Michael Evans Behling Spills the Tea on All American Season 3 & Answers Fan Questions

Hi. Hi. Hi. What are your guys’ names? I’m Jordan. I’m Eden. They’re my nieces and I had to have them join because they’re literally like, your absolute biggest fans and they’re, they have been telling me about the show, I swear to God since the very beginning and they’re like, when are you gonna get Michael back on the show? Like, we have to have him back on Young Hollywood. So I was like, he’s coming. He’s coming. Period. Best day. It finally arrived.

Nice to meet you guys.

You too. That’s awesome. It’s crazy. We had you like, we had you in our studio when life was normal. And uh, we, we wish we could all be in person right now, but hopefully that day will come.

Yeah.

I know. Life has been totally bizarre. But how have you been handling the whole like, quarantine shooting in that kind of environment?

It’s been all right. Yeah, it’s been all right. Shooting’s been different, of course, you know. Uh we get tested four times a week which, we’re very fortunate enough to do that. Um, and you know, just wearing shields and face masks all the time. It’s little things. Just different. Just different. That’s all.

That’s crazy. Are you guys still like training? I mean I know like last time we actually were on the set, we were like on the football field. You guys were like, are you still doing, like how does that all work? I mean I guess, I guess with that, you can separate pretty easily. You can definitely distance.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, the gyms are still closed which is unfortunate. Um, it’s just been a lot of home workouts, to be honest with you. Um, because, you know, they want us to stay as safe as possible. You know, go to work. Um, but as far as, you know, on our alone time, just try to be as safe as possible. And, and I think doing that is to try to avoid as many people as you can which is not as fun, you know. I want to be able to go to the gym and and see my trainer and see Daniel and all these people. But,

Totally.

You gotta do what you gotta do, you know, to be safe.

Yeah. Well, I know the last time we were in the studio, we had, um, we had some donuts for you. Sorry. I’m like, I wish I could’ve brought something to the table here, but

Oh, no. It’s okay.

So what’s been like your go-to, because I’m sure are you, are you on like, you can have donuts here and there, even though you’re training and, you know. Right? Yeah. What’s like your go-to

Yeah.

obsession? My go-to quarantine obsession? Yeah. With food. As far as food? Yeah. Besides donuts.

Honestly, I’ve just, I’ve been snacking on, uh, Reese’s. I bought like a a mega pack of Reese’s. Like a big box. Probably like 35, 40 Reese’s in there. Yeah, that was, that was pretty good. That was pretty good. Those were good. They lasted a while. Yes. Yes. Pretty good time. Pretty, pretty long time. Pretty great. Probably about a month and a half. Probably should’ve been longer but a month and a half.

Sure. Um, so first of all, congrats on the show. I mean, All-American’s like, totally become this huge phenomenon. I mean, did you know like, I mean it started off, you guys were, you know, probably not expecting it to turn into what it turned into. And then all of a sudden like, TikTok was blowing it up and Netflix also. So, did you ever see any of the TikTok videos about you guys?

Yeah. I have. I have. Yep, yep, yep. There’s. Yep, yeah, yeah. Going through it all. There’s quite a few and, and honestly they’re pretty creative. They’re pretty funny. I think TikTok in general is just brilliant. Um, just the algorithm is awesome. But um, to the expectations as far as, you know, whenever we created the pilot, you know, we knew we were creating something special. I remember all of us sat down one time and just and talked about that. But we did not think that, you know, to the capacity that it’s grown, we did not think that this was gonna happen. At least I did not personally. I won't speak for everybody else. Um, very happy and very fortunate that people found the show and people love the show. But, you know, when we created the show, it was, you know, first of all, we wanted to get picked up. And um, when we did, we just wanted to make a great show and I think that we did that. Hopefully.

Well, I think Jordan and Eden can probably vouch for that, right? You guys have probably seen like, every single TikTok video that exists. Besides every season, I mean, every episode, right? Do you have a favorite? You guys have a favorite video?

My favorite episode was the one where Olivia got shot or jumped in front of Spencer when he got shot.

Oh, oh yeah, yeah. Episode 11, whenever Spencer jumped in front of Olivia. Oh, yeah. That was my favorite one.

Yeah, that’s a good episode. I agree. I also loved like, the TikTok videos. Like, like when the first season came out, I’ve never seen so many videos on a show before. Like ever.

