The-Dream is a lucky man. He’s a chart-topping singer/songwriter with beautiful eye candy draped on his arm. But this bar of sweetness just happens to be Christina Milian. The cute singer/songwriter/actress is no slouch herself as she looks to impress fans and foes alike with her appearance in Bring It On: Fight to the Finish.
Playing the role of East Los Angeles chicano, Lina Cruz, Milian’s character is uprooted from her safe haven in the hood to the buppie paradise in Malibu. With any transition, Lina faces growing pains but finds social acceptance when she joins the school’s cheerleading squad. But today, Christina is relaxed, highly energetic and enthused about talking about her role in the movie, expresses her appreciation for Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez films and vaguely references her love life in this The Urban Daily exclusive interview.
– Sierra Smith
TUD: Tell us about your new movie, “Bring it On: Fight to the Finish.” Why “fight”?
MILIAN: It is literally a fight, like well other than all of the cat fighting they’re doing in the movie, which is typical of any Bring It On film. This one I think, it’s more about a struggle that my character Lina, she comes from East L.A. and her mom, she marries Henry, who is a Malibu business man. So she’s forced to move out of East L.A. into this new place. Into Malibu where everybody is real boogie and stuff, but she’s not use to that lifestyle and nobody keeps it real. Everything is kind of fake and all like about designers and stuff. She’s like “My own style, it is what it is, this is where I come from and you guys are like just trying to keep me from being who I am.” So I think that’s probably more so the fight to the finish is, is like all the way to the end, they’re trying everything to make sure that they can’t make it to the competition, as far as the rivals, but my character finds a way to make sure that all her people can be a part of it and that she can make the Sea Lions the best that they can be, because they’re not very good, to also bring on her culture and her friends and the people that she knows are the best to come into the all-star team. So, I guess that’s where you would say, “fight” to the finish.
TUD: What attracted you to this film? Do you think with your team, “alright this is right for me because of my personal views, as a singer, as an actor?”
MILIAN: Definitely! You know what’s so funny? I just said this and I just realized this in a way. I think sometimes the reasons why I do some of these movies, other than in a way it’s like I personally feel as a great representation for young girls, kind of like a role model, but I think it’s almost to fulfill something that when I was in high school I wasn’t able to express, like there were things that I felt, but people didn’t understand me. When you get to do these movies you get to show an art and you get to show that this person is confident and how they succeed. I guess in a way that’s what I was able to accomplish from a young age on into where I am now. I Just think her feistiness and her confidence is just really strong at the end and it’s about what she’s focused on and it’s not necessarily about all the excess stuff around it. So, for me that’s one thing and then of course I’m a fan of the franchise. I mean I buy all the DVDs. I have them all. So I’m not even going to front, it’s not like something that came out of no where like, ‘Oh, we’ll do it for this fan base and for this money,” or something like that. It really was like, ‘Hey, I really am a fan. They’re fun movies.’ Like the first and the third were like two of my favorites and every time you see a rerun. I can’t help but like I literally watch it all over again. So, why not go on with the legacy and continue that and try to make it even better. That was my thing like, ‘Okay, this can’t be cheesy.’ If we’re going to do it and it’s the fifth one, like that already sounds funny as it is, it’s like okay you’re on number five, but something about it. It’s just a magnet to girls and to women. So, I think if it was more so of a strategic thing, its more so about my fan base; which is girls and I think it’s a great representation to a real girl, to the real average girl.
TUD: What similarities do you share with your character, Lina Cruz?
