New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

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.

Continued:       1       2       3       4