We’re turning #SeeHER spotlight on Dancing with the Stars’ Peta Murgatroyd to discuss her break into acting!
Peta Murgatroydis stepping off the dance floor and into a brand-new big screen role. Our Audra Lowe is talking with the dancer at the Grafton Hotel on Sunset in Hollywood about her new film Faith, Hope & Love.
On a woman’s ability to reinvent herself, Murgatroydcan speak from experience. She tells Lowe that when she first moved to Los Angeles in 2010, it was not to pursue dance...it was to act!
“It was tough, to say the least. You walk into a room and there’s an audition with fifty other girls that look exactly like you, and your heart kind of drops for a second and you’re thinking, How am I gonna get this job?”
Peta Murgatroyd in 'Faith, Hope & Love'
The dancer-turned-actress tellsLowe she went on auditions and did a few TV commercials, but says ‘it wasn’t anything that she really wanted.’
“So, I thought, I’m gonna start dancing, and I’m gonna sign with Dancing with the Stars, and that’s what I did,” Murgatroyd tells Lowe.
Murgatroyd says her experience filming Faith, Hope & Love sparked a new passion in her for acting, and made her ‘feel like a new woman.’
"I had a new purpose for life, a new purpose for my career," says Murgatroyd. "I felt like I was elevating myself in a level I hadn't reached before, and I was in an art form that I'm kind of starting from the bottom."
Murgatroydsays she won’t stop acting anytime soon, and tells Lowe she is more committed to perfecting the craft now more than ever.
“That was a great feeling ‘cause I’m able to be taught a lot, I wanna learn, I wanna be the best at this too if I’m gonna be the best at dancing. I wanna try and be incredible at acting too. But I know it’s a long road. I’m not gonna win an Oscar tomorrow,” says Murgatroyd.
Peta Murgatroyd in 'Faith, Hope & Love'
On opportunities and respect for women in front of the camera and behind the scenes, the dancer/actress says her experiences are positive ones, and that she feels Hollywood has come a long way:
“In this day and age, I feel very confident being a woman in front of the camera, and off the camera. I don’t feel like I’m being judged in any way. I feel like society has really changed in the past ten, fifteen years, and I think than women have been elevated to a different level—the same level or above [as men]. I don’t think being a feminist is something that [means] I only strive to pursue great things for women. No, I think men can be feminists too. I think we’ve just gotta be on the same playing field.”
Check out Peta Murgatroydin her new film Faith, Hope & Love, out now! For more #SeeHER spotlights, stay tuned to advocatechannel.com!