Cheer and dance were a part of Anissa Borrego’s life in the past. So when the comedy series Stumble came along, which mocks the life of cheerleaders, she had to jump at the first opportunity.

Stumble is a new comedy series on NBC that follows Courteney Potter, a well-known cheer coach who must start over with a very unproven junior college cheer team on its way to a cheer championship. Filmed in a documentary style, she must recruit and train a team of misfits with plenty of mishaps along the way.

Jenn Lyon (Justified, Crashing) leads the series. The rest of the cast includes Taran Killam (Saturday Night Live, High Potential), Anissa Borrego (This Is Us, Elio), Jarrett Austin Brown (Buick, Gazer), Georgia Murphy (Gen V, 56 Days), Holden Goodman (Ketchup on Waffles, Game On!), and Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies, Bewitched).

Stumble has new episodes every Friday at 8:30/7:30c p.m. on NBC. It is also streaming on Peacock.

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LRM Online’s Gig Patta chatted with actress Anissa Borrego on a telephone call about her experience, role, and preparation as the very capable, quirky cheerleader Krystal.

Read the interview transcript below. Let us know what you think of the interview.

Anissa Borrego: I’m happy to talk to you.

Gig Patta: I’m happy to talk to you. I’m doing well. First of all, congratulations on your new series, Stumble.

Anissa Borrego: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Gig Patta: This must be very exciting, but we always have to ask that obligatory question. What initially drew you to Stumble?

Anissa Borrego: I was a cheerleader and gymnast for most of my life, and it was just such a serendipitous thing for cheer and acting to come together. This was something I was super thrilled to audition for, eventually book, and be a part of.

Gig Patta: That’s pretty awesome. So the audition actually required you to have at least some experience in gymnastics and cheer?

Anissa Borrego: It was not required, but it was a plus. I did have experience. I did send in a video of me tumbling and doing various cheer skills.

Gig Patta: Can you talk about any additional preparations that you actually had for this role?

Anissa Borrego: It was a really fast turnaround for the audition. I really just wanted to have as much fun as possible. It’s a comedy, so my UCB background came in really handy with this kind of work. A lot of it is intuitive and just having fun and knowing your character’s circumstances.

Gig Patta: Now, I’ve seen a few episodes already, but how do you describe your character, Krystal?

Anissa Borrego: Krystal is pronounced like the Champagne, is a cheer celebrity, and the star player at Sammy Davis Senior Junior College, who has been poached to cheer for the buttons. She runs a very lucrative business selling Krystal-branded everything, and her mom and current manager run it.

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Gig Patta: A lot of people already saw the first episode, and you certainly came with a bang. Can you talk about the challenges of what your character actually ended up with? Is this going to be a permanent fixture, or is that just temporary for your character?

Anissa Borrego: When she was injured, she was still very resilient and wanted to bring her best always. And she is healing. She’s going to be in a chair and with some crutches for a while. You’ll have to tune in to see where this goes.

Gig Patta: Being in the chair and using crutches, did that pose a different type of challenge for you as an actor?

Anissa Borrego: It didn’t, and also the cheerleader in me that was super excited to do cheer. Um, we’ve had to slow down just a little bit. We always found ways to incorporate her into the choreography, which I think is super awesome.

Gig Patta: Tell me about the choreography with the practice and with the other cast members in this show.

Anissa Borrego: So we have cheer practice every episode every week, because in every episode there’s some performance or choreography. We’re working with world-renowned cheer coaches and choreographers, Monica Alama and Delgado. It’s really exciting. It feels like an actual, real-life cheer team. We’ve all gotten really close, and we’re all working together to do our best routine.

Gig Patta: When you started this project, did it all come back to you pretty quickly?

Anissa Borrego: Yes, it’s moving really fast. This is the fastest-moving project I’ve ever worked on. It’s really nice because we’re all experiencing these things together, as we’re shooting while the show is coming out. It’s really lovely. We get to watch every episode together, and we really get to bond.

Gig Patta: One of the challenging things is that this show is filmed in a sort of documentary style as an actor. They always teach you not to look directly at the camera, but sometimes you have to, in this case. Could you talk about switching between acting styles in this type of filming?

Anissa Borrego: Yeah, it’s really fun. With this style, you can always live in the moment and be mindful of the technicalities. There’s so much freedom in the movement and the blocking with different reactions and expressions. You are not matching it to something particular. There’s so much freedom in this format to explore.

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Gig Patta: Does comedy come naturally for you? You mentioned you had UCB training.

Anissa Borrego: Yeah, I love comedy, and most of my work so far has been comedy. I think that’s more. Of course, I work on it, and I also feel like it’s in me. My dad was very funny and has always been a jokester, and I’ve always been a fan of comedy. My favorite movie growing up was ” Growing Up with Superstar, starring Molly Shannon, which inspired me a lot. So

Gig Patta: Is there a lot of improv in a show like this?

Anissa Borrego: Yeah, there’s a lot of improv. We have so much fun and improv all the time. It doesn’t always cut, but we have plenty of fun when we’re shooting. It does make the scenes feel more alive, and yeah, but they have to stick to the 22-minute episodes, and we do improv all day, every day.

Gig Patta: Would you consider yourself much more of an improv actor?

Anissa Borrego: I wouldn’t say I’m just an improv actor or more of an improv actor. It’s just one of the tools in my tool belt, and one of the things that I love to play with.

Gig Patta: Let me ask one last question. With this incredible cast in Stumble, besides yourself, who else in this cast is most athletic, in your opinion?

Anissa Borrego: Arianna Davis. She is trained in many different dance styles and is a talented celebrity. Madonna really shines so brightly because of Arianna’s talent, skills, and ability to perform.

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Gig Patta: Well, Anissa, thank you very much for speaking to us about Stumble. I’ve seen a few episodes already. I laughed so much that I was crying because you guys are so hilarious.

Anissa Borrego: Oh, thank you so much. I’m so happy to hear it.

Gig Patta: I hope we get to do this again. So thank you very much.

Anissa Borrego: Okay, thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening.

Stumble has new episodes every Friday at 8:30/7:30c p.m. on NBC. It is also streaming on Peacock.

For news and interviews, contact Gig Patta at [email protected]. Follow https://x.com/GigPatta, https://www.facebook.com/OfficialGigPatta, https://www.instagram.com/gigpatta, or https://www.tiktok.com/gigpatta for all his postings and musings in entertainment.

Source: LRM Online Exclusive, NBCUniversal