The hit ABC Family show Bunheads is popular with viewers of all ages. Recently Bailey Buntain who plays Ginny, one of the four main “bunheads” on the show, spoke with a few journalists.
I asked Bailey about the combination of ballet and jazz dance numbers in the show and whether she thought the ballet was more comfortable for her. “I actually was trained equally; my core training was in ballet, jazz, and tap,” she told me. “Much like Ginny, my body type — I’m really short — always lent itself better to the jazz and tap style so I find all the dances pretty equally challenging. I’ve had my favorite that’s for sure. My favorite dance number that we ever dis is actually in the finale, and so I’m so excited to see how that one turns out.”
The young actors have to play out their dramatic storylines — and often some humorous ones as well — and I was curious whether she had any input into her character’s actions. She replied, “I don’t really have a big say in it and I don’t know if I would want a say in it. I don’t know if I want that responsibility! I love everything that the writers do and it surprises me, the things that they do, but I always understand the series of events that lead to it.”
When asked whether she and her character are similar, Bailey surprised me a little. “I am similar to Ginny,” she confided. “She’s a little bit of an old soul and that’s definitely something that I really (am) as well. I think I’m different in the sense of she doesn’t have a problem expressing her feelings, and I’m not quite as quick to the tongue as she is.”
So, how close are the actors off the set? Do they spend time together when they are not working? “Yes!” Bailey immediately stated. “I mean our hours are crazy so we’re together all the time and really get to know people, and lucky we all get along really great.” Bailey truly loves Sutton [Foster], the main character and dance instructor as well as mentor on the series. “Sutton is like a really great balance of being nice and fun but also super professional. Like working with her and being around her has been such an influential learning experience because she’s just such a pro as an actor but she’s also an amazing person. She’s so funny. Trust me I can’t say enough nice things about her.
“Then the other four girls yeah we’re friends. We’re together like all the time when we’re filming. Me and Julia [Goldani Telles who plays Sasha] car pool a lot, which was really fun because, as you know, LA traffic is horrible so that right there is a couple hours that we would spend together. And then me and Emma [Dumont who plays Melanie] actually just went and saw a production of Peter Pan last week. We wrapped filming but I’m sure we’re still going to all see each other because I’ve seen all of them since we wrapped and it’s been a week and a half so we’ll see each other.”
Bunheads airs Monday nights on ABC Family and hopefully will return for another season. Fingers crossed!
