Christina Milian: ‘I questioned if replacing Naya Rivera in Step Up 3 was the right thing to do – but there’s a purpose for this’

Christina Milian has opened up on the tough resolution to interchange Naya Rivera in Step Up season 3.

The Glee actress died aged 33 after drowning whereas out on a rented boat along with her four-year-old son in July 2020.

On the time of her loss of life, she was in between seasons of the TV collection adaptation of the hit Step Up franchise, starring because the lead Collette Jones, a excessive powered music trade heavyweight, reverse Ne-Yo as celebrity musician Sage Odom.

Naturally, the Dip It Low singer, 41, had considerations about taking on the function below such tragic circumstances.

‘Naya was massively gifted, for years we watched her carry out on tv and do the music, the dancing – she embodied every thing you need to see in a performer,’ mentioned Milian.

‘She’s additionally Latina, when you understand you see somebody that’s relatable to you, you watch them and assist them and for a few years that was me for her.’

Christina Milian and Naya Riviera
Christina Milian takes over Naya Rivera’s function as Collette Jones in Step Up 3 (Image: LIONSGATE+)

For Milian, Collette was a problem she knew she wished to tackle, however inevitably had ‘questions if it was the suitable factor to do’.

‘I used to be fascinated by her followers and if it was respectful for me to do it,’ she continued. ‘After I acquired to know who the character is and what she’s finished and likewise that [her] household and administration mentioned that is one thing she would need to occur.

‘I put my alternative into belief that that is what’s meant to be and there’s a goal for this.’

‘I used to be fascinated by her followers and if it was respectful for me to do it

Step Up followers had been torn over the information of Milian’s addition – not as a result of they doubted her credentials however puzzled why proceed with out the present’s lead in any respect?  

‘To try this would have meant one other two years as a result of we must utterly rebreak the season, it's a Colette season,’ defined Step Up showrunner Holly Sorenson.

‘It’s simply the place the story was simply going and I feel in all chance the present simply wouldn’t have survived it.’

Christina Milian speaks to Metro.co.uk
Christina and Holly spoke to Metro.co.uk forward of the discharge of Step Up 3 (Image: METRO)

Earlier than Rivera’s loss of life, Step Up had truly been cancelled after two seasons, earlier than being picked up by Starzplay in Might 2020. However two months later, Rivera died in a boating accident close to her residence.

Sorenson insists that Milian was the primary and solely alternative to interchange her.

‘It couldn’t have been anybody else,’ she mentioned. ‘The love she dropped at it, the respect she dropped at it.’

Turning to the pop star, she mentioned: ‘Additionally it wasn’t a task… being within the trade, you will have your individual connection to all of that.’

‘Collette has to take action a lot, she needs to be plausible as a dancer, she needs to be plausible as a singer, she needs to be plausible as somebody from the neighbourhood, she needs to be a very robust particular person.

‘There’s a protracted listing so there’s not lots of people who might do it.’

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