Nickelodeon's Ciara Bravo Is "Jinxed"
Curses! Ciara Bravo Stars in the Funny Nickelodeon Feature "Jinxed!"
By: Susan J. Yeager
"Big Time Rush" star, Ciara Bravo, stars in Nickelodeon's latest TV movie, the very funny, "Jinxed!" Premiering November 29, at 7:00PM, this family-friendly feature introduces audiences to the Murphy family. Though they seem like your typical "neighbors," the whole clan has been cursed! Seemingly normal everyday tasks never go right for the poor Murphy's and that equals a lot of laughs!
We recently chatted with the movies' star, Ciara Bravo, to find out what it was like filming with this cast, having to do so much physical comedy, and how the cast bonded while filming in Vancouver. Read on to see what Ciara had to say about "Jinxed!"
"It centers around this family called 'The Murphy's,'" Ciara says, when asked what she can tell us about the movie. "They've been cursed with bad luck for the past 100 years. My character's name is Meg Murphy. She's going into high school next year and she's fed up with all of this bad luck and all of these bad things happening to her. So she makes her goal for the summer to reverse the curse. She sets out on this awesome adventure of learning about her family's history and getting all of these crazy things happening to her. It's just fun and its family friendly. Even though the antics are a little extreme, it is quite relatable."
"The great thing about Meg is she is just a classic teenage girl," she says of her character. "There's nothing too different about her. She's just like everyone else, but she's determined and she's always happy. She never gets too disappointed. She's smart! She's not going to make these stupid decisions. She was so much fun to play!"
The curse causes the characters to end up in some pretty sticky situations. Ciara loves that aspect of this movie. "While we were filming up in Vancouver, there's so many stunts that revolve around Meg's character. And even though I didn't get to do all these stunts I still got to see them and slightly take part in some of them which was awesome and so much fun!"
See the trailer for the movie here:
She says that making a movie with so much physical comedy wasn't a pain at all. "I just think it makes it a lot more fun! It makes it more interesting. It switches up the days a little bit. I feel like at one point or another, every kid has dreamed of being some type of stunt person. Doing something crazy like doing flips or being a gymnast or falling off a building but surviving, like crazy things like that. And then you get to see these people who are doing it. They're being thrown out of barn doors and they're falling off of balconies and all this crazy stuff! Just being there and being able to see that... it's amazing!"
Though she's no stranger to Nickelodeon (she was a regular on BTR and has also appeared in the network's movie Swindled), it was the first time she had worked with the actors cast in "Jinxed." "This was my first time working with all of the cast. I was so lucky that I was blessed to be able to work with all of these people. They were so much fun and I made so many great friends during the filming. Jacob and Jack... they're all such great people. It worked out really well!"
The actors spent a lot of time hanging out when they had breaks from filming. "We all went to a lot of movies!" Ciara recalls about how the cast bonded during downtime. "We were constantly seeing a movie. We went bowling a lot, a lot of eating out. Sometimes, we just hung out in each other's hotel rooms, rented a movie and just talked."
Ciara also had to be sure to schedule plenty of time for school. "I take part in a home-schooling program, so when I'm traveling I just flip open my lap-tap and do all of my school on-line. It's great in the fact that I can do it on the plane, or in the hotel room, wherever there's Wi-fi. On set, they set aside one to five hours a day to do my schooling. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to sit down and focus and get the work done. This whole deal has made me a lot more organized! I've become a lot more organized because of it and self-disciplined, which is something that you definitely need. It can be difficult, but honestly, I think it's worth it."
A lot of time went into one of Ciara's favorite scenes in the movie. "Probably the big dance scene!" she says about her pick for favorite scene. "It was fun that we got to do this huge choreographed square dance. It was because the day before we started filming it, I went in there and I started rehearsals and I started learning it. I'm not a huge dancer so it was a little difficult for me, but I had so much fun!"
She hopes families will gather to watch the movie together. "I just hope they take away the fact that family is the most important thing. Sometimes it's not always worth it to be perfect. No one's going to be perfect. Everybody's going to have their little faults but you should love yourself regardless."
Working in front of the camera has made Ciara interested in possibly moving behind it one day. "I would absolutely love to be a director one day," she exclaims. "Honestly, when the time comes, I would like to go to college and study film production, just to learn more about the other side of the business and be a little more well-rounded in the Hollywood scene."
She encourages anyone else who is interested in acting to check into their local opportunities. "Find someone within your area that deals with this sort of thing, get involved with them. Then try to branch out slowly from there. Unfortunately, a lot of it does take place in New York and L.A. so eventually you probably will end up in one of those cities. Get involved in your local theater program. Just try to learn the craft. It isn't something that you can just do. It's something that you have to learn. I think it will help tremendously!"
Right now, Ciara is known for her comedic roles but she would love to take on a dramatic role soon. "I think it would be fun to get into a deeper, more mysterious type of character, where she's got this crazy back story with her; something very adventurous and fun. Maybe she's an artist of some sort. I don't know... something really... dramatic would be fun."
No matter what type of roles come next, she will always have a fondness for comedy. "Comedy's fun," she explains, "because the feeling on set is always very light-hearted and everyone is joking around and having a good time. I haven't been on a drama set yet, so I don't know what that would be like."
She also wouldn't mind working with Nickelodeon for a long time to come. "Nickelodeon is such a great company to work for! They're so family friendly and their fun! They were nice enough to give me this job and help my dream come true. Honestly, I owe them a lot!"
Catch Ciara in the crazy-fun TV movie event, "Jinxed," November 29 at 7:00PM!
See more of the craziness here: