Cymphonique -- JustJaredJr.com Exclusive Interview

How to Rock is just days away from making its debut on Nickelodeon and JJJ hears that there’s a big party planned.

We had a chance to sit down and chat with the new cast of the show and star Cymphonique opened up about Kacey Simon, physical comedy and more. Check out what the 14-year-old actress/singer had to share:

JustJaredJr: Hi Cymphonique! Can you tell us about Kacey Simon?
Cymphonique: “I play a girl named Kacey Simon and she starts off as the most popular girl in school. She even has her own clique called ‘The Perfs’ which is short for Perfects, so it kind of starts off as Mean Girls, almost (I love that movie by the way). That’s what they kind of remind me of, her clique. All they really care about is material things and the latest gossip.

“She comes back to school one day with braces and glasses and her Perf friends, they don’t think she’s perfect anymore. So Kacey finds new friends who say, ‘We like you for who you are. We don’t care if you have braces and glasses or if you don’t have braces or glasses. We accept you.’ She winds up being the lead singer of a new band, Gravity 5. Kacey is very passionate. She’s super funny and sometimes she can be a little dramatic and crazy but at the end of the day, she’s always there for her friends and she loves music and performing.”

JJJ: Did you read the book before hand? What Kacey do you like more?
C: “I’m reading the book right now and I love both Kaceys! But I like the spin they put on her for the show. I think book Kacey was a great inspiration for show Kacey. [Author] Meg Haston is very talented.”

(Click inside for more of our interview with Cymphonique…)

JJJ: So far, what’s been your favorite song from the show?
C: “I love the concept of the theme song – ‘Only You Can Be You‘. I was actually able to co-write it. I just love the message — be yourself no matter what. I also love the song ‘Gravity.’ I like it a lot, just because it’s acoustic and it feels like a live performance [every time we play it]. I also like ‘Move with the Crowd.’ I like all of them, let’s just put it that way.”

JJJ: What about any favorite episodes or particular scenes?
C: “The last episode we shot, ‘How To Rock an Election’ actually, because Big Time Rush was in it. It was cool because I guest starred on their show as Cat. It was a little surreal because now they’re on my show. It was amazing.

“I always tell people that we do crazy stunts on this show, we love our physical comedy. Chocolate has been dumped on me before, I’ve swam in a pool of macaroni and cheese and I was painted as a statue. We actually had the artist from Benjamin Button — who did the makeup — he came on set and painted me as a statue. He actually had to copy a bust of me that they already made. He’s super talented because you really couldn’t tell in the photos which one was the real me and which one was the bust. This is kind of like my bucket list. I get to check things off each week.”

JJJ: How cool was it having Big Time Rush on your show?
C: “They were definitely part of the crazy antics. They definitely helped us out with the craziness. How To Rock plus Big Time Rush just equals double disaster. Very fun though. The guys are very down to earth and they are just as crazy as we are on set. They’re show has a lot of physical comedy as well. Us, together…we had a blast on set. It’s really good to work with just good-hearted people who at the end of the day they’re down to earth, which is one of the really important things to me.”

JJJ: Speaking of the food-related antics. Did the stunts ruin the food for you?
C: “For me, having chocolate dumped on me and swimming in mac and cheese has not ruined those things for me. For some people, it has. Some of my cast members are like ‘I will never have macaroni and cheese again.’

“For instance, Chris[topher O'Neal] and Noah [Crawford] [who play Kevin and Nelson] they had to eat a chocolate pickle. They’re kind of traumatized of chocolate fountains now. But it didn’t ruin it for me.”

JJJ: What other Nickelodeon show would you cross How To Rock with?
C: “That’s a good one. I can not choose just one because I like them all. I know all these people and everyone in the Nickelodeon family is just really sweet. But, I do love to kickbox. Ryan Potter, from Supah Ninjas, found out that I do kickbox and challenged me. He was like, ‘Ok. You need to come on the show and we’ll see what you got.’ That crossover would be kind of cool.”

JJJ: How does Cymphonique’s fashion differ from Kacey’s fashion?
C: “Kacey Simon, I feel like she’s a bit more girly than I am personally. She wears all these skirts and more pink. I feel like in the same — I love metallic jeans and sometimes I feel like Kacey Simon and Cymphonique are starting to meet in the middle. Kacey is transforming from a Perf to Gravity 5 and that’s is more me. I feel like they’re merging into one.”

JJJ: Would you trade places with another character?
C: “Chris and Noah’s — Kevin and Nelson. Besides all the crazy stuff that I do on the show, they have a lot too. They fall a lot. I fall a lot too, but they do it more (laughs). They get to be crazy. I find that those are the types of characters that I like when I’m watching TV shows — the goofy ones that can just be themselves and go crazy.”

JJJ: What can you tell us about your own personal music?
C: “I’ll definitely have my own album coming out after the soundtrack for How To Rock comes out. My thing is that I just love music. Good music is good music, so I’ve never focused on one specific genre. For my album, you can expect diversity. Hip Hop, Rock, Soul, R&B, Pop… all of it.”

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How To Rock premieres Saturday, February 4th @ 8:30PM ET/PT on Nickelodeon.