LOS ANGELES — Dust off your tuxedo and find the perfect dress. Prom season is upon us and Disney invites you to the Prom Pact.
The film stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Mandy Young, a high school student who tries to avoid high school cultural things like prom, and Myla Manheim as Ben, Mandy’s friend who actually wants to be more involved in school life. They agreed to go together as friends.
Meanwhile, Mandy is waitlisted at her dream school, Harvard. She plots to befriend the most popular boy at school, played by Blake Draper, whose politician father is a Harvard graduate so her dad can write her a letter of recommendation. We won’t spoil it for you, but there are tricks and lessons, including the universal themes of not letting life pass you by and not judging a person before you really get to know them.
Peyton Elizabeth Leigh said on The Red Carpet, “This is exactly the kind of project I love to do, something with strong female characters and something that really celebrates the complexities of life and growing up and all of the things that can be and look like. And the fact that it has everything ’80s in it adds to it.”
Did we mention prom is ’80s style?
Executive producer Julie Bowen said they tackled the theme and took inspiration from the 80s John Hughes films we all know and love, even the ones that might be a little problematic today.
“Everybody just loves these old movies, and they give us such a great feeling,” Bowen said. “If you look at them too closely, they don’t make you feel great, so we decided to touch on that right away and then take what we loved about those movies, which is the sense of friendship, love, the importance of high school, being a teenager he was seen as a real person. And that’s what John Hughes did so beautifully, he saw teenagers as real people.”
Blake Draper said he hopes people will take a closer look at his popular jock character Graham.
“There’s more to him than being Mr. Popular or playing basketball, you know. I tried to get that across and hopefully it resonates with people,” Draper said.
Milo Manheim told us that his character Ben helped him really hone in on the lessons of the film. “The reason I love him so much is because he reminded me of that. He reminded me that I’m doing exactly what I want to do with my life, I’m having a great time. My life is full of people who love me and I love them. And I have to stop letting each day pass me by and really focus on the present and enjoy everything.”
“You only get to graduate once, and you’ll really regret not having fun when you’re a teenager, and this is the time to have fun,” said Wendy McLendon-Covey.
“Prom Pact” is streaming now on Disney+.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Disney+ and this ABC station.
