Ryan Guzman on 'Step Up All In' and Working with Jennifer Lopez

Hey guys, it's Tracy in the Young Hollywood Studio, and I'm hanging with Ryan Guzman. So, I feel like no one's busier than you right now in this world. We were just talking about that. You're like, your schedule sounds insane.

It feels a little insane, but I feel, like I said, I I feel blessed, man. I mean, I I could be digging ditches right now and sweating my butt off, but I'm here talking to you, having a great time, so.

I mean, you got three movies coming out. I'm predicting, you're breaking out into superstar them. This is this is your this is your time.

Oh, I hope from your mouth to, you know, the the reality.

Yeah. I mean, Step Up, which is like a crazy story because you sort of started, I mean, you got that audition, and you got that role in the first Step Up Revolution.

Yeah, I got Step Up Revolution.

That was like your breakout.

It was, yeah, it was my uh debut, my acting debut. I never acted before and I tried it out.

And you became the star of a movie. Uh, you know, yeah, you just.

Of a huge franchise nonetheless. And the the lead of a franchise. It was it was a lot to take in at the time. And I didn't know if I actually wanted to become an actor and then after doing that, you know, whole movie, I realized like, wow. I have a lot of fun doing this. Maybe I should stop modeling and and fighting and just stick to this. And I've been doing that ever since and yeah, you're right. Now I've got three movies. I've got Step Up All In coming out. And then I've got uh Boy Next Door coming on January 25th, and then Jem and the Holograms uh that's coming.

All completely different.

Completely different. Which is kind of awesome though.

Yeah. I mean, so speaking of, you know, you said you're a fighter. That was something you did. How long did how long ago did you start doing that? Oh, man. Was that like a passion of yours as a kid, growing up?

Yeah, I mean, I watched Bruce Lee movies when I was younger, and that was like my he still is my idol. I I read his book every now and then and uh the Tao of Jeet Kune Do and. Uh I just look up to him. So, uh yeah, I that got me into doing Taekwondo. I got my black belt at the age of 10 years old. And just I'm a little I'm a little nervous for you now. No, no, I I wouldn't harm a fly. Unless you hurt my family, I'm good. Um, but yeah, so I got into that and uh continued to get interested in it. I actually was afraid of fighting for the longest time to be honest. I had martial arts background, but I've seen that you're like when you're afraid of certain things, you sort of like go after that challenge and just tackle it.

Yeah, yeah. You were afraid of that? Were you afraid of modeling? Were you afraid of acting?

Modeling never I never took modeling serious to be honest. I mean, if anybody takes it serious, I I don't I have to look at them kind of weird. It's you pose in front of a camera and you get paid for it. But hey, I mean.

Yeah, it's a cool gig. It's a good gig.

Yeah, it's a great gig. Just enjoy it. Don't get all stressed over it. But uh Yeah, uh martial arts was was everything to me and it made me the disciplined person that I am today, so I I owe so much to martial arts.

And I assume it helped you with your dance background, because you don't you never wanted to be a dancer, right? But then, you're like an amazing, you look like you're a pro. I mean, obviously.

Never. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, I trained with some of the best, so I owe everything to them. So.

Is that easy to learn, like, I mean, if you're if you've never done dance, because you look like you've been doing it forever.

Oh, that's because they paid me to look like that. I mean.

So, it's possible.

Anything's possible. With the right incentive, I think anybody can learn anything. Um, but yeah, I I I just kind of engulfed, you know, the dancer life upon my own and and tried my best to, you know, bridge the gap between my skill and their skill level. So, but yeah, I I try to do everything I possibly can to like reinvent myself and do new things. I mean, uh doing a dark and very scary role in the Boy Next Door, and then singing. I mean with JLo. It's you know.

With Jennifer Lopez, you know, good old Jen. Yeah. Yeah. Boy Next Door. JLo, you know, it'd be interesting to have JLo as a neighbor. What what would that be like?

I can tell you what it was like.

How's it like working with JLo?

Yeah, I mean, the first part of it was awesome. The second part was a little scary. Yeah, my my guy gets a little dark. Actually not a little, a lot dark. And uh he tries to ruin her life. So, um, I wouldn't want to ruin JLo's life. Well, he tries to ruin her life so bad that she thinks that, you know, or he thinks that she'll come running back to him. Uh, which is not really a crazy. Is Whoever thinks that is crazy.

Yeah. That one's been an interesting sort of like pushing your boundaries acting-wise, because it's very different. I would assume to Step Up, which was very fun, all about dancing. So, how was that change for you?

