Anyone who reads this site knows that I absolutely adore Make It Or Break It, and all ABC Family programming. I love gymnastics (I am a former gymnast), and when I received word of this show, I was thrilled. It premiered last summer and its large fan base helped it come back for another (half) season. The show has more than lived up to my high expectations. It is a look into the world of elite gymnastics, but even more than that, it’s a great drama with wonderful, interesting characters. I recently had the chance to visit the amazing set of the show (I even got to step foot in The Rock), and speak with the creator, executive producer and the cast members. It was a fantastic visit and I’m so excited to finally be able to share with you all of the interviews. Ayla Kell, who plays Payson Keeler, was someone I was most looking forward to speaking to because of how the season finale ended. Payson gets severely injured and is told that she cannot compete in gymnastics ever again. When I caught up with her, she was incredibly sweet and candid, and we discussed everything from filming emotional scenes to what’s next for Payson.
So the last we saw of Payson was a really emotional scene between you and Peri. How hard was it to film that scene?
I have to say, it was great fun for me. We had a wonderful director on that one who did my coverage first, so we did one take. So I didn’t have to pump it out over and over and over. I think that’s one of the hardest things to do to keep it at that same level when you have to do it over and over. But for me, it was between Peri and Brett, who plays my dad, looking at both of them and seeing the devastation in their eyes, I was able to feed off of them, and then we had a cycle going back and forth, where they saw me crying and they would start crying, and I saw them crying and I would start crying and as an actor I feed very much off the people I’m around, and off of the script. I don’t compare it to real life experience just because then I start freaking out and hugging everybody all way too much. But I just go into character-land and visit her for a while.
What do you want to see with Payson going forward in the second half of the season?
Olympic gold.
(laughs) Besides Olympic gold.
I think that might be a ways off, but they don’t tell me anything though. I want to see her start to actually live her life. Right now, she’s got this — last season, we saw that she had no life at all, it was only gymnastics. And now that she’s had the injury, she’s at this devastating point of nothing-ness. Something has gotta give. She’s got to be pulled in some direction, whether it is back towards the gym, whether it is towards school, whether it is towards Nikki Russo, my little love interest. It’s got to go somewhere for her. But that’s something that she will end up becoming so committed to, that I think we’ll see a huge change in her.
What are you most looking forward to filming in the upcoming mid-season?
I actually just filmed one of the scenes I was most excited for in this episode, because I don’t know what’s happening in the season, I can only speak of this episode. [Ed note: The season premiere] But it was a moment of anguish, to say the least, for Payson. And I got to film my stuff with my family where I was really playing everything off as “everything’s good, everything’s cool” which was actually really fun to get to do, because its those moments in between moments where you let your face drop, that tell the entire story. So it’s that kind of stuff that I’m looking forward to.
And I remember when we spoke in the summer, you said we’d probably see a crack in the facade of perfection. Do you think we might see more of that? A less-than-perfect Payson?
I have to say, just in episode 11, you see less-than-perfect Payson, which is really exciting. That’s the kind of stuff that’s fun to get to play, because you know I was so good and so anti-dramatic for such a long time. Finally, letting something hit her, and letting something be difficult for her, other than just not being able to make a double back or something. So that’s what I’m most excited for.
Did you speak to any gymnast who may have had a career ending or career threatening injury?
My double, Jordan Schweikert, broke her back.
Wow.
Yeah, she’s still my double, I mean, she broke it a while back. But, I remember talking to her about that for a long time before I even knew about the injury, just because I found it so fascinating, because your back is such a huge part of it. And every once and a while, she’ll do a vault, and I see her kind of holding her back funny. And it’s interesting how she copes with it. For her, it’s like a magnet signal between her hand and her back, whenever she does something that involves any pain. It just goes straight there, and she’s like oh, it feels a little bit better now. It’s really interesting the mental thing that goes with it. And she wouldn’t — if she ever reads that she’ll be like I do that? No, that’s not true. But it’s something you see. And I talked to her sister, Tasha Schweikert, as well about what it was like for Jordan, her sister. And you know, Tasha’s had plenty of injuries as well, but not to the degree of a full body cast.
Payson has a sister as well. Does that relationship get tested during this hard time as well?
Yeah, definitely, because it’s not only a matter of one: she didn’t really have friend friends before, she had gym teammates who are a different breed than friends, in a way. But she only had that and her family, and so now the relationships are being tested between her family and her because she feels as though she’s suddenly alone in this battle, and her teammates because there’s a jealousy of them still being able to do everything, and just the smallest slip ruined her whole life.
Do you think she’s going let her friends in at all and let them be her friends? Or is she going to keep them at arm’s length?
You know, I’m kind of still waiting to get the next script.
Of course, of course.
But I certainly hope so, because I really like working with my friends.
Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 9 pm on ABC Family for the mid-season premiere of Make It Or Break It.
The TV Chick 