YouTube sensation and Arlington native Todrick Hall is the star of Todrick, MTV's newest docu-series. The show gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the writer/singer/producer/actor/dancer (quintuple threat?) creates the original music and outlandish videos for his YouTube page.
The hitmaker talked with GuideLive to discuss the trials and triumphs of starring in his own show. His life has surely changed since he first started making videos with friends back in Texas.
GuideLive: What is it like, being a local celebrity one day and the star of your own MTV show the next?
Todrick Hall: It's literally the craziest thing ever. I've always wondered what it would be like to be on television in the age of social media. When I was on American Idol, Twitter was not as big and Instagram didn't even exist yet and we didn't have Snapchat. [Social media is] allowing me to engage with my fans on a much wider level and it's so cool to get to see new people discover what we've been working on the past few years. Now people to get to see what it is that we do behind the scenes of making all these videos.
Is life always as fabulous as it looks on the show?
There's a lot of work being done; I think you see a small portion of it on the show. My life is chaos every day from the time I open my eyes till I go to sleep. But I wouldn't have it any other way; it's the way I've been since I can remember.
All of my friends who grew up with me — cheerleading friends from Bowie High School in Arlington, the people I danced with at Ballet Lubbock — are all calling me saying, "I was a little bit nervous that the show was going to make you look different than you really are, but this is exactly what you used to put us through every day to make these videos."
Rapper Timbaland loves Todrick Hall. "That's just really cool," says Hall, "to hear people I have watched, respected and listened to since I was in middle school are saying my name."
Tell us about a few hilarious fails or surprising successes on the set.
We've had some fails, but honestly those fails end up helping us. When we were filming Beauty and the Beat, we needed a black baby to be in the scene and no one had a baby. The first lady we asked, we were like, 'Can we use your baby for this scene?' At this point I was dressed up literally like a crackhead — that was my character, a bum — and this lady was willing to let us use her child for the video. That's probably one of the craziest things that ever happened. It was one of the times that we failed but we ended up turning it around.
Your friends and followers rallied around you to shoot the Haterz video in Texas during the second episode of Todrick. What was that homecoming experience like for you?
I have to say, it ended up giving me goosebumps. It was such an awesome experience to get to see my family, and for them to get to see how hard we work. I look at my YouTube channel like a yearbook of my life, and [shooting the Haterz video] was such a huge, pivotal moment in my career — I got to see my mom and my little brother dancing for the first time. [I also got to work with] my cheerleading friends who helped me gain confidence and be OK with who I truly was in high school.
You got to meet Kelly Rowland in the show's first episode. But what have we not seen yet that has been life-changing for you?
The other day, Ester Dean, who is somebody that I've looked up to for such a long time, followed me on Twitter and direct messaged me. One of my friends told me that on a phone call with Timbaland, he said, "Do you know who I love? Todrick Hall." That's just really cool to hear people I have watched, respected and listened to since I was in middle school are saying my name.
I've had people that are 50 years old who I've looked up to say that our show has reinspired them to chase after another dream that they didn't think they could accomplish. That's why we're artists — to inspire other people and have fun.
