Make it Pop made a splash when it aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. earlier this year, and now Canada gets to experience the latest tween TV sensation. It may not be something most of you are setting out to watch, but if you have young ones in your life, you’ll probably start hearing more about it.
Now, this isn’t the type of series that we usually cover on The Televixen, but we are impressed with the number of children, tween and teen series filming in Toronto. For the first time, we were invited to the set of one of these shows, and our curiosity got the better of us. At the end of the day on Make it Pop, we came away with an appreciation for what goes into creating a show like this.
Make it Pop kicks off tonight on YTV, and we want to introduce you to its young, multitalented stars … who also happen to form the pop group XO-IQ. We visited their Toronto set back in March, and also caught them in concert during the YTV Summer Beach Bash last month.
Louriza Tronco as Jodi Mappa
“She’s the choreographer and fashion designer of the group,” Louriza tells us about Jodi. “She’s more like the dry comedy of the series. She’s very sarcastic. She has a really chill, cool personality.”
Louriza is trained in musical theatre, so she was happy to be a part of a project where she didn’t have to choose between singing, acting or dancing. The K-Pop inspiration was also a draw.
“The whole aesthetic of K-Pop music and the look of it is very trendy and eye-popping, which I think is unique,” she shares.
Erika Tham as Corki Chang
“I play Corki Chang on Make it Pop. My character is very shy, very naïve, very sophisticated, and very girly. She’s lived a sheltered life, and we’ll find out why later on in the season. It’s a big mystery when she first comes to MacKendrick Prep, and the first episode revolves around the mystery of who Corki is.”
Erika grew up in Asia where the K-Pop market is a cultural force and grew up with it. She also says that there’s a lot more to the K-Pop world now, but you don’t have to know anything about it to enjoy Make it Pop.
“I hope that people will watch our show, and if they love the music or the outfits, they’ll look into what we’ve drawn some of our inspiration from, and see how great and vast K-Pop is.
Megan Lee as Sun Hi Song
“Sun Hi is a very loud, confident, super self-absorbed character. She has a huge passion to sing, dance and act to become a famous pop star. She’s super fun to play.”
Megan also enjoys the more serialized aspect to the show. “Every character has a different story, a different mystery. I think viewers will have a lot of fun watching the show because you find out little parts of every single character as the episodes go on.”
Make it Pop was supposed to have a heavier K-Pop element, but that changed as the series evolved. Megan explains, “We say that it’s K-Pop inspired because the idea of the show came from being influenced by K-Pop. As we were working on the show, it started to change. We don’t mention K-Pop all, nor do we try to represent K-Pop fans or music or style in any way.”
Megan was very clear on what’s going to set this show apart from other tween and teen shows out there is that it’s colourful, positive and upbeat. “Even though Sun Hi can be very sassy and self-absorbed, at heart she’s a very genuine person.”
Dale Whibley as Caleb Davis
“Caleb is the DJ of the group,” Dale tells us. “He’s kind of the male version of Sun Hi, except he is a little bit more drawn back and not very comfortable with interacting with humans. I say humans as literally he cannot interact with anybody. He’s very awkward.” He adds, “Caleb’s also very inspired to get these girls where they need to be: bring them to the top, make them famous. He wants his music to be out there, and he wants them to sing to his music. But he always bites off a little more than he can chew.”
Dale also likes how storylines aren’t resolved in one episode. “We don’t do separate problems every episode. It’s all one solid problem. We have amazing cliffhangers where you’re wanting more. It gives it a different sense that normal sitcoms don’t really have.”
