“I think that Gabby is the physical manifestation of all of the concepts that the show deals with,” Rescaner told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “Gabby just happens to be the person who is at the crux of dealing with them. I personally don’t really see there being an antagonist in this show. What I see as the true antagonist is everybody’s inner demons. As far as Gabby goes, we meet her at this moment when it’s a day that’s different than any other day, for no other reason than it is, and she makes the choice for it to be different.” The Big Leap is a show within a show. The story follows a group of people, who unhappy with the current status of their lives, audition for a reality TV show, The Big Leap, hoping to be one of the lucky 20 selected to participate in a dance show that will follow the troupe as it prepares a modern reimagining of Swan Lake. What they don’t realize is that the show could have a potentially negative effect on their real lives; it might not be their second chance. It might not be their dream come true. That said, the role of Gabby is definitely a dream come true for Recasner. While the L.A. native may seem too young to need a second chance, she had dreamed about becoming an actor since age 12 but was quickly rebuffed. “My dad is an actor, as is my sister, so I was certainly surrounded by it and seemingly would have had easy access,” she said. “But as a child, I attempted to enter the business and was swiftly rejected. And so, I decided to really invest in my education and listen to mom and dad, what they said.” Recasner didn’t give up chasing her dream. Instead, she prepared for it. She attended grad school and took acting and movement classes and prepared herself as best she could for what was to come, obtaining a master’s degree in Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch Grad Acting program. Now, landing the role of Gabby may not be Recasner’s second chance as much as it is the launching pad for her dream. “I frankly didn’t think that it was going to be in my future to be on network television, much less in this type of a position,” Recasner continued. “I just couldn’t see it for myself because I hadn’t seen it really happen before. And so, to have a curvy body and that body to be mine, I am completely overwhelmed with luck and pride to be a part of this. Also, it’s amazing to be a part of something that I believe in on top of it all.” What she didn’t necessarily expect was that her first role on television would find her playing a would-be dancer, turning her storyline into one about body positivity. We learn that Gabby, who like Recasner is a woman with curves, was dropped at cheer practice. This left its mark on the character, and so, when her dance partner—Ser’Darius Blain as Reggie, a former NFL player who needs The Big Leap to redeem his football career—wants to add a lift to their audition to help ensure their casting, she balks. “On a deeply personal level, I was absolutely terrified to do the lift like Gabby, except Gabby was a dancer so lifts are a part of dance, and dancers have to understand body awareness and lifting each other,” Recasner says. ‘That has not been a part of my life, so I haven’t had to be thinking about it. So, when it came time to do it, as big of a moment as it is for her, so it was for me. I will say probably a bigger moment for Gabby as this was a particular part of dance, of movement, that she wasn’t able to think that she could be a part of.” Following is more of the conversation with Recasner, including taking on the challenge of playing a dancer and a young, single mom, her relationship with reality TV, and making the move from theater to television.
This show has a big cast, but you play an essential role. What’s it like to tackle such a key role for your first TV series?
It is spellbinding; it is shocking; and in the true sense of the word, amazing. I don’t know how I ended up so lucky to be in this show in general, but also in a pretty central position within the show.
There’s that quote, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” so maybe you weren’t as lucky as you were prepared.
I think a lot of my life up until, frankly, the last few years has been in preparation. I went to school, and I decided to really make sure I had my studies and my head in order the way that I needed to in order to enter the industry. Normally, of course, when you book a pilot, you don’t have as much time as I had because of the pandemic. So, it really leaned to this amazing journey, having the time in the pandemic to process how Gabby’s going through this. I had to get to know Gabby, which ultimately in many ways was to get to know myself. And certainly, part of the preparation was dance rehearsals as dance is a huge part of the show. We, as a collective, did lots of Zoom dance classes, which were actually quite fun. People would be Zooming from their mom’s closet or, I was at my friend’s farm in Tennessee and had spotty Wi-Fi and the two of us were in the kitchen, which was the only space that had space to do a ballet bar. So, it’s been an amazing experience to get to jump into prepping for Gabby.
There’s a line where Nick (Scott Foley), the producer of the fictional The Big Leap, tells Gabby that he sees her as the heart of the show. We know he’s a schmoozer, but he seemed to mean it.
When she decides to pursue this massive dream that she’s had, it comes as a surprise as much to her as anybody else. And within the surprise, as I’ve certainly experienced in my life when you do something very different and big, that’s a big change. Then all of a sudden regret, second thoughts, and all sorts of complicated feelings come into play. Gabby’s in the midst of dealing with that. She is a person who is dealing with it, I will say, a little more verbose than other people in the show.
