Piper Perabo Talks Taking Chances and Dancing on Zoom for Her New Feel-Good Show, The Big Leap
Piper Perabo is showing off her dance moves once again—albeit, not on top of a bar this time around. The Coyote Ugly actress is instead dancing toward a reimagined production of Swan Lake in FOX's new show-within-a-show, The Big Leap. Perabo plays a reality-TV hopeful named Paula Clark (who's also a former auto exec and a cancer survivor) on the FOX dramedy, which is all about second chances and chasing your dreams.
"I think audiences need this kind of programming right now," the Yellowstone actress tells Parade.com. (And by the way, if you need this kind of programming, like, right now, the first two episodes of The Big Leap are available for an early preview exclusively on Hulu, FOX Now, and On Demand beginning Tuesday, Sept. 14.)
Despite being set in the midst of the present pandemic, The Big Leap is an uplifting series for the times we're living in. "When I first got the script and I was making Yellowstone up in Montana and I read The Big Leap, I felt like this is the kind of show I would want to watch when I got home at the end of the day. Real stories and real acting, but also these like joyful giant dance numbers," Perabo recalls. She thinks The Big Leap is part of a promising trend as well: "There are shows out there like Ted Lasso that just make you feel good. They're positive. They're not just silly. They really are like intrinsically positive."
Learn how Perabo prepared for those dance numbers with hilarious Zoom rehearsals, plus why she wanted to reinvent herself after Coyote Ugly—and more on The Big Leap!
What did you love most about your character Paula Clark after you first read TheBig Leap script?
I loved so much that she's a woman who used to be an auto executive—and she gave that up. She gave that up when she went into cancer treatment. Now that she's come through her cancer treatment, she's decided to do what she kind of always dreamed of doing, which is dance, and I felt like a lot of people in the pandemic, in real life, got to take a chance to look at the jobs they're doing and a lot of people changed jobs, or even like just adjusted how they were living their life in any number of ways to just see if they could be happier. I think that's such a powerful thing to come out of what we've all been through as a globe. I love that this woman was kind of embodying that.
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In Coyote Ugly, you played an aspiring songwriter, and now you're playing a woman who dreams of being a dancer. I have to imagine playing these characters must in turn inspire you?
It does. I mean, I feel so lucky to get to do the job that I dreamed of doing when I was a kid, and it's so fun. When we're making The Big Leap, you know, they built a dance studio for us. There's a private ballet studio where we all go and practice and learn all the dances in the show, and it gives me so much joy to be with this company of actors. We stretch for almost 40 minutes before we start because we're not all coming from a dance background of like, some of us are tighter, tighter muscles than others, but there was a moment when we were all laying on the floor and we were like way into the opening stretches and somebody starts laughing, and we all just kind of were laughing together, and I think after so many months of being in our houses and with just a small number of people to be in a room full of new people and we're all about to dance and we were all together, just had this amazing feeling. So, this show in general is inspiring to me.
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The Big Leap is about reinvention. I'm curious, after your big break in Coyote Ugly, did you want to reinvent yourself or maybe feel pressure to reinvent yourself in Hollywood?
You know, after I did Coyote Ugly, I purposefully did go, and I did movies in different genres. In particular, I did this movie called Lost and Delirious with this French-Canadian director Léa Pool. I had seen her previous film in French at the New York Film Festival and I was so taken with her that I called my agents and said like, "If Léa Pool ever does a movie in English I would really—" and they said, "Oh, her next movie's in English." Hollywood made me want to reinvent myself, but not from Piper Perabo, but from Coyote Ugly and to make sure that I was really not pigeonholed in that moment to have to play the same part over and over again and I feel so lucky that I've got to play so many different kinds of people.
What do you think is one of the biggest leaps you've ever taken in your life?
I think that one of the biggest leaps I've taken was in 2016. I really committed to activism. I have been doing work with the International Refugee Committee, who works with resettling refugees all across the globe, but I hadn't done anything domestically, like participating as a citizen and since 2016 I really worked on educating myself, and trying to show up for all different causes especially voting rights is one of the things that I really care about, and I didn't really know anyone in the activism space. And I just decided to choose the platform I have in social media to start listening and learning and introduced myself to people who were in the space, and tried to see how I could be a part of it.
Going back to The Big Leap, you mentioned that the cast had a studio. What kind of training did you all undergo for your performances?
We had these Zoom dance classes, which were so hilarious. Oh my god, the whole cast on Zoom. Everybody would sign in from wherever they were, like Ser'Darius Blain was doing a movie in Puerto Rico and he's signing in from like the beach. I'm doing Yellowstone in Montana, so I'm signing in from like the ranch. It was so insane. Jon Rudnitsky is so undisciplined and he would be like signing in and finishing his lunch even though we're supposed to be dancing. Ray Cham who's an amazing dancer and like a real professional, he's signing in with all of us amateurs and he can like pick it up, you know, in three seconds and all of us are really struggling. The Zoom dance classes were just so funny.
