Step Up 2 Interview with Rob and Briana

Here's an old article with Rob and Briana during the SU2 media blitz:

Robert Hoffman and Briana Evigan In "Step Up 2 The Streets"

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

By Christina Radish With an exciting cast of newcomers whose personal stories of hard-won achievement closely mirror that of their characters in the Touchstone Pictures film, Step Up 2 The Streets, the follow-up to the surprise smash box-office hit Step Up (starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan), tells the story of rebellious outcast Andie West (Briana Evigan). Trying to fit in at the elite Maryland School of the Arts while still holding on to her old dream of dancing with an underground Baltimore street crew, known as the 410, Andie meets Chase (Robert Hoffman), the school’s hottest talent. A rising star who is looking to break out of the mold by forming a crew to compete in Baltimore’s biggest street dancing battle, “The Streets,” Chase joins forces with Andie, in an attempt to win it all. Chase has the charisma, smarts and skills to be a big-time professional performer and he knows it. But, he doesn’t want to just be technically good. He wants to be different, stand out and find the strength to be his own person. Looking for someone with the dance background and acting ability to take all of that on, the filmmakers knew they found their leading man in She’s The Man star, and dancer, Robert Hoffman. Training since kindergarten, in every form, from tap and ballet to jazz and hip-hop, the 27-year-old Gainesville, Florida native was able to nail the character because he could instantly relate to Chase. “I was lucky, this character is not a big stretch from me,” Hoffman tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “Aside from the prep that you would do with any role, to just be able to play the circumstances accordingly, it was pretty easy to get engaged and enjoy being a privileged, confident, young, skilled dancer. I was a very privileged young boy. I had great training, and a lot of people supporting me. I had a lot of people telling me, ‘Oh, if you want to be a dancer, you have to do ballet. You have to do this, that and the other.’ But, I never got the privilege of having someone say, ‘Your style is already within you. Just know your voice and scream it as loud as you can,’ which is what I tell kids now. It’s only been in more recent years that I’ve finally figured out that creativity comes from somewhere inside. There’s no way to explain it. It isn’t definable or teachable. It’s just an instinct.” To play Andie, the young woman from the same tough neighborhood as Step Up’s Tyler Gage (Tatum), filmmakers needed someone who had both the dancing skills and the acting chops to make the journey from troubled past to bright future come alive. Their casting search led them to 21-year-old Briana Evigan, the daughter of well-known actor Greg Evigan (B.J. and the Bear). “I started dancing when I was nine, and then I started taking private classes with hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks (So You Think You Can Dance) when I was 11, so it’s been a little over 11 years,” the L.A. native tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “I started mainly with hip-hop, and then got into salsa, African, ballet, jazz and all of that. For me, dancing is a way of expressing myself and getting out either really great emotions or really bad emotions. I actually started off as a gymnast when I was very young, and that is what led me into the dancing. I would just shake my butt in my house and around my parents. I fell in love with it.” Although she didn’t come from the same background as her character, Evigan says that relating to Andie wasn’t a problem for her. “A lot of people can relate to her because she’s a girl who’s had a lot of problems with her family. She doesn’t have a mother. She doesn’t have a father. She’s adopted into another family and lives in an area that you probably don’t want to live in. She’s just trying to follow her dream, and has all the ups and downs in the world. She loses her friends, her boyfriend, her school and everything. But, she’s still strong enough to be able to get through it all and go compete in The Streets.” Along with finding two leads who could both act and dance, the chemistry between them was extremely important. “In my last audition, I had to do a chemistry test with Robert, and we instantly clicked,” says Evigan. “We had to come up with a little salsa piece for the audition. He’s a very nice guy, who’s very talented and very cool.” “I had read with a couple other girls and nothing was really happening, so I was like, ‘Oh, no!’” adds Hoffman. “And, that was back when this movie wasn’t expected to do much. It was just going to be a straight-to-DVD release. And then, Briana was the last girl they brought in, and it was magic, right off the top. We just gelled and understood each other. We hadn’t been directed to, and everyone else had just done the lines, as is, but she and I went right off the script and started bantering, and it was there from the first minute. The jabs, and yet the undertone of attraction, was right in place, from the beginning.” The most challenging aspect of the production for Evigan was having to work with choreographer Dave Scott (Stomp the Yard). “I clicked right away with choreographer Jamal Sims and his assistant, Rhapsody, and their dancing. They helped me get a little bit bigger in my dancing than I was. But, I was so scared when I walked into the room with Dave Scott because he does a lot of popping, and I had never done that before. I had to retrain all of my muscles to remember how to use them the way he did. It was crazy. Just watching him is so intimidating.” Hoffman says that, for him, dancing in the rain for the film’s final sequence was more difficult than he expected it to be. “I’ve trained since I was a toddler, so I’m as capable as you can get to execute the moves safely. But, it’s definitely dangerous, and injuries happen. I had a terribly sore back, and my knees were just banged up to all hell. You train, as a kid, to be as hyper-coordinated as possible, so you can pull those tricks off under any circumstance. We perfect them and have them ready. The rain wasn't the trickiest thing. I had a jacket, a t-shirt and jeans on, all of which were completely drenched in water during the rain scene. So, a very basic movie, with me just kicking off my back onto my feet, I could not do because I had 10 pounds of extra weight on me. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t do this!’ As good looking as the rain scene turned out, it was actually dreadfully hard to maneuver in.” Hoffman may have gotten through filming relatively unscathed, but the same was not true for Evigan. “I had a torn ACL and went through knee surgery, but I’m doing good and I’m learning how to run again,” she says. “That was the only dance injury I’ve actually ever had before. It was the last week of filming and, fortunately, it did not stop me from any of the dancing in the movie. But, when I got home, I did have to go through surgery, and I’m going to physical therapy every day, so I can get better real quick.” Both Hoffman and Evigan have decided to take advantage of the exposure that they’re getting from Step Up 2 The Streets, and continue to focus on their acting careers. “I’m hoping for an acting career, for the long term,” says Evigan. “I have a few things pending that I’m hoping for. I’m definitely going out a lot, and meeting a lot of really cool people, so we’ll see what happens.” “I’m doing a film, called They Came From Upstairs, in New Zealand,” adds Hoffman. “It’s a Fox family adventure comedy with Ashley Tisdale, Andy Richter, Tim Meadows, Kevin Nealon and Doris Roberts. I couldn’t be more excited about it. And, I have Kids in America coming out this year. I play a fun, quick little character, named Tyler. My costume is outstanding. My character is at a party and Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury) hits on my girl, so I challenge him to a dance-off. It’s brilliant.”