Ah, the good old high school musical. Cardboard cut-out scenery with papier maché accents, drunken performing arts teachers weeping in the corner, singing voices only a mother could love… not if Ruby Rose has anything to do with it!
Rose’s latest project, hosting the new FOX8 program Ultimate School Musical, sees one lucky high school’s annual production get the star treatment. With Eddie Perfect as director, Anthony Callea as vocal coach and Kelly Aykers as choreographer, suddenly the tired old high school musical is looking pretty damn good.
After an exhaustive search of high schools from across Australia, Essendon Keilor College was chosen as the school with the most potential for musical greatness.
‘I really felt strongly about Essendon Keilor College because they have all the talent but the school isn’t based on that – it’s not a performing arts school,’ Ruby recently told OUTinPerth.
‘The school’s amazing and the kids are amazing’.
Ruby built a close relationship with the students involved in Ultimate School Musical, acting as mentor, guide and friend. She even moved to Melbourne for the duration of filming and took a break from her many other endeavors such as DJing, MTV VJing and fashion modeling.
‘It was like, this show is so important it will be the only thing I do and I will go to that school every day and I will have lunch with the kids, so I really ate, breathed, lived Ultimate School Musical,’ she said.
‘Because of that I got to know the kids so well and we bonded in such a beautiful way that I think it really did help, in a way, to bring out the best in them because they didn’t just think I was some television presenter that was flying in from Sydney before going to another event and then heading off.
‘We became mates in the way that they wanted to impress me coz we’re friends but they felt comfortable enough to mess up so therefore they could push themselves further.’
The experience of working with the young people on Ultimate School Musical touched Ruby so much, she added a new tattoo to her extensive collection that reads, ‘Danke Schoen’- meaning thank you in German.
Ruby is keenly aware that her biggest supporters have been the young people who watch MTV and listen to her DJ sets, saying she loves to give back. And give back she does. During the filming of Ultimate School Musical a skate wear brand she had designed a skateboard and pair of shoes for rang to get the names and shoe sizes of all her celebrity friends so they could wear the brand and therefore promote it.
‘I sent them 25 names and shoe sizes and they were like, “no problem, but who are these people?†I was like – they’re the kids from Ultimate School Musical!’
Coming out as a lesbian at a young age, Ruby did not have an easy time in high school and sees Ultimate School Musical as her chance to participate in an activity that was never really an option for her at the time.
‘When I was in High School I didn’t have lots of friends. I was very much a kind of outcast so for me to have the confidence to audition for a musical in high school was never going to happen,’ she said.
‘I went to all the musicals at my high school. I wanted to be in them. I watched how amazing they were. I saw the sets people had painted and I wanted to be up there doing it but I couldn’t, so for me to be to be able to then facilitate all these kids doing it and being able to choose the ones that didn’t think that they’d get in and mix those kids with the popular kids, with the ones that aren’t as popular or the younger ones with the older ones, it was the best thing ever.’
No longer the ‘outcast’, Ruby is known for her distinctive look and sense of style. With her tattoos and funky haircuts, she has fought against the stereotype of the unattractive, dowdy lesbian.
‘I think the stereotype of lesbians is just wrong,’ she said.
‘Let me be careful with my words here… I love lesbians. All kinds of lesbians.
But I think that difference is really important.’
Ultimate School Musical screens on FOX8 ,Tuesdays at 5.30pm AWST and at 7.30pm AWST on FOX8+2.
Amy Henderson
