One on One with Gabrielle Dennis

Gabrielle Dennis has been on her grind! You’ve seen her as “Janay” on CW’s The Game, and she now stars with Christina Milian as Lina Cruz’s humorous and spunky  best friend, “Treyvonetta, in the  the popular teen film, Bring it On: Fight to the Finish. Gabrielle took a moment to kick it one on one with SIL’s Alia Williams about being on the set of her latest film, cheerleading, and acting.

Alia: What was it like growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio and how did you transition from there to Hollywood?

Gabrielle Dennis: Cincinnati is a very conservative city, so there’s not too much to do there. It’s a great place to raise kids though, so I felt like I had a good balance between right and wrong, in that I went to a performing arts high school and that kind of kept me busy with rehearsals and doing plays. My family is there too, but I didn’t realize how boring it was until I got to experience a real, major city.

Adjusting to Hollywood was fairly easy because right before that I lived in Washington, D.C., which I absolutely adore. I was debating between New York and Los Angeles to pursue my career full time, but L.A. won out because of the weather. Plus, I did the east coast thing and knew nobody in New York, so it kind of intimidated me.

Alia: How long have you been pursuing a career in acting, and what inspired you to start?

GD: I’ve always been a ham, actually. At my older cousins birthday parties or slumber parties, they would always have me singing or performing because I was so much younger. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but the only way that I could stay was if I performed for free [laughs]. I started out in the 4^th grade and I started dancing when I was four, so I was always introduced to that. My mom used to sing and was involved in local plays, so it was always around me. I had a lot of older cousins that went to the same performing arts high school I went to. Watching movies like the Wizard of Oz and The Wiz inspired me to do it. I thought Diana Ross was the BOMB in The Wiz, and I kind of looked up to those triple threats that could do everything; that’s how we were trained in my high school. Technically, as a full time career, I guess you could say that I’ve been pursuing being a professional actress for like four years, as long as I’ve been in Hollywood, but prior to that it was between being in school and trying to do it on the side. Now that’s all I do.

Alia: …and you like it.

GD: I love it! I mean it has its ups and downs, just like everything else that you would do, but whenever you have a passion for something, that’s really what it boils down to. Being able to work and do something that you love, it really doesn’t matter what it is. I feel blessed that I found something that I really like to do and can make a living out of it.

Alia: How did you enjoy working on the set of Bring it On: Fight to the Finish?

GD: Let me tell you, this was probably one of the more exciting experiences that I’ve had. It was all girls, so I got to be really girly. So many of us had birthdays within the same month. There were like four birthdays when we were shooting including myself, and Christina Milian. There were cute things that we would do like surprise each other, and decorate each other’s dressing rooms. We did a cheer for Christina for her birthday. We did all kinds of stuff, and it was great to be around a group of females who really supported each other. It was a really great mix of personalities where we all really liked each other and had a lot of fun together. It was like high school, in a sense, all over again and when I went to my performing arts high school. Then there was the dancing, and the amount of dancers that were on set. Dancers just have their own great energy and a great vibe. Everyone from the choreographer and the director was just really fun. I enjoyed that experience.

Alia: What made you choose the role of “Treyvonetta”?

GD: It was interesting because I was supposed to do another film before this one, but because I was doing CW’s The Game, there was a problem with my schedule and I couldn’t do this other film. This opportunity came along and it actually happened to work out where the shooting was between a break for The Game. I just like to stay busy and it was a good opportunity for me to do something different. I’ve never done a movie like this before, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to test a different side of my acting skills, as well as try to beef up my dancing that I haven’t done in a few years. I just wanted to challenge myself and I had a really great time. The character that I got to play was really fun and sassy. She was definitely a lot of fun to play.

Alia: Do you have any similarities to the character that you play in the movie?

GD: I would say that our closest similarity, I mean we’re nothing alike, but I would say that she’s very supportive and protective of her friends, and that would be me. If something were to go down, or if somebody needed my advice or needed my help with something, I would be there without question and without thinking about it twice to kind of help my friends. She loves her friends and would do pretty much anything for them and I think we definitely have that in common.

Alia: What made you choose the role of “Treyvonetta”?

GD: It was interesting because I was supposed to do another film before this one, but because I was doing CW’s The Game, there was a problem with my schedule and I couldn’t do this other film. This opportunity came along and it actually happened to work out where the shooting was between a break for The Game. I just like to stay busy and it was a good opportunity for me to do something different. I’ve never done a movie like this before, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to test a different side of my acting skills, as well as try to beef up my dancing that I haven’t done in a few years. I just wanted to challenge myself and I had a really great time. The character that I got to play was really fun and sassy. She was definitely a lot of fun to play.

Alia: Do you have any similarities to the character that you play in the movie?

GD: I would say that our closest similarity, I mean we’re nothing alike, but I would say that she’s very supportive and protective of her friends, and that would be me. If something were to go down, or if somebody needed my advice or needed my help with something, I would be there without question and without thinking about it twice to kind of help my friends. She loves her friends and would do pretty much anything for them and I think we definitely have that in common.

Alia: Have you ever been a cheerleader before?

GD: Yes! I was a cheerleader at Hughes High School, for the Hughes Big Red. I only cheered for about two years. We didn’t win very much, but it was fun. Not near the level of the experience, and talent, of the Bring it On franchise. The level of the different cheer teams that were in the movie, I mean these kids are amazing. The stunts they do, the energy that they had. I was just amazed by them. My school was just a little more downscale from that. We didn’t do a lot of stunts. I mean we cheered and some of us would do a few cartwheels, some round offs, and maybe a pyramid. In college I tried out and made it, but I didn’t have time to deal with that and school.

Alia: What kind of movies and actors did you look up to growing up, and what kind of actor do you aspire to become?

GD: Growing up I watched a lot of television and I liked over the top shows like Living Color and Martin, but then I’m a little bit of a dork and I love Little Mermaid. You know it’s funny, because a lot of actors who I looked up to were men. Jamie Fox because he did a little bit of everything that I’ve done, that I want to do, or that I kind of want to get better at because he’s done the whole sketch comedy thing, he’s done stand-up, blockbuster movies. His spectrum and his body of work is so diverse. He gets to sing, he has an album out, and he’s really good at everything that he’s done. The same with Will Smith, who started off with his music career and then had his own TV show, and then went on to being in blockbusters. I’ve done sketch shows and stand up comedies, but my goal is to have my own T.V. show and then from there start doing more movies and heavy roles, like documentary pieces. I would love to play Diana Ross or do something very interesting like that, and something that’s challenging and groundbreaking.

Alia: Would you do another movie similar to Bring it On, or would you branch off and do a different genre?

GD: I would like to keep my momentum going in as many different directions as possible so I don’t get typecast or pinned down. I try and go out and do different things in that it’s not the same exact type of character, or same type of energy and feel of this movie, just because it introduces you to different audiences and it introduces you, as an actor, to the different processes of getting that character and making that character believable. The same process and technique that I would use to make the “Treyvonetta” character in bring it on, would be a totally different process that I would do for maybe a very serious role in another type of film, depending on the director or the genre. I always like to challenge myself.

Alia: So will we be seeing you in any other movies this year?

GD: Ice Cube has a new movie coming out that I’m in called Janky Promoters, and I’m shooting a new show that will be coming out on Spike TV called Blue Mountain State. You can also catch me on The Game in syndication on BET.

Alia: Thanks for your time Gabrielle, and good luck to you.

GD: Thank you!