Matt Prokop caught our attention when he played Jimmie Zara in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. This week he’s back on the big screen as Tyler Sanders in the family comedy Furry Vengeance. Matt fills us in on the importance of being green, what it was like working with real animals and the rumours about High School Musical 4. 

Furry Vengeance is a hilarious comedy, but is there a moral to the story?

Yes, it has a great message behind it. Basically Brendan Fraser plays Dan Sanders, my dad, who is hired to build a neighbourhood and take out a small portion of the forest. But then his evil boss reveals that they are taking out the entire forest. The local animals hear about this and they do whatever they can to stop the evil destruction of the forest. My character, Tyler Sanders, gets told this by a local environmentalist, Amber. She really opens up Tyler’s eyes to what his dad’s really doing and we give the animals a voice they never had. 

 Are you quite a green person yourself?

Yes. I’m always trying to turn off the electricity wherever possible and recycle and do what I can to live a greener life.  I started shooting stuff for dosomething.org, it’s kind of just a big website involved in planting trees and going green.

The film had real animals starring in it. What was it like having them on set?

It was amazing. It was pure work when we were on set, but once those cameras stopped rolling, we were hanging out with all the animals and playing with the racoons and skunks and I actually got to pet the bear, which was cool.

Which was your favourite?

I’d have to say the racoons. They’re very cuddly, kind of like a cat, they wanted to hang on to you and rub their noses on you. The bear wasn’t that scary until we had to make him roar in front of the camera. That’s when everyone realised: “Okay, this is a real bear. It could kill you. This is scary.” But he had great trainers and I’ve never seen such tame animals. There might have been the occasional crew guy who got pooed on or something, by one of the birds. But genuinely, they were all very well trained. 

 The film was made on a green film set. What did that involve?

A lot of eco-friendly trucks and we had a team of recyclers who were hired to come in every day and make sure people were putting all their recyclables in the right bins. We didn’t have any water bottles on set, there were big water jugs and everyone had their container to put their water in. We just kind of did everything we could to make the set more of a green environment.  

Did you learn a lot from the film?

Yes I really did. I took my water bottle back with me and I still, to this day, have it. I try and do what I can to cut back on certain things in LA and do what I can to stay green. I really wanted to sneak home the racoon. 

Do you have any pets at home? 

I have three dogs and two cats back in Texas. I love animals. I’m a big animal lover. So I love going home and I try and spend a good hour a day playing with my pets. 

What was it like working with Brendan Fraser and Brooke Shields who have both been acting for years? 

It was pretty intimidating. I was a huge fan of Brendan’s growing up. Everything from California Man to The Mummy series and it was just really nice to see how genuine and down-to-earth they were. There were never any diva moments or anything. They were so nice and caring – just genuine people and it made everything so much easier to get through. The nerves kind of fizzled away after they really respected me as one of their peers and not just the new young kid. 

Most of the film is set outdoors. Are you an outdoorsy kind of guy?

Yes, I grew up in South Texas so I was constantly either camping, or out fishing or just doing something. When I was six years old, I was out fishing with my dad and I had just caught a fish and he was trying to get it in the net. My sister wasn’t paying attention and she got bumped and pushed into the water. That was a fun process: it was either catch the fish or save my sister. Unfortunately, we saved my sister. No, I’m just kidding!

So what else is coming up for you? Is it true you will be in HSM4?

As of now, we’re heard nothing of HSM4 – it’s all been rumours. Other than that hopefully I can have some vacation time. I’m big into travel and want to check out the Caribbean and see Jamaica and hopefully come back to London!

Catch Matt in Furry Vengeance in cinemas now - watch the trailer below!