'Hairspray Live!' Cast Really Hopes to Influence the Current State of America

It’s a scary time in America. But the cast of Hairspray Live! is hoping to change that – or at least distract people with a few hours of uplifting television.

“When we all got these roles, none of us were thinking of it in this exact light. And in light of recent events, I think it’s definitely taken on a more emotional important sort of heightened place in our hearts,” Dove Cameron told Just Jared. “We are artists but we’re humans and we are also aware of what is going on. It’s palpable. The energy that is in the air, no matter where you go these days is very palpable. So this means something entirely different than when we started.”

Ariana Grande said the timing of Hairspray Live! coming out with what is going on in America is cosmic. “I think it was meant to be. I think the universe had a plan and was like, ‘OK we need to show these people something uplifting but also that will make you get the point – get the point across but also make you have a good time,” Ariana said.

Click inside to see what the rest of the cast said…

“It’s sad, you know, life imitating art,” Derek Hough said. “Being part of this. we feel a responsibility but also a privilege to be able to tell the story that within a story you can see the way things are in a certain way and the way things should be by uniting and unifying and coming together and reminding ourselves that we all come from the same place. We’re all family. We’re the human race. We need to come together. It’s wild. They were doing a scene earlier holding picket signs and going through the streets and then you go home and flip on TV and the same thing is happening.”

“This is not my first film in the 1960s era,” Jennifer Hudson added. “But back then when I was doing Dreamgirls, I had to go back and look ‘OK what happened in the ’60s?’” she explains. “I don’t find myself having to do that now. It’s like turn on the news! I think it gives this story much more power and meaning.”

“The topic of equality is so relevant to this show,” Maddie Baillio explained. “We have so much hate right now in America and everywhere. It’s bold to say but I hope that maybe someone who is flipping through the channels who maybe doesn’t believe in equality, who doesn’t have a lot of love in their heart for everyone, maybe they stop on Hairspray and maybe it will change their minds and spirits about the way that they think and maybe just love everyone. That’s bold to say but hopefully we change the love.”

MUST-WATCH: Watch the cast preview the musical at the 2016 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade!

�” Reporting by Nicole Pajer