DROP DEAD DIVA an interview with Chelsea Kane

DROP DEAD DIVA

Season Finale

An Interview with Chelsea Kane

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Drop Dead Diva is ending its 4th Season and tonight on Lifetime has special guest star Chelsea Kane who plays Paige McBride, a pop singer who is charged with the murder of her ex-boyfriend. In the trial, she is - she’s accused of killing him the way she described she would always want to kill him in a song she wrote. We have Chelsea on the line and we’re going to go ahead and open it up to questions. 

Hey, Chelsea, thanks for joining us today.

Hi, good morning.

Can you tell our readers a little more about your singing career?

Well, I mean, this was so much fun to play a little country singer. I grew up singing and doing theatre and, of course, I’m a huge fan of the Taylor Swifts and Carrie Underwoods of the world and of course I don’t consider myself a singer, so to kind of get thrown into this pop star character was a lot of fun. And I had a great time shooting this because I had just finished shooting the first season of show on ABC Family, which is called Baby Daddy, which is live audience sitcom. So, to suddenly go back in to single camera, a little more dramatic role, it was nice to kind of dip back into something like that.

Do you think your character is a song come to life??

It was just really fun that Drop Dead Diva kind of touched on that. That, you know, here’s this young pop star, Paige McBride, and it’s actually her boyfriend. She’s been dating this hot little club promoter who she discovers has been cheating on her and writes a song about, you know, wanting to slash his tires with a kitchen knife. And so, the minute that happens, it’s just really funny but the who done it, whether it was a fanatic or Paige herself. And I just - I think it’s really interesting how fanatics can, you know, become such a part of these pop stars’ lives and feel like they know them. And I just - I loved getting to kind of poke fun at the people that I - that surrounded me when I was when I was working on Disney.

So why did you chose to go with the look of you have now and are you surprised by the popularity of it?

Yes, I was really surprised by the great comments and questions and copies that my haircut received. I cut it a few years back. Mainly out of being hot, tired of long hair and I definitely fallen victim to the LA loo, you know, long beach blonde hair, lots of extension. And to be honest with you, I just got really tired of it and really tired of the hours put in getting ready for work in the morning. I’d have to spend an extra - about an extra hour in the makeup chair. So, I decided to just cut it all off and I love it. I don’t know if I could ever go back to long hair again and I’m so flattered that, you know, that the girls like it and the guys like it too, which I feel like hair is always such a, you know, such a big deal. Long hair is always such a big deal for boys. But, no it’s been great and it’s been so fun. I’m very active on Twitter. It’s been so fun to see the different kids that send pictures of their haircut and, you know, I - it’s just extremely flattering all the way around. And I’m happy that - I’m happy people like it.

What made you take on this role?

I just - when I first heard the character, I just thought it was so - it - how much fun did that sound, you know, to play to first of all play a country star and I’m sure my dad, who’s a big country fanatic will love it. And you know, I like the show. I, you know, heard of the show. My friends watch it and it just sounded fun (unintelligible) and do something totally different and I had never played a character like that. And also, I loved that she was kind of a nice pop start. You know, here she is getting caught up in this mess when she’s already heartbroken and I just thought that was a fun way to take it. Most of the, I feel like “pop star, movie star” roles out there for young blond girls are usually pretty mean and conniving, so I like that this girl has a heart and she just kind of got caught up in a bad situation. So, that’s what really drew me to the project. Plus, you know, to be shooting in Atlanta and there were some other guest stars on the show that I was excited. Kelly Osbourne plays my biggest fan, which is hysterical to me because I’m such a fan of her. So, that was a very surreal moment. And (unintelligible) was also on the episode, even though we didn’t have any scenes together. I grew up watching all of his movies and, you know, it was fun to see him in the hotel restaurant at the end of the night. So, it was all the way around just a great experience for me.

Speaking of Kelly Osbourne, she plays a crazy person on the show. What was it like working with Kelly and is there a crazy fan story you can tell us about? 

