Julianne Hough reflecgts on her most personal project yet

CNN
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Just days ahead of her final set of off-Broadway shows last month, Julianne Hough met with CNN on a quiet tree-lined street in downtown Manhattan, close to where she now calls home.

Over a cup of coffee, Hough reflected on her 15-plus years in the spotlight. Although she was still a teen when she first rose to fame in 2007 as a professional dancer on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” alongside her brother, Derek Hough, her work in entertainment began years prior.

Hough, the youngest of five children, was raised in the small town of Orem, Utah, in the Mormon faith. Her older siblings were all either dancing or acting, all four of her grandparents were dancers. At age 9, Hough went to London to study ballroom dancing, that’s where she met Mark Ballas, who would eventually star alongside her on “DWTS.”

“I love what I do, but I think I was choosing it from a different vantage point,” Hough said about her tireless training throughout her childhood. “From like, ‘Oh, this is what I’m supposed to do … Is this actually my path? Do I love it? Do I wanna do it? And why am I doing it?”

Hough made her acting debut in the 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” She was a favorite on “DWTS” for several seasons before starring in a series of film roles in “Footloose,” “Rock of Ages” and “Safe Haven.” She returned to “DWTS” as a judge in 2014 and made her Broadway debut last spring in “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.”

Now 34, Hough says she is in place of discovery with her work again.

“I have fallen in love with dancing and music and acting and being a student of the craft again,” she said, crediting her renewed approach with her move to New York.

“When I came in March, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ My eyes were just opened up to what New York really is, which is so many different communities where you feel immediately like you know where you stand,” she said. “I love LA, it’s amazing. I have my group of friends, but it takes me a long time to figure out like, ‘Who are my people? Who do I trust?’ Whereas here, you’re either like, I know you like me, or I know you…