Teen Beach 2 premieres on Disney Channel on Friday, June 26th. I recently screened the film (stay tuned for my review), and then participated in a Q&A with two of the stars from the movie; Chrissie Fit (“Chee Chee”) and Jordan Fisher (“SeaCat”). The two were adorable, spunky and extremely talented. They perform in an awesome scene together (one of my favorite moments from the film!). Here are 6 behind-the-scene facts that the two shared with us!
Did Chrissie learn her moves from Teen Beach?
CF: I am not a Professional Dancer, although Teen Beach 2 makes me look like one. I am Cuban, so I grew up in a household where we were dancing Salsa, Meringue and it’s a dance-loving family.
I was a Singer and then I became an Actress so I don’t really have a dance background. I think I learned the most doing Teen Beach Movie and I appreciate it so much.
Who inspired their careers?
JF: I had a crush on a girl in the 5th grade who joined the Drama Club and so I loved that, joining the Drama Club. And so I started acting and singing and dancing all on the same day and like when I was 10. I didn’t fall in love with the girl, but I did fall in love with acting.
CF: When I was in 5th grade this Spanish Teacher was doing a production and it was like a gypsy kind of dance, and only 6th graders can go. My crush was a 6th grader and I was like, “I need to be in this show.” [LAUGHS] And I thought, “He will fall in love with me.” So I went to the Teacher, Ms. Sanchez and asked, “Ms. Sanchez can I be in the show?” She responded, “No, um you’re a 5th grader and also there’s no roles.” So I went home and my neighbor was in the show and I told her, “Can I see the script?” And I read it and I noticed there wasn’t a bad girl in it. I thought, “Well there has to be a bad girl.” So I went the next day and I said, “Can I play a bad girl?”
I pitched her an idea. I don’t know if she felt sorry for me or she was impressed that I took this initiative and she put me in the show. The guy didn’t fall in love with me but I fell in love with acting.
Chrissie wore a head piece, was it hard keeping it in place?
CF: Yes, it actually was, more so than the first time when it was all my actual hair. It was kind of distracting a little bit. But, it was definitely like a lot better for my hair. [LAUGHS] Um, all that teasing and stuff but ultimately your hair stays in that shape. With the piece it would kind of like go all over the place. I felt like it was more maintenance. If we have to get that beehive going again then I probably would do my own hair again.
What kind of advice you have for an aspiring Musician, Artist, Dancer?
JF: There are a lot of people that come out to, to L.A. and move to New York with the idea of becoming famous. And typically those people don’t find success in their field because their, their passion is driven and, from a very different place in these people that really do what they do because they love it that tend to find success. Because you gravitate towards people that all have their like-minded you know what I mean? So understand why you’re doing it firstly.
Second, it’s cliché and you’re gonna’ hear it at times, but I just don’t take no for an answer.
CF: It’s not like a sprint, it’s a marathon. Have patience, educate yourself. Not just with the, the craft that you wanna do. Like the acting, dance and music and also you should really try to do well in school. So really apply yourself, give everything you do 100% because then it’s more likely that the thing that you invest the most time in you’ll give 110%. So yeah and don’t give up. Keep it up.
How was the preparation?
JF: For this film we started a year ago. We conditioned for a month. It was one choreography for about 3 weeks here in L.A. Then we moved to Puerto Rico and we rehearsed. We rehearsed there for another week or two. Honestly, most of the time spent in studios was conditioning and the choreography happened more closer to the end.
’Cause it’s so much time spent on the beach and different terrains and different weather. You have to deal with a lot, but that put us in top physical shape.
What about Girl Power?
CF: Not just because of the spectacle, it’s bigger, it’s better, aside from like the dancing, and then the costume now, so there’s many wonderful messages in this movie you know about female empowerment. We’re seeing these two girls Mack and Lela have an actual friendship and not compete against each other for something.
And I feel that’s really important for our young girls to see and that there are healthy friendships and relationships. I mean you know even with Ross and Tanner with their characters. They’re both trying to help each other figure out things that they might have felt insecure about, which is also the thing for kids. So aside from all of the great musical numbers and the dancing I feel that this is a great movie for kids because it just shows you how important friendship is and it shows you like healthy and positive friendships with girl– with females.
1 comment
Please send me chee cheese costume