Peyton Elizabeth Lee & Blake Draper Interview: Prom Pact (2024)

Directed by Anya Adams, Prom Pact follows a high school senior named Mandy Yang (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who's dead-set on being accepted into the college of her dreams. After Mandy is wait-listed, she puts her preconceived notions of the school's basketball star (Blake Draper) aside in the hopes of getting a letter of recommendation from his alum father. But when she accidentally falls for the last person she least expects, Mandy's carefully concocted plan begins to come apart.

Lee is most well-known for starring in the Disney Channel original series, Andi Mack, and the second season of her current show, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., is currently available to stream on Disney+. Meanwhile, Draper has been featured in projects such as Clickbait and Bad Mothers. The rest of the main cast includes Milo Manheim (School Spirits), Margaret Cho, and Monique Green.

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Stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Blake Draper chat exclusively with Screen Rant about how they would Prompose to each other and share what advice they'd give their characters.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee & Blake Draper Talk Prom Pact

Screen Rant: Mandy makes a good point in this movie that Promposals should be about what the person likes. What is something that a perfect Promposal would include for each of you?

Blake Draper: Should we do what we think the other one would want?

Yes! That's good.

Blake Draper: I'd probably dress up as Post Malone with all the face tattoos, and I'd do a whole Post Malone routine for you.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: I would marry you for that.

Blake Draper: That's good, then! Nice! Screen Rant, you guys got it on camera, baby!

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: I would get Robert Pattinson, and I would dress up as Batman, and he would be dressed up as Edward from Twilight, so they're both there.

See Also

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Blake Draper: Can you tell I'm blushing under the makeup? Is the makeup covering it?

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: Then we would ask you to go to prom with us.

Blake Draper: Then I'd go with Robert Pattinson.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would drive the car—the Batmobile.

Blake Draper: Oh! Yes! Okay, done!

Why do you think that Mandy is so determined to look down on prom and all these other things that make up a stereotypical high school experience? That's really where she's at at the beginning of the film.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: I think she sees the world, at the beginning of the film, very much in black and white, that you can only have one or the other, that you can have fun, or you can get the things you want in life. When she's looking at people having the "typical high school experience," it's not that she has something against that. It's that she feels like they are doing that and foregoing the things that she actually cares about. It's less about what's there, and more about what's absent in that lifestyle. I think that is sort of the root of her opposition to that lifestyle. Throughout the film, when she starts to see more and more of that, it's not one or the other. You can have both and having fun and working hard can co-exist and actually enhance your life. She starts to be more open to these more typical high school experiences.

Graham isn't a bad guy, as we learn pretty early on. Why do you think Mandy had this preconceived notion of him?

Blake Draper: I think the way that Graham is perceived can be seen as being very one-note. It's very easy to make the assumption that, "Oh, he's the most popular kid in school. He's the basketball captain. Everybody loves him. He's the biggest jock." So it's very easy to make the assumption that he would be a certain way. I think that it's very important not to judge people on first glances like that. I think that it's extremely important to get to know someone and actually learn about them and their life and who they really are as a person, because everyone does put up a front, you know? But as you start to get to know someone, you kind of chip away at that. They reveal themselves to you. Don't judge a book by its cover, kids.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: Did you just come up with that?

Blake Draper: I did come up with that phrase! No one's ever said that before. [Laughs] I've been working on it for a while.

Looking back on it, is there any advice that you would offer your characters at the beginning of the movie?

Peyton Elizabeth Lee: I think it's sort of what I was saying before. Just relax, take a breath, life is short, and you have to enjoy all the little things. The big things are great, and it's great to work hard towards those big things but slowing down to appreciate the day-to-day, happy, joyous people and things that happen, I think is so important. I would tell Mandy to incorporate a little bit more of that in her life—appreciation for the small things, for the little moments, for the relationships she has with people. Because that's really what matters at the end of the day. And all the other stuff will come too.

Blake Draper: I'd say with Graham, the advice I'd give him would be to not let others dictate how you live your life. It's very easy to be swayed by what people think is right for you and what you should do with your life. But I think at the end of the day, you really just have to be truthful to yourself, listen to yourself, and just follow your heart. That, hopefully, will lead you to where you're supposed to be.

About Prom Pact

It's the height of prom season, and high school senior Mandy Yang and her best friend and fellow outsider Ben are surrounded by over-the-top '80s-themed Promposals. However, Mandy keeps her eyes focused on a different goal: her lifelong dream of attending Harvard.

When she finds out that she has been put on the waitlist, she is determined to do whatever she can do to get herself accepted, even if that means asking for help from the one person she abhors – popular all-star jock Graham Lansing, whose father is a powerful senator and Harvard alum. Once Mandy becomes Graham's tutor, she begins to realize there's more to him than she thought and perhaps something more to life than Harvard.

Check out our other Prom Pact interviews here:

• Margaret Cho
• Julie Bowen

Prom Pact is now streaming on Disney+.