am an actor and, every actor says, “I’m not a one trick pony. I can do other things.” One of the things that really intrigued me about Bad Hair Day is how differently can I show myself? Wash all the makeup off, change the hair, put some schluby clothes on me and let’s go to town.

The message Leigh-Allyn Baker hopes everyone gets from the Bad Hair Day movie is this:

Your identity, who you are comes from the inside. It doesn’t come from what’s out here. That’s the main message. A lot of people like to toss around “believe in yourself”, but this is more than believing in yourself. It’s knowing yourself and being okay with who you are, and not looking for approval from others, and knowing when to call for backup.

I think it’s a great message. I know Leigh-Allyn Baker is a great role model for our youth. Tune in on Friday, February 13 to the Disney Channel’s Original Movie, BAD HAIR DAY (8:00 p.m., ET/PT). It’s a wild ride!

 

So nice to meet you, jonbonjovious! Thanks for taking the #BadHairDay ride! http://t.co/FIxC1L6Ypo

— Leigh-Allyn Baker (@L_A_Baker) February 8, 2015