Before Julianne Hough was ‘actress Julianne Hough and Ryan Seacrest‘s girlfriend,’ she was a dancer on Dancing With the Stars that I had met twice. Once at a Twilight premiere, another time at the MTV Video Music Awards. Julianne was one of the sweetest people that I had ever met, famous or otherwise. Knowing that I would interview her again at a Rock of Ages event, naturally I was interested in finding out if she had changed any over the years. Hint: she has.

At a recent press event, Julianne laughed at questions she thought were stupid and kind of rolled her eyes when she wasn’t feeling it. She isn’t a raging bitch and she’s still kind and personable, but she isn’t the sweetheart I had met a few times years ago. I blame Ryan Seacrest!

Julianne is one of the lead stars in the film adaptation of Broadway’s Rock of Ages, which hits theaters this Friday. Jules sings her heart out in the movie and she owns it. She is just as talented as she is beautiful! If her head continues to swell, it’s understandable.

POTP: Did you have to train for the stripper pole? *Julianne gets on the pole in the movie.

Julianne: Yes I did, and Ryan [Seacrest] appreciated the research! I actually really enjoyed it [laughs]! You know you think ‘stripper pole or pole dancing and you just think a lot of booty shakin’,’ but it was athletic and one of the hardest things. I’ve got dancer legs, so the bottom half of me is pretty hefty and then my upper body is weak. I have ripped arms and upper body strength, it was awesome. I can do a lot of pull ups! It was awesome.

POTP: What was it like first meeting Mary J. Blige on the set?

Julianne: Something had happened that day and I walked in with the choreographer and I was just ranting, literally, and I turn around and Mary’s there and [she] goes “I like you!” And so we basically hit it off from there [laughs]. She says, “You’re a passionate little spit fire aren’t you?” and I go ‘Yes I am!’ So from then on we became really close. She’s amazing. We see each other rarely but she calls and leaves messages all the time, it’s really sweet.

POTP: Did filming in Miami affect things on the set in any way? Was the heat intense?

Julianne: We were really lucky. Shooting in Miami is not a bad place. We lived there. We were there from the beginning of the movie until the end which was almost five months. It felt like we had moved there. The only thing about the humidity and the heat that was pretty bad was when we were shooting our scene where we were falling in love on our first date up on the Hollywood sign, which was up on top of a landfill. We called it “poo mountain.” Literally the humidity… it had just rained and you could smell everything!