Oh word. Like all, like all of y'all on TikTok too. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Oh word.

And like when you go live on Instagram and stuff. It’s like entertaining.

Oh, those lives are fun. They’re good.

You do a lot of live, live Instagram during the quarantine? I’ve caught I’ve seen a couple of them.

I do. I did. I did. I went live on Instagram, went live on TikTok. I was just, you know, what else is there to do? You know, play video games, you know, go live, talk to some people. Why not?

You're playing video games. Why not? Um, so well, let’s talk about season three. Because I mean, your character Jordan Baker, I feel like you’ve gone through between season one and now, it’s like, the growth and the maturity of your character. Because I guess like, you know, the beginning you were pretty, I don’t know if disrespectful is the right word, or arrogant, but you know, you kind of like jumped from one girl to the other and then now you’re kind of like, growing, maturing, you know, you’ve got, you know, Simone who you’re committed to now. So, just like, from your perspective, you know, playing that role, how do you feel like you’ve, you know, kind of watched him grow from then until now, just like the role of his experiences?

I think that you hit it right on the head whenever you said arrogant. I think he was definitely arrogant. He still might even have a little bit of arrogance in him. But to see him grow from season one to, you know, our latest episode, uh, two nights ago, it’s been fun. It’s just been fun to to to see him and I think that in the middle of season two, whenever Simone was introduced and, you know, she dropped this bomb about the pregnancy. I think that that was his catalyst to all right, let me get my stuff together. You know what I’m saying? And um, and then from that point on, I don’t know. I, I think for Jordan he needs somebody who’s strong and independent and, and, and um, you know, who has maybe not all their stuff together because I don’t think that Simone had her stuff together whenever they first met. She definitely didn’t. Um, but he was there for her. He wanted to be there for her and I think he wanted to do everything he could to make her happy, feel comfortable, feel safe. And um, and that just made him fall madly in love with her. And then in season three, um, we do see this, this different side of Jordan, this mature Jordan, you know, who want, who wants to be there for this child and um, you know, although he was challenged by Coach Montez about the quarterback position, I think that he stepped up to the plate as opposed to, you know, backing down. If you guys remember in, in season two, whenever, uh, Spencer ran wildcat for some time, or maybe that was season one. Excuse me, where Spencer ran wildcat and you know, Jordan kind of shut down. He was like, all right, you’re gonna put Spencer in as quarterback, whatever. I’m not even gonna entertain it. But the fact that, you know, Montez comes in and challenges him and says let’s, let’s try JJ at quarterback. It sparked something in him to be like, all right, let me step up and and do what I can to keep my position. Maintain my position. And um, and that’s something that that he would not have done two seasons ago. So that, that’s been really cool for me to play into to read on the script and see this kid, all right, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s maturing.

Do you feel like you can kind of like, relate a little bit to his character?

I mean, I think that he gets lost. Yeah. I think that that’s one of the things that I can relate to with Jordan is um, just getting lost in trying to respect and appreciate other people. Yeah, I’ll say that.

I feel like you guys also just as a crew on set, like, I just even like rewatched our set visit. You guys are just so fun. I feel like you just must have, I mean you have to be serious when you have to be serious, but obviously like, like Taye Diggs, he must be like so awesome to work with. What’s been like kind of one of the most memorable, funniest, craziest experiences you’ve had?

There are too many to count. I will say that.

You know, this season it’s been tough because we haven’t been able to be as goofy and as as as fun as we have the last two seasons. But season one and season two, man, let me say, every day was just a a silly goose time, if you will. Every day was, uh, you know, cackling. It was, you know, laughing. Just, just, working with Tay, for instance. Let’s say Tay and I are Tay, excuse me, Billy and Jordan are in a heated conversation or, you know, some type of deep conversation. Tay at the end of the scene before we yell cut, will just blurt out something that’s so off the wall that you just try to, you try your best to keep it together. And it’s not the same thing every single time. So one take he’ll say something goofy, the next take he’ll say another thing goofy. And it’s just, he has so much in his head that’s always going and it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s so much fun to work with him because, you know, long hours on set, uh, they can catch up with you. But um, you know, whenever you toss him a little bit of sprinkle of fun,

You got to have fun with the job, right?

