The movie stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Mandy Yang, a senior trying to avoid high school culture things like prom and Milo Manheim as Ben, Mandy's bestie who actually does want to be more involved in that high school life. They make a pact to go together as friends.
[Ads /]
Meanwhile, Mandy is wait-listed at her ultimate dream school, Harvard. She hatches a plot to befriend the most popular boy in school, played by Blake Draper, whose politician father is a Harvard alum, so the dad can write her a letter of recommendation. We won't spoil it for you, but hijinks ensue and lessons are learned, including the universal themes of not letting life pass you by and not judging a person before you really get to know them.
Peyton Elizabeth Lee told On The Red Carpet, "This is exactly the kind of project that I love to make, something that has strong female characters and something that really celebrates the complexities of life and of growing up and all the things that can be and can look like. And having the whole 80s twist on it adds even more to it."
Did we mention the prom is 80s themed?
Executive producer Julie Bowen said they leaned into the theme and drew inspiration from the John Hughes films from the 80s that we all know and love, even the ones that might be a tad problematic today.
"Everybody just loves all those old movies and they bring us such a great feeling," Bowen said. "If you look at them too close, they're not gonna bring you a great feeling so we decided we would address that straight up and then embrace what we loved about those movies, which was that feeling of friendship, love, the importance of high school, being seen as a teenager as a real person. And that's what John Hughes did so beautifully, he saw teenagers as real people."
[Ads /]
Blake Draper said he hopes people take a closer look at his popular jock character Graham.
"There's more to him than being Mr. Popular or playing basketball you know. I tried to get that across and hopefully it resonates with people," Draper said.
Milo Manheim told us his character Ben helped him really hone in on the film's lessons. "The reason I love him so much is he reminded me of that. He reminded me that I'm doing exactly what I want to do with my life, I'm having an amazing time. My life is full of people that love me and I love them. And I've gotta stop letting each day pass me by and really focus on the present and enjoy it all."
"You only get your senior year once and you're really gonna regret not having fun when you're a teenager, which is the time to have fun," Wendi McLendon-Covey said.
"Prom Pact" is streaming now on Disney+.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Disney+ and this ABC station.