It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since Wizards of Waverly Place began airing on Disney Channel. Now, series regulars Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise are reliving all the fun through their rewatch podcast, Wizards of Waverly Pod. They’re going to relive all 106 episodes, plus the movie, plus the special finale, and they’re bringing along a few friends from the show as special guests. I had the honor of sitting down with the actors who played Harper and Jerry at ATX TV Fest about the experience of reuniting for this podcast, part of PodCo, co-founded by Christy Carlson Romano (Even Stevens, Cadet Kelly) and her husband Brendan Rooney.
(ATX/Jack Plunkett)
Alex: Congratulations on the success of Wizards of Waverly Pod. I listened last night to your reunion episode with Selena Gomez, which was really cool. How long has it been since you’ve had a proper reunion?
David DeLuise: Jen and I have hung out. I haven't seen Selena since David Henrie's wedding. She's a very busy person, but Jen and I have worked together on other things and spent time together. So, I mean, we're obviously spending a lot more time together now, which is very nice. But it's been a friendship that has been there forever. And I love Jen's mom, she’s the sweetest person in the world. And Jennifer and my wife love ghost shows and that stuff. So we've been enjoying spending time watching ghost shows, which I don't think are 100% real, but I enjoy that.
Jennifer Stone: But it's a lot of fun.
Alex: I mean, Travel Channel is basically ghosts 24/7 now.
Jennifer Stone: There can't be that many ghosts. But they introduced me to Zak Bagans, so now we have a whole thing that we've made. But a long story short, through the years, we've all kind of had dinners. We've caught up one-on-one. It's hard to get us all in the same place, but one-on-one little catch-up tags here and there. We've done that. But yeah, I'd seen Selena maybe a month before we did that episode. But having us all together, I think, was David's wedding.
David DeLuise: Yeah. It was really nice to chat with her again. And it's really nice to chat with any of the guests that we have because you're getting a fresh perspective on their participation on the show that you've never… I mean, I wouldn't say to you as the actor, "How did your audition go? How did it…" You know what I mean? But now I get to get that information, which is so fun. And also re-watching the show. There's a lot of stuff I didn't remember.
Jennifer Stone: To have 10 plus years of perspective as well, not only with talking to the guests but also watching the show, it gives you more of an objective, like distance. And then also just a life experience to be able to cherish this thing. It kind of takes the [BS] out of that experience, and you can really just cherish it.
David DeLouuse: I love the fact that the old fans can re-watch on Disney+ and listen to us. And then also the new fans can re-watch or watch on Disney+.
Jennifer Stone: What's really crazy is when the original fans are now having kids, and they're introducing them to the show, which just blows my mind.
David DeLuise: It makes me feel old.
Jennifer Stone: It's so sweet. Same.
Alex: It doesn't really feel like it was that long ago to me, either.
David DeLuise: And with the podcast, there's a resurgence of this. So, when I go out, I'm getting not, "Oh my God." People say, "You're my childhood, I love you." But then now they're saying, "I love the podcast with you and Jen. It's so much fun to listen to."
Jennifer Stone: I've had a few people say like, "Oh, you make my Mondays."
Alex: I feel like that should be a T-shirt that you guys sell on Patreon. Now, regarding how you record, are you batching this all? Do you actually get together weekly?
David DeLuise: We do some, because Jen is a nurse, and she works often.
Jennifer Stone:
And you're a world traveler. You're Carmen, San Diego.
David DeLuise: I do travel a lot. So we do some episodes closer together, which can make it a little complicated to remember everything that happened from the episodes.
Jennifer Stone: And it not repeat yourself.
David DeLuise: Yes. And that's why I'm taking notes, copious notes when I'm re-watching… Every week we're doing little snippets from the show. We're coming up with titles, but Jen and I are part producers of the show, and we want to make sure that the best possible product is going out.
Jennifer Stone: Even if we film some of the episodes together, it's still a weekly thing that we're either approving things, we're working on edits.
David DeLuise: It's a lot of work. We make it look easy. It's a lot of work in the social aspect of everything is… We have a great team. But it's tricky. You don't just go sit down and talk about stuff. You have to do all the social stuff.
Jennifer Stone: Well, it takes a village to build a podcast.
Alex: One of the things I loved about the episode that you guys just did with Selena was you were all learning things about each other that you weren't necessarily sharing at the time. What's something that you weren't expecting to learn that somebody was going through during that era?
