Jake T. Austin Reveals His Favorite Emojis

What's happening guys? Welcome back to Young Hollywood. I'm Molly Argu, and I think you may know this guy.

What's up guys? Good morning.

Thanks for being back in studio.

Thanks for having me out.

Of course. Well, you've been on the big screen, and we know you from TV, of course, with Wizard of Waverly Place. We have to talk about your latest project, The Emoji Movie.

Oh, yeah, I don't play an emoji in this one. I was a little bit disappointed, I have to be honest with you. But, um, you know, I play this kid Alex, who's having a hard time expressing himself in the movie. Look who just sent me a text. Addy McAllister? What should I say? Just play it cool. He really likes this girl, but he doesn't know how to, you know, get her attention. So he thinks the best way to do that is by, you know, using his phone or using emojis to express himself. Because obviously, right? That's what we do. What guy doesn't want to use emojis to try to impress, you know, the girl that he likes. Yeah. But he realizes that he has to, you know, step outside of his comfort zone, be himself, and in the end, being the best version of yourself is always the best choice. Be you.

Yeah, being comfortable in your own skin. Yeah. Be authentically you.

Absolutely.

I think you're pretty cool just the way you are. I love the movie. It's so funny. I was laughing throughout the entire thing. It was so much fun. So when you watched it for the first time, what was your reaction? I mean, working with such a crazy, fun, amazing cast.

We don't really get to meet each other when you're doing an animated, you know, project. So I was by myself the whole time. So I had to really use my imagination, pretend like the actors were there, pretend like I was actually in the world of emojis. Yeah. And I guess in that way it was pretty cool. I kind of saw the film in my own head before it came out.

When you first got to hang out with some of the other cast members, maybe it was even in doing press for the movie. Who did you really enjoy meeting and hanging out with?

I really love T. J. Miller. He's so good at improvisation and I was just impressed with his level of comedy. And then I think he brings a real layer to the film too. It's not just a film about emojis, it's a film about people, and I think he's got so many layers to his personality. My name is Jean, and I'm supposed to be a meh. You know like meh, who cares.

Well, like you were saying, the cast is is pretty incredible. And James Corden, who plays one of your good friends, he plays Hi-5.

He's my man crush, James Corden. I love him. Carpool Karaoke is one of my favorite shows.

Yeah. If you were to be in the phone and an emoji, what emoji would you choose to be?

I always use like the crazy wink face tongue out emoji. That's my favorite one. That's like my go-to.

That's a good one. What are your top five favorite emojis besides the winky face? That was good. I think I'd do it way worse. I mean, you did it amazing. Try it.

The wink face tongue out emoji. My four favorite. I'm going to use three of the monkeys. I use the monkey emojis all the time. The surprise face, the hand over the mouth like you just told me something secretive.

Really? Oh, which ones? So cute. Everyone loves the monkeys. I use those a lot. Well, I believe you're busy with some other projects too. I heard some whisperings. Can you talk to us about these projects?

So as I've gotten older, I've really learned, you know, it's important to stretch yourself, to challenge yourself, and to make sure that there's substantive content, you know, behind every project that you do. Yeah. Something a little bit more mature, maybe something that you have your hands on. Yeah. So I definitely want to test myself, stretch myself.

All right, well, thanks so much for joining us. Great to see you.

Thanks a lot.