Story Created:
Sep 8, 2010 at 4:21 PM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 8, 2010 at 7:10 PM PST
If you thought cheerleading — a quintessential American invention if ever there was one — was all about superficial beauty parading around in skimpy uniforms, a new television series may or may not disabuse you of that notion.
But actress Sharon Leal, who plays the coach of a college cheerleading squad at the center of “Hellcats,” which debuted this week on the CW, has developed a newfound respect for the discipline.
“Yeah, I used to think about cheerleaders as little girls in short skirts,” Leal admitted in a phone interview from Vancouver, where the series is being shot. “But this show really gets in there and delves into the competitive element and the idea that it is an athletic sport.”
She added: “I was never a cheerleader myself; I went to a performing arts high school. But I’ve played all sorts of roles — doctors, lawyers and teachers. You just go in there and commit to it.”
Based on journalist Kate Torgovnick’s book “Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders,” the series follows a pre-law student who taps into her dancing skills to win a cheerleading scholarship after her mother’s spendthrift ways threaten her place at the school.
Leal’s character, a former Hellcat who returns to campus to lead the squad, is facing her own challenges with a must-win demand from an athletic director who is ready to eliminate the program. She is also facing romantic entanglements: Her old flame, football coach Red Raymond, is busy trying to spoil her relationship with her handsome doctor boyfriend.
“Vanessa is this sort of type-A personality that comes in and serves as psychiatrist, mother and tough love counselor,” said Leal, who has starred in such films as “Why Did I Get Married” and “Soul Men.”
“She cracks the whip and battles the school to keep the program alive. As for the Red, when she was a cheerleader he was on the football staff and they had this inappropriate affair. He was married and it created this huge scandal.”
Having filmed eight episodes of the pilot season order, Leal hasn’t had much time to savor the delights of the city that hosted this year’s Winter Olympics.
Vancouver is “a great city to shoot in, Hollywood has really infiltrated the place with a lot of other productions going on,” said Leal.
“We’re fully into the grind, on the second episode we did 100 set-up shots in one day, and we’re really cranking them out.”
In fact, the whole process from casting to shooting has been a bit of whirlwind.
“It was one of the last pilots in the season,” recalled Leal. “I went in and tested for the network and the studio and had a dance audition. 
They told me I had the job — and literally, they were like, ‘Can you get on a plane tomorrow?’”
Photo: In The CW's new cheerleading drama, 'Hellcats,' Sharon Leal and DB Woodside are romantically linked. Credit: Sergei Bachalov/The CW
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