At the age of ten most kids are spending their time watching the latest Disney Channel shows but for actor Paxton Booth, he’s living out his dream actually being on the latest Disney Channel show.
Welcome to the world of Disney’s Channel’s Coop & Cami Ask The World, where two middle-school siblings co-host the online show “Would You Rather.” The young duo crowdsources opinions to life problems – both mundane and madcap from their millions of followers.
With the help of their little brother Ollie and Coop’s best friend Fred, every day is an adventure in the Wrather’s hectic household, which also includes their older sister Charlotte and mom, Jenna. Whatever the question or result, Coop and Cami tackle adolescence and everyday family situations with humor and heart.
Paxton plays Ollie Wrather, the fearless and enthusiastic younger brother of the duo and oftentimes the test-pilot for the more wild stunts of their online show.
While on set, Paxton never shies away from an exciting stunt thrown his way. Although he doesn’t have any formal stunt training, he has carried out several stunts on the set of Coop & Cami with the supervision of a stunt coordinator.
The Koalition spoke to Paxton about Coop & Cami, his passion for BMX bikes and Hot Wheels, becoming the youngest judge on 2019’s Hot Wheels Legends Tour, working with his local LA animal rescue Paw Works, his book club #PagesWithPaxton and more.
Being on the Disney Channel was always a dream for Paxton who is no newcomer to gracing TV screens, starting his professional acting career at just 2½ years old near his hometown of Ventura, CA. When he got the role of Ollie, it was a surreal moment.
“So many famous people have grown up on the Disney Channel. I remember walking through the Disney Channel building and seeing all these posters and famous people on these crazy super famous shows and I’m like…’ oh my gosh, what if I get my poster up there?’ I know we do have our poster up there and it’s amazing. I don’t know if I have comprehended that I have my poster in the Disney Channel building with all these other crazy good famous shows. It’s mind-blowing, it’s so cool.”
“I love being with the cast because we have an amazing cast. We have so many talented people on the show. Everybody has all these crazy talents and it’s amazing. I try to learn something from them every day and I do.”
[For season two], I’m really excited for kids to see Ollie grow up throughout the season. You learn a lot more about him. You even see his hidden talent come out that nobody knew he had.”
Already appearing in dozens of national commercials and landed several guest star roles on popular TV shows, working on Coop & Cami has taught Booth his greatest lesson so far: patience.
“I learned how to have patience. I know when I was auditioning for the role, I had to have so much patience and that’s one thing I learned really quickly. It took six months and it was a lot of just waiting to hear from Disney.”
Outside of Paxton’s passions for art and activities, he loves getting hands-on with philanthropic pursuits. He actively supports charitable causes surrounding animal rescue such as his newly adopted pittie puppy, the two rescue pit bulls he grew up with, and the local LA animal rescue Paw Works.
“Animal rescue is of course something very close to my heart because I grew up with two animal rescue Pitbulls. They were amazing and there are so many animals out there in the shelters and I really want to get them all out of there.”
“I love Paw Works because they take any breed of dog and cat. I just adopted a puppy from them. Her name is Ripley, she is so adorable. There are lots of organizations out there and this just happens to be the one that’s closest to me. I just love them. I just want to get all the animals out of the shelters. If any people can adopt, go adopt. Even if you can’t adopt, take up fostering. Even if it’s for a few weeks, just get those animals out of the shelters and love animal rescue.”
Paxton’s fearless nature translates both on and off the set, as he has been riding BMX bikes since the age of 3 – without ever learning to ride a bike with training wheels. Racing his BMX bike through skateparks and pump tracks has helped Paxton as an actor by increasing his body awareness. His love of automobiles also runs the course of a smaller, plastic track – with his collection of over 1,400 Hot Wheels. Having spent countless hours at car shows and museums, he has developed an immersive knowledge of classic cars, noting details on every single one of his Hot Wheels toys. Paxton recently served as the youngest judge to-date during the 2019 Hot Wheels Legends Tour – alongside Jay Leno, Adam Carolla, and others.
“I think the reason why I love Hot Wheels is because I’m not yet old enough to have my own car. This is my version of having a big car just on a smaller scale. When I grow up and I’ll be able to have my own big car, I think I’ll still be collecting Hot Wheels. That Hot Wheels Legends Tour was crazy, it was so cool. I got to work and judge cars alongside Jay Leno and Adam Carolla and all these super famous people and I was like ‘how the heck am I here?’ They’re super rad car guys and I always look up to them and it’s crazy to be able to judge with them. It was a dream come true and I got to hang out with so many fun people and there were so many rad cars there. It was just a really fun experience.”
“I also love to ride BMX with my dad. It’s one of my favorite things to do when I have downtime. I’m always doing it. It’s really fun. I love that feeling when you’re curving a big bowl and you’re gliding the top high above the ground and you’re like ‘oh my gosh, this is crazy.’ You hit big jumps and there’s an airborne feeling and you’re like ‘oh my gosh this is a dream come true.'”
During Quarantine, Paxton has been encouraging kids to read with his virtual book club #PagesWithPaxton where he shares his love of reading with his fans. “I love to read. I read so many books. I really wanted to get kids to start reading more, so I started my virtual book club. Every month, I do a new book. Right now I’m on Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun. He just did an adaptation for the movie. It’s really really creepy so far, it’s very good. I’m a huge fan of mystery, horror, and monsters. I love those kinds of books, especially my favorite is which are the mystery-monster books.”
Paxton also has a fascination with less artistically praised ’50s black and white horror films, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space. Captivated by the horror genre, Paxton deeply admires the directorial style of Tim Burton and dreams of being cast in one of his films.
“A Tim Burton film would be a dream role, I would love that. I always wanted to be that creepy scary kid. Tim Burton would be perfect and he’s my favorite director of all time. I think that would be a dream come true.”
Coop & Cami Ask The World airs on the Disney Channel and in the DisneyNOW app.
