Interview: Francia Raisa from Cutting Edge: Chasing The Dream

The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream follows in the footsteps of the original hit romantic comedy, The Cutting Edge which charmed audiences with its story of an unlikely pair of polar opposites who unite on the ice for a shot at Olympic gold. Bringing passion and determination to the rink, The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream stars up-and-comers Matt Lanter (“Heroes,” WarGames 2), Francia Raisa (Bring It On: All or Nothing) and Christy Carlson Romano (“Kim Possible,” “The Cutting Edge – Going for the Gold”).

We had the honor of sitting down with one of the stars from the new film, Francia Raisa. Here’s what she had to say:

How did you become involved in Cutting Edge 3?

I was actually called in to audition for it. I had a really bad first read, but they called me back anyway. They wanted to see if I could ice skate. It was between me and this one other girl, and I ended up getting it.

Did they know that you could skate?

They saw it on my resume, but they were like “hm, a bunch of people put things on their resume, so let’s see if it’s true.”

So they tested me, I skated, and that was it.

How much figure skating had you done previous to that? Was it something that you did as a child competitively or was it more of a hobby?

It was more like a hobby when I was a child. I did it nine years ago, so I was 10 or 11. I loved watching figure skating on tv. I thought, “Wow I want to do to that!” I was doing pretty much everything else you could think of, so I was like let’s just add this in there!

So I started and I did it for about a year I think. The competitions were just too much. You had to travel all the time, every weekend I was out of town competing in San Diego, Arizona… you name it, I was probably there. It was just a lot for me on top of school and so many other things. So I had to stop. Coincidentally, a few months before I even heard about the movie I started skated again just because my mom has a restaurant across from the rink I used to skate at. Then a couple months later I got this audition, and I was like “Thank God I did this!”

[Laughs] I actually figured skated for about 8 years myself.

Oh really?

Yeah, so I can totally relate to the whole trying to balance school and competing and everything else.

It was just a lot, and the 5am rehearsals before school… I was like ,”Are you kidding me? I haven’t even finished my homework!”

Yeah it was just too much, so you know what I’m talking about.

So I have to ask, was there a difficult transition for you wearing the hockey skates? Because I know the one time I did it, it was horrible.

Yeah, it was horrible. I was like oh yeah, I’m fine, I can skate, but I’d never really paid attention to hockey skates, so I didn’t know that they didn’t have the toe pick and that the back edges weren’t as long as regular figure skates. So yeah, to start with I wasn’t even worried; I was telling everyone I was fine. I was on the bench across the ice where they hockey players would sit if they were benched. The only way I could get to where everyone else was on the other side was to skate across the ice, so I get on the ice, and I’m on my butt. I get up, and I’m just standing there with my knees bent. I’m not moving. Someone had to come over and push me the rest of the way, because I wasn’t about to move.

So yeah it was horrible. I hate hockey skates. I need my toe pick.

Exactly!

And just keeping your knees bent the whole time… No, I’m good.

How many of your own stunts did you do in the film?

Hard to say. As far as stunts, we didn’t do any of them except for one which was called the Jesus Christ. In the first routine, he flips me over his back and I’m posed up on his back like Jesus Christ. That was really the only one we did, we couldn’t do any of the other stunts. We did do some of the skating ourselves. The close-ups they have and sometimes far away where it looks like our faces, yeah that’s us.

So the Jesus Christ was the most difficult move you had to do?

Actually no. There was called the press lift where he lifts me up from my hands and I have to spread my legs, and because I’m not as flexible as I used to be, that was really hard and painful.

It was really scary doing Jesus Christ on the ice though. I was like, “Please don’t drop me!” I had blades on, and I didn’t know what could happen.

Did you guys have a lot of training time before filming began?

We did. We actually trained for about 3 weeks out here in LA. Then we flew up to Montreal and rehearsed another week before we began filming. It was a total of 4 weeks, every day for hours. It was fun though, so I really enjoyed it.

Were you a big fan of the original Cutting Edge?

Yes. Especially the end! I was like they can’t stop this! So I was sad the original cast wasn’t involved in the sequels, but I was like that’s okay, I’m doing it [laughs].

But I loved the first Cutting Edge, the love story, just everything, and the fact that I got to bring it back was amazing.

What made you decide you wanted to become an actor?

I don’t know what else I would be doing. Ever since I was little, when the tv would come on, I would turn to my mom and I told her that’s what I want to do. I went to school, and I had other dreams. I thought maybe I could be a psychologist. I always just went back to acting. Watching plays, I would always think I want to be up on that stage. Every time I went to the movies, I would picture myself in the screen. The whole becoming a different character that’s not you really intrigues me, and I love the camera.

I really don’t know what else I would be doing if not for this. I have no idea.

Looking to the future, is there an actress that you really admire that you hope that you can have a similar career to?

Career-wise, any Oscar winning actress is the career I want, but an actress that I do really look up to a lot is Angelina Jolie. I love her work ever since she started up until now, and if I could become as great as her… I don’t know what I would do with myself. She’s amazing, so yeah, that’s my girl right there.

Do you have any favorite television series that you absolutely cannot miss?

Oh! Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives! It’s Grey’s night every Thursday. My friends come over and they try to talk during it, and I’m just like, “Shut up! Grey’s is on. What are you doing?!” I’m so excited for it to be coming back on [laughs].

Do you have any upcoming projects?

Yes, I’m actually working on a new series with ABC Family. We don’t have a title for it yet, so I can’t tell you what the name will be. We start filming in a couple weeks, so I’m really excited about it.

Do you know if it’s going to be fall when it premieres?

I hope so. It takes place in the fall, so I’m guessing it will be.

What’s it going to be about?

It’s basically about high school teenagers and what goes on with them. The truth about what goes on with teens besides the books and studying, as far as the boys and the pier pressure they go through. It’s a really good show. I’m really excited about it.

Interview By: Emma Loggins

– Cutting Edge: Chasing The Dream Official Site