A visit with the cast of Stuck In The Middle was part of the Disney hosted #MoanaEvent.
The cast of Stuck In The Middle really is one big family. “Family, just straight up family,” according to Ariana Greenblatt who plays Daphne. “Off the set we hang out at dinners. And we really love each other.” Jenna Ortega who plays Harley chimes in, “We see each other Monday through Fridays so it’s like…It’s like they’re my second family.”
Jenna is actually from a large family herself. “I’m one of six kids but if you add one of my nephews there’s seven. But my sister just had another nephew so now there’s eight of us. And they’re always over at the house because we babysit them so there’s eight kids in my family I guess you could say. So it’s pretty big.” It’s such a close match to her own life that Cerina Vincent, who plays her mom Suzy, though the show was actually based on Jenna. “I thought that Disney created the show for her and the family because there are so many parallels. It was perfectly designed.”
Like any fun-loving family, the Stuck In The Middle cast loves to prank each other. Especially on April Fool’s Day. “We have to get Isaak before he gets us. So Isaak is like the biggest Oreo fan. So my siblings and I, we got a packet of Oreos and we opened one of them. And we put deodorant in there. And Isaac runs in and we’re eating like the normal ones. And he said, oh my gosh, give me one, give me one. So we give him the deodorant ones,” says Jenna. “I walked right into it,” Issak Pressley, who plays Ethan, admits.
They were surprised at the adult reaction to the show. “It’s really cool when even the parents walk up to you and they say, ‘My family watches, I love your show.’ And so when we started off we thought it was just going to be a kids’ show, and only kids were going to watch it. But now we have parents walking up to like, ‘Oh, you’re one of my favorite characters! You’re one of my kid’s favorite characters!’ says Nicolas Bechtel, who plays Lewie.
The cast was emotional when it was time to create their Wand IDs for The Disney Channel. Jenna used to twirl with her baton, look into the mirror and say, “Hi, I’m Jenna Ortega and you’re watching Disney Channel.” Ariana even taped herself at four years old doing her own Wand ID. When it was time for the real deal, the entire cast was able to watch each other take their turns recording. It was an emotional day. “Ronni was going and I was like screaming. I was so excited by the time it came to me. I did the first one and then I started balling. And the makeup artist was like, Jenna, you’ve got makeup on, be careful!” says Jenna.
When asked to describe their experience on Stuck In The Middle in one word, Joe said special, Cerina said gratitude, Ronni said joy, Kayla said gift, Isaak said indescribable, Jenna said relatable, Nicolas said exciting, Malachi said amazing and Ariana said everything.
Disney Channel/ Rick Rowell
Make sure you check out the “Stuck in the Middle” short-form series debuts on the Disney Channel App November 24th and on-air December 16 and see what happens when the Diaz family hits a warehouse store together!