Dexter Darden Teases Zack & Kelly Reunion on Saved By The Bell Reboot

What's up? How are you?

I'm so good. How are you?

I am awesome. You're in LA, right?

I am. I am. It is so hot.

It's very hot.

It's so hot. Like I think we were shooting on Tuesday and it was, um, a hundred and six degrees.

No! I'm like, no, no.

I know. No. I'm literally like cuz I don't have air conditioning in my apartment and just my room, not like the living room. So I'm like, oh my god. I'm going to die.

Wait, what do you mean? You don't have air conditioning in your room. You just have it?

I have it in my room. I don't have it in the house, like the living room and stuff.

Oh, that's not, that's not good at all.

No. So I just like you know talk about how hot it is all the time.

Why do you do that to yourself?

I don't know. I ordered one on Amazon but it's coming in tomorrow, so.

Oh, gosh. Well, Amazon you know they're backed up with everything due to Covid and other stuff. But Amazon's kind of become a lifesaver to me. Like I just started using it. I never really had it. I never really had Amazon Prime or anything.

Really?

Yeah. Like my mom always Amazon. But you know like I live by my own. I have my own house and so I'm like, I just I just go I live by myself. So I go to the store, I get what I need and I bring it home, you know what I mean? Like

Yeah. Are you a Prime member now though?

I'm a 100% Amazon Prime member. Yeah, and it and it works out cuz one of my friends, uh one of my dearest friends plays H train on the boys.

Gotcha. So you have to

And so I got it to like support him but also to get my toilet paper on time. So

Right. Got that two day shipping. Sometimes you even get it same day in California, cuz there's.

Yeah. If you order if you order it early enough and it's in stock, you can. Yeah, so. We got her to her. Oh, you have two major projects that you're working on. Saved by the Bell and then The Binge, right?

Yeah, The Binge, The Binge. Yeah. So, um, The Binge is basically follows three best friends, um, centered around my character Kelly Hages, also known as Hags. Um, and 364 days of the year, drugs and alcohol are completely illegal. But there is that one day when anybody over the 18, over the age of 18 can participate and activities that might not necessarily be the most wise, but also really, really fun for an 18-year-old who's trying to you know say who's literally saved up all of his money from working at like, you know, the local restaurant to be able to try to go and have the best time of his life. And Vince Vaughn plays the principal at the high school. Um, who's basically trying to stop us from Bingeing. So it's pretty exciting.

How old are you in the movie?

I play 18.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, I'm I turned 18. We're all 18. We're seniors in high school and it's now our time to go Binge. So.

What did you what was your mindset when you first like read through the script and casting for it? Because that's a fun that's a fun project.

Yeah, well, now the first time I read it, I was like, this is not like anything I've ever read before in my life. First and foremost. So I was really, really excited about it. And the and then the second thing I thought was, I wasn't actually in Los Angeles when I got the call to audition for the project. I was back home, uh and I was in New Jersey with my mom and I was singing at a wedding. And uh the only thing that came to my mind was, oh my gosh, my mom has to read this movie with me for my audition tape. Yeah. This is crazy. And um she did it and she nailed it. She nailed it. And so, you know, we we did our call back, we did the original read, we did our call back and then when I finally got the offer for the role, the director Jeremy Garelick FaceTime my mom and I and told her that I got the offer. Um, and they just posted that. I re like they just posted it on the social media. I think Hulu and American High just posted it. And the just like brought back memories to the day when I found out I finally got the role, you know? So when I was reading it, I was like, I'm just down to just emotionally and mentally and like physically commit to the best comedic corporate performance that I could possibly give. So that's kind of what it was really about.

Oh, that's just so special that you like went through casting everything with your mom.

Mhm.

And then you found out together on FaceTime.

Yeah, and like we didn't even have a tripod when we made the like audition tape. Like we were using like an old step ladder. Some books, like and. Yeah, um umbrella stands, some books. A old cooking book from Rachel Ray. It was a whole thing.

Oh my God. I love that. And what is your what's your go-to drink of choice in, you know, real life?

I'm an old fashioned guy. Okay. So what's so crazy is like I didn't I didn't have my first drink or taste of any kind of alcohol until I turned 21. Um, and then the more I like started going through experiencing and learning like, you know, the different alcohols and what they can do and like what they can bring. And my best friend in the world is a guy by the name of Jordan Fisher. I believe you guys know him over at Young Hollywood. Um, yeah, Jordan and I basically, you know, grew up out here in LA together. And, um, you know, he he really likes to take pride in his cocktails that he makes. So

Right.

You know, we we got together and I mean him and his fiance. We like we make Manhattan or an Old Fashioned and that's kind of my drink of choice.

Yeah, that's exciting. And when the movie or when it comes out, what are what are you are you going to celebrate in any way? Are you going to watch it right away?

Well, you know, COVID is still a thing, right? So we're trying our best to be as safe as possible. Um, and also I'm still working. And so, you know, we have a pretty vigorous text schedule over at Saved by the Bell. And so, you know, we're not I'm not going to do anything too crazy. But I have my friends who are like in my cohort, um, you know, who are here. My mom is driving across from Philadelphia to be able to watch it with me for the first time. I know. So we're like, we're working. It only makes sense though for her to come. Yeah, it's like I I wouldn't feel right if I was watching the the finished product for the first time without my mom after all she's done up to get it.

