Chelsea plays the role of gymnastics newcomer Emily Kmetko and Ayla, the role of top gymnast Payson Keeler, in the new ABC Family original series, Make It or Break It, which premiered on Monday, June 22nd, at 9:00/8:00 central.

Since the show is new, how would you describe it for the new audience?

Chelsea: I guess I would describe it as a one-hour drama that takes place in the world of competitive gymnastics because it has everything else that all these dramas have, but it’s all based around this athletic component, which is really interesting and definitely changes all the motives and goals of every character on the show, so it’s definitely different. Yes, that’s probably the best way I could explain it.

Ayla: And the sacrifice that everyone around them has to go through.

What training did you both go through to prepare for this show?

Chelsea: Well, before the pilot, we had virtually hardly any time at all. I was cast last, so for me it was just a couple of days, so it was a lot of watching videos and trying to pick their brains, all the gymnasts, as much as possible. And then they gave us actually about two or three months after we found out the show was going to series, so we had quite a bit of time to do training. And I guess it’s more about looking like a gymnast and walking and acting like a gymnast. We also have been doing a lot of strength training. We’ve been doing beam and learning how to, you know, jump on the bars, so we have been — we’re slowly learning more and more every day, but we still do have gymnast doubles.

Ayla: We do what gymnasts do as conditioning. It is what it is. I’m not all of a sudden doing triple back flips, but I can pull myself up on a bar. Chelsea has got some awesome pull-ups, but it’s that kind of stuff that really helps us understand what we’re doing.

You both have a dance background. Does that help with your roles on Make It or Break It?

Ayla: It definitely helps a lot, but there’s so much difference in the posture and the way the arms are that our coach is really on us both.

Chelsea: But it’s also good just because I think we’re both really aware of our bodies, which is something that’s important, I think, if you’re playing any type of athlete, so it gave us a little bit of an edge, but it’s differently apples and oranges, I think.

For both of you, how do your characters interact? Are they friendly, mean, competitive?

Ayla: Pretty much I (Payson) am kind of indifferent to her (Emily), to be entirely honest, because I’m so focused on gymnastics and what I’m doing. There’s so much stuff going on with her, and I really just want to train, but I’m supportive in her getting her opportunity to compete and be a part of the gym, unlike some other people.

Chelsea: But Ayla (Payson) is also one of the only people that is warm to me (Emily) upon my arrival, so I think that our relationship has a lot of growth ahead.

How is it working with Peri Gilpin?

Ayla: She’s fantastic. She’s really inspirational, and what I love is that she’s willing to work with anything, and she asks you what you feel about the scene, and it takes you a second, like when I first found out that Peri Gilpin was playing my mother, I was almost like a little sick, I was so excited, and it was just fantastic, and now I see her every day in hair and makeup, and it’s still astonishing that somebody who I watched on TV for such a long time is now playing one of my family members.

The show kind of marks Candice Cameron Bure’s return…. What was it like working with her?

Ayla: She’s fantastic. She’s really, really great. She is so sweet and so fantastic, and really comes in and does her work. I remember the first time we all met her. We all were so star struck.

Chelsea: We couldn’t pick our jaws up off the floor. We all grew up watching Full House.

Do either of you experience body image pressure playing gymnasts, you know, with the little costumes and everything?

Chelsea: You know, yes, it naturally comes with the territory, but it’s also great because we have a lot of gymnasts on set, real live gymnasts on set all the time, and you see that every single one of them has different shapes, but they all work out and have a great amount of muscle mass. Some of them are bigger than others, and they’re just solid muscle. And so, you know, it’s nice to see girls that are healthy at least. It’s not something — if anything, we want to be bigger, not smaller, so yes.

Ayla: When you’re hanging out with people who work out all day, it really just makes you want to work out. It’s not even about what you’re eating when it comes down to it. It’s really about the healthy, strong, feminine shapes that they have in spandex.

Do you have stunt people doing your tricks?

Alya: We have some fantastic people doing our huge, huge tricks, but I know for myself, I do all of my own dance stuff, and I can do some awesome walking on the beam, and we do smaller scale things, and then we have fantastic, fantastic people who do the really, really impressive stuff.

Have there been any injuries on set?

Chelsea: I’ve like torn my palm open doing the bars. That’s like the extent of my injury. But we do, we all get little things here and there just from obviously doing things that we’re not used to doing. But I don’t know. Ayla, has there been anything major? I’m trying to think.

Ayla: I dislocated my knee a couple of years ago, and it just random things or sometimes pain, but I don’t think we’ve had any terrible, awful things happen.

What made you want to be a part of the show?

Chelsea: Well, I think that it was just a very exciting opportunity based on the fact that Olympics is — the Olympics just passed and gymnastics is something that’s always been so popular, and it’s never been done before. There’s never been a one-hour drama based on the world of competitive gymnastics, so just the whole perspective of that was very, very exciting to me, and fresh and new.

What’s the best advice you would have for upcoming actors?

Chelsea: I think that the mistake that a lot of actors make is they don’t — they’re not themselves. They put too much on it. They forget when they walk into an audition room or something that when you walk in the room, the casting director wants you to be the right person, and they forget to just be themselves. They’re trying to be what they think the casting director or producers or directors want them to be, and I think that that’s a really important thing to remember is bring as much of yourself and take risks.

Ayla: And you have to remember that auditions are a huge part of the process, and if you aren’t doing your best on auditions, and if you’re not trying your best on auditions, you’re setting yourself up. It’s work at all times. Even if you aren’t getting paid, it’s work.

Who do you think will be the show’s prime audience? Who will it appeal to?

Chelsea: I think that — I don’t know. It’s interesting because you have your Greek and Secret Life of the American Teenager age range that is an obvious, but we also have a great adult cast, and I’m really interested to see how that plays because I think that I know my parents are excited to see Peri [best known from Frasier], and there’s a Full House star, Candice Cameron Bure, and Susan Ward, so we have a lot of great people that would bring in an older audience as well, I think.

Ayla: I definitely agree with that, and because anybody who puts their child into something that takes up so much time, whether it be soccer, ballet like my family went through, anything down to being a huge math star, your family sacrifices so much to get you to where you need to be, to the financial strains, to the cost for equipment. Everything takes a toll on the family, and it really shows the families who are hurting, like Chelsea’s family really feels a struggle. My family being Middle America really feels the struggle. And I think it appeals to anyone who has had a kid at a high level sport.

You can watch Make It or Break It on Monday nights at 9:00/8:00 central on ABC Family and check ABCFamily.com for videos.