"Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2" Spotlight
One of the Puppies in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2” Sounds Very Familiar! Madison Pettis Lends Her Voice to a Tiny Talking Canine!
It’s hard to believe that the pint size star of “The Game Plan” and “Cory in the House” is already twelve years old! Madison Pettis is literally growing up before our eyes and it’s a pleasure to be entertained by this natural talent who has been working consistently in television and movies for the last seven years.
We recently caught up with Madison to talk about her voice over work in “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2” (She plays “Lala”), Twitter, and a charity that is close to heart for personal reasons. Meet Madison here!
“I realized that I wanted to become an actress when I was like five,” Madison begins when explaining her journey into show business. “I’m twelve now. I loved to dance ever since I was like four. So I just started taking dance classes. I loved performing at recitals and everything. I watched shows like ‘The Cheetah Girls’ and ‘That’s so Raven.’ I looked up to the people on there. I said ‘I want to do that! I want to be on TV too!’ So I took some acting classes in Dallas, Texas, which is where I am originally from. I ended up doing commercials and the Barney TV show so that was really fun!”
It wasn’t long before the Texas cutie was landing high profile roles like a guest spot on “Hannah Montana” and then the lead in a movie called “The Game Plan” opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. She also played the President’s daughter in the popular Disney Channel show “Cory in the House.”
The friendly teen has fond memories of working on those projects. “Working on ‘The Game Plan’ was one of my favorites because I got to dance, which combining dance and acting was like a dream come true for me. We all became a family when I did ‘Cory in the House’ and ‘The Game Plan.’ Every project I’ve done I’ve gotten really close to everyone on the cast and crew. Everything’s been fantastic and really memorable.”
Her latest project is a follow up to the super cute movie “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” simply called ““Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2.” “I play ‘Lala’ in ‘Bevery Hills Chihuahua 2,’ she says excitedly when asked about her latest project. “It was really fun because I’ve never played a dog before. It was fun to be in the recording studio. I actually got to see clips of the movie while I was recording and see the actual puppy that I’m playing so it was so much fun!”
Madison was honored to get to be a part of the Chihuahua franchise. “I saw the first movie in theaters way before when it came out and I loved it! It’s really cool to be in the second one. ‘Lala’ is hyper and perky and excited all the time. And a little bit of an airhead,” she laughs, describing her character.
Being in a recording studio wasn’t exactly new to the actress who you can also hear on episodes of “Phineas and Ferb” and “Special Agent Oso.” “I’ve done a lot of voice over work in the past,” she explains. “When you do a voice over, you go into a recording studio. When you’re doing something like this, for ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua,’ you watch parts of the movie that are already recorded. But when I do things, like a cartoon, the voice comes before the actual drawing and animation of it. So sometimes you get to see the actual show or movie but sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have to use your imagination.”
She says that sometimes other actors are in the room with you, but sometimes you are on your own. “For Beverly Hills Chihuahua I got to record with another girl who plays my sister in the movie. She was another one of the puppies. So that was fun. We got to read lines back and forth and interact with each other.”
Unfortunately, Madison wasn’t able to use her own experience of being a pet owner to research playing a puppy. “I don’t have any pets right now actually, because I am always working and traveling and I’m never really home. It just wouldn’t be fair to a dog. I love dogs and I hope one day I can have one.”
Seeing the finished product didn’t help Madison’s smart decision to not have a dog until she has time for one. “I loved the movie! It’s so cute! And the puppies are all adorable! I got to meet the puppy version of myself. I got to actually meet ‘Lala.’ That was so awesome! They had her all dressed up in this cute little outfit. Now I want one because they’re adorable!”
When not acting or doing voice over work, Madison is a lot like other 12 year olds. “In my spare time, I love to dance. I’ve been dancing for a really long time. And also, I love to twitter! I’m obsessed with Twitter. Probably a little too obsessed with Twitter!”
She finds the new social media helps keep her close to her fans. “I try to respond as much as I can. I love getting to talk to my fans on there. It’s so much fun! I love to interact with my fans! People ask mea lot of questions, mostly like ‘What was it like working on the “Game Plan” or “Cory in the House?’” So sometimes I like to do Q and A’s with people and I’ll just answer as many questions as I can. So that’s always really, really, fun!”
The actress also lends her name to several charities. “One charity in particular is the USO,” she tells us eagerly. “It’s the Uniformed Services Organization. And what they do is they support military families and soldiers and the service men and women their selves. They provide entertainment. They have a lot of USO places at like airports so when troops are traveling, they can have a comfortable place to go visit. My brother is in the US Army, so that’s something that is very close to my heart.”
Up next for the busy talent is more voice work and guest appearances! “I have a new animated show called ‘Jake and the Neverland Pirates’ which is for Disney Junior. That’s going to premiere on Valentine’s Day. I play ‘Izzy’ and she’s the only girl pirate on the team of pirates! That’s really fun! Also, I guest starred on a new show called ‘The Haunting Hour,’ which is on a network called ‘The Hub.’ That’s based off of R.L. Stein books. So that was really fun, creepy and spooky! So that was awesome to do also!”
Madison is a big believer in following your heart if you think you might want to go into acting some day. “I would say, take class and work with an acting coach, because I do that and that’s how I got started in it also,” she says when asked for advice to pass on to aspiring young actors. “But the most important thing is believing in yourself and following your dreams. No matter what you want to do, you have to believe in yourself and dreams can come true! Definitely believe in yourself!”
Fans have enjoyed Madison in all of her projects over the years and will continue to support her as long as she’s in the business. The sweet and friendly star has proven her abilities time and time again and watching her never gets old. This is one young star that will just continue to get brighter and brighter as time goes by.