BOP Interview: Footloose
By Ryan Mazie
October 12, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
“I am so happy that this movie is coming out – not because we are attached, but for our generation,” said Hough on the film’s importance to be seen besides the eye-popping dance moves, “There are no teen movies that have such a message and really mean something. It’s also a little controversial.”
While he doesn’t have Bacon’s acting experience, Wormald does have a natural charm to his engaging performance and skilled dance moves (he is a professional dancer – winning countless titles, plus notably appearing in music videos opposite Madonna and Mariah Carey, as well as touring with Justin Timberlake), making him more than worthy of donning on the shoes of Ren McCormack (or would it be kicking off the shoes?).
With a noticeable Boston accent (Ren this time around is from Kenny’s native Beantown instead of Chicago) playing nicely off of Hough’s southern dialect, the two dancers turned ingénue-actors talked about: growing up as dancers, how to approach a remake, comparing dancing to acting, and what the film might have looked like if the Chace Crawford-led version got made instead.
You both are professional dancers from a very young age. In the movie, dancing obviously has a strong meaning to each of your characters. So what does dancing personally mean to you?
KW: It’s pretty much the only thing I ever known, being a dancer. I have been dancing since I was six and I fell in love with it right away and that’s why I stuck with it. It’s six days a week at the studio, growing up over here at [Brockton, Massachusetts and going to Sherry Gold Dance Studios]. Sometimes you find yourself missing football or baseball practice, but I just always went back to dance. It was this constant thing that I loved. It makes you feel good. You leave the studio at the end of the night and there is nothing in the world you can compare it to.
JH: Same with me. It’s the only constant thing I’ve ever had in my life, because I moved around constantly. I was competing, doing different things, and dancing was always the center of my world. To me I think it helped with my drive and my discipline and my work ethic and I owe it all to dance classes.
KW: And to start young is key. It’s vital. I know plenty of dancers that started when they were 19 and are dancing with Janet Jackson right now, but there is something to be said about starting young and having that discipline where you go no matter what, I’m not going to give up. If I have to eat Ramen (laughs) or my cell phone shuts off, because I don’t have enough money, I’m still gonna go to that dance class and audition. It’s that drive.
Can you repeat that phrase “dancing in Brockton?” Isn’t it usually boxing?
KW: Absolutely. You guys are all from here or have been here long enough to know that it’s a tough guy city and ballet isn’t usually in that category (laughs). But the first time I saw Footloose I was 10, I was getting made fun of at school, kids were calling me sissy and a bunch of other names I won’t say. But then I saw Kevin Bacon dancing and he was masculine. It was powerful, it was on film, and it was something I had never seen before. I knew Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, but this was some new thing and it inspired me to say, “Screw you! He’s doing it, he looks cool, he’s a tough guy, and he’s not a sissy.” So movies like that really inspired me to try and forget what they were saying. Every time I went to the dance studio, I wouldn’t be thinking about what the kids were saying.
It must’ve been a pretty good guy to girl ratio too.
KW: Exactly (laughs). The guy to girl ratio. “Yeah, you can go shower with the guys after football, but I’m gonna go dancing with 40 girls!”
JH: That’s what kept my brother in dance class (laughs).
How does being a dancer first effect your acting at all, especially in something like this when it is all mixed together?
KW: I think dancing helps. Its sometimes has and hasn’t worked for dancers who converted or switched to acting. But I don’t think I am switching to anything. I’ve been dancing my whole life. You do musical theater as a kid and we’d have drama classes within my dance studios and do little exercises on camera so you get more comfortable on stage and performing – not just using your body but expressing emotion through your mouth and words and face. Dancing is just another form of expression.
JH: Like body language, you can do so much acting through not talking (laughs). Through your eyes, your posture, and we were so comfortable with our bodies. We worked with an acting coach before and he just showed us movies and talked to us. We never did line readings or anything. He was showing us James Dean running across the street –
KW: He has three speeds in his run.
JH: Yeah, that kind of stuff and we got that. That makes sense. Doing the stunts and falling, they had people to do that for us and we were like, “Dude, we know how to fall.” We can do triple turns and land down fine. So it definitely helps in action and just telling story.
Have you ever experienced the reverse where you saw an actor trying to be a dancer and it was just not working?
JH: I definitely do (laughs).
KW: There’s been a few movies in the past few years that are dance movies that they hire actors and they have to either fake the dancing or fluff it or use a double.
JH: It goes both ways though where it sucks if the actor can’t dance, but the dancer can’t act.
Dancing from such a young age, when did acting come into the picture for both of you?
