BB Exclusive: Director Laura Terruso Talks Making “Work It”, Working with Sabrina Carpenter & Jordan Fisher

Netflix has released its new dance movie, Work It today, August 6, and we got the chance to chat with the movie’s director, Laura Terruso.

In our chat with Terruso we talked about how her own experience in high school shaped the movie, working with Sabrina Carpenter and Jordan Fisher, how Keiynan Lonsdale’s character was originally a girl, and so much more. You can check it out below.

On how her own experience in high school shaped the movie? “I think when you direct, you have to really put yourself in the lead character’s shoes, which is why I don’t understand how people direct thrillers about murderers and things because I couldn’t do it. So most of my characters are a little bit like me. And so that was very true of Quinn. I really identify with her character and with her journey in this film. I think it’s also a really lovely coming of age story about a girl who finds her rhythm. And that definitely happened to me too. So it felt very personal.”

On how dance is universal is the overall meaning of this movie: “Dance is not about being the best, it’s about expressing yourself and letting the world know who you are and giving the world a taste of your culture. The thing that I really learned in the process of making this film is that dance is a universal language and that is so powerful. And so you could take this movie to any country and it’s a way to express yourself because people understand dance. It’s a way to express yourself that is completely nonverbal. It’s about celebrating our individuality, and being ourselves and not being the best is kind of what I wanted to get across.”

On what was it like, not only finding the perfect cast, but working with them throughout this process?: “This cast is a dream. They are truly the dream team. Rich Delia, the casting director and I were like, ‘Oh my god’, because it’s very hard to find great actors who can dance and who are funny. That is not easy. And we found it in spades with our leads.

I feel so grateful to them. I think they’re all just going to go on to have huge careers. They’re all so talented. And I worked really closely with them to shape their characters and a lot of the writing is them. We would write these characters together.”

You can read the rest of our interview under the jump! Make sure to check out our review of the new movie here and then go watch the movie for yourself!

Photo credit: Brendan Adam Zwelling/NETFLIX © 2020

On how Keiynan Lonsdale’s character, Julliard, was originally written to be a girl: “It was sort of written as a mean girl. And I’m really kind of allergic to mean girls. I feel like it’s been done, it’s been done well, let’s close the book on that. Let’s move on. So, Keenan was sent the script for the Jake character and actually came back and said, ‘I like this character [Julliard].’ Whose name was Foster at the time. And we were like, ‘Oh my God, that is amazing.’ And he came in to read and he blew us away. He was so funny. He was so present. It just breathed new life into the character. When I cast him, we just sat down together and we basically re-wrote the whole character, the whole arc. And he’s hilarious, the sweetest. And it was just so much fun to work with him.

On working with Liza Koshy: :When you have a talent like Liza Koshy, she is such a brilliant writer in her own and comedic actress, of course, we’re coming up with alts (alternative lines). I’m like, ‘Liza, where are your alts?’. So a huge, really fun part of the filmmaking process was working with the talent on their characters, working with everyone to make sure that they felt connected and that they had some sense of ownership of the movie and who these characters were.”

On what the most challenging part of filming this movie was: “Geez, man, it was hard time. Making a movie is so hard and making a musical is like making a movie on crack. So there were so many moving parts. There were so many dancers, there were so many elements with working with dancers. They’re athletes so people get tired, just the scheduling, figuring all of that out. I had a really wonderful ADE and scheduling was a huge, huge thing to make sure that we didn’t wear out the dancers, that they were all in their best shape.

On how the dancers were locals who never acted before: The movie was shot in Toronto, so all the kids who are not our top four are local talent, and none of them had ever acted before. They were all just local dancers. And they all blew our minds in the dance call. And we read them and so what I ended up doing was sort of shaping their characters around who they were naturally. Like the girl who plays Priya came in and did a Bangarra routine to Chris Brown. And we were just like, ‘Holy shit, this girl is amazing.’ So I really shaped their characters around who they were as people and kind of wrote to them knowing that that was how they were going to get comfortable. And then getting them comfortable on camera. The first day of the shoot, they were like, ‘Holy shit.’ Looking at the lights and they were not actors, but they really stepped up and they’re so great. And I love all of them. They’re so talented.”

On her favorite scene from the movie? “The scene under the bridge, where Quinn and Jake dance, that is probably one of the scenes that I’m most proud of just directorially, I love the way we used the camera there. It’s literally two shots, but the steadicam is dancing with them. It took a lot of takes and when we finally got that last take with the perfect kiss, I was like, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’ I just was so happy. It was a process. We probably did 10, 15 takes, maybe more. It went on and on, but because we wanted to get it as two oners and really see it the way it was supposed to be seen. So I’m really proud of that scene. And I think Sabrina and Jordan’s chemistry is just off the hook.

On working with Sabrina Carpenter and Jordan Fisher: “They are such pros. Sabrina and Jordan are just stars. They shine. You put a camera on them and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, they’re so beautiful.’ They’re just so, so good. And they have such ranges. And I think we’re going to see a lot more from all of these kids in the coming year. I had the great privilege of the first film I ever worked on was with Sally Field. So I really had a crash course in, ‘Wow, this is a movie star.’ And I can say without a doubt that these kids are all going to have tremendous careers ahead of them. There are really special.

On the one song that she hears that the second it’s turned on she drops everything and dances? “It’s so funny because I was just thinking about this because I’m going to Zoom the cast on Friday to celebrate. And I want to make it a little dance party. And so I was like, ‘What song should I use?’ And I have very eclectic musical case, but the song that I went with was “When Love Takes Over” the David Guetta’s song. I just think it’s one of those songs you hear it and you’re like, ‘Yes.’ It’s cathartic. And so yeah, that’s what I’ll be dancing with. The cast and I will be dancing to that on Friday night.”

***This interview has been edited for clarity and content.