Beauty and the Beast<\/em>. He begs his mother to take him to the audition. \u201cI mean, I didn\u2019t even know what an audition was,\u201d Book recalls. \u201cMom put me off for a while. But I kept pressing her\u2026\u201d<\/p>\nCut to: A casting office. Nervous little kids pace the hallway, running lines. All over the United States, this scene has repeated itself; a national talent search is underway. Enter Asher Book, total amateur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, what am I doing?\u201d comments Book. \u201cSome of those kids \u2013 there must have been 70 or 80 trying out that day \u2013 were walking around in tuxedos. I\u2019m in shorts.\u201d \nHe laughs. And Asher Book can laugh, because what happened next is so clich\u00e9, a modern-day movie scribe would be embarrassed to write the scene. Except, of course, it happens to be true. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got the part,\u201d Book says, matter-of-factly. \u201cThey offered it to me on the spot.”<\/p>\n
Welcome to the wonderful world of Asher Book. This is a cynicism-free zone \u2013 a place where one must simply accept that the outsider with no chance got his big break in a Disney musical thanks to nothing other than talent and moxie. He has grown up to be polite and appreciative of the opportunities he has been given. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt sorry that I missed out on a \u2018typical\u2019 childhood. All those years I was on the road, playing Chip, I had so much fun. I got to see all these new places, and there were always kids around.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lean and good-looking, Book considers his current day job as a member of the boy band V Factory with an enthusiasm generally reserved for kids on a first trip to Disney Land. \u201cWe just wrapped recording on the first V Factory album. That was really fun. And we shot our first music video \u2013 that was super-fun, too.\u201d The band is made up of other similarly enthusiastic performers who have backgrounds in theatre and film, and if they are successful Book could be setting himself up for a long spell of accomplishment (If other Disney alum, Justin Timberlake, is anything to go by \u2013 who went from Mouseketeer to *NSYNC to international heartthrob). But living the life of a stage star has not affected Book\u2019s upbeat attitude. \u201cI love being on the road,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I really love it when I have the chance to be home in L.A. for a while. I\u2019m closer to my family and my friends. I can get my guys together and play basketball. Sometimes we play tackle football, too, ten-a-side. I like to stay active.\u201d<\/p>\n
Normally, this is the kind of thing to make a grown woman want to down a bottle of Absinthe and carve \u201cIan Curtis lives\u201d on her thigh with a straight-razor. But Book has a way of bringing out the 13 year-old girl in a person. Which of course makes him perfectly suited to his V Factory gig, and to his role as the happy-go-lucky Marco in Fame. \u201cI love him, because he\u2019s a happy guy,\u201d says Book. \u201cHe\u2019s smiling through the whole movie. He just wants to sing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Book notes that the original Fame<\/em> film \u2013 which the new version updates, but does not duplicate \u2013 was a must-see when he was in school. \u201cWell, we\u2019d talk about it all the time, but it wasn\u2019t my favorite movie or anything,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen, when this part came up, I re-watched it and loved it. I totally got it, you know, the whole story of these kids at a performing arts school, trying to master their crafts. It\u2019s called Fame<\/em>,\u201d he adds, \u201cbut \u2018fame\u2019 isn\u2019t really the point. It\u2019s about having a passion to create \u2013 to act, to dance, to sing.\u201d<\/p>\nThat\u2019s a theme Book, who describes himself as still coming to terms with the realities of his own emerging celebrity, could readily identify with. \u201cI guess\u2026the marketing people or whoever, they\u2019re trying to position me as a teen idol or something,\u201d Book acknowledges, a hint of ambivalence creeping into his voice for the first tine. \u201cThey\u2019re definitely getting my face out there more. And, like, at a show we did in L.A. recently, there were girls lined up with signs like, \u2018Asher, Will You Marry Me?\u2019\u201d But as quickly as the ambivalence appears, it fades even faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s super-flattering, obviously,\u201d Book adds. \u201cI mean, things are pretty awesome for me right now. I\u2019m going on tour, looking at scripts, trying to bust out that second single. It\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photography: Paul Maffi \nFashion: Way Perry \nWords: Maya Singer<\/p>\n
A full version of this article first appeared in<\/em> Wonderland #19, Sep\/Oct 2009<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asher Book stars in the forthcoming reboot of movie classic, Fame. Having caught the acting bug at an early age, he is now singing and dancing while adjusting to life in the spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9416],"tags":[245,50,218,242,240,105,145],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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