MEAGHAN JETTE MARTIN from 10 Things I Hate About You Interview

During our set visit of 10 Things I Hate About You with other press outlets, we got to speak with MEAGHAN JETTE MARTIN who plays Bianca.

Meaghan Jette Martin revealed a few things that will be coming up this season on the show. So enjoy the interview below and don’t forget to watch 10 Things I Hate About You on Tuesdays at 8pm on ABC Family.

You’ve been on “The Suite Life with Zack and Cody” and “Camp Rock,” how is the tone of this set different from the tone on those sets?

Meaghan Jette Martin: [Laughs] It’s very different because I’m working with adults now, like almost all adults, even most of the people on the show with me. I’m the only one in the lead cast under 20. So it’s very different, but at the same time it’s exactly the same. We still have so much fun. I love coming to work every day, and I cannot emphasize how much I love it. I mean, it’s only when we’re working till three in the morning that I’m like, “Oh, my God, I can’t do this.” No, but it’s so—it makes it worth it.
And I’m working with such a talented group of people that, like I said before, I’m learning so much from. And it’s very different to be on your our own series, too, whereas, when you’re guest starring, you kind of feel like, “Oh, I don’t want to say anything. I mean, they’re already like a family.” And it’s cool to be a part of that family now. I mean, with “Camp Rock,” we only had the five weeks that we were shooting.
And now I have hopefully a really long time with these people, and we all hang out all the time. I have a movie premiering tomorrow night at the LA Film Festival, and almost everybody’s coming. And it’s just so great how much we support each other.

Your relationship between the sisters is obviously a key one in the show. Did you and Lindsey [Shaw] sort of hit it off pretty quickly? Did you feel it was the right mix?

Meaghan Jette Martin: Lindsey and I definitely clicked. We have a great relationship. From the pilot on, we’ve been talking and texting each other. I ran into her boyfriend the other night, and I was like, “Hey, how are you? Where’s Lindsey?” [Laughs] And it’s just been so great to have that new friendship in my life because she’s an only child. So she was like, “I’m not sure how this sister dynamic is.” And I have an older sister who actually is quite a bit like Kat. [Laughs] And so I was like, “Oh, don’t worry. I got this down.”
And so I tell her stories about my family, and I met her dad the other day. He came to visit. And when my family came to visit, she met all of them. And I graduated high school two weeks ago, and she texted me on my graduation. We’re definitely sisterly.

How are you in relation to Bianca?

Meaghan Jette Martin: I am very similar to Bianca. It’s kind of scary how much Bianca and I have in common. We both—well first of all, we dress very similar. [Laughs] But besides that, we both have this “want to be accepted”. That’s something that I’ve always struggled with growing up. I was the girl in school saying, “Everybody hates me,” and, “Why do they all hate me?” And Mom’s like, “They don’t hate you. Like, what are you talking about?” And I’m like, “No, they do.” [Laughs] And I feel like Bianca doesn’t realize that she really is popular, and she’s working so hard to get there when she’s already there.
But at the same time, I don’t think that my priorities were quite as mixed up as Bianca’s are. She definitely doesn’t have her priorities straight, but I think that’s what makes her fun and likeable and relatable, is she’s not quite sure where she’s going in life.

What kind of lengths does she go to, to try to be popular?

Meaghan Jette Martin: She goes everywhere. It’s really funny to watch Bianca through her struggles, and I think that that’s one of my favorite storylines that Bianca has, is Chastity, who’s played by Dana Davis, is very—she is very manipulative and is realizing that Bianca will do anything to be popular. So she’s always testing the limits. Every episode it’s something new. But at the same time, Bianca is sort of coming into her own person and realizing that she doesn’t need Chastity. So I feel like, as time goes on, the tensions might get pretty intense.

Had you seen the movie before?

Meaghan Jette Martin: Yeah, yeah. I definitely had seen the movie before. I have older siblings, so they—I was seven when the movie came out. So I obviously didn’t watch it when it came out. But I had seen it a couple months before I auditioned for this and loved it. And then I watched it again right before I auditioned for this. And it’s just such a classic teen movie but in a better way than any other teen movie. It’s not stupid. And I feel like a lot of teen movies treat teens like they’re dumb. And that’s something that I know I don’t appreciate as a teenager. And I think that’s the really cool thing about our show is we use big words. And I actually had an interviewer ask me if I understood the big words on the show. [Laughs] And I was like, “Yes, I do actually.” So I think it’s—I think that that’s one of the great things is we really do, we treat teenagers like they’re human beings and adults because they are, and they’re intelligent too.

