footloose 2011 Kenny Wormald Interview For Craig Brewers Footloose

Writer/Director Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” “Black Snake Moan”) delivers a new take of the beloved 1984 classic film, ‘Footloose.’ Ren MacCormack (played by newcomer Kenny Wormald) is transplanted from Boston to the small southern town of Bomont where he experiences a heavy dose of culture shock. A few years prior, the community was rocked by a tragic accident that killed five teenagers after a night out and Bomont’s local councilmen and the beloved Reverend Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid) responded by implementing ordinances that prohibit loud music and dancing. Not one to bow to the status quo, Ren challenges the ban, revitalizing the town and falling in love with the minister’s troubled daughter Ariel (Julianne Hough) in the process. ‘Footloose’ is released in cinemas October 14th.

What was your approach to Ren, this iconic character who’s been played by Kevin Bacon before? And also how did you actually get involved with this film?

Kenny Wormald: Once I got the call for the audition I watched the original film right away, to get a grasp of Ren and the whole feel of the ‘Footloose.’ Then once it was booked, I watched it again – but I didn’t want to watch it too much, I didn’t want to sort of overstudy Kevin Bacon, and try to be exactly like him because I knew that this was going to be different. Craig Brewer’s bringing his own twist, so I also wanted to do that with Ren. As amazing as Kevin Bacon was I definitely wanted to put my own twist on it.

When Craig Brewer took over the film he wanted an unknown guy, because when he first saw the original ‘Footloose’ Kevin Bacon was more unknown to some of the actors that were attached to it prior. He wanted that same kind of emotion, this kid Ren that you’re meeting for the first time, I think that was special to him. I was glad to hear that because I’m an unknown dude (laughs).

I really enjoyed how you and Julianne Hough worked off each other, how was she to work with?

Kenny Wormald: Julianne is great, she’s a dancer and I’m a dancer, from the first rehearsal of dancing it was just there. Your messing around and your joking around, you dance step, you bump into each other, there was no tension. That’s great because, you know, your meeting someone for the first time and all of a sudden your supposed to click with her. We clicked pretty soon, she’s great, she work so hard, it was really inspiring. She made everyone else want to work that hard. It was a great process, she’s a sweetheart.

I was tapping my feet throughout the dance scenes, can you tell us a little bit about the different dance set-pieces?

Kenny Wormald: There’s tonnes of different dancing in it, there’s four real dance scenes, and they’re all different. One of them is a little more current, a little more hip-hop. The song is a David Banner track so it definitely caters to that movement, a lot of freestyle. Then there’s the cowboys, which is a little bit more hoedown, more square dancing – but its definitely a cool square dance (laughs), its not your ‘typical’ square dance. Then the angry dance is rock, its angry, there’s a lot of attitude towards it. Then with the finale, we definitely touched on the original finale, with a little bit of the 80’s and fun feel, but adding our own style. There was a great team choreographing us.

Craig Brewer definitely has his own unique style that stands out….

Kenny Wormald: Oh yeah, and he definitely puts his own twist on it. If you see any of his other films you can definitely see he has his own style. I think he’s adapting ’Footloose’ to his style, staying true to the original but just making it a little bit more bad-ass, a little bit more current. There’s a lot of great dancing, there’s a great story, there’s a tonne of great actors involved. All around I think people are going to be surprised with what they get out of this film.