Sabrina Carpenter Hopes Netflix's 'Work It' Is a 'Ball of Hope' During Quarantine

From ELLE

"I miss everything," Sabrina Carpenter declares at the beginning of our conversation, speaking to the universal struggle of 2020. While we're all regularly feeling the mean reds, Carpenter herself has a lot to yearn for. There's her Broadway run in Mean Girls, which was cut short after only two performances; missed hangouts with cast mates from her new Netflix dance movie Work It; and enjoying a proper 21st birthday party, among other things.

Carpenter and I discover we both celebrated quarantine birthdays, about two weeks apart, this spring. "It's great to know the energy on this phone call is top-notch," she jokes about our mutual Taurus status. But the similarities end there. For instance, Carpenter spent her big birthday filming a TikTok that has 38.3 million views. (I, on the other hand, devoted two full days of my life to learning one 15-second routine.)

Prior to mastering TikTok choreography, Carpenter was unlearning her dance training for her new movie. Work It stars Carpenter as Quinn, an over-achieving high school student whose admission to her dream college depends on her winning a dance competition. The only wrinkle: Quinn lied about her skills in order to diversify her extracurriculars‚ and has no rhythm whatsoever. Enter YouTube's Liza Koshy and To All the Boys' Jordan Fisher as her dance instructors.

Carpenter has been singing and dancing with ease since her Disney days on Girl Meets World, making her uncoordinated transformation jarring for both the actress and audience. Perhaps the disconnect was valuable preparation for the "rollercoaster" Carpenter says she finds herself on while spending time at home. Ahead, the actress and singer talks Work It, returning to Broadway, and why you're not allowed to watch her Punk'd episode.

How did Work It come to you?

I loved the character of Quinn and I wanted to do a dance movie for a really long time, because I grew up in Pennsylvania dancing five or six days a week. That was a big part of my life when was younger. Then I wasn't doing as much of it, so when I got the script, I was like, it's the best of both worlds. The only thing is, I really dance poorly throughout most of the film, but that also became more of a challenge. Sometimes it was really great to be the one who had to dance poorly, and then other times, watching everyone killing it, I really wanted to be dancing better than I had to be. But it was an incredible experience. Dance makes the movie come to life in a lot of ways, which is why our table reads were so different from the movie's final cut.

What was it like learning to intentionally do something badly?

I really channeled my sister. No, I'm kidding. [Laughs] Can you imagine? No, I do feel like there's a few of my friends and a few artists I've watched who have a very quirky way of moving and it's a little off-rhythm. A lot of the times, I would half-learn the choreography. I'd learned it, but not to the point where it was muscle memory. I'd learned it to the point where I wouldn't run into people, but I didn't always know what move was coming next.

That helped in being able to organically look bad and messy. We would do freestyle circles with our choreographer and I'd always do the worst thing I could think of and make myself look really embarrassing, which sadly was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

How far in advance were you rehearsing the choreography?

I was shipped to Canada three weeks before we started shooting. In those three weeks all the pre-production happened, but there was two weeks straight of pretty heavy dance rehearsals every single day, which for a movie like that is the most important part of building a cast bond and chemistry and memories.

We also had to adapt very quickly to song changes that were thrown at us. Half the song we danced to on set are not in the final version of the movie, which is an interesting thing I didn't know going into a dance movie. Songs would change up to the day before we shot the scene. We regularly had to adapt to and move on.

In the movie, Quinn says she's researched every dance movie in prep for the competition. Did you watch any before filming?

I still watch every Step Up movie ever made, maybe every other month. And then Dirty Dancing was a huge inspiration for us in certain themes of our movie. But we also were like, Let's make sure we stay in our own lane and make something that feels like its own thing.

How are you feeling several months into quarantine? What are you doing to occupy your time?

That is a great question, and there's a different answer to it every day. We're receiving and taking in new information as it's given to us and figuring out what do with it. Someone like me, who's very work-driven—I love and thrive when I get to be busy traveling and working. It's a very interesting time to be doing a lot of things in a different way

Work It is one of a few projects you've released during quarantine. What's it like to put art into the world during this time?

I'm very, very excited about Work It coming out and when it's coming out. It's like a ball of hope and fun energy, and it really makes you feel good. Things like that have been helping me a lot in this pandemic. It's interesting because you're obviously so used to spending months making these different projects in-person, so you'd anticipate these big releases and right now, everything is digital. It doesn't make it any less special—I'm just excited for whoever needs it to find it.

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Quinn goes from relying on TED Talks and inspirational quotes to speak for her to embracing her own voice. You entered the industry at a young age—was that a process you found yourself going through?

I've always felt really comfortable in my own skin, in that way of listening to myself and making choices. As I've gotten older, actually, it's gotten a harder to listen to my voice before other people. As we get older, there are a lot more questions and the world gets more complicated, so that's something I've dealt with recently.

I always say I wish I could be like I was when I was 12 years old auditioning. I was fearless. I had no apprehension going into rooms with total strangers. I felt very comfortable with rejection, which is not something Quinn is good at whatsoever. It's not that I don't feel that way anymore, and I know that part is still there, but it's been harder. I'm just happy Quinn gets to find her own voice at a certain point and stop thinking so much. That's something I try to remind myself every day.

What's your relationship to some of your early work, like Girl Meets World?

It's funny because if someone turns on something old I did, I'm like, "Turn it off, please. I will cry. Please don't watch it." But I obviously know it's out there and it's a part of my story. When you're that age, you don't care about looking weird or silly. You don't care about wearing crazy outfits. It's normal and you accept yourself, which is why other people accept it. But I think it's important to remind ourselves that the people who know us and see us every day, our friends, our families, people in our lives, they know who we are and hopefully they love and accept us for that exact person.

I try not dwell too much on old embarrassing things I may have done. There's some things I did when I was little that I'm super proud of. There's other things where it's like, someone didn't brush my eyebrows right. But it's not too bad. Although you shouldn't watch my episode of Punk'd because I literally blubber like a baby. And I was still 20.

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What was it like working with Liza Koshy and Jordan Fisher?

They're both wonderful people. Jordan I've known a long time, since [I was] probably 12. It was interesting for us to do a project together because we'd never actually worked on anything together.

Liza and I met at the table read. I'd never auditioned with her or read with her beforehand. I think she said something about my nail polish, and then flash forward and she's one of my best friends. She's one of the very few people who speaks the same language I do in a lot of different facets of life. That was one of the more real onscreen friendships I've ever had.

You and Jordan were both on Broadway briefly at the same time, he in Dear Evan Hansen and you as Cady in Mean Girls, before the pandemic cut your runs short. How are you feeling about your stint and possibly returning?

I'm feeling a lot of ways. That was a very big dream of mine for a long time. I was a huge fan of the show, but I never saw joining the cast as a possibility. Then I moved to New York at the beginning of the year, rehearsed for two months straight, and was able to do opening night and another show the next night. And then I was sent home to L.A.

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So I only got to do two shows, but it was two of the best nights of my life. I cannot stress that enough. I'm hopeful that once Broadway has reopened, maybe that's something that I could eventually go back to for a bit. It's sad when you're on Broadway before you have your driver's license, but I'm not too mad at the sentiment. Now my goal is to get my driver's license.

Watch Work It

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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