Jennifer Stone: In general, to be honest, I've been… Maybe not surprised, but just kind of really touched at how heartfelt people have been. People have been so open and honest about that experience where I feel like a lot of times when you interview somebody, sometimes you get this veneer, and you get this politically correct… Especially in this time when people are very worried about being canceled and all that kind of stuff. But all of the people we've had on as guests, they've just been so honest and vulnerable. And just so genuine. And that's been so wonderful. And Selena was that way too. That has been so touching to me and so refreshing. because David and I are very no BS people. So I don't know if we help bring that out in people. But I also, too, have just been appreciative of the fact that it's not small talk and nonsense.
David DeLuise: Yeah. We ask the hard-hitting questions.
Jennifer Stone: What's your favorite sandwich? Your favorite question. We do this thing where we pull questions out of a crystal ball.
Alex: I usually listen to podcasts so I haven’t had a visual. What exactly is the crystal ball?
Now I listened, so I didn't get the visual. But what is the crystal ball? Is it just-
David DeLuise: Jen got it. It's like an octagon.
Jennifer Stone: It's like a glass octagon you put plants in from Amazon.
David DeLuise: It's so interesting. Well, we filmed the show as well. So it's on YouTube, and that's how I re-watch the re-watch.
Jennifer Stone: Very Meta.
David DeLuise: It's interesting because while you're recording it, you have to think about the listener as well. When you're sitting there doing a show where people are filming you, you have to remind yourself that people are listening as well.
Jennifer Stone: I'm sure your imagination was way cooler than what it is.
Alex: I thought maybe it was just a hat. A crazy, funky, junky hat.
Jennifer Stone: Well, we're still a relatively new podcast, and we're constantly evolving and shifting and changing with what the people want.. So maybe we'll have a little sorting hat action since we kind of poked fun at how we were Disney's Harry Potter.
David DeLuise: My wife will say, "Well, what's that?" And I go, "A hat. A crazy, funky, junky hat."
Jennifer Stone: It would be on my gravestone.
Alex: It was everywhere. If you watched Disney Channel but didn't necessarily watch the show, it was in the breaks, in the interstitials.
Jennifer Stone: Was it?
Alex: Yeah. They would play it at every commercial break on Disney Channel to promote Wizards of Waverly Place.
Jennifer Stone: Maybe that's what it was. because I still, to this day, am like, "It was in one episode in the first season, and that's it. It never came back." But maybe the interstitial thing was why everybody caught up. because everyone was like, "Oh, they did it throughout the show." Thank you for saying that because literally, I was like, it only was one episode. Why did people gravitate towards it? So funny.
Alex: Well, it was catchy too.
Jennifer Stone: It was very catchy. But yeah, I can't wear a hat without hearing it.
Alex: Jennifer, in your nursing career, do you ever get recognized from the show?
Jennifer Stone: Well, I'm in the ER. So I work with everybody, from homeless crazy people to children. Yeah, I just had… She actually… Bless her. She went viral because she made a TikTok about it. It was a really bad Memorial Day… There's this look of recognition people get. And so she kind of looked at me a little weird, and then she left and then came back, and she goes, "Are you…?" And I was like, "Am I who?" because I always make the person say, because otherwise I'm like, "Yes." And then they're like, it's not me, whatever. So she was like, "Are you Jennifer Stone?" And I was like, "Yeah." And she goes, "Oh my God." And then the nice part about that is, you take somebody's bad day. because in the ER, I'm seeing people on their worst days. It's not a good day. Nobody's having a great day when they come in to see me. But the nice part is if I have someone who recognizes me there, I give them a nice aspect to a crappy day.
David DeLuise: The fact that her video went viral and she was saying that you were there, you felt okay about that?
Jennifer Stone: Yeah. It's strange. I have an actor brain and a nurse brain. And to me, the nurse brain, they don't mix. And so that's why on the podcast, I don't talk about it a lot because I'm like, "Okay. Well, I'm in actor mode now versus nurse mode." And so when they recognize me at work, my brain kind of… I have a bit of a stroke. because I'm like, "Wait, where am I?" It's strange.
David DeLuise: As long as it doesn't stop you from being able to do your job, then you're good.
Jennifer Stone: Well, I had a girl get mad at me because she was like, "Can I film a TikTok with you?" And I was like, "Well, I'm at work. We can't film in the hospital. I could get fired." And she got mad at me. She was like, "Well, some people don't appreciate their fans." And I was like, "I'm at work. I can't." It's a patient privacy, safety thing.
Alex: I'm not violating HIPAA for TikTok.
Jennifer Stone: Yeah, totally. I'm like, "I get fired for your stupid dance." Come on. So yeah, it is a strange kind of overlap sometimes, but it also, for the most part, it's really sweet.
Alex: That's awesome. Thank you both so much for your time. I love the podcast, and I'm excited for this journey that you're on.
New episodes of Wizards of Waverly Pod drop on Mondays from PodCo wherever you listen. Get a visual of the experience on YouTube.