Life has been going at high speed over the last eight months for Heather Morris. The California native who exploded into stardom when cast as Brittany Pierce on Glee was a contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars this year, and after her run ended she stepped in as a member of the reality competition show’s live tour, Dancing with the Stars: Hot Summer Nights, in July.
She did that while also being a mother of two (with husband Taylor Hubbell) and just after making the Lifetime movie Psycho Wedding Crasher in December 2016. The made-for-cable production, which debuts Sunday, has Morris co-starring with one of TV’s best known actors from primetime soap opera dramas, Joan Van Ark.
Morris was attracted to the Psycho role of Jenna Kravitz, a wedding dress maker who develops a one-sided obsession with the groom (Jason Cermak) of her latest client (Fiona Vroom). Her effort to get close to the man she’s certain secretly loves her starts by making friends with the bride but then escalates to stalking and eventually a very dangerous encounter.
“For me, this was great because it was something I had never done,” Morris says just days after getting home from the Dancing tour. “This character is a little off in that she doesn’t see things the way others see them. She’s emotionally unstable so she doesn’t see herself as a villain. She just thinks she’s doing the right thing.
“I have always wanted to play a villain. I hope this is the first of many I get to play.”
The clues to why her character is an emotional mess are provided through Aunt Daisy, the character Van Ark plays. Aunt Daisy runs both the wedding gown shop and her niece’s life with an evil nature that would put Cinderella’s wicked stepmother to shame. The only way Jenna can have a life is to slip away when she can and try to take over someone else’s happily ever after.
Morris, 30, wasn’t even born when Van Ark’s Knots Landing launched, so she had to call her mother to get a quick update on her co-star.
“My mother is a big fan of her and once I mentioned it, she was really excited,” Morris says.
What Morris quickly learned was that all those years Van Ark spent in primetime network dramas gave her plenty of opportunities to learn how to play a character with great cruelty. It was an opportunity for Morris to observe one of the masters at playing villainous characters at work.
Anyone who has tracked the career of the actor/dancer/mom would know Morris’ interest in dancing predates her interest in acting. It goes back to when she was a 9-year-old growing up in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she studied jazz, contemporary and tap dancing. That training would become the foundation for Morris professionally, including being one of Beyonce’s backup dancers and starring on Glee.
Cable movies are notorious for being shot quickly. After Glee, one would suspect that being pushed at a fast pace would be nothing new since the cast of that Fox series was either acting in a scene, recording their musical performance for an upcoming show, learning complicated dance choreography or dealing with the massive amount of attention the series got from fans and critics.
Morris explains that despite all the work that went into making Glee, there were often times when the cast would have long breaks while the episode’s director set up and filmed an elaborate sequence. But the work load on Glee overall was so demanding that Morris is certain she can take on any challenge such as her recent whirlwind work schedule of making the TV movie, competing on Dancing With the Stars, touring and taking care of her family.
Given her choice, Morris prefers the pacing of a small film because there’s not a lot of down time, especially when the actor is the central character and is in almost every scene. Her life is so full that she just likes to keep pushing.
Another reason Morris is able to do so much goes back to her dance training, which demands so much from a performer mentally, physically and emotionally.
“I love dancing and it feels amazing. Dancing gives you a very good work ethic,” Morris says. She adds that one of the things she learned as a dancer was how to adjust when things aren’t going the way you expect.
Glee was one of those times when things went right as Morris was not among the original cast members. She was added to the cast after helping teach the Glee actors some dance movies and saw her character of Britney go from being just another cheerleader to being one of the show’s central players.
Things didn’t go as smoothly with Dancing with the Stars as she was eliminated the sixth week, the same week she posted a perfect score with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.