Working with Kelly was amazing. I just think she’s so cool. You know, I just love her. I grew up watching, you know, her show on MTV and got to meet her for the first time after my experience on Dancing with the Stars. She was very, you know, active in that and I got to guest star on her show, The Fashion Police. But, it was such a pleasant surprise. I had already taken the role and done a couple days of shooting when they cast Kelly as the biggest fan and it was so exciting to see her and talking about, you know, well we were just on the subject of cool hair. If I could pull of lavender, I definitely would. Yes, it’s just - it’s - she’s such a cool girl and such a nice girl and it was great to be able to work with her in a non-reality department. She did a really good job.  Then, from there - as far as fanatic experiences go, I’ve never really had a crazy, scary situation myself. I love my fans and we have a great, you know, relationship online and whenever there is - whenever there are events. But, like I was saying earlier, it was really, really interesting to be working with the Jonas Brothers right as that craze hit and just the extremes that not only the fans would go to, but the mom would go to was crazy. You know, watching moms drop their kids off with bikes in front of the Jonas Brothers’ house so that they could ride bikes around with us or, you know, we had padlocks or almost like key codes. It was like getting into the White House to get onto our set. The key codes changed weekly because we had so much problem with girls sneaking into our sets and hiding in the dressing room and hiding in the showers. Finding their way into, you know, to get close to the boys. So, you know, it was a fun experience because the girls were innocent and I got to watch it from afar. I’m sure I would be feeling very differently if I opened my shower and a fan was standing in there. So I’ve never had a crazy experience.

So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your career in theatre and television and do you have any advice for people wanting to get into acting?

Absolutely. I got into theatre at a very - at 6 years old in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I mainly did it as an after school hobby. You know, my mom wanted me to (unintelligible) out of the house and entertaining myself. I was an only child, so it was nice to go be with other kids, it was youth theatre. I just totally got the bug and from there I got my first paying gig when I was, like 10 years old, the national Broadway tour of Showboat came through town and they were looking for kids and I heard that they were having auditions on the radio station. So I asked if I could go audition and I got it, and that’s when I put the pieces together that people could make money doing this and, you know, make money as an actor and where are these adults traveling the world doing shows every night and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. My dad was actually in the business; he was a director out here in, like, the 80s directing commercials and didn’t want me to get into it. Didn’t think it was glamorous and didn’t want me to do it at all, which of course, the minute a parent tells you you can’t do something. It was all I wanted at that point, so that’s really where I became obsessed about sixth grade. I just couldn’t get enough of it and kept doing a lot of shows and theatre and independent films, whatever I could really get my hands on back in Arizona. Then from there, once I hit high school, I was able to convince my parents to let me come out for a week of auditions in LA. And I ended up meeting an agent and booking a show and I was very just extremely, extremely lucky. I think ignorance is bliss. I went in and had my first audition for a show on Fox, it was called Cracking Up, it was cancelled after a couple episodes. But, it was enough to get me in the door and then I feel like I did pay my dues for the next couple years with, you know, playing small roles or whatever I could get my hands on. And then I got very lucky falling into the Disney Channel and, you know, I’ve kind of been in the mouse house ever since going from Disney to Dancing with the Stars on ABC and now Baby Daddy on ABC Family. I think my only advice would be you just have to - you just can’t give up. As cliché as it sounds, you just never give up and, you know, the more you can get your hands on the better. I know a lot of kids want to come straight to LA with their moms and start auditioning for the big stuff and I think the reason I was able to, you know, even get my foot in the door a little bit was from the experience I had back home. So I always say any high school play or local theatre company can - you can be a part of is the best practice in the world.

Thanks Chelsea for sharing your story, your character and giving advice to others who want to go into acting.

Thank you for asking me!

Tonight, DROP DEAD DIVA’s series four finale! Tune in on Lifetime!