Born in Brentwood, CA, Chelsea Makela ( http://ChelseaMakela.com )knew in the 5^th grade that she wanted to be an actress when she landed a part in the school play. Her parents were supportive and drove her into San Francisco every week for acting lessons.  Now, in Hollywood for less than a year, Chelsea has landed a co-lead role in the upcoming Wayan’s Brothers spoof, Dance Flick, in which she will be playing Tracy. Chelsea recently stopped by the MediaBlvd PopCulture Hour to talk about her role in the film, and her experiences, thus far, in Hollywood.

Welcom Chelsea, can you start off by telling us a little bit about the move, Dance Flick, and your part in it?

Yeah, Dance Flick comes out February 6, so we’re really excited about it.  It’s a comedy spoof on musical movies, and it’s about a rich suburban girl moving into a rougher part of the town and meeting a group of kids.  I play one of her friends, Tracy.  I’m spoofing on Tracy from HairSrpay.  And it’s just about the group overcoming some misadventures in the  dance world and at school.  And she’s having fun.  It was a great film and it was great to film with the Wayans. 

How did you get the part?  Did you have to go through a normal audition process, or how did it come about?

Yeah, I auditioned for it in March of ’08.  Then I had a call back with the Wayans and I was asked to be a part of it from there.  It was a traditional auditioning process about a year ago?

When did you get the acting bug, and when did you move to LA?

I’m from Northern California, from a small town called Brentwood.  I knew I wanted to perform since I was really young.  First it was singing, then it turned into acting when I was about 10 years old.  I did theatre through school, then my junior year I decided I wanted to try LA.  I moved down here in February this year?

What’s it like being a newbie on the Hollywood scene?

It’s so much fun.  I’m very blessed to have the opportunity to work with the Wayans.  They are a great group of people and they’ve really shown me and helped me adjust to the new Hollywood scene and getting used to that.  It’s been great, everybody is so much fun out here and very supportive.  It’s been a lot of fun.

It sounds like you’ve had some pretty quick success, being out there for just a year and landing a major film like this.  Did you have an agent already lined up there when you went there, and all that sort of stuff?

I’m with the Osbrink agency, then I have a manger, Myrna Lieberman.  I’ve been with them for about a year.  I signed with them in the fall of ’07, and so through the writers strike I did training, then everything sort of fell into place in February.  It’s been great.

Do you continually audition for new stuff?  Being new to the scene, how does that work?

We filmed for about 5 months then we wrapped in the latter part of June.  I’ve been auditioning, I’m writing, I’ve been doing some stand up and meeting with different people.  So yeah, I’ve just been taking advantage of what LA has to offer and what Hollywood is producing and doing right now, and kind of just waiting for the movie to start running and doing their publicity and stuff.

You mentioned you did theatre growing up, and now you’ve done this movie.  It’s bound to be quite different, so how do you like the two?  Do you like one more than the other?

I love filming honestly.  I had so much fun filming.  But theatre has it’s own great energy to it with the live audience, and with not being able to go back and re-do anything.  But I do enjoy film.  I can’t imagine not doing film.  It was so much fun just being on set and being able to be a part of that environment.  Film was a lot of fun, but theatre is great.  I love going to the theatre and performing. 

When you were doing the film, were the Wayans pretty much there all the time on the set?

Yeah, Shawn and Marlon and Keenan and Damien.  Everybody was on set, and they have their family helping out and some of them are in the movie.  They were there everyday and it was so much fun being in just one big family environment.  Everybody was just relaxed and fun to be around.  It was great and it was incredible.

Do you watch a lot of TV and movies in your spare time?  Is there any one show or genre that you’d like to be in or guest star in?

I love watching TV and movies.  I’d love to work with somebody like Leonardo DiCaprio or Angelina Jolie obviously.  They’re incredible at their craft and what they do.  Then TV, like a typical teenager, I love Gossip Girl, 90210, and all those things.  What can I say?  I’d love to continue to work in features and comedy and drama.  It’s just a matter of time.

Which is your favorite?  I know you do the stand up and Improv stuff, so would you say comedy is your favorite?

Comedy is wonderful.  I can’t say that I have a favorite one over the other.  Drama allows me to just go into deeper acting of method and fun stuff like that.  But comedy is so much fun.  You can’t ask for a better job than to laugh every day.  So I enjoy both thoroughly.

Your bio mentions that you spend a lot of your spare time working for charities.  Are there any that you’d like to mention specifically, or what sorts of things do you like to do?

I’m a big supporter for research of cancer and Lou Gehrigs disease.  Those two are the ones that I’ve focused on in my past.  My uncle passed of Lou Gehrig’s disease.  And cancer is just so widespread, and research for that is wonderful.  I support any charity.  I think it’s some of the best work, and growing up, I was always working in charity events through my community and school, whether it was for a theatre program or sports program or research for something.  It seems to be a great way to give back to people who’ve given support to me, and other things that I’ve done within my community.

It’s really great that you are giving a voice to something like that.  Once you start on a career like this what you say is heard by so many people.

Exactly.  The going Green movement, I think that is so important and I think that my generation is really catching on and voicing that and taking care of one another and the environment for our future.  It’s so important, you have to.

Do you get to do any singing and dancing in Dance Flick, or is it just totally comedy?

Of course!  There’s a couple of big dance scenes that I’m a part of and singing throughout the movie.  I don’t sing in the movie but some of the other leads do.  There’s a big scene at the beginning and at the end that everybody will love.  It’s phenomenal.  . 

Where do you see yourself down the road, five or ten years from now?  Is acting the thing that you really want to be doing or do you want to get into writing or back to stage?

I definitely see myself acting, but to have the opportunity to produce and write your own things and voice what you feel needs to be told, I’d like to get into that and hopefully win an Oscar one day of course!  But just to continue working with Hollywood and learning from the people who have been in it like the Wayans, I can learn so much from them.  And I’ll just continue going from drama and comedy and working my way off.