‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Chatting with winner Jeanine Mason
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Still high on the excitement of being voted America’s favorite dancer, winner Jeanine Mason sat down for a conference call with journalists (in which she revealed, amongst other things, that the large cut viewers may have noticed on her shin came from tripping over the giant toy box during last week’s Tyce Diorio clown dance)
On her winning night: It was the craziest night! I went to press and I felt like I slipped out of my normal life and was thrown onto some Hollywood red carpet, it was amazing. I’m trying to take it all in! After that we had the wrap party with cast, production, the dancers and the choreographers and we did a whole lot of dancing and then I went home and I tried to sleep but it didn’t really work so I just talked to my friends in Miami. I think I slept three hours and I was up doing more interviews this morning. It’s still enough adrenaline to hold me up, though.
On her rough start in dance: I loved dancing but I hated feeling so defeated at the beginning of my lessons. I just didn’t feel like putting in the effort. It took some time to find a teacher who was willing to work with me, and I found two amazing teachers who brought me to a place I never thought dancing could bring me. I definitely came home crying a lot between the ages of 6 and 9. It was the hardest thing in the world for my mom to see me sobbing and tell me it was good for me, but she just had this gut feeling that she needed to push me and keep me in dance and it paid off and I’m so grateful to her for keeping stern. This one time I was supposed to go straight to ballet from class and I wasn’t in the mood so I faked sleeping in the car I said ‘I’m so tired, I had homework all last night’ and she drove me home and I was like, ‘Wow, it worked!’ She said ‘I knew you were faking it and you’re going to regret not taking this class’ and I was like ‘Oh man, she caught me!’
On being in the top two with Brandon Bryant: If he won, I was ready to step back and let him have his moment. Brandon and I have been friends for a very long time. I’ve known him for a couple years now, and he’s such a nice guy on top of being one of the strongest dancers, which was very evident. He was so supportive and so happy for me and just before Cat [Deeley] announced it, we were like, ‘Either way, it’s a win for Miami.’ I am so proud of him. Everyone in the Top 20 is going to have such amazing careers. I can’t wait to see.
On what kind of acting she’d like to do (which she intends to pursue along with dance while she studies communications at UCLA): I’ve done theater since middle school, but since my junior year, I fell in love with film, which was why I applied to L.A. schools because of the film and dance industry. I would love to do movie musicals. I’m such a big fan of ‘Chicago’ and ‘Hairspray’ and those amazing MGM films that Evan [Kasprzak] would be amazing in as well.
If she could dance with any celebrity: This is so random, but Hank Azaria, because he’s hilarious. He probably has some great moves and he’s such a character actor. I would love to have a comedic dance with him. But if I had to take a sexy tango who wouldn’t take Brad Pitt or Robert Pattinson?
-- Claire Zulkey