Reason Julianna as LazyTown Stephanie instead of Shelby

[StephanieM]

Re: LazyTown Pilot Episode

Do any of you know if there was any reason they decided to pick Julianna as Stephanie for the real show instead of Shelby Young?

[Fox]

Re: LazyTown Pilot Episode

Do any of you know if there was any reason they decided to pick Julianna as Stephanie for the real show instead of Shelby Young?

Yup.
Why don't we ask the girl, Shelby, herself? ;)

Chris: LazyTown fans that have bothered to pay attention to your story, which is quite a few, we know that you eventually had to back out of the role due to contractual disagreements between what LazyTown needed, and what your union would allow, but aside from that vague premise we really don’t know any of the details about what happened. So I was wondering if you could elaborate on what exactly happened that prevented you from playing that role.

Shelby Young: I filmed the pilot, we ended up going around, we did some other stuff, we did some stage work at some schools in, I think it was New Jersey. So I was with the project for a little while and then we found out that it got picked up by Nickelodeon, and we were thrilled. Then we found out, to save money, the production was going to go non-union. I’m a member of the Screen Actors Guild, it’s now Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA put together, but at the time it was just SAG. Basically, once you are in SAG, you’re not allowed to do non-union work. There are penalties. If you’re doing something small, like a spot in a music video, or a short film, or a one-off role, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to get caught by SAG. It’s still frowned upon to do, but people do it. It’s fine helping out friends and what not, but if you’re going to be the serious lead of a show, that’s going to be filming for, I think at the time, they wanted me to commit to two years in Iceland. So obviously, my mom discussed it with SAG to see what those penalties were exactly, and whoever she was speaking to, we went back and forth for so long, it was such a hard decision, because we kept saying we didn’t think we could do it, and they would come back offering more money. To me as a kid, I didn’t exactly have a concept of money, I knew it was important to live, obviously, but it wasn’t something that would drive me; it would drive me more now than then to make that decision. But my mom found out from SAG that basically, you could either be fined a really hefty sum, or they could go so far, or what they were saying they would do, they could kick you out of the union. I don’t know if it’s for a certain amount of years or if it’s forever. I’ve wanted to act since I was a kid, and it’s something I hoping that LazyTown would help me with getting jobs in the future, but, from what it was sounding like, if we took the job it would really hinder me from working again. It just ended up not being worth it, sadly. It would have been such an amazing experience, but it was my mom's, and my, decision. Obviously, she was helping me make these decisions because I was only ten. She sat me down and was like, “Shelby, what do you want to do? What do you think we should do,” and I said, “Look, if it’s..” I mean, I wasn’t this articulate at the time, but I was like, “If this is going to keep me from being able to be in film and television for the rest of my life, then that’s just not worth it to me.” We ultimately decided to stay on the safe side and turn it down, and I think it all worked out the way it was supposed to. I think Julianna is an amazing Stephanie. I know, at ten, moving to Iceland for two years was something that I was already a little nervous about doing, because I had my friends and my whole life and it was a scary thought. I would have done it if it had worked out, totally, because I did love the experience, but things happen in a way they’re supposed to happen, I think.

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