How are things shaping up with Cameron, the young man on the show who has a crush on your character?

Meaghan Jette Martin: Oh, poor Cameron. I just feel so bad for him because things aren’t going so hot right now in the Bianca-Cameron department. And he just loves her so much, and it’s the cutest thing ever. [Laughs] I watch him filming his scenes, and I’m just like, “Oh,” and I wish I had a guy like that in my life because…

Does she know he exists yet?

Meaghan Jette Martin: Yeah. Oh, yeah. We’re friends. He tutors me in French. He’s currently, in my mind, my gay best friend. And I feel so bad for him about that one because there’s literally a line where I’m like, “Oh, I’m so happy I have you in my life.” And he’s like, “Oh, she’s loves me.” I’m like, “You’re such a good gay best friend.” [Laughs] And he’s like, “But I’m not gay. I love you.” And I’m like, “Yeah, sure you do. It’s okay.” So it’s very sad. And Nicholas Braun does such a fantastic job playing the character. He’s so funny as Cameron. And I remind him of that every day, which is probably bad. I probably should stop. His ego’s going to get too big. [Laughs]

Can you talk about the casting and auditioning process and how you got this role?

Meaghan Jette Martin: Yeah, yeah. Well I read the script for this, and I was like, “Oh, that’s really hilarious. I love it.” And they were like, “We want you to go in for Bianca.” And I was like, “Okay, cool, sounds good to me.” But I figured I was too young because usually when it comes to a TV series and playing a teenager, I’m usually too young because they like to cast 25-year olds to play teenagers. [Laughs] And so I walked in the room and I did the scene, and I was like, “Okay, I mean, that felt good.”
But you know, with auditions, there’s not really much you can do about it. So you just hope for the best. Expect the worst and hope for the best, that’s what I live by. So I left the audition. I got a phone call. They’re like, “Oh, you’re too young. You did a great job, though.” And I was like, “Okay, I hear that all the time,” so whatever.
And a few weeks later I get a phone call again. They’re like, “Oh, we want you to come in again for a different part.” And I was like, “A different part? What other part is there? Like, I mean, I’m not going to play Kat, that would just be weird.” And so I was like, “Okay.” But then they sent me the sides again, and it was for Bianca. And I was like, “That’s not even a different part, but sure.” [Laughs]
And so I went in and it turned out that they had just like mixed up my papers with somebody else’s, and they—which I’m sure happens when you see thousands of girls for the same role. And I did the scene for Gil and Carter who were there that time. And Gil stopped me and he said to me, “Where did you come from?” [Laughs] And I was like, “Las Vegas.” [Laughs] And he’s like, “Oh, well you’re really good.” And I was like, “Thank you very much.”
And then I got a phone call, and they said that they wanted me to come back the next day to do a work session, which is what you usually do before you test for a show. And testing is like when you go in front of all of the bigwigs at the network. And they were like, “We don’t want you to wear the dress that you wore. We want you to wear another dress that’s preppier and girlier.” And I was like, “Okay.” But I didn’t know what to wear. So I brought five dresses with me the next day, and I was like, “You guys pick what I wear because I don’t want to screw this up.” [Laughs] And they thought that was hilarious.
And so they ended up picking one of my dresses, and I did the work session with them. And the next day, I went in to test. I read with all the different Kats. And that’s where I met Lindsey Shaw. And it was a crazy nerve-wracking experience. I hate testing for shows. There’s nothing worse than that. But by the end of testing, you usually, usually being the key word, know who got it because they kind of weed people out throughout the day, which is even worse, because you’re like sitting there like, “Oh, my God, please don’t let me go. Please don’t let me go.”
And I ended up being the last Bianca there. And I was like, “Okay, this could be terrible or it could be good. [Laughs] And then I got the phone call that I booked the pilot. So that was exciting.

How long have you been acting?

Meaghan Jette Martin: I started professionally acting at the age of five, so 12 years, but it wasn’t really acting. I was doing commercials, Barbie commercials.