Entertainment Tonight Online: I understand that you've been trained in dance your entire life, but this varies a little to what you do in the movie. What are the main differences?
Vanessa Williams: Well learning the competitive dances when I competed in Las Vegas for the big championship, I had danced samba, rumba and cha cha cha, and I did learn ballroom technique. I had to make it look like I was a competitor and I also had to compete against professionals so there's no dance doubles. There's no one else's feet that the camera is going to. I had to make it look like I was competing for years whereas I had a couple of months to get into shape, learn the techniques and make it my own. That was intimidating but also incredibly rewarding. The salsa, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. That's the dance that we do, Ruby and CHAYANNE do, in the clubs and it's something that really lets her let her hair down and be free and kinda free-style even though a lot of the stuff was structured and choreographed. That I think is where the audience gets a chance to be taken away, and think that they're living a part of the dance number.
ETOL: How long exactly did you have to prepare for this?
Vanessa: We started rehearsals in February and we started rolling in April, so about six weeks before we started to film. It was wonderful. You know, it is only now that I can go virtually anywhere and dance the fox trot to Frank Sinatra and do the swing to Jackie Wilson and do you know, a salsa to Tito Puente and feel completely at home.
Vanessa: Well the opportunity to dance, drew me to the part. I've danced on stage, on Broadway, and TV but never on film, so that was something I was completely ready to do. And what made it so special was that you don't get an opportunity to do that a lot in film. Usually it's a movie musical, which doesn't do well because people don't like to see characters break into song. But the movie is about their world of dance in the dance studio so you get a chance to really believe that the character is breaking her behind to get it and make it to Las Vegas. You believe that she's heartbroken and she knows her other partner is not going to cut it, and she's gonna have to make a choice whether she wants to win or whether she's going to settle for staying in Texas and just being a dance teacher. So it's reality based and I think that's why people think it's credible.
ETOL: What was your favorite scene? I know there were a lot of beautiful scenes in this movie, but what was your personal favorite?
ETOL: Great. Thank you very much!
-- August 10, 1998
ETOL: Everyone is saying that Chayanne is a lot like his character. Are you anything like yours? And what initially drew you to the part?
Vanessa: Um, I like the costume party where I dressed up as a nurse and I got a trophy for the best zipper ability. They gave me a little trophy at the end of that day because we had a guy who had my zipper rigged with fishing wire and he was behind me trying to pull it down to make it look like it was about to fall. That was a fun day. I mean, all of the dancing was fun. The competition was extremely grueling but very very rewarding.
