Dustin Milligan: JustJared.com Exclusive Interview

Dustin Milligan goofs off with Sara Paxton at a photo shoot at Polson Pier on Thursday (August 11) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The 26-year-old actor recently chatted with JustJared.com about his new movie Shark Night 3D and life after 90210.

JJ: What was it like working with sharks during filming of Shark Night?

DM: There were some mechanical sharks that we worked with and the sharks were terrifying. They were hyper realistic and not only did they look very, very realistic but for some reason, they put real shark teeth in their mouth. Sara and I had the closest encounters with the sharks and these ravishing, chomping shark teeth. It was totally unnecessary – we don’t know why they had it. But if you were to bump into the sharks [while swimming], they would cut you up a bit and they were hard to control in the waters. So other than they were completely artificial and powered by remote control, it was scary nonetheless.

Click inside to continue reading JustJared.com‘s exclusive interview with Dustin Milligan…

JJ: Was that the most stunt heavy movie that you had ever done?

DM: Oh yeah, I’d never done so much action before. I never pictured myself doing
any action like this. Sara and I had a lot to do stunt-wise. The first week, basically, I was in the water doing all the swimming shots and some of the final shark stuff as well. We were training with the navy seals to learn how to breathe underwater and David, our director would yell action and we would swim and race and do the shot and get back around to the reef which was 20 ft away in our
swimsuits. It was really, really intense. My first attempt at the first shot, I kind of choked a little bit but when I saw the looks of all these seasoned underwater vets kind of looking at me wondering whether if this kid was going to man up or not, I decided to do just that. Man up. (Laughs)

JJ: What was the craziest thing that happened on set?

DM: It was a crazy shoot all the time; literally every day if I wasn’t underwater
swimming away from three giant mechanical bull sharks, I was driving a speedboat, towing our stunt guy to do some of his wakeboarding stunt stuff. Day after day, something new – explosions, more sharks, just craziness all the time. David knew how to keep people focused, having fun and excited and that’s what we all did. We just came to work every day and prepared to get crazy. David knew how to keep people focused, having fun and excited and that’s what we all did. We just came to work every day and prepared to get crazy.

JJ: What’s something about your cast-mates that people might not necessarily
know about?

DM: Sara and I, our characters have a little bit of romance so we got to work together quite often. Sara’s great – she’s really, really funny. Most people don’t know how funny she is. [Kat McPhee]‘s fun too. When she first got to the set in Louisiana, all of us were kind of unsure as to what to expect but Kat certainly, after a week, really came out of her shell and sort of got together with the gang. When we weren’t shooting together, we would go hang out together at a casino or a restaurant together or whatever. It was a lot of fun.

One person though – Sinqua Walls and I became quite good friends and we remain best buds to this day. So you can always dream you can actually keep in contact with your cast like that. Luckily, for he and I, we did just that.

JJ: You used to do theatre, how does it compare with film and TV?

DM: A lot of the initial rush and instant gratification that you get from the theatre of knowing if any jokes have landed and how the audience react to it right away, you don’t have that in film and TV. And a lot of times, after a super long day, even if you are telling a really good joke, everybody’s heard it so many times already they don’t think it’s funny anymore. So it’s difficult because you cant determine how your audience will react.

But on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about delivering that to an actual audience or seeing how they’ll react right away. That being said, I actually really miss the thrill of being up in front of a live audience. I tried doing stand up and I’d like to go back to that because I want to keep growing as an actor.

JJ: Would you consider comedy your forte?

DM: Certainly, growing up, what inspired me to start acting and get into this biz was comedy. My dad used to force my sis and I to stay up late if there were a Monty Python episode airing or a Kids in the Hall episode. A lot of great Canadian and British comedy stuff. So I had a really great break when I did 90210. I did Extract which was my first major comedic debut. I write a lot as well and I’m hoping that eventually somewhere down the line I can continue working in comedy.

JJ: Do you still keep in touch with anyone from 90210?

DM: Every now and again – it’s such a small town you keep running into the same people again. We all shared something very special that first season – at least in my opinion as the only one who only had the first season (laughs). I thought it was something really special and we were part of that hype and attention from the media. I thought that was something really unique. I look back at that fondly.

JJ: What kind of role do you see yourself taking on next?

DM: It could be anything I wasn’t expecting to love action so much but I really liked just going to work and getting physical so I would absolutely do any kind of action. Ideally action/comedy. I’m just intrigued by all aspect of performance so it could be anything. I’m really into comedic music as well – The Lonely Island, Flight of the Conchords, so who knows what you’ll see out of me.

I’m open to anything but I’m a terrible singer. Most likely I won’t be cast as some kind of musical�”highly unlikely.

JJ: You just got a Twitter account. Why did you just decide to start one so recently?

DM: I was really against Facebook for the longest time just because so many people seem to be very unaware of personal photos up on the Internet. Anyone can get access so it was just constantly leaking private info. But then I had a website where I was trying to do these blogs regularly and it was so hard to do a long blog when all I had are these really quick thoughts that I wanted to get out there. I love interacting with my fans, I have a live chat coming up on August 11th with Sara Paxton where we’re both on video answering questions texted from our fans.

Twitter seemed like a great way to do all that and it’s kind of fun! It’s embarrassing but I love it so much.

JJ: Who’s your favorite person to follow?

DM: There’s this guy named Alec Sulkin (@thesulk), I follow Sarah Silverman and she once tweeted him and he is consistently hilarious, everything he tweets. I’m following a lot of comedians but I love him especially.

JJ: What do you do during your free time?

DM: I rarely have any plans any time of the year other than work. I’m working on some music and stuff. I just wrote a hip-hop musical and I’m just going to try to enjoy the sunshine.

JJ: Where would you like to take a vacation?

DM: I would love to go to Japan and India. I love to go back to Australia. If I could
have any money, I’d like to take 6 months off and see the world.

JJ: What summer movies are you hoping to see?

DM: I can’t wait to see the new Harry Potter, Captain America. I’m going to try to catch up with movies. I’ve been pretty bad with movies this year. There’s nothing I like better than watching TV and eating crackers.

JJ: What are your favorite TV snacks?

DM: I’m crazy for gummy candy. Gummy worms, Sour Patch Kids, all of it.

JJ: What about TV shows?

DM: Archer, Psych, I like to DVR all of them and just watch straight.

What’s your summer jam?

DM: That’s tricky, very tricky. I can tell you what song I’m not feeling right now. “The Lazy Song?” I just find that, no offense to [Bruno Mars], he’s a great musician but that song – to tell me you’re not going to do anything and then list off all the things you’re going to do that day just makes me question things. Uh, Martin Solveig’s “Hello”? I love that song – love it.