Joshua Bassett Writes Olivia Rodrigo a Message About ‘Deja Vu’ Ahead of ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Season 2
Joshua Bassett spoke out about High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Olivia Rodrigo’s song “deja vu.” A few weeks after the song came out, he sent his public message ahead of likely promotion that he’ll have to do alongside Rodrigo for the Disney+ show. Bassett posted his response on Instagram Stories — here’s what he said.
Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett are co-stars on their Disney+ show
Firstly, Rodrigo and Bassett played romantic interests Nini Salazar-Roberts and Ricky Bowen, respectively, on their show in season 1. Their characters existed in the fictionalized East High School in Salt Lake City. HSMTMTS took place in a universe in which the Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical, filmed.
Nini and Ricky auditioned to play Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton in their school’s production of the DCOM. The two actors clearly developed some sort of friendship on set. But people also thought Rodrigo and Bassett had something deeper together in real life as well.
More than a year after the first season premiered on Disney+, Rodrigo put out her first single, “drivers license,” in January 2021. Fans immediately linked the single to Bassett and his alleged new girlfriend, Sabrina Carpenter. The brunette singer claimed that the song’s subject wasn’t important. Both Bassett and Rodrigo tried to steer conversations in interviews elsewhere beyond the drama of the song.
“Drivers license” was an unprecedented global success. And Rodrigo’s currently doing it again with her second song from her debut album Sour, “deja vu.”
Olivia Rodrigo released ‘deja vu,’ her first single after ‘drivers license’
On April 1, Rodrigo shared her next song, “deja vu,” with the world. While tonally the song differed from “drivers license,” the song’s seeming subject matter was about an ex of hers. Rodrigo’s “deja vu” lyrics discussed someone she loved “recycling” memories with a new person.
People again speculated that Rodrigo sang about Bassett and Carpenter. Rodrigo hasn’t directly confirmed who “deja vu” is about. But the “Lie Lie Lie” singer decided to speak out on it.
Joshua Bassett reacted to ‘deja vu’ like he did for ‘drivers license’
Bassett shared Rodrigo’s Instagram post about “deja vu” on his story on April 25. He wrote in his message, per Pop Crave: “Super late on this but I love this song so much @oliviarodrigo!”
The star continued, “The world better watch out for the album!”
Following the release of “drivers license,” Bassett wrote a similar congratulatory remark for Rodrigo. He even responded on TikTok to Rodrigo’s single being parodied on Saturday Night Live because the sketch mentioned his name, too.
The star joked that it was a “dream come true” for SNL to mention him. Of course, the context was that the characters in the sketch weren’t major fans of Bassett’s. He played “Happy & Sad” by Kacey Musgraves in the reaction clip.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 1 is available to stream on Disney+ and the second season comes out on May 14.
