FOOTLOOSE's Julianne Hough & Kenny Wormald Dumb Down Dancing
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Wednesday, 12 October 2011 23:14
- Published: Wednesday, 12 October 2011 23:14
- Written by Lupe Haas
Two-time "Dancing with the Stars" winner Julianne Hough takes the lead in FOOTLOOSE opposite newcomer Kenny Wormald in his first starring role. In FOOTLOSE, Justin Timberlake's former back-up dancer steps into Kevin Bacon's dancing shoes as Ren while the dancer and Country Music Award winning singer plays his leading lady Ariel (originally played by Lori Singer). In director Craig Brewer's FOOTLOOSE, Ren is a big city boy coming to live with his uncle's family in a small town where dancing is banned.
For the dancing scenes choreographed by Usher and Beyonce choreographer Jamal Sims, Kenny Wormald told CineMovie they had to "balance" or "dumb down" their dancing to reflect the background of these high school rebels. His character could get away with some of the more advanced moves because Ren came from a major metropolitan area where dancing is a way of life, said Wormald."Ren could get away with it a little more, but she (Julianne's character) couldn't be this perfect pristine dancer nor the other kids in the town."These days, according to Wormald, its hard NOT to find good dancers because music and dancing is so ingrained in pop culture "you couldn't be bad." Julianne added that they maintained some of their fancy footwork for entertainment value. Both actors "trusted" the film's choreographer Jamal Sims (Hairspray) to guide them in the numbers since "the guy knows what he's doing," said Wormald.
To maintain the reality of a small town, director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) was conscious to cast normal looking folks from "heavy-set girls" and "skinny nerdy dude," according to the former background dancer on movies like You Got Served (2004) and Kevin Smith's Clerks II (2006).
"He wanted full spectrum of people that would be from this town. It was a conscious effort."
Next up for the first-time lead actors, Kenny Wormald is in talks for another movie which he joked is not a remake while Hough next stars with Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages and an untitled drama by Academy Award winning screenwriter turned director Diablo Cody (Juno).
Kenny and Julianne can be seen in FOOTLOOSE starting October 14, 2011.