You’ve admitted to not having a lot of dance experience, but yet Gabby is initially partnered with Raymond Cham Jr., who is the best real-life dancer, especially in that bowling alley scene. How intimidating is that? And how helpful was he?
Oh, my! Raymond is the best dance partner I could have asked for. The best dance partner I’ve ever had. It was absolutely intimidating. What was fantastic was I came into the audition process, and I straight up didn’t overprepare. I was like, “I can’t become a dancer in the next few days since I got this audition, so I’m not going to freak out about it.” I made it very clear to them that I am not a dancer, but I will be representing a dancer. They believed in me, so I just had to jump in and believe in myself and lean on the amazing choreography team that surrounds us. They’ve been so supportive. Not just in the sense of teaching choreography, but a prime example and I don’t know if Chris Scott, our choreographer, knows how much it means to me, but early in one of the pilot rehearsals we had back in 2020, there was one little dance move, and it was a simple one. I just had to turn on one foot and I was having such a hard time finding my center, and Chris took the time out of rehearsal, and we spent the next two hours just learning that simple move. Because as he put it, it is incredibly important for him to support the fact that for the longevity of choreographing on our bodies and my embodying a dancer, I need to know how to use my body and dance fundamentals. Things can look simple when somebody who is a fantastic dancer does it, but actually can be quite complicated. And so having that level of support, and true support, not just with words but with actions made it way less intimidating.
You play a young mom in The Big Leap. Gabby got pregnant her senior year in high school, which destroyed her chance of attending college. How are your parenting skills? Did you babysit? Are you good with kids?
I am great with kids. I hope that Crew [Kingston Miskel], the lovely young nugget that plays my kid, would agree. I grew up in a very large family and, definitely, babysat for money when I was 12, 13 years old. But I have 10 nieces and nephews, and even more great-nieces and great-nephews, so I was always surrounded by kids. Having the chance to play a mom, and a young mom at that, to really have a chance to connect with Crew has been one of the more exciting parts of the experience. But also that part of life and the fact that she is doing the best that she can, and sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s certainly less than amazing but she’s still showing up and doing the best that she can.
Hair is a very sensitive issue these days, and you let yours go natural. Have you ever thought about changing your hair?
No, I love my hair. I think hair is a very sensitive topic, especially for Black women. But I wanted to change my hair when I was young, and it obliterated my hair. My hair broke off from the treatments I was doing to it. Around the same age that I decided to start loving my body, because I was taught not to, it was right around the same age that I decided to start loving my hair. So, I am all-natural. I love my hair. I love hair, appreciating curls. And I 100 percent appreciate if people want to do other things with their hair, but for me, I’m all about keeping it natural, being myself, and learning to love what I was born with.
In real life, did you ever think about auditioning for a reality TV show? Is there one that you watch that you say, “Oh, I could do that.”
Listen, I would love to be a judge on Project Runway. But beyond that, I have not seen a TV show that I thought, “Oh, I would excel at doing that.” I’m more of an appreciator of reality TV than a doer.
Anything other than Project Runway that you watch?
In the early seasons, I watched some Real Housewives. But if I’m honest, more of the TV that I watch is like this show called Scotland’s Home of the Year, which is a reality TV show, but I don’t know if it really fits into the category of reality TV as much as a documentary about design. When I was a kid, I went and saw American Idol live which was really fun. I was a big consumer of So You Think You Can Dance, especially in the first few years it was on. I love any show that showcases people’s talents. Not that I’m sure every reality show does in some way, but specifically where there’s a project that has to be done. So, it’s either fashion, dancing, or it’s singing with American Idol.
You came from a theater background. What was the biggest transition to TV?
Learning the culture. It’s a similar culture, I have found, in the sense that you really have to have a good team around you and the community matters, and that’s way beyond just the actors. That’s the crew, that’s everybody that puts any of their sweat into the making of the show. If it’s off-balance, you feel it everywhere, so that’s a similarity. But in many other ways, it’s so different, the form itself. Just basic stuff like I didn’t know how to read a call sheet when I first got this job. I literally had to look it up and then I had to call friends who had worked in TV. Those extreme basics of the everydayness of the job have been honestly the hardest transition. I decided going into this process that I would be very open about it because I have no shame about my past. I’m so proud of where I’ve come from and I’m so proud of getting this job. So, I’ve been very honest with people and said, “Hey, I don’t know what that means. Can you tell me what that means?” And I’ve found 10 out of 10 times that not only are people more than happy to help but are actually excited that they get to be the one that says, “H means Hold on the call sheet.” I’m like, “OK great, now I know.” The Big Leap premieres Monday, Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Next, Take The Big Leap! Everything You Need to Know About FOX’s New Second Chances Series