Oh yeah, exactly. You gotta have fun. You toss in a sprinkle of fun and and it just, you know, it it makes you want to go to work even more.

So and I know like football obviously was part of your life, you know, pre the show. But I mean, have you always been just like a crazy huge football fan? I know it’s based on a true story. Um,

Yeah. Uh, yeah, I have. Um, maybe not crazy. They're back in the Super Bowl right now. Crazy, right? I know my Indiana roots want me to say, go Chiefs. But, but, I have to say I would not be mad if Brady got his seventh ring. I mean, he’s the goat. Everyone knows it. Right? And and and for people to say he’s, you know, overrated is nonsense in my opinion. And if he gets his seventh ring, I think that it’s it’s, it’s, it’s undeniably true that he he is, you know, I think one of the the greatest quarterbacks of all time. And so for him to achieve that and accomplish that, I think that that would be cool for me to see. So the fact that he bounced from the Patriots and went to the Buccaneers in his first season. Said let’s go get a ring. Come on. Come on. You know? I don’t know.

We also by the way, we had, we had your buddy Cody, um, the other day.

I saw that. I saw that. He’s awesome.

We love him. So I have to ask you the same question because we asked him if you were just like a fan of the show, like totally, you know, you were a fan, would you be team Spencer or team Asher?

Oh, man, it’s tough.

And why?

Okay, okay. Probably no offense to Cody, but probably team Spencer. And the reason that is because, you know, Asher’s character, he’s, he’s, or Asher, excuse me. He, he’s um, he’s done some things that are pretty questionable, you know. Giving the team the other team playbook. Yeah. Um, you know, he has had his heart broken a couple times, which is so terribly unfortunate. Um, that’s actually a really tough question. Now that I’m saying that, saying these things out loud because, you know, Spencer’s done some things that in my opinion are questionable, you know, taking Asher’s girl. Um, I don’t know. He, he, he always kind of, Spencer I feel like, maybe as a fan perspective, you could get upset at him for always wanting to, to take, you know, carry everyone’s load on his back. Right. But I still think team Spencer. No offense to you, Cody. I’m sorry brother. I love you.

Well, do you want to know what his answer was?

What was his? I think it was team Spencer also, wasn't it?

Spencer, yeah. Spencer all the way. Spencer all the way. Period. Period. Yeah. So really quick, I know we don’t have too much time, but I know Jordan and Eden had a couple questions for you also. I want to know like, was season three hard to film because of like Corona?

It’s, we’re still filming. Um, we’re, we’re, we’re still in the middle of the season. It’s been different. That’s what I’ll say. Tough? Sure. Um, like I said earlier, you know, we, we get tested four times a week. We have face masks and face shields that we rock all the time. And, you know, it’s just, it’s us being safety, being safe, excuse me. And taking, you know, the correct precautionary measures to make sure that we can continue to shoot, you know. Um, we’ve had false positives. We’ve had positives on the set and um, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve, uh, they’ve thrown some roadblocks in the shooting schedule. But we’ve been able to to overcome it and I think everyone for the most part is, is healthy. And so that’s the beautiful thing is, you know, we want to be able to make this show, but we also want everyone that to to stay healthy at the end of the day, you know, because this, this virus is, is serious. So I won't say it’s been hard. It’s just been different.

Um, what was your favorite scene to film?

My favorite scene to film? Or like the hardest one? Okay, the hardest scene for me. I’ll give you, I’ll give you two answers. The hardest scene for me to film was season one, episode 12. Um, when Olivia OD’s, the flashback whenever Olivia OD’s. That was tough for me, uh, on different levels. Um, probably the, the one of the most fun scenes I’ve had to film was actually with Simone, uh, with Geffri, excuse me. Whenever she comes over to the Baker house, this is season two, I don’t remember the exact episode. Maybe seven or eight. And uh, she let’s Jordan know that the child is not his. And, and to work out that scene with our director and to work out that scene with Geffri, was just a blast. Because we really got to play with it. We really got to kind of throw our own little, uh, uh, flare and spin into it. So I would say that, that scene, you know, um, whenever she drops the bomb that it’s not yours and um, I think that was probably one of the most, some, some of the most fun I’ve had on set was that scene.

Um, is it hard to like, be like filmed as a high schooler when you’re like out of college?