MILIAN: I think what I share with Lina is her passion and her drive for what she does. I’m just very passionate about what I do and especially that it just like, that’s in the midst of getting to know yourself and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do’ and her focus is that she loves to perform and for me that’s what it is. You inspire people through music. I’m able to inspire and through acting I can inspire and that’s what cheerleading is. So, I think that’s where Lina [and I] really parallel. She’s actually lived more of a cultured like Latino, Latina lifestyle compared to probably then I have, but a lot of me kind of wishes that I got to kind of… When I was younger I use to live in Maryland, but let’s just say all my family, like all my extended family was in Jersey and were all Cuban. So, I wanted to be in Jersey like down like just hanging out. I thought I was so cool when I would hang out in Jersey to be around all the Latinos, a lot of Cubans, Puerto Ricans. I’d come back with an accent and everything. So, that’s kind of funny you know, there’s a part of you when you’re a child that wants to have a little bit of spice and to live something that’s just a little bit more exciting and so I think I got to do that with Lina’s character. I really dove into that. Yeah, we were really in East L.A….they weren’t joking…were down in East L.A. right now literally in the hood. You hear behind the houses, chickens and roosters walking around it’s like okay they don’t even have to fake any of this, this stuff is real.
TUD: Fans know you as a triple threat, you sing, you act and you dance. Did you find that transition difficult? Did you have to go to boot camp?
MILIAN: I did have to go to boot camp.
TUD: How was that?
MILIAN: It was just… you know what… I’m always up for a challenge and that’s what excited me about it. Learning the different stunts and stuff, but I’ve played cheerleaders in other movies before and I’ve had to learn some really extensive cheering. From Man of the House I had to do a real college background stunt-work. So, that one was more extensive compared to this one. It’s more intricate and it was more like dance choreography based. It was more Hip-Hop and Salsa so they infused a lot more of that and it was actually a lot more difficult than expected. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a lot of work.’ and it was just really like small bits of everything, but you have to be so on point with cheerleading. It has to be clean. So, it’s more athletic compared to just regular choreography for a music video. So, I have a lot of respect for them, because for me I had to learn 20 routines, which is a lot.
TUD: In how much time?
MILIAN: In one month. I had five days a week , 8am to 6pm, everyday. From Monday to Friday. So, everyday we were learning a new routine and probably practicing four to five routines a day. It was pretty crazy. My thing was probably more so the memory. My memory is like gotta log back in, what was the first routine again? That was always the hard thing trying to remember exactly what we were doing the whole time.
TUD: And what about being a base or a flyer, did that ever scare you, because you know they drop people?!
MILIAN: Yeah I’ve seen people drop. I have seen that. That’s not good either. That’s not good [laughs]. I actually did have a moment where the guys didn’t balance me well and I wasn’t with my usual base and it was another guy and he dropped me and that wasn’t good. He had me up… was it a liberty [cheerleading move]? No. No, it wasn’t a liberty, I forgot what it’s called, but they lift you up and then they drop you and then they bring you back up and they didn’t do a good job catching me. [Laughs] And I knew I did it right, so it wasn’t a thing that I had done wrong. You gotta suck it up, everything and he just messed up. So, I did pay for it for that moment and it was at a rehearsal, but we got it right, right after that.
TUD: So, no stunt double?
MILIAN: No, no stunt doubles. The scariest part for me is being thrown up in the air, when they literally throw you. I’m not even really good with rollercoasters… so every time they would do that I would scream. I would scream every time. I think we have it in the behind the scenes footage. It’s pretty funny.
TUD: What about the music influence with the soundtrack? Did you play a part in that? I heard some snippets in the background of the movie. How many tracks did you have?
MILIAN: I did have some part to do with it. I did one specific song that plays on the end of the movie, which is a music video that we shot for the movie, what we called “Gotta Get To You.” I’m tryin’ to remember if I have any other specific songs like the thing is they go in and out with the movie. Sometimes your even practicing or dancing to no music. It’s just like a click or your dancing to music at the moment but they put in new music again, like they put in something else after that. I do know some of the songs were Kat De Luna and Lady GaGa and one thing about all the Bring It On movies is that they always use very current music, ’cause girls don’t really want to listen to something old or something that they just don’t know. It doesn’t make it exciting. So, a lot of the music is really important in the movie and I had something to do with it, some parts of it, just mostly to say, ‘Hey, you better find something hot, because I’m not going to dance to it!’ [Laughs] It’s gotta make sense with the movie. We’ve always had really great people that made the music for us.
TUD: What about your new projects besides this one, do you want to go more into acting? Different realms of acting?
