00:00I'm Maggie McKay for 94.7 The Wave and I'm so excited to tell you about The Outsiders playing now
00:07the musical at the Pantages through October 18th.
00:11And we are so lucky today. We are going to talk with Jaden Nett, who plays 2-Bit Matthews.
00:18And Jaden, we are so happy to have you here. Thanks for making time.
00:22Of course, it's a privilege and honor for you to have me. I'm so excited.
00:25Yay. So what is it like playing at the Pantages? Because it's such an iconic L.A. stage.
00:32Oh, my goodness. It is a dream come true, especially to bring the story of The Outsiders back to Los
00:41Angeles.
00:42It's been on Broadway in New York for the past couple of years.
00:45And so to travel across the country and tell this beautiful, heartwarming story and finally reach the West Coast, it's
00:56like, wow.
00:57And it's a very full circle moment for a lot of us. I have family in L.A.
01:01Our Daryl, our Daryl Travis Roy Rogers is from Los Angeles.
01:06So this is his home. So bring it to the Pantages is very special for a lot of us.
01:10And The Outsiders is no stranger to fame. They're a four-time Tony Award winning musical.
01:17That's pretty impressive. So tell us a little bit about why you think now is a good time for this
01:26story to be told.
01:28I believe that this story is one of those like timeless tales for a reason.
01:33And one thing that's so beautiful and strong about this story, not just as a musical, but I say keyword
01:42story is because it connects generations.
01:47It's somebody for me, somebody's grandparent may have been introduced through Susie Henson's novel back in the 60s.
01:56Somebody's parent was introduced through Francis Ford Coppola's movie in the 80s.
02:03And now possibly somebody's child is introduced with the musical.
02:07And it's a very heartwarming story that ironically, even though it has titles such as like greasers and socias,
02:17it truly humbles it down to all of us being human and understanding where everyone's beginnings are from.
02:28Which today we need more than ever, I think.
02:32It's very relatable to today's society and what goes on.
02:38And it's fair to say, don't you think, that it's about everything from friendship to family to belonging?
02:46And me, I haven't seen the movie in a long time.
02:48I haven't seen the musical yet, but the realization that there's still a lot of good in the world.
02:54Yes.
02:54Fighting the beauty in the simplest things.
02:59When Fridick said the outsiders has the power to inspire an entire generation.
03:04I love that a whole new younger generation is going to see this because I think, you know, with social
03:09media,
03:11we need to get back to the basics, I think.
03:14Like, treating people the way you'd like to be treated, et cetera.
03:19And just like being kinder.
03:22What are you excited about for your role?
03:25Remind us what 2-Bit Matthews, what his story is.
03:29So 2-Bit Matthews is what Ponyboy describes in the story as the resident prankster of the group.
03:36He is one of the older greasers of the greaser gang, the greaser family.
03:42And he's here for a good time.
03:45Loves a good laugh.
03:46He, his real name's Keith.
03:49He got the nickname, too, because he always loves to get his 2-Bits in, you know, jokester.
03:56But for me, what I found with 2-Bit is, first and foremost, he is a protector with his chosen
04:03family.
04:04And he will do anything it takes to make sure that his family is having a good time, but they're
04:10also safe.
04:12And so what I hope to bring with the audience with 2-Bit is the, you know, just more laid
04:22back member of a family that, or like a big brother.
04:27Like, I'm a big brother as well.
04:29I have two kid sisters.
04:31And so I very much resonate with 2-Bit in that manner.
04:33But ultimately, what I love about our story of The Outsiders is not just with 2-Bit, but with any
04:39greaser or any social, they're all so unique and individual that there's somebody that an audience member, no matter how
04:50young or how old, can reach out and connect to in any certain manner.
04:55And what I love about 2-Bit is his free spirit, and I love that people are able to connect
05:02with his free spirit while also still having that, like, gentle, caring, and protecting mannerism with them.
05:11So, yeah.
05:12And you mentioned young and old.
05:14What do you think the appropriate age for this is?
05:17Is there any cutoff?
05:20The appropriate age range?
05:23The youngest.
05:23Yes, the youngest, I would say.
05:3110, 12?
05:32I would say, yeah, even 8.
05:36Bring the family.
05:37Bring the family.
05:38It's a wonderful story.
05:40It's a timeless tale.
05:42I mean, there's a couple oopsie words.
05:46Oh, that's a good point.
05:47Like they ever heard that.
05:48Right, exactly.
05:50I hear that at school, Jaden.
05:52Yeah, exactly.
05:54And so it's.
05:55So any age is good.
05:57Yeah.
05:57I mean, as far as, as old as you can sit still for that long.
06:02Exactly.
06:03Behind the scenes.
06:04Tell us something we don't know about this.
06:06The musical.
06:07Any funny stories?
06:08Anything that's happened at the Pantages?
06:10Anything behind the scenes?
06:13Yeah, we, what I love about us is, ironically, even though we play two opposite ends of two
06:22different groups, the Greases and the Socias, we're truly a family backstage, like on and
06:28off stage.
06:29We make sure everyone is, you know, safe and loved.
06:33And we all have such a strong connection.
06:37With this said, we, we love playing games responsibly during the show.
