TALKING WITH THE STARS OF STEP UP 4 REVOLUTION 3D

Kathryn McCormick, dancer known to the public for the talent show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and model Ryan Guzman describe their actorial debut in the most popular of dance movies STEP UP:

How was your first acting experience?

Kathryn: The show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, really helped me with storytelling, since every week we had to prepare a new character for each performance. So through that I started to learn how to act, it helped my transition into acting. Step Up was an audition that I wasn’t expecting at all, but I decided to try it out and then to my amazement I was chosen for the lead role.

Ryan: I’m always looking for new ways to express myself, whether it’s martial arts, baseball, college. I’ve grown so much throughout the years and acting was a way of showing something that I hadn’t done before and I fell in love with it.

How long did the preparation take for the dance numbers?

Kathryn: We were in Miami for three months and the first month was just training, so all the flash mobs we performed in the film. Once filming started, in the week-ends we would practice for what we were going to shoot during the week. It was great to have professional dancers of different styles come together, that’s why we all learned so much, whether we were dancing our whole life or not.

Ryan: I learned a lot from the other dancers, I was there during their audition process when I already got picked. It was intense. They had 600 people try out for ten spots and ten people made it. We had three initial weeks to get to know each other and learn all combos and that’s when I really had to focus in on them and see how each brought a different style.

Besides the training did you have to follow a particular diet like dancers usually do?

Kathryn: I’m a vegan, therefore I eat really healthy I love getting my body to be as clear as possible. I didn’t have to change my diet at all. All the dancers ate whatever they wanted to since we were dancing so much.

Ryan: My diet was horrible. People make fun of my diet because I was eating chocolate and sweets and pizza and a lot of lobster. I was losing so much weight throughout the practices. I lost 10 pounds (4½kilos) in one week so they forced me to eat, to keep the weight on. I had to keep my body fit. It was a fight to keep the abs and everything.

Did you see the previous Step Up movies?

Kathryn: The first Step Up is my favourite, I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it, but it was certainly one of my favourite dance movies growing up. Actually I went to the premier of Step Up 3 and I didn’t even have a clue that I was going to be the girl who was going to be in Step Up 4. I went to it just because I was a contestant in the talent show and they invited us, then two years later here I am, it’s really amazing.

Ryan: The first movie got me to audition for Step Up 4 and I didn’t see the other two until I was in the process of my auditioning and after seeing the second and third they just seemed like fun movies. I didn’t think I’d be dancing as much as I did, but in the end it was a good challenge.

What are the dance companies that inspire you?

Kathryn: I love the Nederlands Dance Company and I’m a huge fan of different choreographers I’ve been around with in L.A. And Alex D’ is incredible, as they’ve managed to find a way to bring so many different styles of old school hip hop with different influences, experimenting also with the selection of music.

Ryan: I really like dance conventions, because they teach youth how to dance, like Jump or Tremaine. They help kids from 7 years old to 18 to learn how to dance and find their way, I love that.

Did you ever take part in a flash mob?

Kathryn: Not like the ones in the movie. But in a convention I was teaching we did a flash mob with all the kids, and we went to a park with a boombox and all the kids had glowing T-shirts, so that was really fun. I also spoke on The Revolve Tour, a motivational speaking event, and there I choreographed a flash mob, in each city we would go to when a certain song came on everyone in the audience would do the flash mob.

Ryan: I’ve never been part of a flash mob before the movie, as I didn’t dance yet. But to promote Step Up 4 Revolution we did some flash mobs in Amsterdam, Canada, New York, Dallas, Miami, basically all around the world.

In the film you use flash mobs as a tool of protest, what is your personal opinion on the subject?

Kathryn: A group of people comes together and nobody really knows why they came, but it attracts attention and focus on them and this way you grow interest to why they’re doing this, therefore it’s a very powerful means of communication.

Ryan: It’s an interesting way to protest, it gets attention, it’s special in a way. Dance becomes the means to express what the group is feeling and thinking and finding the way to say “Hey, Listen up!”.

How has the impact been with Hollywood?

Kathryn: I moved to California four years ago and it took me a good year and a half to get used to it. Hollywood is what you make of it, it’s the people you surround yourself with. There are so many trying to be famous at any cost and it gets distracting, but I had amazing friends who separated me from that mechanism. So I can still be a part of Hollywood without being Hollywood.

Ryan: Hollywood was new to me and I really didn’t like at first, but now that I’ve kept good friends around me and stayed busy with work I love it. Besides the industry has been very nice to me, they’ve accepted me with open arms.

Ryan, is it true you may be a potential Mr Grey for the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey?

A lot of fans said they want to see me, and it’s caught the attention of the author E. L. James, and right now she has five guys for the role of Christian Grey and I’m one of them, so I can’t say that I’ve got it, but I’m there. I’ll fight more for the role if fans want to se me as Christian Grey.

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