“Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll” creator/star Denis Leary was admittedly skeptical of casting a former Nickelodeon starlet in his edgy FX musical comedy, but he met his match in 22-year-old New Jersey native Elizabeth Gillies.
“I made sure to prove him wrong really quickly. I’m sure my bad mouth sold him, too,” says Gillies, who starred in Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” from 2010 to 2013.
“He gave all the girls [auditioning] a list of songs. I tried to take the most difficult song, an Aretha Franklin song. [In the screen test] we did a lot of improv and I think that’s what sealed it. We’re very similar and we have a great banter.”
In “SDRR,” Gillies plays Gigi, a wannabe singer who comes to New York in search of the washed-up rock-star father she never knew, Johnny Rock (Leary). After shocking him with her existence, she pitches her dad on getting his ’90s-era band The Heathens back together — with her as the new lead singer — which jump-starts a rocky father-daughter relationship.
Gillies, who now lives in LA, brings real musical cred to the role. A singer since she was a young child, she performed in her Bergen County church choir for 10 years before making her Broadway debut at age 15 in the musical “13.” From there she was cast in the musical sitcom “Victorious,” where she co-starred with a young cast that included Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande.
#TBT Leon’s first time! @leonthomas @ArianaGrande @MattBennett pic.twitter.com/womssMXb5D
— Elizabeth Gillies (@LizGillies) August 13, 2015
But despite being several decades younger than the rest of her “SDRR” co-stars (John Corbett, Elaine Hendrix, Robert Kelly), Gillies says she never felt the age difference during filming in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“I always hang out with people who are at least 15 years older than me so it’s all very normal to me,” she tells The Post. “We all got along great. We’re all on this long group text — we’re actually texting on it right now — it’s cute; it’s like we’re all 14 years old. They love texting, they love emojis more than I do, those old folks.”
In Thursday’s new episode, the band’s dynamic gets thrown for a loop by a surprise visit from Gigi’s mother, played by Leary’s ���Rescue Me” co-star Callie Thorne.
They love texting, they love emojis more than I do, those old folks.
- Elizabeth Gillies on bonding with the cast of 'Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll'
“She pissed a lot of people off when she disappeared and has a very complicated rapport with the rest of the group from when they knew her back in the day,” Gillies says of her on-screen mom. “She definitely shakes thing up between Flash [Corbett] and I and our budding romance. She throws a wrench in the whole thing, and the wrench is her.”
Other guest stars this season have included real-life rock stars like Joan Jett, Dave Grohl and Greg Dulli, and though “SDRR” is still awaiting a renewal decision from FX, that hasn’t stopped Gillies and the rest of the cast from making a wish list of cameos for Season 2.
“Denis wants David Bowie, that’s his dream,” she says. “I want Steven Tyler, so I’m really pushing for that one.”