From an old-school Italian family on Long Island, Cassie was a member of the group Slumber Party Girls before landing her first film role in "Bring It On: In It to Win It." She currently stars as gymnast Lauren Tanner on ABC Family's "Make It or Break It;" its fourth season ends this week.
A triple threat as an actress, singer, and dancer, Cassie still finds time in her busy schedule to give back through her non-profit organization Nothing's Impossible.
Chosen as this week's Actor2Watch, Cassie will be featured in a series or articles, fun facts and social media tweets through this week for subscribers of Girl2Watch.com.
Actor2Watch: What was your first real break as an actor?
Cassie Scerbo: I was in a girl group (Slumber Party Girls), we were signed to Geffen Records and we were on CBS Saturday mornings performing on a show "Dance Revolution." We were the house band. I was put up here in a big, beautiful apartment, and they gave us cars and a per diem—everything you could dream [was] possible. It was really exciting because that was the first time I saw myself on TV not as an extra on a Burger King commercial, which was my first job.
My first movie was "Bring It On." That was an amazing experience. I got to live at the Hard Rock Hotel, in Orlando, Florida for about two months, which is so cool. I did all my own stunts. I'm like the biggest daredevil and the most competitive person ever. When I put my mind to something I have to go 200%, so that was a really exciting experience. I have to say those two [projects] were the true breakthroughs.
A2W: What kind of training did you get, and who do you study with?
CS: I study with a variety of people here. I just continuously learn from the best and take a little piece from every talented person I meet. I've worked with someone named Tony Mindel, and I've worked with someone name Dennis LaMal out here.
I had an amazing coach in Florida who was truly my breakthrough coach. He always told me, "There is something inside of you. I feel something. I've only said that to two other people in my whole coaching experience." His name was Anthony Hubert and he took me to more of a spiritual place with my acting.
I do find acting to be very spiritual and a lot of actors will agree with that. You have to be so in tune with your emotions, your body, other people, and feelings that are just going on around you. It's really an amazing feeling, and Anthony really took me to that place. I also look up to Meisner and Stella Adler and Stanislavski and all the big people—just reading their books—and Uta Hagen.
I find myself now when I'm acting on the show. Because I know my character so well, there are lots of ways to get into a scene. There are lots of preparations and different methods of how to get into a scene, but now I just almost take a deep breath and just let the scene take hold of me as opposed to just trying to jump in the scene.
My favorite quote is, "Acting is half shame, half glory"—shame for exhibiting yourself and glory for when you forget yourself. That's by John Gielgud, and I feel that's the best quote ever. When you finally let go it's just the most amazing high and feeling ever—when you just become a character, even though sometimes it's awkward and you feel shameful and you feel like you're exhibiting and exposing yourself. When you let go of it all and let everything out and become that character, it's an amazing feeling. I learned a lot of my acting just off that one quote.
A2W: How do you use the Internet, Facebook and Twitter to promote your career and communicate with your fans?
CS: I think we're really lucky to be living in this day and time where the Internet takes such a big part of our lives. I've taken advantage of it to create a larger fan base and get my name out there and spread my charity around, so I can help people and people can get to know me and I can make lives brighter, which is what I like to do.
I definitely use Twitter, MySpace, MySpace music, Facebook—I use it all and try to get in touch with as many people as possible and get them familiar with myself and the show. I try to reach out to all my fans and write them back.
I just received an amazing book that these two girls took a year to complete. It was a fan book of all these things, different quotes that they printed out from different fans, and pictures that different fans made. It's this huge book. That was amazing and I can't wait to send them something back.
I try to take the time every day to go onto Twitter or something on the Internet, or write to my fans, just with the fan mail or whatever it may be. I find that to be an extremely important part of my career and job to keep in contact with fans and keep them updated on what's going on. I like to give them the latest news and the scoop.
Right now I'm addicted to Twitter, so that's my newest obsession. I always said, "I'm not going to become one of those Twitter people." But I started, and I'm obsessed. I love my fans, I love the people I speak to [through] the Internet.
