You probably remember Chelsea Kane (formerly known as Chelsea Staub) from her breakout role in The Jonas Brothers' Disney Channel show Jonas, but since then, she's starred in a number of your favorite hit TV shows, scored third place on Season 12 of Dancing With the Stars, and now has a starring role as Riley in the ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy. Chelsea recently stopped by BuzzFeed New York to give us an inside look into her world, on set and off — everything from crazy moments while filming to what her AIM screen name was back in the day.
1. Have you ever fallen for a best friend or been involved in a ~love triangle~ like your character on Baby Daddy?
Chelsea Kane: Yes, I have fallen for a friend. I don't think I've ever been caught up in a real love triangle, but yeah I think for me it comes from a place of, I'm a very protective person and I'm very, I don't want to say shy, but I tend to fall for people once I've been around them for a minute because I trust them and I'm willing to let them into my world a little more, so I can definitely say I've fallen for a friend.
2. Do you think guys and girls can be just friends?
CK: I would like to think so, yeah, absolutely. I'm definitely more of a guy's girl — it's drama-free (laughs) and I have a couple great girlfriends — but I think I relate to my character Riley in the sense that I would prefer to hangout with a group of guys, so I think you can be friends. I traveled Europe with Jean-Luc and we slept in hostels together and pulled it off so, yeah, I think it's a possibility.
3. Have you ever had any crazy mishaps on set?
CK: No major mishaps. There were a couple pranks we played on set once in a while. For example, there's a scene this season where Tahj and I are in a hot tub, and we're supposed to duck under the water and come up and deliver the lines, and when we were under the water our director cleared the entire set. So we're doing the scene and we're not quite sure — there's usually guys behind the camera and we didn't know what was going on — and in the two minutes it took for us to do the scene, the whole set was cleared. We had to get out of the hot tub and try to find everyone (laughs). So there are usually some pranks going on. And as far as mess-ups, we have four girls that come to the show every Friday night for the tapings, and they do the "F-up list" and they've tallied up how many times each person messes up a line, and they actually have awards for us at the end of every season!
Wait, they're just fans?!
CK: They're just fans! Yeah. It's really cool. So, Derek won last year, which made me extremely upset because I am a huge perfectionist. So I'm going for gold this year!
4. Has anything super awkward ever happened when you're taping in front of a live audience?
CK: Um, it's usually probably something from Jean-Luc, because we forget we're mic'd. They'll turn the mics down in between takes when we're getting notes, but sometimes we'll misjudge when the mics have come on [and are] live again for the audience, so, they've heard a couple things they probably should not have (laughs).
5. Who would you say is the biggest prankster on set?
CK: The funniest person in the world is Melissa Peterman. I don't even know if we play a lot of pranks as much as just poke fun at each other — and Melissa is the quickest. I never really have a good rebuttal when it comes to Melissa.
6. If you could have one guest star on the show, who would it be?
CK: I would love to work with Goldie Hawn. That would be the dream!
7. Who do you hangout with most, on or off set?
CK: We all are very close, we've all been going out to dinner every night here in New York. Jean-Luc's probably my best friend; we hang out a lot. And Tahj keeps a pair of pajamas at my house — on certain Friday nights when he's too tired to drive home, he crashes at my place.
8. What does your trailer look like on set?
CK: My room is actually called Bar Chelsea, and I have a neon sign that says "Bar Chelsea." Two seasons ago after our Christmas party, we had a little party on the lot, and people just weren't ready to leave. So somehow everyone ended up in my dressing room, and I had bought the cast onesies as Christmas gifts with our names on the butts and all of a sudden we're all in the onesies in my room, and it became this tradition like every Friday night after the show everyone's like, "Are we going to Bar Chelsea?" And the coolest part about working on a show with an amazing art department is that they actually built me a wraparound bar in my dressing room. So when the sign is on, it means come on in!
9. If you had to be roommates with any of your castmates IRL, who would you choose?
CK: Tahj. He's really clean, he has incredible style — he knows about the latest indie band the first day they've ever released their first single. He's just cool. Everything he does is cool. So I'd want to live with Tahj and have him design everything. I know the place would be spotless all the time. Plus, he throws great gatherings.
10. When you were on Dancing With the Stars, did you ever freak out or forget choreography right before you went on?
CK: I honestly can say, I feel like I blacked out during every dance. I also still like twitch at the sound of an english accent saying "Dancing With..." (laughs) it's the last thing I remember. Seriously, the dance would be over and I'm gasping for air like, Did it happen? For me so much of it was muscle memory, and completely nerve-racking. DWTS is one of those shows with a really tight-knit group and everyone's a family over there, and you're welcome to come back and watch any live taping. And I went one time and I was a mess through the whole thing; I was such a ball of nerves and I'm like, I'm not even doing it anymore! So it was definitely nerve-racking. I don't know how I got through it.
