Mollee Gray Gets Dramatic in Lifetime’s “Double Daddy”

Mollee Gray is known for playing happy go lucky Giggles in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach Movie and the upcoming Teen Beach 2, or for dancing her way to the Top 8 in Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance.

But now the actress is about to take on her most challenging role yet as the star of Lifetime’s original film, Double Daddy. Mollee took a few minutes to chat with me about her first dramatic part, and as you can imagine, the perky actress is thrilled. “It’s so unreal to me. I’m stoked!” she exclaimed.

In the teen thriller, Gray plays 16-year-old Amanda who learns her boyfriend Connor has impregnated a new girl at school, and discovers that she too is pregnant! When her character can’t think her world can get any more turned upside down, Gray reveals, “It just kind of takes a turn for the worse. This other girl is a little crazy and has a vendetta against her and she starts just going crazy!”

Take a look at the dramatic trailer for Double Daddy below.

Mollee is excited by this big step that her career has taken and reveals, “This is the first job that I have booked acting-wise where dance had nothing to do with the character.” Dance has been Mollee’s life and her career since she won her first professional role at the age of nine. And much of her success has come with the help of Disney; she appeared in all three High School Musical films, both Teen Beach movies and has appeared on several Disney series. “I am getting older and I am very loyal to Disney and I’ve always wanted to be loyal to Disney. But at the same time, in my acting career, I want to be a very serious actor.” Mollee says when she was first offered the role of Amanda, “I read the script and I was just amazed at how great of a role this was, and what a good transition it was towards becoming an adult actor.”

The film is what Gray calls “A realistic thriller,” and is a perfect way for her to explore the acting skills she’s worked so hard to gain. “I am such an outgoing and very loud and happy person it’s easy for me to channel a completely different side. Because it’s not something that I’m used to, I just go for it full force — fully committed.” She admits that playing someone a bit more dramatic that her sunny personality is a lot of fun. “This is actually the type of role that I prefer playing because my everyday life is so happy and I’m joyful and stuff. That’s the type of roles that I want to book … I like being somebody who I’m not at all.”

Mollee is also happy to reveal that her co-stars, Brittany Curran and Cameron Palatas, are nothing like the characters they portray either. “We were all goofballs off-set which is a great dynamic because this movie is so serious.” Gray and her fellow actors were definitely able to leave the film’s tension and animosity on set, and Gray reveals a fun story about her and Brittany Curran. “I remember posting something on Instagram while we were filming one of the scenes that you see it in the trailer where I’m running from her and she’s running at me in the woods … We got a ride to set in the back of one of our workers’ trucks and we were just eating Cups o’ Noodles in the back of the truck, taking pictures, and we look like we’re best friends. And my comment was like ‘it’s so hard to hate somebody that’s becoming your best friend.’ Because, you know, in the movie I’m supposed to hate her, but it’s so hard when she’s like my new best friend.”

Check out as things get intense for Mollee Gray and her “new best friend,” Brittany Curran in the Lifetime film, Double Daddy, premiering Saturday, June 6.

Double Daddy > Lifetime > June 6 at 8pm ET/PT