From juggling three jobs in the Bronx to making her way on the red carpet, Kristy Flores has made her way to Fame. She shared her thoughts in a phone conference with the Winged Post and other high school journalists:

Q:What are the similarities between you and your character?

The similarities between me and my character is that we both have a passion for dance and you’ll get to see it and I have ballet technique and dance training and Rosie doesn’t and she goes into the school as just a street dance, mainly hip-hop and everything and you’ll really get to see her struggle.

Q:How’s it like for you to work in your first feature film?

It’s amazing! I didn’t have to work the first couple of days of the movie and I was there on set and I was like “wow this is a movie” like a kid in a candy store and by the end of the third day they were like “alright Kristy you need to go home.” They were planning on kicking me off the set. But it was amazing I will never let that feeling go and just I remember it clearly.

Q:What message do you feel this movie will deliver to its audience?

The message that movie will have is that there is a lot of instant fame out there and it shows the hard work and the darker side of it that is not…you know a lot of people don’t get to make it and it shows the reality of instant fame an d try to be famous and work at your craft. ‘cause, not everyone gets to be famous, not everyone gets to pursue what they want to do. Some of them become teachers, and they do other things and that’s what I feel like this movie will show

Q:Where do you see your career going?

I hopefully wanna do more movies, pursue more stuff dance well as well because dancing was always my first passion and will always be so there’s a lot of dancing movies and stuff going on right now so hopefully you’ll see me in another one or probably a little singing, not sure, and hopefully directing one day, kind of like Debbie Alan- kind of like what she’s doing.

Q:Which aspects of the movie are true-to-life?

You’ll get to see the character development in the movie. There is one in particular that I like which is Kate’s character, she goes through a lot and you’ll see it, which is a big reality towards something, towards this film, and towards the acting career if you wanna pursue it. Not everyone will grant you instant fame, and her story, once you see it, you will just be like “wow this industry is a little crazy.”

Q:How did dancing help you cope with growing up as an inner city child?

Dancing is my gateway and was my outlet. We all don’t have, great families, and I came from a broken home, so that was pretty much my outlet and just to get away from everything and all my problems and I feel like I’m a different person when I dance and you’ll see that personality in Rose, a little bit, when she’s on stage.

Q:Has your character shaped you in any way as a person?

Yeah—Rosie is a little tougher than I am, and in this business you have to be, and I’m just a little too nice, I see the good in everyone, and Rosie kind of puts up a wall and doesn’t like to show the vulnerable side so I took that from her and you have to be tough sometimes and you have to not be afraid to say what’s on your mind sometimes.

Q:What has been your favorite part of this entire experience?

My favorite part has to be filming the cafeteria scene. When I saw the movie, the first time when I was young, that scene was embedded in my brain, so when we actually got to film it, it took four days to film and every time the director, Kevin, said action, we had to keep the energy up, and everything, and once he yelled cut the poor make-up artists and everyone was dabbing us with stuff because we were sweating so much and you would never know that that scene took four days to shoot for like a 15 minute scene. It was just so much fun to do—we’re dancing, you get to see us jumping off of tables and everything and that scene had to have been my favorite.

Q:How has the new transit and technology today changed the movie?

Well we are using YouTube. That’s a new one. We have cell phones in the movie, text messaging, where as in the original they didn’t have anything like that. You have Paul Iacono who always has a video camera glued to his hand.

Q:What made you pursue this role so intensely?

Well, Rosie is kind of a tough cookie. She pretty much is the opposite of me, and I really wanted to make sure she was treated that way through my acting. I was so passionate about her once I read the script I was like “Wow, this girl’s amazing.” And I felt like I needed to connect with her in a way that you guys would so you’ll get to see that in the film.

Q:What was your schedule like from morning to night?

It varied. Some days we would wake up at four in the morning and get out at four in the afternoon, 12-hour days, sometimes 14 hours or longer, but there were other days where we would start at 12 in the afternoon and leave at 12 in the morning—It just varied. Some days really took a toll on us.

 Q:Referring back to something you said earlier in the conversation: You said you and your character Rosie were very different. Could you explain how so and how you were able to overcome that?

Rosie and I are different, I’m very very nice, and she’s not. She’s the kind of girl that would just look you in the eye and just grill you, and give you dirty looks, but not me. I’m kind of like “hi! How are you?” Bubbly personality. She’s real street, she has hip-hop technique, and she doesn’t have ballet technique—I do. For me to try to be like Rosie, I pretty much had to get out of that niceness and try to pretty much make sure she came to into life, as tough as that can be.