11. If your Baby Daddy co-stars were all on DWTS, who would you vote for?
CK: I want them all to do it. Tahj is an incredible dancer, so it would be really fun to see him do it. And also Melissa — plus she's so funny, and I always love seeing how people are in the packages before they dance, in the rehearsal process, and I think Melissa would just have golden moments in that.
12. You sing, act, and dance. What's your favorite of the three? Would you ever put out an album?
CK: You'll never see like the "Chelsea Kane" self-titled album (laughs). I love it, I've been super lucky in the sense that I keep getting roles that require singing and I grew up doing musical theater, so I don't mind it. I'm not like one of those that's like, God I have a lot on my mind, let me just pick up my guitar. I'm so nervous when I have to sing. When I was going into the studio to record Lovestruck: The Musical it was harder for me than anything else. I just panicked. But it's fun to be able to do it, and a lot of times I'm singing as a character so I can "blame" it on them. That was a character choice!
13. Is there a dream play or musical you'd ever want to be a part of?
CK: I would love to play Glenda in Wicked. There's so much comedy there that I think would be fun to play — and, their dresses! That's what really pulls me in.
14. What was the best part about working on Jonas? Do you have a favorite episode or scene?
CK: There were a lot of good times. In the pilot "J.O.N.A.S.," they had to learn all of this karate, and looking back on it, I have the greatest videos of them like rolling around, practicing their karate on the sound stage. So that was one of my favorites, the very first one. And I loved a lot of the stuff with Jonas L.A., probably the one where we got to take the helicopter ride. I think it was the first episode of Season 2. And reading the script I was like, Psh, how are they going to do this? And then they picked us up in a helicopter on top of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and flew us all over the city. It was so surreal, and really cool.
Do you guys still all keep in touch?
CK: We do! We don't get to see each other as often as I'd like, but yeah, Nick has come to watch a taping of Baby Daddy, and we've gone skiing together. So we definitely keep in touch, and, you know, reach out, text, etc.
15. You’ve had a lot of roles on various TV shows (One Tree Hill, Wizards of Waverly Place, Jonas, etc.) — what was your favorite experience and why?
CK: You know, I love them all. One Tree Hill was really cool, because I was actually working with my boyfriend at the time. And we shot the show in North Carolina, and it's really fun. I like getting to see other places for work, so to live in North Carolina for a couple months was fun. But all of them have been amazing for different reasons.
16. What's your most embarrassing audition story?
CK: Oh my god. So many. I think the worst ever — do you remember the TV show American Dreams? I got an audition, so I dress up in this whole, like, '60s look and learned an old song and had on the whole outfit. And I walk in, and it's American Dreamz with a Z, that Mandy Moore movie that was supposed to be super cool. I like totally missed the last letter on this casting call, so that was pretty embarrassing.
17. What was your AIM screen name?
CK: It's even worse than you think. It was "pixcstar." So, a lot of actors make corporations, like little production companies. And I made Pixc Star Productions. People are always like, What is this? It's awful. Why did I pick my fifth-grade screen name to represent me professionally? That was a huge mistake (laughs).
18. What’s your favorite place to shop?
CK: My favorite place in the world is this store called My Sister's Closet in Arizona and it's the greatest secondhand shop in the world. So, I like finding cool, one-of-a-kind pieces like that. But I'm also a big Urban Outfitters girl, and Forever 21 — I don't think labels make fashion. I think it's your own style, what you put together. I have a hard time spending a lot of money on clothes, because the minute you spill coffee down it, your day gets real bad.
19. You changed your name from Staub to Kane because it was easier to pronounce — has that helped?
CK: Helped and hurt. Like I think a lot of people are super confused; I've been congratulated on my marriage, and then when they spot me out with someone else it's like, "Ugh, how dare you" I'm like, "I was never married!" So I think a lot of people are like, "Wait, I'm confused — are you Chelsea Staub? What's going on?" But for me, I like it because it just feels more like me. A lot of my friends have always called me Kane. It was a weird transition and kind of crazy, but I'm glad I did it. And now that it's sinking in, it just feels more like me.
20. So, the band The Summerset wrote that song about you called "Chelsea." What was that like?
CK: That was really cool. We all grew up together in Arizona, and yeah, Brian wrote the song. And I heard it for the first time live, and couldn't believe it, and it totally worked! We dated for like two years (laughs). Note to guys: The band thing does really work sometimes.
21. We heard you were in a Travelodge commercial with Vanessa Hudgens when you were 8 — did you guys reconnect when you got older?
CK: Oh my god. It was so special, that one. Yeah we did a Travelodge commercial about safety tips. I remember the song! Vanessa was in the commercial, and we were pen pals for like a year! So when we reconnected a couple of years ago, it was like, "Oh my god!" And she was just as beautiful and cute and talented then as she is now.
Catch the Baby Daddy winter premiere tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC Family!