Uh, it’s not, it’s not too bad. It’s not too bad. You know, um, I’m 24. And to tap back into a 17-year-old mind is not too much work. Um, and you know, coming up on season three, you know, I know Jordan. I know the way he walks, I know the way he talks, I know how he moves. Um, season one, it was a little odd. Um, just kind of trying to reverse my brain and and and get into that mindset. But as, as of now, no, it’s not too hard even though I am removed from college. I’m, you know, removed from high school. But it’s not it’s not too, it’s not too tough. No.

Um, isn’t the real Spencer like, working with you guys on set?

You bet.

Like how’s it working with like, him knowing it’s like his story?

It’s cool. He’s super chill. Super down to earth. You know, he was, oops. He was um, Beverly’s assistant coach at at in season one and two. And I think now he’s moved over to Crenshaw. I think I saw in last night’s episode. Or excuse me, two nights ago. Um, but getting, getting, having him on set is, is, is awesome. You know, he, he shares his stories. You know, um, I remember season one, episode three, I, I asked him about the police stop. I said, so walk me through what happened this this this night. And um, you know, he wasn’t coming home from football. He was coming home from a track me, a track practice, excuse me. And, you know, the cops stopped him and all that. And it gives me personally, uh, a little bit more of a a deeper perspective about his story. And kind of what he went through and, and, and all that. But like I said, he’s down to earth. He’s chill. He’s, he’s happy. He’s ready to talk and uh, just overall a nice guy.

Yeah. And does he give you guys like, tips on how to act the characters?

Not necessarily tips on how to act, but he will, um, you know, I’ve, I’ve seen Daniel ask him questions about his character and, you know, I’ve asked, asked, asked questions about, you know, if Jordan was a real person in his life or, you know, what that’s like. And he will kind of break it down for us as far as um, who these people were in his life and uh, what they what they were like, you know. But as as far as uh, tips on acting, you know, he he kind of lets us and the director work with us as far as um, how we want to play the scene, and, you know, every time we we get to go. Yeah.

Obviously it’s been a very crazy year with, you know, school, you know, a whole different, everything’s virtual, half in person. Like what’s kind of your advice to kids in high school right now, you know, just going through a very interesting time period, I guess you could say.

Honestly, I, I, I feel for y’all. I really do. Um, it’s, it’s weird. It’s a weird time. And I guess my advice would be just to continue to stay safe. Continue to do whatever your local government is telling you to do. Um, but as as far as, you know, trying to to to maintain and achieve, um, happiness, if you will, or positivity, self care. Wake up in the This is something that I’ve given advice to.

Wake up in the morning, um, and you know, even if you don’t have to go anywhere, you’re just on Zoom and you have your camera off or all that. Whatever you decide to do. Wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and, you know, find one thing that you like about yourself. And for that morning, and just say, you know what? I like, I like my eyebrows today. Or whatever. I like my nose today. Whatever it may be. And um, and just really truly enjoy that. And hey, it does not hurt to smile. You know, even if it’s a fake smile, it still releases some endorphins into your brain to say, hey, let’s have a good day. Or whatever. You know what I’m saying? So try to find small positives in this, you know, dark time that we’re kind of in right now. That’s my advice to you two and to anybody else who’s in high school or middle school or elementary school or college even. Is um, this situation, although unfortunate and just, you know, very low and kind of dark in sometimes, try to find small baby positives. Whether it’s in yourself, your friends, your family, your work. Um, Just smiling makes makes everything. You know what I mean? It just makes you feel better. Makes other people feel better. It does. Gotta gotta keep it. You know?

Well, this was so awesome talking to you.

Same to you guys.

And season three, everybody needs to definitely check it out. Um, it’s getting interesting. Any, any sneak that any that fans should expect?

Yes. I know that it’s uh, I know that it’s a ways away, but episode six and seven. Just make sure you’re tuned in for those episodes because that’s gonna be juicy. That’s all I have to say. I can’t say anymore or I don’t want to lose my job.

Heard it here first guys. Well, hopefully we can catch up in person.

Hopefully. Yeah.

Well, stay safe and thanks for chatting and thanks Jordan and Eden. Your awesome questions.

Yes. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys as well. You guys stay safe. And I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much. Hey guys, also, check out uh, episode three. Mondays. Or actually any new episode. Mondays at 8:00. Period. Period. Mic drop right there.