“I will say, I have always wanted to have my singing as a little something to keep in my back pocket and utilize when the time was right,” the actor tells TooFab exclusively.
Zane Phillips is still waiting on a phone call from “Daddy Disney” when it comes to playing Hercules in the Mouse House’s upcoming live-action remake of the animated flick.
While hosting the GLSEN LA Pride Reception on Wednesday at The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood, the 30-year-old actor told TooFab exclusively how it’s felt to see a new surge in support for him landing the titular role.
“You know what? I’m really flattered,” the Fire Island star said. “It’s really such an honor that people are passionate about seeing, I don’t know, someone like me take on something like that. I have to stop sometimes and be like, ‘There’s a lot of people who are rooting for you’ and I feel that and I see it and I’m like trying to internalize it.”
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Discussion around the actor being cast as the titular role in the upcoming live-action has been making its way around X and TikTok for months, with many fans initially curious to know whether he has a singing voice to match his chiseled appearance.
Much to their surprise, he can — telling OUT in March that he has a musical theater background and actually performed “Go The Distance” from Hercules at a cabaret in 2015. And it didn’t take TikTok long to find that exact clip.
“You’ve been following. Holy sh-t,” Phillips told TooFab when we brought up the footage. “I will say, I have always wanted to have my singing as a little something to keep in my back pocket and utilize when the time was right.”
“I think, hopefully people understand that this was a world that I was like, so in for so long. But yeah, it’s fun to surprise people, you know, it’s really fun to surprise people,” Phillips said of the viral clip.
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While now seems like the right time to bust out those singing chops again, Phillips confirms he hasn’t yet heard from Disney or director Guy Ritchie.
“Daddy Disney has not called, no,” he told TooFab. “And that’s the thing, I’m also very happy to have a career that is built on, I don’t know, I don’t necessarily need to do like the big IP. I’m really passionate about storytelling and whatever that looks like, that’s what I want to take part in. It’s okay if it doesn’t go my way, I think they’re going to get someone big.”
Of course, there’s still the power of social media.
“That’s true, if I can mobilize the TikTok army, yeah maybe. We’ll storm the Disney building,” Phillips joked, before adding that he would love to play the character. “Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t. Who wouldn’t.”
Producers Joe and Anthony Russo — known for directing films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — told GamesRadar in April that they are still “waiting on a script,” while names like Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan have been floated out there as the potential zero-to-hero.
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Phillips has been working since 2014 with notable roles in Fire Island, Glamorous and Good Trouble.
“You know, I think it’s always hard to have an objective view of yourself and your own career. I think actors, we’re all crazy and we all are having to navigate our own ambitions,” Phillips told TooFab of his career so far. “So here’s what I’ll say: I’m so grateful for what I’ve accomplished, if this is all I ever do then I’ll be so glad. I feel like I’ve lived a great life.”
“It sounds like I’m getting prepared for my funeral,” he quipped, adding, “I really love doing what I do so hopefully that love can just take me further.”
Phillips was hosting GLSEN’s Pride event in West Hollywood, raising funds and awareness to ensure LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment.
“I think it’s nice to remind ourselves even in a city that is as accepting as Los Angeles that there are still a lot of people in this country who don’t have the benefit of being in a safe space,” Phillips said. “I love GLSEN’s work. I love that more people are learning about GLSEN’s work. Even I, in the past year, have been introduced to them and really become familiar with what they’re doing and I’m a huge fan.”
