When I say I'm good with my hands, I mean like I I'm more like a great mime.

Okay, show me your mime because I'll do a mime. Once upon a time, there was a truck. What? What? Here with Jen Carlos Canella. How are you?

Round two, ding.

How long has it been? Oh, a week.

A year.

Jen Carlos. Canella. Wow. This is because you have so many projects. It has not been a week, Nikki.

It hasn't it has not been a week.

I like to exaggerate.

I love to be here. I love Young Hollywood.

Do you? Is that why you decided to be passionate. Just seeing you come to Young Hollywood.

I feel at home. I feel at home. I feel like I can like do anything I want here.

Okay, go ahead. What what else would you like to do? This is how it's going to start. How's your jacket?

My jacket's good. Thank you.

Comfy?

I've been told to not move 17 times before we started this interview because my jacket's apparently doing something weird.

This is how famous you're becoming. You have people. What's your

She's the famous one. She's the famous one here. Keep going. I'm not the one in The Passion, okay? I'm not the one with an album coming out.

I know, I know The Passion, the album. The Passion. Jesus um was by trade a carpenter. Right.

Yes, he was.

Are you handy?

I'm very skilled with my hands.

So are you like a woodworker kind of thing? Like are you are you could would you be like the kind of guy around the house that the woman says, "Honey, this is broken."

When I say I'm good with my hands, I mean like I I'm more like a great mime.

Okay, show me your mime 'cause I'll do a mime. We got to do it this way or they'll be like, "Huh, we don't care." What am I

Check this out, check this out. What am I going to do now? Wait, I'm going to pick around the corner. Hold on. I'm about to paint. I'm about to I'm about to do make a story for you guys with my hands. Once upon a time, there was a truck. What? What?

I don't know. That's what I said.

It's my interpretation. Plus a second, where did you see once upon a time? Where did I do? No, no, I went like this. How is this once upon a once upon a time? And I went like this, there was a truck.

Oh, is just that dance? That's like That's like if I were to say I say if you were to do this and I were to say it's Monday morning and I'm making pudding. Like, it's like what what? So I want to talk about your music because you have an album coming out. Your fourth album. So I want to know a little bit about that. It's

Look. It's called Handsome. It's

What? Who told you that? Oh. Nikki, you hitting on me? Was that like a like a line? Was that like a line?

I didn't say anything. You got me blushing, girl. Stop, stop. Growing up, I heard the Beatles. I heard mostly Sting, uh Lionel Richie, uh Prince, Michael Jackson, he's a huge influence. We have people like Monsters and Strangers. They produce everyone from One Direction to Maroon 5 to Selena, uh Nick Jonas, uh which is doing awesome stuff. And we have Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels on the writing staff. They wrote Sorry for Justin Bieber. They wrote uh Look Good for You and Hands to Myself for Selena. I mean, they're they're doing some awesome music. When y'all hear all those influences mashed in one with a little bit of, you know, what what we do and uh and that contemporary sound, you know, it's it's rhythm and romance.

Are you hitting on me again?

Yeah yeah, sure. Yes, always. Always, Nikki.

What's your favorite ballad of all time?

My favorite ballad of all time. What's your favorite ballad of all time? Help me out.

Don't Stop Believin'.

That's not a ballad. That's not a ballad, Nikki.

To me, it is.

No, it's not. It's got like That's like a That's like the epic karaoke song. That's not a ballad. Like Un-break My Heart. Yes. Those are ballads. Okay. Not Don't Stop Believin'. My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion. That's a beautiful ballad. Congratulations. That's great. What's yours?

No one cares about mine. Um oh, I have a great one.

Damn you, Bruce Willis, 'cause you always get me at the end of Armageddon with that scene. Oh. Every time I watch Armageddon. Every time. When Aerosmith comes in and and and Bruce just puts his hand on the glass door. It gets me only that and Toy Story, when he leaves the toys behind.

What? When he leaves the toys behind.

They are the same. Emotionally, they are they have the same weight. Toy Story, when he leaves the toys behind and you see Woody and Buzz like, you know, they're like just watching him go and you're like, "Oh no, Andy, don't leave them. They're alive." It's just it's heartbreaking.

Somebody once cast you because they said you had gentle eyes. And someone said, I don't know who it was, the director or who it was, said that that was the what clinched this role for you is that you had gentle eyes.

My gentle eyes? Like Gen, like Gen like my Gen like Gen. And he puns. Huh? No pun intended. Gen. He has he has Gen. Gen, J E N. That'll be your rapper name. Gentle. Yo, Gentle in the house. What's up? Rapping in The Passion. The Passion.

Passion, you have a lot of passion though. Yes, but is it the same kind of It's not the same kind of passion, or is it the same kind of passion?

It is the same kind of passion. We're not trying to cater this show to a Christian community. Solely, you know, the the Christian community, the religious community, they're going to be able to see this and of course, identify with it. And we're grateful to have their support, you know, the way we've had it 'til now. Uh because we are staying true to the biblical sense of the story, but there's a reason why our our wardrobe is modern, the songs that were chosen to tell this story. Love Can Move Mountains by Celine Dion, Home from Philip Phillips, Unconditionally from Katy Perry, Demons from Imagine Dragons. These are songs that we know very well, but they've never been heard within this context. So,

It's so genius.

It's it's genius because you're speaking to not a specific group, but you're speaking to everyone now. This story's about love, unity, hope, forgiveness, acceptance. Those are all things that we can all relate to. I don't care if you're atheist, Buddhist, Jewish.

Or Hollywood. We need that. Honesty, loyalty.

Yeah, of course. And there's betrayal, there's anger. There's a lot of that. We see a lot of things here that we can apply to our day-to-day lives. It's for our generation. It's for our time to be able to relate and identify with the story.

No beard and you're gonna be dressed like this?

Yes, ma'am.

If you were to grow the beard, how long would it take you? 'Cause you're not hair-challenged.

My team, we walk around with uh with a razor. Every every every 30 minutes, I have to trim it.

So, should we cut? So you can shave?

We should. At some point, I'm going to have to I'm going to have to trim the beard. Okay. In the scene.

So let us know. Would you like to take us out with your mime and your gentle eyes? Let's do it together. Are we freestyling it? Yeah. Come on. Interpret this story, Young Hollywooders out there. The Passion. Oh, it's so beautiful. Love. Passion.