06:44Our, so like one game, our Johnny has this like pet, this pet fake cockroach and he will
06:52pass it around.
06:55And we will just be on stage slowly, like passing this pet cockroach around.
07:00Yeah.
07:00And then, and the audience is, nobody, unless they see the tiny little cockroach, nobody
07:06knows.
07:06That's so funny.
07:07Yeah.
07:08Yeah.
07:08Now I'm going to look for that.
07:10Yeah.
07:10If you could very tidily tell, or another one is, yeah, this other one is like, we play
07:17this animal game where we pick, we pick from this small jar, a piece of paper and it'll
07:26say an animal and everybody's paired up and you have to try and find your partner during
07:31the game by making that animal sound.
07:35And one time, one time, one of our cast members, um, we kind of pranked her because she had a
07:42donkey and nobody else had a donkey.
07:45So she was just running around stage making donkey noises and everybody was like, what?
07:53That's so funny.
07:54She's the only one that's sad.
07:57Well, it sounds like a great environment.
08:00Like you guys have fun and I'm sure it shows on stage.
08:03What do you hope audiences leave with?
08:05What feeling or what memory or?
08:08What do I hope that audiences leave with?
08:11I hope they leave with a new sense of hope and a new sense, yeah, a new sense of hope
08:17for
08:17the world and a new sense of belonging and knowing that, you know, you matter and you
08:23belong.
08:24And there's a quote that I always think about from one of the songs, Stay Gold, that is finding
08:33beauty in the fold.
08:34And so, which is just such a subtle, but deep line that I hope people take with.
08:47So, yeah.
08:48Um, and also maybe it's a good reminder to people watching it to include others, you know,
08:57not only that they belong, but to remember to be inclusive, like at work, at school, in the
09:03neighborhood.
09:03Exactly.
09:04We, yes.
09:05At the end of the day, exactly.
09:07At the end of the day, we're all human.
09:10So, and where you, we're all, we've got.
09:13Yeah, exactly.
09:14This is it.
09:15Um, okay, Jane, just to get off track a little bit, I could not believe all the things you're
09:20involved in.
09:21I mean, you list them, but what I can remember, cause there's so many, like you're really high
09:26up there in martial arts, you're a model, you're an author, you probably do voiceover.
09:31Tell me all the things you do.
09:33Yes.
09:34You're so funny.
09:35I, yeah, I didn't start theater until, or acting or singing, dancing until my senior
09:42year of high school.
09:44Um, I always grew up doing several sports and mainly MMA.
09:49I'm from Texas.
09:51So football was a big thing, but, um, I did mixed martial arts since I was three years
09:57old because I watched the Ninja Turtles and Spider-Man and was like, uh, it's cool.
10:01I want to do that.
10:03I love it.
10:04Yeah.
10:05And so, yeah, I'm glad that that was able to implement into dancing, the dance world.
10:14I grew up, I grew up around the dance world because my kids' sisters actually did competitive
10:19dancing.
10:20They learned everything from me, you know?
10:23So even though they're younger, yeah, even though they're younger, they learned.
10:27Yeah.
10:28So it was one of those like monkey see, monkey do's kind of situations where it was like,
10:34oh, you know, my body's able to somehow do this.
10:37Okay.
10:38Let me try that and that.
10:40And so went to college for, um, performing and, you know, got proper singing and acting
10:50and dancing training and right out of college, but, uh, my, for my second tour, cause I booked
10:59the tour in college.
11:00Um, and I was actually supposed to come to Los Angeles last year with this one tour.
11:11Uh, do you know a show called Angelia?
11:13Mm-hmm.
11:14Yes.
11:15I was supposed to, yeah, that I was supposed to come to LA with that show.
11:19So, and then I booked the outsiders and so I had to leave early.
11:23And so this is another full circle moment of that.
11:27But besides that, um,
11:30It's good to be in demand, Jayden.
11:34To have choices and say, oh, I gotta, it's like when you, like you, when you watch a series
11:39on Netflix and you're like, wait, why'd that character leave?
11:43And then the next week you see him on a new series and you're like, uh, exactly.
11:46Yeah.
11:47That's what happened.
11:48Yeah.
11:49Well, besides that, you know, I love, I love being, doing a lot of random things and being
11:57sporadic, whatever hobbies that slowly become part of art or anything that makes me happy.
12:05And so, yeah, photography and modeling, I love, you know, doing that on the side whenever
12:10I have the time.
12:11And, you know, there's still so much, there's so much creativity in the world that I'd be,
12:20I think every, everyone can aspire to try.
12:24Mm-hmm.
12:25So, yeah, exactly.
12:27Well, we were really looking forward to seeing you play two-bit in the musical, The Outsiders
12:32at the Pantages going on now through October 18th.
12:35And then you move on to Segerstrom, uh, beginning the 20th, I believe.
12:41So, good luck.
12:42Thank you so much because I know you guys are like rehearsing all the time.
12:45So, it was very nice to get away for a few minutes and talk to us.
12:50We'll be looking for you on stage.
12:52Of course.
12:52Thank you so much for having me, Maggie.
12:54It's been a pleasure.
12:55Thank you so much for joining us.