MILIAN: I do want to go into different realms of acting. Especially, I’m 27 going on 28 so I would to find some more roles that are more adult driven and that are just different from being a high school student going thru the same kind of things that most of my characters have. Maybe something that’s not so sweet.
TUD: You want to go off the deep end?
MILIAN: Something with a couple more layers. Yeah, well I don’t know if I’m ready for that one yet. Or maybe something more romantic or maybe something that’s just not so out there and in your face you know and sort of just calm it down. So, we’ll see comes along. I definitely am looking for projects even if its an independent. I would love to do a good indie… even if it’s a small role. Sometimes, I love — you know what movies I love? Quentin Tarantino films and [Robert] Rodriquez.
TUD: Those films are scary.
MILIAN: Yeah, scary and bloody and gory and kinda just dirty and I like his movies. So, I think it would be pretty interesting if I find a way to do one of those films. That would be in my interest and then right now, of course, I finished my album and signed my deal with Interscope Records like a month ago.
TUD: Congrats.
MILIAN: Thank you. Now, it’s getting everybody on point in everything and all the stars aligned since the album is done already. It’s just about getting certain people at the label to start forming an opinion on what the exact single is and how were gonna market it and what do we need to make sure that the fans are really listening. Things are just different now. So, you know you’ve got the Internet and it’s like, ‘Ok, how do are you gonna do it and be different so that people will actually wanna buy it and every other day there’s something leaking?’ I don’t even know how half the music leaks. The people think that the artist leak it, but they’re not. They’re not leaking the music. There are people that can hack into your emails and not that it should be in your email, but they hack into other people emails and somehow they can get into your music system and take records and next thing you know its on the Internet and it really stinks, because the respect for music sometimes is like do you realize what hard work that was or it might be in the early stages or something, but whatever.
TUD: Do you have a title for this album?
MILIAN: Well it’s titled Eloped and I might say tentatively titled that just for now cause it might change, but its been called Eloped for the last few months. So I’ll stick to that for now.
TUD: That’s a Fall release correct?
MILIAN: The single will be a Fall release. The album now I think will be more Winter, top of the new year.
TUD: How is it when you have to fight for these tracks and these records? I know there was some supposed rumor that you had to fight over a track with Rihanna and then a “Diamonds” track with Teiarra Mari, how does that feel to always have to say well this song isn’t for me?
MILIAN: It always stink cause for me actually, if anything more a lot of that stuff is rumor. So let me clear up. That’s the most part I want to clean up, especially even with “Diamonds.” “Diamonds”… I wrote that record and it was a record that I had previously from the album before I started this new version of the album and actually when I found out that Teiarra did it already I was like cool. In first place, I’m about my song writing, that’s one thing publishing… cool! My publishers are gonna be more than happy and her album is coming out, GREAT! In the second place, I think she did a great job doing the song, so I heard some rumors out there and I heard some things that even were said by her and it sucks that people don’t actually go out of there way to find out the true information and I meant to reach out to her and actually just talk about it cause I thought that was just kinda bad to base things off of rumors. I don’t even like to go that way. So, for me I think that if it’s meant to be, will be. If you connect with a record you know you’ll fight for that record as much as you can. I think most important that’s why I write my records. If you write a record you most likely have the right to that record first. There’s obviously a connection that you have with it and sometimes some records just come your way that may be an amazing record that you didn’t write that a bunch of people are fighting for and you can do whatever you can to get a label to fight for it as well and prove that you’re the right person for it, but its crazy sometimes you might put your vocals on it and you might not be the right person for it, even though you love it. So, maybe somehow you can’t express it. So, I don’t know that’s why I like to write most of my records or I’ll just work with someone I share a common chemistry with so they understand me to help me to be able to write those records.
TUD: Pretty cool. Speaking of “the dream,” I know you have a relationship with The-Dream… Would you say that, that’s the right word for it, that your living the dream?
MILIAN: Yes, I would definitely say that. I’m in La-La land. A lot of people… they get to see it and they can definitely recognize it as well. It’s pretty cool.
MILIAN: Thank you.
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