Nicholas Galitzine On ‘High Strung,’ Learning To Play The Violin & Do The Tango [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Nicholas Galitzine stars opposite ballerina Keenan Kampa in the new dance flick High Strung.

Nicholas Galitzine On ‘High Strung’

In High Strung, Galitzine plays Johnnie, a young British violist busking in the New York City subways to make ends meet, and with the hopes of somehow making it as a musician. Eventually he meets Ruby (Kampa), a classical ballerina, who is his opposite in myriad ways. Despite their differences, they’re drawn to one another, and Ruby ends up helping to devise a plan to get Johnnie into an elite conservatory.

CHECK OUT: NICHOLAS GALITZINE’S uBIO – THIS HISTORY, IN HIS WORDS

“[Johnnie] teams up with this hip hop crew that lives on the floor above him and, obviously, with Ruby, who’s a stunning ballerina,” Galitzine explained. “So you eventually have this very crazy fusion of classical music meets hip hop music meets hip hop dancing meets ballet.”

While Galitzine appears to be an accomplished musician himself playing Johnnie in High Strung, the actor was unfamiliar with the instrument before landing the part. Prior to his casting, he had only played guitar.

“They gave me some time before and during the filming where I had very extensive crash course training. I had an amazing tutor in London, and then throughout the filming, sort of day and night whenever I wasn’t filming I was kind of practicing to make it authentic,” Galitzine told uInterview. ” [Director] Michael [Damian] is a musician as well, and we kind of spoke to each other and I think sort of he understood my musicality and what I could bring to the role acting-wise. So, I mean, eventually it worked out quite well ‘cause I think most people think I actually play the violin, which is great. [Laughs] Mission accomplished.”

Keenan Kampa On Ballet, ‘High Strung,’ Co-Star Nicholas Galitzine

In addition to having to learn the violin, which Galitzine believes might be one of the most difficult instruments to learn, he had to learn how to Tango. And, he had to lead a professional dancer in the Latin dance.

“We had like about a week or something before that of learning all the moves. And it’s very difficult because in a Tango, the man’s supposed to lead, and, you know, if you’re not a dancer and they kinda tell you to lead this very accomplished dancer, it’s kind of scary,” Galitzine admitted, adding that Keenan “is an exquisite dancer in kind of pretty much all forms,” including, “a pretty mean robot.”

High Strung is currently in select theaters.