If you think Jenna Dewan has always been the glamorous star she is today — well, she’s here to set the record straight… and in the process, provide some big-time inspiration for folks who may still be waiting for their own big breaks to come along.
During a visit to The IMDb Show, Dewan discussed her new Netflix movie, Soundtrack — about being a struggling dancer — and all her many struggles along the way before finally getting her big break. You might say it’s a highly meta role for the star to play.
One thing that was always clear, Dewan said, is that she’s always loved dancing. “As a kid when you’re going through a lot, I found dance to be something that was always there for me,” she said. “I could channel, it grounded me, I always felt like I went somewhere else when I performed. And I still feel that way. And that feeling is really healing and was really good for me growing up.”
But it was hard starting out — like really hard. “My early days as a struggling dancer when I moved to L.A. and was auditioning nonstop getting nothing — there’s such inherent struggle in any art form but really a lot in the dance world,” she said. “You’re looking for two spots in a music video when there are 1,500 people there auditioning. It’s wild, it makes no sense, it’s crazy — but you still do it, because for every 20 nos there’s one yes, and you’re just waiting for that yes.”
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It eventually came for Dewan. She did some interesting — if odd — jobs, like dancing in a box at a Jane’s Addiction party and dancing with Kelly Clarkson in a Walmart parking lot just after Clarkson’s American Idol win.
But then, Dewan’s big break eventually came in the form of Janet Jackson, for whom she did a music video and tour, going on to work with the artist for two years.
“That’s when everything changed,” Dewan said. “That really changed my career for the better.
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