KW: I have footage from when I was ten in a drama class at my dance studio; it was called “The Chair,” and it was miserable. You had to sit in a chair for one minute and talk and that’s not really acting as far as a script, but it’s just getting comfortable with your body and mouth. I think through practicing stuff like that and doing musical theater as a kid, it helps.
JH: And I did home videos with my brother and sisters and made movies and just wanted to entertain. I took classes. When I lived in London for five years, I went to a performing arts school, I was studying acting and singing and dancing.
What was more challenging in preparation of Footloose: the dancing or acting aspect?
JH: For me, more challenging was the acting, because even though I’ve been doing it my whole life, I’ve always had an opportunity with my dance. It’s so normal for me now. When I started singing, I didn’t like to sing in front of people – I was nervous. But now I’ll sing in front of anybody. The same thing with acting, you just have to have the experience, so it was more challenging for me, but I loved that. I always say if I could be done with everything in my life, would I teach or would I still learn, I’d just want to keep learning the rest of my life.
KW: And there is nothing like having the pressure of a $25 million film on your shoulders, trying to look natural and comfortable. So that says a lot about our [director Craig Brewer]; he helped us in every way, shape, and form to have us perform at our best.
Did you approach Footloose as if you were doing a new story or did you go back and watch the old one?
KW: I approached it like it was a new story. We had known Footloose so well growing up seeing it probably a hundred times. You just know what it’s about. So once I booked it, there was a two-month period prior to going to Georgia to film it that I didn’t study it, I didn’t watch it at all. I didn’t even watch any Dennis Quaid movies purposely, because I didn’t want to be intimidated. So I definitely came at it like this was the first time this was ever being done. Craig Brewer’s script, he re-wrote it, it felt like our movie.
Julianne, this is one of the first major, out of many upcoming, parts for you in a film. With your acting career on the rise, can you choose between that, singing, and dancing?
JH: Ahhhh, if I had to? I get asked that a lot, but luckily I don’t have to choose. I do have to choose projects, though, and what I’ve noticed that in the past I spread myself so far, doing so many things, I just want to hone in on one thing for an amount of time and really perfect it. I did that with my dancing. When I was competing, I won all the competitions and got titles, world champion, all that stuff. Then I did Dancing with the Stars, which was the fun, light-hearted side of dancing.
Then I started with my music. I was 18 when I got my record deal; I had not become an artist yet. I knew I wanted to sing, I hadn’t written any music, so I was kind of learning when I was shown to the world. So I’m like, “Let me go back now and figure out who I am as an artist.” I know I love country music and that’s where I want to be; so while I’m figuring that out, my film career has gotten a lot of momentum. So I’m just going to keep riding this wave.
I always feel like things happen for a reason, so the music I know will come when it’s ready.
Julianne, you have been attached to this project for a while now, so can you talk about how the film looked when you first came on board to what changed to what we are seeing on screen right now?
JH: I remember they offered me the role and I read the script and there was a part where I was singing something and playing the piano and Ren comes in through the window and we start talking. I remember doing a test with Chace Crawford and it was so forced. There was nothing natural about that. It could have been a great movie, but it wasn’t Footloose to me. I was excited, I got Footloose before I did Burlesque, so I was like, “Oh my gosh! I’m doing a movie! This is how I am going to get my foot in the door,” which was like me doing Dancing with the Stars – I got my foot in the door and then got offered other things. Then we did this big test, and I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what really went down, but let’s just say things got switched around and they decided to go more in the direction of the original. Then Craig got attached and he wanted to start over. But the studio said, “Oh, we really like Julianne, just talk to her and go meet her.” So then I read his script and said, “Listen, I was attached to this movie before, but I need to do this movie now. Before was fun, cool, whatever, but I need to do this movie.” He drove to Nashville, we were chatting, and he’s like, “Whoa! You really relate to this character more than anybody knows,” and that’s why I wanted to play her. We continued talking and I was fighting for it, I did my little test in a house with just me and him and I was crying, doing the whole thing. He said, “OK, this girl wants it,” so he hired me. I auditioned twice (laughs).
You guys have been all over promoting this movie. They must have you on a treadmill.
KW: Yeah, it’s quite a treadmill, but it’s exciting and we are actually very proud of the film so it’s easy to talk about and spread the word on how much we loved making this movie. … If we didn’t like our product, we would be bumming.
JH: (laughs). Yeah, obviously you know, it gets a little redundant saying the same things over and over again, but we are always finding new things to talk about, because we are so passionate about it. It would really suck if we didn’t like it.