We sit down with Jayden Bartels and Sam McCarthy to dive into the heart of 'Goosebumps: The Vanishing!' From Cece's fearless determination to Devin’s complex journey of self-discovery, the cast shares how the show brings a modern twist to classic scares while tackling real-world themes of identity and belonging. Plus, Sam reveals his full-circle Goosebumps moment involving his mom’s iconic audiobook work!
Goosebumps: The Vanishing premieres with all eight episodes on Friday, January 10, 2025, on Disney+ and Hulu!
Goosebumps: The Vanishing premieres with all eight episodes on Friday, January 10, 2025, on Disney+ and Hulu!
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00:00Hi, I'm Levi with Gaiety.
00:02Hello.
00:03Hi, Levi.
00:04How are you doing?
00:05I'm good.
00:06How are you?
00:07Good.
00:08I was in your press conference this morning, which was a lot of fun.
00:10Yes.
00:11Jaden, I'm going to start with you.
00:14Cece's bond with Devin is kind of central in this story, and her determination is really
00:22key to kind of unraveling the mystery, if you will, without, I don't know, spoilers,
00:27but how do you think Cece's strength and ability to challenge the status quo reflects
00:34the journeys of young people today, because I think Goosebumps is doing a really good
00:37job of reimagining how young people are, particularly in horror franchises.
00:45So I'm really curious also how you think the LGBTQ plus community will receive her.
00:51Oh my goodness, this is an incredible question, and I'm very, very excited.
00:56I think one of the reasons why I'm very in love with this series and this season is because
01:02of the very unique characters we have, and we have characters that have certain character
01:09traits and also hobbies or maybe interests that people might think are contradictory,
01:15but aren't.
01:16Humans are very unique and multifaceted, and I think one of the things I love about Cece
01:22is she is this stereotypical A plus perfect student, but there are things about her that
01:29people maybe wouldn't put with that stereotype, and I love Cece because she breaks those bounds
01:36and she really doesn't even think twice about them.
01:40I don't want to give any spoilers, but Cece is finding her own path and what she wants
01:48and likes in life throughout this season, and I know I personally related to her journey,
01:54and I think a lot of other people will, and I'm really, really happy for that.
01:58Thank you for that question, that meant a lot.
02:00Yeah, and Sam, kind of along the same lines, your character's relationship with his family
02:06is pretty complex.
02:07I think a lot of younger viewers will be able to resonate with that in itself, but how do
02:13you think that audiences who are dealing with their own personal identity struggles
02:17will connect with Devin?
02:20Yeah, I mean, I think the idea of...
02:30I grew up in a...
02:33My parents were divorced, and I went back and forth growing up, and that can...
02:42You sometimes don't really know where you land or where your home base really is, and
02:48I think there's that, and I think where you also see Devin at a point in his life when
02:55he doesn't necessarily have that stability of a rock at home and he doesn't have in himself.
03:02He's getting to the point where he's getting ready to go out in the world and he is starting
03:09to become a bit restless that like, hey, maybe I don't have this solidity in myself
03:17either.
03:18And so I think we find him at a point where he is beginning to go on a journey of finding
03:26that strength and that kind of oneness in a community and in himself, and that I think
03:32he embarks on without really realizing it.
03:36Now, this question actually comes from the press conference, so I'm hoping you can kind
03:40of tell the story again, but you had this unique connection to Goosebumps that you actually
03:46brought up, that your mom did the audio for Goosebumps.
03:53They're audio books, right?
03:54And I remember listening to A Night in Terror Tower because they were audio books.
03:58What was that like then for you?
04:00I mean, that's full circle, right?
04:02Yeah, I guess so.
04:03To the screen.
04:04Yeah.
04:06Well, it was cool.
04:07I don't know.
04:08I remember I was talking to my mom about auditioning for this job and she's like, oh my God, I
04:13narrated.
04:14And I was like, yeah, you did the Stay Out of the Basement or No, Night of the Living
04:21Dummy.
04:22I've made that.
04:23Which is like the, right?
04:24That's like the Goosebumps story that everyone remembers.
04:26It might be the Goosebumps.
04:27Someone else is like, oh, the best one, and flappy, right?
04:29Yeah.
04:30It might be.
04:31Yeah, it might be the Goosebumps.
04:33Which is, I don't know.
04:35It's cool.
04:36It feels nice.
04:37It feels, you know.
04:38It feels like a synchronicity.
04:39Yeah.
04:40It feels at home.
04:41Like, oh, it's in the family, you know what I mean?
04:45I mean, I do feel like yours is better, but hers is good.
04:49You know, like for the time, your Goosebumps is better, but that was still really good.
04:57So what, when you, because obviously the books are very different, even though each episode
05:01kind of pulls on the Goosebumps stories, right?
05:05And you can kind of figure out which one is which.
05:07If you are familiar with them, you know what books they are.
05:10Did you do research into what the stories used to be before jumping into what Goosebumps
05:18is now?
05:19And did that affect the way that you created your characters?
05:23Yeah.
05:24I think for me, I definitely went back and researched what the original Goosebumps books
05:32were like.
05:33But I also think that this is, you know, a new adaptation and it's going in a new direction
05:37and it absolutely is bringing the monsters and the specific scares and haunts from those
05:42Goosebumps books.
05:44But I think that, you know, it wasn't like a mandatory to make it exactly like that,
05:52you know?
05:53And I think we wanted to explore a new route and new storylines and new topics that we
05:59could relate to also because it's 2024, like the books were written quite a while ago.
06:04So the times changed.
06:05So there's different things to be talked about.
06:07But yeah, I definitely went back and saw what Goosebumps was and now is.
06:13And I think it's just on an ever-continuing, changing, ever, an ever-changing journey,
06:19you know?
06:20And it's growing and morphing into something new.
06:24And I think that the old scares will always be here and be here to stay.
06:28And Sam, did you have a similar?
06:30Yeah, well, I mean, of course, you know, you get the job and then you like, OK, I'm going
06:37to look into what this is about a little more.
06:40But on the other hand, Devin is a new character.
06:45And these stories, these monsters, you know, they are these supernatural forces are, you
06:54know, some of them are taken from the book and some of them we are.
06:58Well, they're all I think they're all based on the book in certain ways.
07:02But I'd say, you know, at the end of the day, my job extended to on a result level, not
07:13on a process level of doing my best to lift Devin off the page, I guess.
07:20And because he was new, I didn't I didn't find myself reading so many books because
07:27I found I before doing this, I was like, OK, I have to prepare, I have to prepare.
07:30And then it's like, well, this is a I think that kind of stress sometimes was not going
07:38to necessarily it was going to become preparation for the sake of preparation.
07:42That wasn't necessarily going to serve what we were going to do now.
07:49Great answer. Thank you.
07:51Thank you very much, both of you, for your time.
07:52I really appreciate it. And I'm excited for everyone to see Goosebumps.
07:56Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
07:58Thank you. Bye bye.