Pushing-Daisies.com recently caught up with busy young actor Field Cate (Young Ned) and asked him some questions about working on the set of Pushing Daisies, his co-stars (including Orbit), Ned’s last name, and what he does in his free time. Check it out!

How did you land the role of Young Ned?
I auditioned, like I do for everything else. But the funny thing is that when I auditioned for this role, my character had lines! There was a whole page of the script that was a scene between Young Ned and his mom, where he’s telling his mom about his dog dying and then coming back to life. But when I arrived at the set to shoot my first scene, suddenly Young Ned was mute! I guess it was like an artistic choice or whatever to put narration over Young Ned’s scenes, which is cool. But my character has actually said “No” twice!

Here’s what the fans have been asking from early on: what is Ned’s last name?
That’s a really good question! Hopefully we’ll find that out. But for now, he’s just Ned the Pie Maker!

The resemblance between you and Lee Pace is amazing; do the two of you see each other much on the set? Do you work together to develop Ned as a character?
I think casting did a great job. I see Lee all the time, in the makeup trailer or just walking around between sets. But, of course, we don’t have any scenes together. Chi McBride mentioned that Lee watches my scenes to learn more about our character, and when I watch the show I definitely learn more about Young Ned by seeing what his adult self does. So I guess we work together without really working together!

Speaking of co-stars, I saw that you and Sammi Hanratty (Young Chuck) both attended the premieres of The Spiderwick Chronicles and the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana movie; are you friends in real life?
Sammi and I are good friends. We knew each other years before Pushing Daisies. We have the same manager and used to do improv classes together. We both seem to be at all the same premieres, which is nice. The press likes to interview us together a lot, just because of the show. I recently took her to a Valentine’s Day dance at my school…just as friends, of course! She’s two years older than I am, so…

That’s really cool. It must be nice to get to work with a friend on the show. The sets for Pushing Daisies are amazing, what’s it like to work in that environment?
It’s pretty incredible when you see all the details they put into the sets. You could practically live in them! I’m always blown away when I walk onto a new set.

You open every episode, giving us some background about Ned and setting up what we’re going to see in the “today” part of the episode. Do you always know what’s going to happen in the episode, or do you watch it and then see what the “story” was?
I do know what sorts of things and characters are going to be in the episode because I’ve seen the set decoration and the actors and the animals that are in it. But it’s fun to just watch it when it airs, like everyone else in the audience.

You work a lot with Orbit (aka Digby); is he a good co-star? Do you have any pets?
I love working with Orbit…he’s like the perfect dog! But I don’t really get to hang out with him because his trainers are very careful with him, and they don’t want him to get all excited when he’s working. At home, I have two cats, and I have a gecko that I just got for a Christmas present. I do love animals, and I’ve been raised a vegetarian. A great organization, PETAKids, interviewed me recently, and I told them all about my animals and stuff.

Which episode is your favorite, so far?
My favorite episode is the Halloween one; it was called “Girth.” I have scenes at the beginning and the middle of that show. The flashbacks in that episode are so sad because you see how Young Ned sort of loses his dad to a new family while he’s at boarding school. When we were shooting that, everyone on the set was talking about how tragic it was for poor Young Ned! A funny story is that I was trick-or-treating that night, in real life, and I rang my friend’s doorbell and her mom answered. She said that she had literally just been watching one of my scenes in that episode, and then suddenly there I was at her doorstep, and it kind of freaked her out! Oh, and by the way, I was also dressed like a ghost, just like my character was (except that I had a mutant baby attached to my head as well).

A mutant baby? Awesome! What do you like to do in your free time?
I have a little brother, Springer, who just turned three, and he takes up a lot of time…but he’s really fun. He just went on his twelfth audition, and I went into the room with him, since I know what to do and everything. So I help him out and stuff. But my very favorite thing to do is play video games— PS2, Wii, PSP…I’m pretty much an addict! I’d love to be a video game designer one day, in addition to being an actor. My friends and I are talking about starting a band, and we’re going to call it Fizacol, after our names: Field, Zack, and Coleman. I’m going to be the lead singer and songwriter. I take singing lessons, dancing classes, and I do a lot of musical theater. I also like to write little scripts and direct my friends in them. And I like to make clay animation characters and videotape them, because I love “Klay World.” I’m an orange belt in karate, too, and I hope to test for my blue belt soon.

Wow, you’re really busy! Do you have any other projects coming up that you can tell us about?
Well, I’m a new StarPower Ambassador for the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation, which does great work for very ill children and their families. So I’ll be participating in activities for them, which I’m really looking forward to. I just shot a McDonald’s commercial, I have a celebrity book review in the current issue of Scholastic Magazine, and I was just nominated for a Young Artist Award for my performance as Young Ned. And basically, I’m just continuing to audition for other television and film roles. But I can’t wait for Pushing Daisies to come back!!! It’ll be great to see everyone again.

Congratulations on the Young Artist nomination; we’ll be rooting for you. For our last question, you knew we had to ask, what is your favorite kind of pie?
Apple!

Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, Field. We look forward to seeing more of you and Pushing Daisies next season!