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In our Q&A series POPSUGAR Crush, we get to know some of our favorite celebs’ more intimate details — from their ideal first date to their most romantic gesture. This month, we’re crushing on “School Spirits” star Milo Manheim.
Milo Manheim is playing dead. Literally. In the actor’s new Paramount+ series, “School Spirits,” Manheim embodies an ’80s jock á la Emilio Estevez’s Andrew Clark in “The Breakfast Club,” ruling over his high school hallways with equal parts charm and vapidness. The twist, though, is that Manheim’s Wally is deceased — long deceased. Wally is one of a handful of ghosts trapped in the afterlife. And while he’s seemingly made peace with being confined to the bleachers and reliving his football heyday, Wally is forced to buck up in the first few episodes of “School Spirits” that are now streaming: he must help the newest teenage ghost investigate who is responsible for ending her life.
“Wally just might be the most fun role I’ve ever played,” Manheim, a Disney Channel alum, tells POPSUGAR. “He’s such a goofball. He’s like the golden boy, but everything is kind of a joke to him, so he just moves through life doing whatever he wants. But then when Maddie comes along, he kind of changes his tune a little bit.”
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At 22, Manheim wasn’t around for the decade his character lives in, so he turned to a vast archive of entertainment for research. Of course, he streamed some classic movies — like 1989’s “Say Anything” — but the actor says true inspiration was found in music like “What I Like About You,” The Romantics’ 1980 hit, and Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself.”
The series filmed in Vancouver, Canada, and the cast lived in the same building during the process, Manheim reveals, which led to a “family” feel amongst the group. “We didn’t really get sick of each other, which is crazy, so many of us,” he reflects. “But we just always were hanging out and I made some friends that I, hopefully, will have for the rest of my life.” Life and the afterlife, which Manheim admits he doesn’t necessarily believe in.
“I’m sorry. I don’t believe in ghosts,” he tenitively reveals, laughing. “I’m sure many people in the cast do, but I don’t. I believe in energy for sure. I think there could be bad energy around or like good energy, but I don’t know. I have yet to have an experience with a ghost. And if that happens, I’m sure my answer will change, but so far I need to be boring.”
Boring is something that Manheim is certainly not, though. The actor has a big heart — and big dreams. And as his star rises, he’s channeling some memorable career advice he received from a former NYU professor named Andy Schneeflock: “Don’t be interesting, be interested.”
Read ahead for more from Manheim, including his current streaming fave and the one celebrity he’s been crushing on for a long time. And stream the first three episodes of “School Spirits” on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.
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