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That recently lived experience brought an authenticity to the series, though, as Shane Kippel, a.k.a.
Gavin Spinner Mason, points out: If your school is anything likeDegrassi,you should probably change schools.
Jake Epstein, who played Craig Manning, sometimes felt the show tried to betooreal.
We would beg the makeup people to cover our zits, he says in a phone call from Toronto.
Ellie Nash herself, Stacey Farber, agrees that their extreme naivete should have been cringeworthy.
Yet it works because that vulnerability was real, she writes over email.
We captured what it feels like to be figuring things out at 14 or 15.
They were basically unintentional method actors, experiencing all the drama of adolescence in real time.
(Though its unlikely any fans predicted his musical success based onJimmy Brookssrhymes.)
A binge ofDegrassiis like a therapy session, says Andrea Lewis, who played Hazel Aden.
Youre going to feel very seen.
In celebration ofDegrassi: TheNext Generations 20th anniversary, ten of the original cast members shared their favorite episodes.
No surprise, more than a few of them really gothere.
Yorke (Ryan Cooley) think theyre on ecstasy.
(In actuality, theyre on aspirin.)
Now, he thinks theyre funny, but it took awhile for him to get there.
But looking back today, he can appreciate how funny he and Cooley were together.
The 13-year-olds didnt know what ecstasy was, but onscreen, it plays like an absurdist comedy routine.
Whenever the crew laughed, he says, it was always a good sign.
I just had to hang onto that.
From that point on, I was in awe of his talent.
Collins was only 14 years old.
I was a virgin, she says.
This was not familiar territory to me.
Sadly, I think women understand being sexualized at such early ages in our lives, she says.
Even if you didnt know the language then, you were able to say, Somethings wrong here.
Collinss biggest fear wasnt the material, but her dad coming to set.
She was also concerned about the slap Paige gives Spinner for slut-shaming her.
She didnt want to risk hurting me or scuffing up my face, Kippel says.
He encouraged her to go for it and not worry about anything aside from the emotion and the rage.
Kippels onscreen look of shock was real, too.
I decided that day that I should probably strive to stay on Laurens good side.
Hopefully, it helped some other people love themselves.
After leaving the show in 2004, Schmidt followed Terris lead and became a model.
I actually booked my first campaign based on the brand seeing me onDegrassi, she says.
My whole career is thanks to Terri.
To get the intimacy, we always had to cheat a little bit, he says.
Clark was two years older than her and seemed so much more experienced, she says.
But looking back, she thinks the nerves added to it looking genuine and unrehearsed on-camera.
Despite Emma unexpectedly marrying Spinner in season nine, all these years later, the No.
To which I always say,Yes!
That was the OG relationship, he says.
At first, Spinner is dismissive of his friend, but he ends up overcoming his homophobia.
That was the case here; the two guys kept missing their lines and cracking up over it.
But the weight of it scared me a little, she admits.
I didnt understand anxiety or depression, she says, but I related to Ellies bottled feelings.
It didnt run in the U.S. for another two years.
There was all this whispering about fans trying to get access to it, Lewis says.
And this was early internet days.
It really says a lot about the time.
It also says a lot aboutDegrassi,which Stefan Brogren points out has a legacy of covering abortion.
(That baby turns out to be Emma, FYI.)
Being the child of a teen mom, Emmas passionate views come from a sincere place, McDonald says.
Hopefully, the episode made people feel less alone.
And we loved every minute of shooting.
It was all very 2004.
Goldstein thought it felt sort of like doing a play, in a way.
Clark felt like he was actually in detention.
Even the studio was quieter, he says.
It was just a different vibe.
Farber remembers laughing all the way through the shoot.
Aubrey was the funniest person I knew hes still one of the funniest people I know, she says.
Whenever we had scenes together, wed crack each other up.
At the time, all Epstein wanted to do was play music.
Every lunch time I would jam with some of the crew members, he says.
Knowing that, the shows music supervisor let him write the music for his onscreen garage band Downtown Sasquatch.
He ended up singing and playing the bass and guitar onCraigs big pop-punk apology.
Everything about this episode was kind of a dream come true for me, Epstein says.
Even the fact that Craig doesnt get the girl in the end.
At the time, my feelings were that Craig needed to be alone, he says.
He needed to maybe take a second to sort of find himself.
He was such a total heartthrob.
Farber admits that, at the time, the episode seemed really dramatic to me.
Its astonishing and so horrific how thats changed.
It was ahead of its time, sadly.
While filming, no one actually knew if Jimmy was going to survive.
It was veryGame of Thrones, Epstein says.
Where we were like,No one is safe.
We could go at any minute.
Youre just scared and waiting to hear whats going to happen.
Losing such an innocent character showed how fragile life was, Daniel Clark says.
Teenagers think theyre invincible, but that moment showed us all we were not.
It looked like a funeral for Ryan, he says.
There was a coffin on set with his picture, it was just odd.
I think that sort of means it worked, right?
Its not supposed to make sense.
After shaving his head for the episode, he also learned something new about himself.
It was one of Brogrens first episodes behind the camera, and its all thanks to Kevin Smith.
I thought it was a big old joke.
So did some fans.
Some kids love the episode, some kids think its not canon, he says.
Oh, its canon.
In reality, it was water that was up to my knees, she says of thenow-infamous scene.
Drakes Im Upset video (2018)
Filmingthe Drake videofelt like abizarre high-school reunion.
It was so weird, but good weird.
I think he knew that it was going to be a real mix of emotions for everyone coming back.
Some of his skits in French class had the teacher and class literally howling with laughter, she says.
He loved making people laugh.
For Kippel, it brought back memories of the two young guys working out together.
He was coming to the gym with me back then, trying to develop his body, he says.
I think we know who won that race.
Back then, Kippel remembers Drake spending long nights in the recording studio and filmingDegrassiduring the day.
(Drake claimed he was kicked offDegrassifor this reason.)
He would talk about his fears of it not working out.
He didnt know if being a B-class or C-class rapper would be enough for him, he says.
Its so cool to look back and know he didnt really have to worry about that.
I show up in a Maybach, she says.
Like,Hell yeah, Paige is living!
