Underrated - Rueby Wood

Page Scrawler · April 19, 2022

Tim Federle's novel, Better Nate Than Never, has been adapted as a musical comedy film titled "Better Nate Than Ever", available on Disney+. The star of this movie is fifteen-year-old Rueby Wood, an Oswego, NY native. The hardest part of the movie, he says, wasn't the acting, singing, or dancing; Wood actually has prior experience onstage, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Broadway 2018-2019) and Mary Poppins (Syracuse Stage 2016-2017). Instead, it was the classroom scenes that presented the biggest challenge, since Wood has been homeschooled his whole life.

"It was kind of new to me because I obviously haven't been in a lot of schools, but I have a lot of friends who go to public schools. I kind of know what it's like based on their experiences," he says. "But it was definitely a lot of fun being able to act like I do go to school, even though I actually don't."

The young actor also shares the advice he picked up from Kudrow, 58, Bassett, 21, and director Tim Federle, creator of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

"With Lisa, I learned from watching her because she's such a natural and she's been doing it for a long time," he says. "So just being in a scene with her and watching what she does, I learned a lot from that."

"A really good piece of advice I got from Tim Federle and also Joshua Bassett is that if you go onto set every day and you are just a bubbly ball of joy and you have that infectious happiness, then your mood affects everybody else," shares Wood.

"So if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, you can go onto set and be all moody and grumpy, or you can go and be just really open and happy and willing to do whatever," he adds.

Wood tells PEOPLE that the role taught him to always be true to himself.

"Nate really inspired me to just be myself, unapologetically, all the time, no matter what," he says. "It's just an amazing story about finding who you are and finding your light and coming into yourself. I think it's going to inspire so many kids out there."