For sure. And speaking of Saved by the Bell, did you watch the show when it originally aired?

Of course. Of course. Yeah, I mean like Saved by the Bell is up there with Fresh Prince, Friends, you know, in terms of reruns and how often it's played on television. So growing up on like Saturday morning cartoons and like watching the show, man, it was like, it was awesome, you know, like and of course, Kelly, Zach, Slater, Lisa, Jesse, you know, like Screech, you just wanted to be one of those six kids who was like really cool with them, walking with them and going to the high schools. And everybody had a crush on Kelly Kapowski and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, I mean.

Oh my god, I think I did.

Yeah, right? And then like Mark-Paul, I mean the hair just quaffed and Mario with his abs. It was just kind of like, how are these humans on TV? Um and the other thing was, how were they looking like that when they were 15?

I know. I was like, oh, and also keep in mind, they're in high school. Like, what is this? Yeah. Yeah.

But if you had told your kid self watching those shows that you were going to be in a reboot of that show one day, what do you think your kid self would have said?

No way. No way. No way. Like to me, growing up, especially where I grew up and and being on the East Coast and, you know, Hollywood always seems so far, right? It just seems like something you see on your television screen. And, um, so it was always just a dream of mine, you know, but in dream in terms of reality of dreams that can come true for a kid from Camden, New Jersey, close to Philadelphia, being in the TV show is not one of them that you are often presented to as your options, you know? So growing up, if I had to told if I was a little kid and I was like, you're going to be on Saved by the Bell, I'd been like, you're wrong. But

No, I

Thank you. Yeah. Right. You're wrong. But thank you. Thank you very much.

That's so crazy. And what's the vibe like on set? Like, how is actually filming?

You know what? It it's it's it's so great in the sense of like we know that there is a homage and like there's a lineage and a history that the show has previously created, right? So the new six of us, we know that we have something that we need to live up to. Right. Um, and so, you know, we just try our best. And, you know, we have so many of the originals back. And, you know, the episode we're shooting this week, this is a Young Hollywood exclusive, like Zach and Kelly are back, you know, for this for this episode. So like,

That's insane.

Opportunity to be able to work with people who I grew up idolizing and wanting to be like and then having the chance to be with them on set and they just exceed those expectations of everything that you've ever imagined and hoped for. It's really, really great. So, you know, I'm not going to say it's not a pressure because I just take my job seriously in the sense of like, you know, wanting to make sure that we can live up to what they've already laid out on the table for us. But it's a very different show, you know, Tracy Wigfield who did 30 Rock and Yeah. And, you know, we're single cam. We're not multi-camera. So the comedy is a little bit more different. It's a little bit more, it's fitting with the times that we're living in now, you know? Right. We're we're really trying to cover things from all aspects, all backgrounds, all social backgrounds, all racial backgrounds. You know, we like to represent everybody. That's together we rise, basically, you know?

You got it. You got it. Yeah. And what is your favorite part about your like personal character in the show? Like,

Um, so this is the first time Devante is the his name is Devante Young, and he's the character I he's the only character who I can't really say too much about. He's like Yeah. Mystery man that you kind of end up unraveling throughout the rest of the show, which is kind of great. But I will say that to me, he is the closest character to myself.

Gotcha.

I've never played somebody who's so close to me and my background, growing up in the inner city, ended up going into like a predominantly private school, you know, with kids who are well off. That's my background, you know. So being able to tap into how I was raised, it's really cool to have the opportunity to like to execute that on screen. So I think Devante is the closest to myself that I've ever played in any kind of project that I've ever been in. Yeah, for sure.

And what's your favorite thing about Cuz it's still based like off Bayside, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's your what's your favorite thing about Bayside?

So, you know, the one thing about Bayside that I love, right? First and foremost, of course, is the weather. And like how how it's really cool. And then also how dashingly good-looking everybody who goes to Bayside is. You know, when you're making that kind of show and you also are thinking like, wow, how is this possible? But then you go and you come up to work, you're like, man, everybody who is on this cast and crew is just good-looking. You know, um which is much kind of seems superficial, but that's what you think of Bayside is, you know? Yeah. So I think that is that having that aspect of Bayside still ring true to me was kind of like, okay, I'm really here and I'm really doing it. And also just being able to work with Mario and Elizabeth every single day, you know. They're series regulars on the show. They're they're they're they're here. They're present. And so, you know, being able to vibe out with them and communicate and talk with them is really great.

For sure. That's like just so exciting cuz I literally like my that was my sister. She watched it 24/7 all the time and like I found out I was talking to you, knowing you were in the reboot. It's just like, it's crazy cuz you're literally like the new version of the show. So it's really cool. It's really cool. Yeah. But thank you so much for talking to us.

Thank you so much for having me. This is great. Like Young Hollywood, y'all always show so much love especially when it came to the Maze Runner stuff. And so now being able to like sit here and have my own interview by myself, it's a dream come true to be honest.

You're doing it. You're doing big things.

Hey, man, I'm just trying to be like you when I grow up, you know? Trying to have a heater in my room. That's it. That's it.