Except for Teri Polo and Mallory Jansen, I don't think anybody has a ballet background. Adam Kaplan has probably a background so he can pick it up pretty quickly, but a lot of us needed a lot of ballet work, so we came a month early and now we rehearse and practice simultaneously with shooting.
I'm cracking up that you guys had Zoom dance rehearsals. Most people don't like signing on for meetings and yet here you guys are dancing on Zoom.
I mean, it's so funny! A Zoom dance rehearsal, you're really far back from the camera so the teacher can see your whole body, but then when they want to see your footwork everybody's putting their computers like on the kitchen floor and we're all trying to like dance in front of the camera. It's impossible! And there was one part where I had to do this big [move] in this ballet number and I didn't have enough room in the kitchen where I was staying doing Yellowstone. I would knock into the refrigerator every time, so eventually, I was like leaning into the refrigerator. I'd be like, "Left turn..." I'd just say what I was supposed to be doing because I just couldn't fit it all in that kitchen.
How would you rate your dance skills now?
I think I'm better! Some of the people on the show are professional dancers like Fabrice Calmels who plays a part on our show, he just retired [as] the lead male dancer at the Joffrey Ballet. So, when you stand next to him, which often I do at the bar in our dance studio, in a way it's kind of crippling because you're like I'm never gonna even come close to the way Fabrice points his foot, but it's also inspiring and so fun. The opportunity to get to dance with a dancer from the Joffrey is just like a dream.
What was it like the first time you and Jon Rudnitsky met? Did anyone step on any toes?
Oh my gosh, the first time Jon Rudnitsky and I met was over Zoom, obviously, it's a pandemic, and we did this meeting with Jason Winer and Liz Heldens, who were the director and writer of the pilot and executive producers, and Jon and I got on like a house on fire from the minute we met. We're both from New Jersey, so we have like the same sense of humor and kind of outlook... New Jersey is a really specific place and so I feel like people from there like get each other. And Jon is an amazing dancer. He's like this incredible mimic. If you watch his comedy you'll see how physical his comedy is, so if anybody was stepping on anybody's toes, it was me stepping on his. In fact, I did step on his toes in that scene you see in the pilot where we like to audition together. I stepped on his toes more than once, but he's a real gentleman and doesn't ever say anything.
Ha, okay. That was acting. I was curious!
Oh, that was like right on camera I stepped on his toes. Usually now, we've been dancing together long enough that we don't step on each other's toes. I'm used to having him as a dance partner. It was a little hard for me to learn how to follow like in partner dancing, I don't know, I think most American women are this way. They like to lead, too. So it takes a little getting used to to be the one who's following, but he's a great dancer so it's really fun to dance with him.
Do you think it's important to highlight modern-day issues, whether it be the pandemic in the show or racial injustice, in scripted TV shows?
For me, it's integral. I don't want to do a show that doesn't talk about something that's really going on in our nation. I feel like media is a really powerful tool to let people know that they're not alone and we're all kind of working on these issues together, and it's a kind of a virtual town square in a way, especially when it comes to network television. There's a way that we can bring up these stories and see issues from different points of view, and then people who watch that show can talk about it afterward, as well as the fun and the laughs and the dancing. I think storytelling is a really powerful way to see an issue from many different sides.
Was there any discussion behind the scenes of maybe not incorporating the pandemic, or was it like no, we have to do this because it's relevant?
When I got cast in the pilot, it was already decided that the pandemic would be present in the world. You know it's funny because we have to deal with the pandemic still in the making of this show. We have to go through all these protocols. In fact, the reason I'm doing this interview with you in the car is because I'm driving to my COVID test. I mean, we're tested every other day. The crew is required to wear PPE. We're very safe and conscious of it. I think it would be kind of weird if we didn't incorporate it.
What what do you think is the biggest thing you've learned about yourself during these challenging, unprecedented times?
That's a good question. Especially when the pandemic first started, I was really proud of how people were looking in on one another. I felt like we weren't doing that as much before the pandemic like I was in Los Angeles. And I remember, there's like parking laws, of course, right in Los Angeles, you can't like double park on a busy road or like you can't park on certain colored curbs, and in Los Angeles and in other cities, too, they said like, that's not gonna be so strictly enforced because we know people are dropping off food to elderly neighbors or running into bring masks or check on people and you need a minute to like put your car, you know in park, run in with the groceries leave them on the porch and then get back in your car. And although that seems kind of perfunctory or sort of municipal or something, it kind of just made me so happy because I thought all these people are out there bringing their neighbor's food, checking in on their elderly neighbors and people they know? That's so kind and it's really the kind of country that I want to live in and it's happening in such a large scale that they have to put out these things like it's okay to park on a, you know, painted curb for five minutes if you're dropping off groceries for somebody else. Just so beautiful and that way of looking in on each other. I hope we can carry that on once we get through this pandemic.
Is there something you want to take a big leap and try once COVID-19 is behind us?
I'm so excited to go back to traveling. I love to travel, and I was saying to someone this morning actually like I haven't been out of the country in a year and a half, and that's so bizarre for me. I love to travel to places I've never been to. And so I'm really looking forward to like new adventures when we all get safe.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
The Big Leap premieres Mon., Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
