Exclusive Interview: LOVE N’ DANCING WITH AMY SMART

Amy Smart looks like she comes from California with long blonde hair, a gleaming smile and svelte figure. But upon a second glance, you know that this is not your typical Southern California babe. Dressed with black sequin embellished tank top and black blazer setting off her porcelain features, Smart becomes recognizable as a Hollywood actress who has appeared on TV as a regular in “Felicity” and “Scrubs” and in such big screen fare as “Rat Race”, “The Butterfly Effect”, “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”, “Starsky and Hutch”, “Crank” and the upcoming “Crank: High Voltage”. Smart is now donning her dancing shoes in “Love N’ Dancing”, a sleek, stylish and entertaining movie set in the world of West Coast Swing competitions with cameos by Betty White and Gregory Harrison. Amy sits down for a few minutes to talk about her new role as Jessica Donovan, a bored English teacher who is ignored by her workaholic fiancé (Billy Zane) and who finds taking West Coast Swing lessons for her upcoming wedding holds more in store for her than some fancy footwork.

Q. Your dancing looked quite professional. Did you ever have dancing ambitions when growing up?
A. Yes, I was a ballerina for 10 years but when my teacher said I’d have to get foot surgery if I kept dancing, it scared the crap out of me so I stopped. But ballet was starting to bore me so that was a dual reason why I stopped ballet. Then I got into hip hop and jazz which is more fun. I took classes randomly after but nothing professionally ever.

Q. So is the West Coast Swing using different body parts and form than ballet?
A. Yeah. It’s a different center of gravity. Actually ballerinas are not good at West Coast Swing because they rely more on themselves rather than their weight with a partner so I had to let go from all my little memories from my childhood and be present in how you work with a partner.

Q. Did you ever think when practicing West Coast Swing for this movie, that you’d like your body to go back in time to when you were more flexible as a teen doing ballet?
A. I mean who wouldn’t want to be more flexible (laugh)? I definitely had more fun doing the West Coast Swing because I love the partner dancing and the music.

Q. Are there any scenes that we won’t see from your dancing that just weren’t up to par to make it to the screen?
A. Maybe for obvious reasons, I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure all were used. There is a lot of dancing in it and they used all of it. It was a pretty economical film shot in 30 days.

Q. So you have dancing and acting under your belt. What was more difficult in this film – the actual dancing or acting?
A. No hesitation – the dancing (laugh). I have never tried to pull off being a professional dancer in a film before. Just the real training, it wasn’t like I practiced for five days and then went out there to shake it. It really required a lot of training. I would train in between takes and even on my days off. To really just make it truthful and believable, I felt I needed all that training. To me, it was the greatest experience because I loved learning it and also because I had to keep it up. We rehearsed five days a week but then when it came to filming, it was important we keep rehearsing to keep the memory of it alive so we could perform it well. We did two months of training, five days a week, six to seven hours a day. It was great having Nicola (Royston, actor/professional dancer) to have a female perspective and the sexy aspect of it.

Q. Which is more challenging to you then – preparing your body for a dance movie for two months or filming “Crank” which is an action film?
A. This, to me, just takes so much more preparation. I had fun with both. Both were sort of adrenalin rushes because they’re so active. I had a great time in “Crank 2” just being insane. In “Crank 2”, Robert Royston, who is my choreographer for “Love N’Dancing” is my choreographer for my pole dancing scenes.

Q. How much of pole dancing do we see you do?
A. Just the basics (laughs). My character is an amateur at it and just sort of picks it up. She’s not a professional, thank God.

Q. Were you complimented on your dance moves?
A. I got compliments on my Swing style. I was the only one who had never done this in the whole group – everyone was so good and so talented. They were so generous and giving with me and very supportive. One thing I noticed when I critiqued myself watching it was one thing I didn’t nail down were the hand moves because they are so specific but whatever, I’m supposed to be learning it. So I guess it looks very real.