Anyone who reads this site knows that I absolutely adore Make It Or Break It, and all ABC Family programming. I love gymnastics (I am a former gymnast), and when I received word of this show, I was thrilled. The show has more than lived up to my high expectations. It is a look into the world of elite gymnastics, but even more than that, it’s a great drama with wonderful, interesting characters. And it returns tonight! I can’t wait! I recently had the chance to visit the amazing set of the show (I even got to step foot in The Rock), and speak with the creator, executive producer and the cast members. Josie Loren, who plays newly crowned National Champion Kaylie Cruz, was unfortunately not there on the day of my set visit. But I recently had the chance to catch up with her and ask her about her character’s new responsibilities, feeling guilty because of her championship win, and her ever-dramatic relationship with Lauren.
What about your role continues to challenge you?
Well, we have a great team of writers. I feel like our characters are always developing. Kaylie started off as one thing and she’s now going into something else completely different. So I have different things that I have to deal with, different issues, different troubles that have to deal with these ten episodes that I didn’t have to in the last ten. In last ten episodes, Kaylie kind of played this golden girl, very naïve. I thought she was kind of—she’s really just soft and she’s now stepped into the role of national champion. And just dealing with all of those things that the writers are giving me, dealing with envy, having to be even more aggressive now because she actually has the title. I think that that’s very challenging because it’s just all different.
Have you had a memorable moment from filming the first ten episodes?
I’ve have a few memorable moments. I just saw this girl the other day. Actually, she was doing a stunt for me. I think only a handful of girls can do this in the entire country and I saw her do this amazing trick. It’s called a Double Arabian. I was able to see it first hand and it was incredible. I was like, “Wow!” I get to see this live. So those are just one of the many things on our set that we get to appreciate and enjoy.
Do you have a background in gymnastics? Did you like watching it?
I was a gymnast when I was younger. My parents put me in gymnastics and I was actually only good at the floor. I was terrible at everything else, especially beam. Unfortunately, you can’t be a gymnast unless you’re good at all of the apparatuses, so I became a competitive cheerleader. I was just the main tumbler for my squad. We competed in big state and national championships. We were on ESPN, did that whole thing. So I’m really knowledgeable about the world of gymnastics and the competitive nature of it and all of that. But unfortunately, I was only good at one of the things.
Has there been anything that you learned from cheerleading that has helped you with this role?
Yes. I think Kaylie is a huge performer. I think her best asset is floor because she’s just such a ham. If cheerleading taught me anything, it was performing. Cheerleaders, they know how to spice it up. They know how to ham it up for the fans and Kaylie definitely does that for her audiences as well.
Now that Kaylie is national champion, she has a lot more responsibilities, distractions, stuff like that. What do you want to see from your character going forward in terms of handling all those new things?
It’s kind of funny answering this question because we’ve already filmed six episodes. What do I want to see? Honestly, I’m pretty happy the way that she’s been handling all of this, what the writers are writing. I didn’t know what to expect after winning the national championship. I didn’t know if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing because it could have been a negative thing in terms of she would just—once you’ve won the national championship, like well, kind of just give up on the rest because she’s already number one. But actually, she’s working a lot harder. She’s becoming more and more focused as a gymnast. In the last episode, she shed her father and Carter and everything else that was a distraction. And it’s kind of kept that way so far. Like I said, we’ve only filmed six episodes, so we have another four to film. But so far, she’s remained really focused and very, very dedicated to gymnastics, which is what I was hoping for.
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