Before embarking on THE NEXT STEP’s nine-day HIT THE FLOOR TOUR across Canada, actress and dancer Brittany Raymond (Riley) gave THE MAGAZINE an inside scoop! Read on to find out what the Family Channel star is most looking forward to on this tour (and her craziest fan encounter yet)!
What has it been like interacting with your fans face-to face?
It’s really cool too when you’re in the street and a fan will recognize you. It’s really cool to see their reaction; to see how excited they get!
What’s your favourite dance so far in the whole season?
I would probably say, “Stand-up,” just because everyone is a part of it and we’ve been working on it for a very long time. It’s going to be good!
What is the weirdest fan encounter you have ever had?
I was in a mall and a girl recognized me and dropped her bags. She just didn’t say anything at first and then all of a sudden she just started balling her eyes out and her mom freaks out because she doesn’t know what’s wrong. I was a little scared! Then she starts pointing at me and she’s like, “Oh my gosh, that’s Riley from THE NEXT STEP!” I felt so bad, I didn’t know what to do. But I took pictures with her and everything while she was shaking. I’ve never seen a fan freak out that bad!
What are you most looking forward to with this tour?
I’m really excited for the performances, being able to perform with everyone again and to see all of our fans from all across Canada.
Does your show “family” act as foster family, when you are away from home?
It’s really good to like see everyone after not seeing them for a while because it’s like we spent no time apart. We get right back to being such good friends and everything.
What was the best part about filming season 2?
I think also everyone feels a lot more confident in season 2 because we’ve had years experience and then we had time to get away from it and then we got right back into it. We felt a lot more comfortable with each other on-camera and off-camera, so it read really well.
How has your character evolved since the show started?
With Riley, I find that she is very dependent on other people, like her sister. And then she is kind of dependent on James to help her with making Michelle dance captain. Once that happens, she almost finds this new independence and she learns with the help of James to stop stressing over the little details and just enjoy life. She becomes her own person and then she makes her own decisions and it helps her out in the long run.
Is it hard to get into the serious moments like when Emily tells Riley they are no longer sisters?
It can be a little bit hard. I find that it just takes a little bit of preparation before hand to get yourself into that mindset. But honestly, it’s just kind of being in the moment and what you get from the other actors helps a lot. So whenever me and Alex have to do a scene, it was really key that she would give me enough for me to be able to react to it so it was just a matter of me preparing myself before hand.
How do you handle the giggles?
Preparing yourself, being focused and staying in the scene at all times.
What would you like to happen for your character in upcoming seasons?
That’s a tough question; I definitely want us to win regionals. I would like to see Riley fully become her own person and I would really like to see her mature into the women that she is growing up to be.
Because it is improv, do you get a say?
It really depends on the scene and everything; they will have a script and a scenario laid out for us already. It just depends on what the writers want in a scene and then it’s really up to us to give it to them.
What’s next for you? Any plans for fall?
I’m really trying to get more into acting, so I’ve been doing acting lessons with a private acting coach and trying to meet more casting directors and stuff like that. Just getting out there, networking and definitely continuing to train in dance because that’s my true passion and I will always be connected to that.
Thank you, Brittany! Good luck on the tour!
Clickherefor all the HIT THE FLOOR TOUR details and don’t forget to watch THE NEXT STEP, which airs Fridays at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel!