Julianne Hough seizes moment stepping into ‘Footloose’ role
BY CINDY PEARLMAN October 10, 2011 6:34PM
Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough in the climactic prom scene in “Footloose” which opens Fridays.
Updated: November 16, 2011 12:13PM
Julianne Hough remembers spotting the peach chiffon dress hanging in her dressing room and actually tearing up.
At age 23, she finally was going to the prom.
Hough (pronounced Huff) was on the “Footloose” set ready to film the iconic finale where she finally gets to cut loose, as the song goes, and kick off her Sunday shoes.
The new “Footloose” (opening Friday) is doing a tricky dance step by honoring the old and ushering in the new.
For the final prom scene, the music was pure Kenny Loggins. Even the choreography was identical to the steps in the 1984 classic starring Kevin Bacon and his spiked ’do.
“We were at the rehearsal for the final dance and I was standing on a stool watching all the dancers before I was told to jump in,” says Hough, formerly a featured dancer on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“The feeling was overwhelming,” says Hough. “I got tears in my eyes, and I looked at my co-star, Kenny Wormald, and he was teary-eyed, too. It was hilarious in a way, too, because this was our moment. It was time to really shake it up, but the magnitude of what we were about to film hit me hard.”
“We were about to go ‘Footloose.’ ”
It’s Hough’s second movie musical. She hoofed it opposite Cher in “Burlesque” (2010) and next stars opposite Tom Cruise in 2012’s “Rock of Ages.”
She wasn’t even around when Bacon’s “Footloose” was released. “I was born four years after the original film came out,” Hough says. “I watched it numerous times because it was filmed in Utah where I grew up.
“It was our local cult classic,” she says with a laugh. “You had to love this film if you were from Utah. Later on, we walked around school humming, ‘Let’s Hear It For the Boy,’ ” she says.
In the remake, Wormald plays high school student Ren McCormack, a city boy who moves to a small town where teens are not allowed to be footloose and fancy free. After a terrible drinking and driving accident that claimed a few young lives, social dancing has been banned.
Upholding the new law is the town religious figure, played by a stern-faced Dennis Quaid, and his accomplace is his wife (Andie MacDowell.)
Hough takes on the iconic role of Ariel Moore, the reverend’s daughter (played by Lori Singer in ’84) who defies her father and shakes her groove thing.
“People want to hate this film a little bit, which I completely understand,” says Hough. “Luckily, I have been surprised at the early screenings. I’ve found the audience goes in with some skepticism. It’s a classic film. People have their doubts.
“But they leave humming the songs and during the film, they are tapping their feet,” she says.
She says that the film honors the original, but the message is current for today’s teens struggling with moral issues.
“This movie frankly discusses getting in trouble as a teen, drinking too much, and it even features a girl who is hit by her boyfriend just like in the original movie,” she says. “We’re also frank about sexuality.”
And the parents aren’t demonized. “You can actually sympathize with the parents more in this remake,” he says. “It’s not that they want to ban dancing to save your soul. A terrible accident happened in town because of a dance. These parents believe they are keeping these kids from harm’s way,” she says.
Hough gets a few smacks in the face — from a bad boyfriend and from her father. “We still have that scene in the church where I tell my father that I’m not a virgin and he slaps me,” she says. “It’s tough to watch, and it was tough to film.
“Dennis Quaid felt really bad about slapping me …although he didn’t actually slap me,” she says with a laugh. “It’s movie magic.
Hough grew up in Salt Lake City, where she teamed up with her dancer-actor brother Derek and the rest of their siblings and dubbed themselves “The Blond Osmonds.”
At age 10, she left home to go to London and study at a performing arts school. “It wasn’t scary because I lived with my dance coaches. It was hard work, but I took it seriously. I knew this was my path in life,” she says.
From 2007 to 2009, she was one of the featured professional dancers on the hit ABC series “Dancing with the Stars.” She won the competition in 2007 with partner Apolo Ohno and again with partner Helio Castroneves in Season 5.
In “Rock of Ages,” based on the stage musical full of ’80s pop hits, she plays Sherrie, a waitress with Hollywood dreams.
“I almost said no to the film before I found out that Tom Cruise was in it,” she says. “I did ‘Burlesque’ and then ‘Footloose,’ so I was looking to do something different. But this was just too good.”
She’s cheering on her brother Derek, who is partnered with Ricki Lake this season on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“He’s a trophy hog,” Hough gripes. “He always jokes, ‘You have two wins, but I have three.’ I just say, ‘I can always beat your butt.’ ”
Offscreen, Hough dates media superstar Ryan Seacrest. They two are paparazzi favorites and red-carpet staples.
“Ryan and I are both in the entertainment world, which is great because we get the commitment and hours and responsibility,” she says. “We really understand each other.”
There is still some time for romance, and Seacrest knows the key to a woman’s heart.
Hough laughs. “I was in Paris with Ryan, his mom and his sister. He took us to the Christian Louboutin shoe store. It was Ryan’s first shoe store with all of us, and he was amazing!”
“He did get all of us those shoes,” she says in a dreamy voice. “It was wonderful.”
Big Picture News Inc.
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