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THE STAR SCOOP:
Tell us about Hard Times, the character you are playing, and how you got involved with the show.

ADAM CAGLEY:
Hard Times is, as we’ve all being describing it, Superbad meets The Wonder Years. The raunchy teen comedy but with a lot of heart that shows the upward struggle of the nerdier characters. I play a character named Kevin Stern, who is the nerd that not even the nerds like. If RJ and Miles, the two main characters are the likeable nerd, I would definitely be the not likeable nerd. He rides around on a “Little Rascals” scooter simply because he’s too lazy to walk anywhere, and he’s just constantly angry at the world because nobody likes him.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What do you do to get into a character like that?

ADAM CAGLEY:
Kevin’s kind of easy to slide into. I’m normally a really happy kind of go lucky kind of person, but I find a lot of enjoyment and a lot of fun in getting to play the angry, mean, villainy characters. Before we shoot, to make sure I’m good and annoyed at the world, I’ll go maybe spend like ten minutes in my trailer by myself just trying to annoy myself somehow so that way, by the time I sit on my scooter, I look really mad.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Who do you think Hard Times will appeal to? Do you have a core audience you are hoping to reach?

ADAM CAGLEY:
We definitely do. It reaches a very wide spectrum of people. First and foremost would be the awkward teenagers, because that’s what the show’s about – awkward teenagers – but the humor and the heart the show has can really appeal to anyone in our demographic which would be 18-30.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Do you have any moments that stick out from the experience so far?

ADAM CAGLEY:
There is one pretty funny kind of behind-the-scenes story. Me and Jareb Dauplaise, who plays the Miles character, have known each other for years so…we’re buddies. We shot the show at an actual high school, so every school set is actually a school. We were walking back from the set to our trailers right as the classes had let out, so there were tons and tons of students just pouring out of these classrooms. We decided to just blend with them and went to random lockers and tried to open them. We got a lot of pretty weird looks. That’s the one story I always tell and talk about the production of the show.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What should people expect when they tune in to Hard Times? Is there anything you can give away?

ADAM CAGLEY:
The pilot is actually a really strong opening for the season. I was actually watching the first three episodes they just sent me. The first three episodes are just a boot kick in the door. We open really strong. They took the three funniest episodes from the beginning, middle and end of the season and chose to open with them. From what I’ve heard, they’ve reorganized the season so that it has a really good opening, a really strong middle, and leaves the viewer wanting more for season two, if God willing, there is a season two. Definitely that we open very, very strong and from the pilot it only goes straight up from there to the season finale.

THE STAR SCOOP:
In the past, you’ve done a lot of Disney, Nickelodeon. You probably have a lot of younger fans. Do you feel like you’re a role model for these kids?

ADAM CAGLEY:
I kind of hope so. I work in a summer camp for the YMCA over the summer, and I had one year where there were little 8 year-old campers quoting lines I had done on a show for Nickelodeon. I try to get my core audience to look up to me in that sense. I want to be a positive influence on them and have them have something that is entertaining and funny in their lives. The one thing I was really excited about with Hard Times [is that] all of the stuff I did for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, those audiences are going to be at the age now where they’re finding MTV for the first time, and they’re going to be watching me on Hard Times. They watched me when they were younger. Now that they’re older, they get to see me do a different kind of comedy that will be their kind of comedy now that they’re growing up.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Are there major differences you have noticed working for networks like Nickelodeon and Disney versus MTV?

ADAM CAGLEY:
The content on Hard Times. We get away with some pretty raunchy stuff [laughs]. There wasn’t one day that I wouldn’t come to work and look at my script and go, Wow, we’re getting away with this. How? But we did apparently. Disney is normally the multi-cam sit-com/family shows, whereas the creators have described Hard Times as the show they want kids to have to sneak into their parents’ room to watch.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Another project you are working on is The Wheeler Boys. Tell our readers what it is about.

ADAM CAGLEY:
Wheeler Boys is a coming-of-age drama that focuses on a young freshman named Ted Wheeler. Ted is tying to find acceptance with his older brother and his group of friends called The Kings. The Kings are the popular kids of the school. He goes down a pretty dark and sordid path to try to become one of The Kings and fit in with his brother. It’s really a coming-of-age story where the protagonist has to become his own antagonist before he can really grow up a little bit. It’s a definite 180 from Hard Times. You’ve got the dirty raunchy comedy and you’ve got the teen drama.

In Wheeler Boys I play a character named Reggie, who is one of The Kings, but not really one of The Kings because to be a King you have to be branded with a K, and he never really earned his K. He hangs around with the group and they let him hang around because Reggie is rich. His parents are never home, and he has a huge house. So he throws parties like every single night, and that’s why they keep me around. He is a big, big wannabe in the sense that he wants to be part of this group. He thinks he is part of this group, but of the people in the group, he really doesn’t fit at all.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Do you have any other projects going on?

ADAM CAGLEY:
I have been doing some pretty good research and getting through the whole audition process for the Footloose but that recently got put on hold due to director issues. That’s my next tentative upcoming project.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What do you want to say directly to your fans?

ADAM CAGLEY:
Keep watching! It only gets better from here.