It was. But I'll tell you what, you know, playing I I I've always heard that you playing the bad guy is is more fun. And not until I played that guy did I realize how fun it actually is. Uh doing something completely opposite of yourself and getting into the psyche of somebody completely insane is actually pretty, you know, fun and entertaining to yourself. Right. Um, I'm I don't want to be known as the guy that's always playing the cookie cutter, nice guy, you know, pretty looking dude. Uh.

Nothing wrong with that either though.

It's it's awesome. But, I mean, I want to be, you know, how how Brad Pitt was when he when he was first growing. He he did character work. And he uh he overcame his looks. You know, everybody knew that he was a gorgeous human being and he he was like the perfect person, but he kept on overcoming that and not letting that define him, and that's what I want to do. I mean, this is, you're looking at the next Brad Pitt right here.

I don't know about that. I think you're already getting there. Do fans, you know, are you you're like heartthrob status to them now? Is that weird to you? Is that

Yeah, it's always going to be weird.

Any crazy fan stories?

Yeah. Um, I went to Italy and uh with my girlfriend and uh fans were crying as they're like talking to me. One I had a Q&A uh with some of the fans. And half of them couldn't actually talk. Like, I had to go over there and give them a hug and be like, oh, it's okay, you know, I'm just a normal person. I just uh had fun with them. I had a good time talking to them and just enjoying them. Like, you know, offering more than just, you know, dance, but just my time. You know.

So, getting back to Step Up All In. Um, I feel like there's always like a move that's going viral right now with twerking and all this stuff. Is there a move that's going to become like the next viral dance sensation? Uh. Or what's like give us some idea of sort of like what to expect?

Well, right now, I think the big move right now is called the Nay Nay.

The Nay Nay. Yeah, which I don't I actually don't know that.

I really don't know too much about it either. I've seen other people kind of do it, and I've seen it getting bigger and bigger.

You do it? Or uh no, it involves like getting up and going crazy because

Yeah, but look it up. It's it's definitely going to be the next big thing, I think. Um, and I love that name. It's actually, I mean, the Nay Nay.

The Nay Nay. It's so that's perfect. I want to know who comes up with these names.

That's what I want to know too. Yeah, I'm going to come up with something crazy. I mean, did Miley actually come up with the name Twerking? Like, who?

Oh, heck no. Miley didn't. Miley didn't come up with that. Sorry, Miley. Who came up with that name? We need to get down to that.

I don't know. Probably 20 years ago when he was doing baby got back. You see a bunch of twerking there. Like make it rain, like, you know, those kind of things.

Oh yeah. How was that like a fresh take on, you know, the old movies? Because this is, I mean now, the fifth installment of of the whole franchise.

Yeah, of course. Well, we play with what our strengths are and we know our strengths now. I mean, after doing it four or five times now, you realize what sells and what doesn't. And we know that we're a dance franchise and we're going to do our best to promote that. Um, so we're not trying to, you know, give you something crazy and spectacular spectacularly with the uh the storyline. But we're we're giving you all your favorite, you know, actors and actresses from previous Step Ups. Along with theatrical dancing, which is kind of grown and and become this this crazy thing. So we're we're involving the elements. We're we're dressing up as these crazy Frankenstein characters and dancing. So, and then we're

Is Channing going to be, is he making an appearance? Because he's like The king of starting that whole thing.

You're going to have to settle for me.

No, he's got nothing on on Ryan. Oh, come on. No, Channing, Channing is one of the best and nicest guys I've ever met in my life and, you know, uh he started he gave me my start. I would never be here without him, you know, starting the first Step Up. So, yeah. Uh, thank you to him. And uh, but no, he's not going to be in this one. It's just going to be uh everybody aside from Channing and Jenna.

No. And then Pretty Little Liars, because you had, you know, you had a guest role on that for a while. That's like a huge show right now. I mean, it's blown up into this huge phenomenon. What was, you know, just getting into that? That's a whole 'nother world just the TV world. Was that something crazy for you or It was something I was interested in. Yeah, doing TV and kind of seeing. And you played an instructor, which is the Martial arts instructor. Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah. Uh, it was actually another Korean form of martial arts uh that was similar to Taekwondo, which is what I did. Uh so it was kind of easy to just get in there and I thought they had kind of written the role for me. I was like, this is a little bit too similar. It ended up working out so well that they kept me out for, you know, nine episodes when I was only originally for one episode. And uh Jake was a success, I think. Can't can't complain. We miss Jake though. Um, man. For all the fans. I miss Jake. What happened to his foot? That's what I want to know. I wish we had all the answers, but we just, you know. Where's the answer? Where are the answers when you need them? Where are the answers?

Well, thank you so much for coming, and we're so excited to see Step Up All In and you're going to be seeing a lot of this guy. He's going to be just all over the place. So, get ready. Get ready.