Plenty of (Angelica) Pickles and Dancing
Ijust love this. Someone takes a trait they were teased about, say, a high-pitched voice, and makes a career out of it. That’s exactly what actress Cheryl Chase is doing. That’s her voice behind the bratty Angelica Pickles on Nickelodeon’s animated TV show “Rugrats.”
Chase explained during a phone interview that when she isn’t working on “Rugrats” or relaxing at home in Glendale with her bunnies--Sophie, Jasper and Emerson--she’s taking classes. She does go to a gym in West Hollywood three times a week to work out with a trainer, but her all-time favorite classes are dance.
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Question: How come you love the dance classes?
Answer: What I like about it the most is it’s an investment in my career future. It’s more productive for me to be in the rehearsal hall working out a time step because I’m going to use that for the stage later. I make more progress when I stick to the simple things that are going to get me to my ultimate goal.
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Q: You’re a hoofer.
A: Yeah. That’s what I have on my license plate. “Hoofer.”
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Q: Do you have the official black patent leather tap shoes?
A: I have my little Eleanor Powell numbers.
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Q: Tell me how much dance you’re taking and what you do in the gym.
A: I take one jazz class on Wednesday nights and then I mainly focus on the tap. I train privately with tap and jazz so I take several--like three--tap classes a week.
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Q: What about the gym?
A: I do a little bit of stretching. I’m either working on the machines or I’m working on free weights--certain parts like the back, the shoulders, the arms and then, the other day, the legs. And then I like to go 45 minutes on the treadmill. But if I’m going to be dancing that day, I don’t do any treadmill. It’s either or.
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Q: When it comes to diet, you follow “The Zone” [Barry Sears’ diet]?
A: I was on the Zone to trim down because I was 148. And I just said--that’s it. I’ve had it. I’m goin’ to the Zone. I got that 20 pounds of lard off so now I fluctuate between 126 and 130.
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Q: How tall are you?
A: I’m 5-5. Sometimes I’m 5-4, sometimes I’m 5-5. It’s so bizarre. I don’t get it. I don’t know if it’s me or the scales. I don’t want to be obsessed with the scales but if I look in the mirror, I like what I see, I feel good. And if I feel I’m eating a little bit over-ly, like too much fat in one day, I’ll just make sure I do a little more jazz or work out on the treadmill.
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Q: Walk me through all your meals.
A: I love tangerine juice. I’ll eat an orange--drinking straight orange juice bugs me. It’s just too acidic. So I’ll have the orange or tangerine juice, oatmeal or cereal or an egg and then for lunch it’ll be a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with low-fat mayo and a soup and / or salad.
For dinner I will have chicken or from the Zone I really got into pork. I’ll have vegetables and I always make sure I have some green vegetables. And then if I really want to follow the Zone, I’ll make sure I have my two extra snacks along with my three meals, which would be string cheese with half an apple and a little bit of sunflower seeds.
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Q: You have the same snack both times?
A: That would be midafternoon, between lunch and dinner. But for my snack after dinner, I would save it for when I go to bed. I like to read a little bit before I go to bed so I would have a cup of low-fat milk and I would put it in the freezer where it would be almost frozen, nice and thick in texture. And then I’d have half a teaspoon of peanut butter.
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Q: Do you ever eat desserts?
A: If I go out to dinner I’ll have a dessert if I want and not regret it because it’s not like I pack my shelves with Oreos and all these other goodies. So dessert is a real treat for me.
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Q: You’re disciplined. You are.
A: I’m disciplined when I want to be, but when I wanna be bad, baby, I’m bad. I mean, I can be. So what, you know, as long as you don’t stress out and obsess about it.
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Guest Workout runs Mondays in Health.