Jordan Fisher talks about growing up in Alabama, overcoming insecurities, and building confidence through theater and music. He discusses how acceptance and passion shaped his journey in performing arts and helped him handle pressure.
I get excited, but I don't get nervous. I don't feel insecure. And if I do feel insecure, I try to put a stop to it so that I can figure out what that is so that I don't-- I think you gotta have a dream. The School of Greatness. Really? Yeah. Please welcome Lewis Howes.
What has been the best way for you to connect with people, specifically growing up, you know, being adopted and kind of in the South, I had tWitch on as well. He was like, you know, you kind of dance in the South in Alabama. No. He's like, you're not accepted as a guy. No. Dancing, singing, bro, doing these things.
How did you overcome that? Well, he was in Montgomery, too.
Totally.
Like, I mean, so much of, there's so much civil rights history all over Alabama, as you can imagine, right? It's all over the place. But I grew up in a football town outside of Birmingham called Trussville, and one of the only people of color, you know, I was the only mixed kid in my school. Really? Yeah. It was not, we, five or six black kids, everyone, it was white. I lived in a white football town and I was a gymnast.
Right. And you didn't play football, did you?
No. And then I fell in love with theater and dance and music. Me, in this town, with the things that I loved to do and my passion was forcing that square peg through the circle hole and it just wasn't going, it just wasn't gonna ever be right or feel like the right place for me to be.
Were you ever accepted in school doing those activities and passions?
Through success.
Right. Like the talent show, then the movie.
The fact that I would get up and sing and I was good, and kids would be like, what? That I was accepted then.
Interesting.
Had I not been, but it still be something that I'm really passionate about, it wouldn't have been received the same way, subsequently wouldn't have been treated the same way.
Right.
Which is really interesting. How were you? I remember a shift when all of a sudden every teacher in the school knew who I was and all of them loved me. And all of them were like, Jordan! And I was like, interesting.
How were you then?
I was fifth grade. That was the beginning of my love for art was fifth grade. Really great drama program. And that was the beginning of that. It was from that year, it was January of my fifth grade year to December of my sixth grade year, which would have been just that one, that 12-month period. --Everyone started to see you differently.
--Completely. --Is it because you were performing in front of the school or were you getting notoriety outside of school? --Kind of all over the place.
Like it was you know it's sort of with that school play at the beginning of the year, by the end of the year I was in middle school and I had joined a professional theater company, started working professionally, started training with Broadway professionals over that that summer and in the beginning of that fall. By the time we got to the fall musical at the school.
--And you performed. It was like.
--People were like, what is this? Because there was this amazing program in Birmingham, Alabama. Gonna blast it out right now. Red Mountain Theatre Company, Birmingham, Alabama. There's nothing like this company. You would never imagine in Birmingham, Alabama would there be the most opportunity to genuinely learn under masters of their craft. Broadway phenoms and directors and choreographers come down and teach and train. And that was my school. That was my school.
What was the three biggest lessons you learned from that summer experience or that program?
It was that summer that I was like, this is what I want.
Really?
This, I just love this. Like this is it. This is what I want. And then I auditioned for the Lion King on Broadway, and I got down to the bottom two. This all happened in one summer, dude.
You're like 11. Yeah. That's crazy.
Brand new to it all.
So anyway, period. So if you're, so you're at home with your mom and dad, were you ever, you know, acting or performing or dancing or singing with them until this time?
I was like performative, but not really. Like we would sing in the car. I would, you know, apparently I was tone deaf. Apparently I really wasn't a good-- Ask my folks. They were never like-- you-'re incredible. Let's get you into-- no, no, as a matter of fact, I wanted to go on Star Search. David Archuleta was on Star Search, and.
I was such a fan of his.
I was like, oh my gosh, he's doing the thing. I was like, I wanna go on Star Search. My folks were like-- you-'re not that good. No. And then all of a sudden, dude, they came to me and said-- They said, wait, did they say that? They asked me, do you think that if you went on, you would-- beat David. And I would go, no. Well, then why would you wanna... Oh my god. You know what I mean? Like, I was, dude, I could not sing. Come on, man.
I'm serious.
I don't know what else to tell you. You're so talented. I mean, so we'll thank Mr. Byers in fifth grade, I guess. I'm a music teacher. I don't know what happened, because to me always sounded the same. Singing Whitney Houston always sounded the same. Like, I didn't, I thought that I sounded fine. So it blew my mind when people were like, oh, you really weren't good, Jay. Like, you weren't good. And then all of a sudden, you were. It was miraculous like that. Like, genuinely, we could. I can. I can.
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