Tonight is the night we’ve all been waiting for – Ride is officially premiering on Nickelodeon!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ride, the daily scripted series (20 half-hour episodes) features adventures from the stables to the study hall at a prestigious equestrian boarding school. It follows the journey of Kit Bridges (Kendra Leigh Timmins), an American teenager who must adjust to life in England at The Covington Academy, after her father accepts his dream job as the equestrian supervisor at the school.
In the series premiere titled “Arrival,†Kit (Timmins) embarks on an adventure filled with new friends, surprises, romance and laughs at The Covington Academy, until she realizes she must face her biggest fear—riding horses. After bonding with the most stubborn and difficult horse at the academy, Kit must find the courage to ride.
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Celeb Secrets had the opportunity to meet with Kendra last week in New York to talk all about visiting the Big Apple and her new show Ride. In our interview, the Canadian actress opens up about filming in both Canada and Ireland, working with horses, and her dream roommate. Like her character, she also reveals her biggest fear and a behind-the-scenes secret from filming the show — make sure to read our whole convo via the Q&A below!
Ride airs tonight, January 30th @ 8PM ET/PT on Nickelodeon and will air new episodes daily in the same time slot.
Celeb Secrets: We saw that you were super excited to come to New York—
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “Yes!”
Celeb Secrets: So, have you seen anything?— Anything you’re looking forward to seeing?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I’m looking forward to seeing shows. I love Broadway shows; I think they’re just so incredible. So, yesterday I got to see Chicago which was phenomenal–and just walking around Times Square has been phenomenal so far, so just more wandering around the city.”
Celeb Secrets: Nice! Any other shows you’re looking forward to seeing in particular?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I have my eye on Wicked — it’s one of my favorite shows. I’ve only seen it once before, so I think seeing it on Broadway would be pretty fantastic.”
Celeb Secrets: Can you tell us a little more about Ride and your character Kit?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “Yes, absolutely. Ride is a show about a girl named Kit, and she moves to England with her dad to go to a really fancy equestrian boarding school. But the problem is that she has a bit of a fear of horses. So, it’s about Kit and her trying to make friends and trying to fit in a very proper world, and see what kind of trouble she gets into.”
Celeb Secrets: Interesting, and you said it was an equestrian boarding school?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “That’s right.”
Celeb Secrets: Did you have any experience riding horses before the role, or?—
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I had a little bit of experience with horses in Canada where I was— we rode Western and when we were filming it was English, so we had to do a little bit of a switchover; but I had done lessons. I love horses so much and we had such a great team that kind of prepped us and showed us the ropes, so it wasn’t so bad.”
Celeb Secrets: What was it like filming on a boarding school set?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “It was phenomenal. We shot in two places. We shot in Toronto, so that was kind of where all the sets for the interiors were built. So they had all the rooms and these beautiful hallways and they decorated it so lovely, and then we shot in Northern Ireland, in Glenarm Castle, which is a real castle that was kind of the outside of the school. So, it was beautiful and old with so much history, so I think it’s going to look really, really good.”
Celeb Secrets: Awesome, and if you could choose any roommate, who would you pick?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “Oooh, I think I would pick Jennifer Lawrence. She seems cool, she seems down to earth. I feel like we would get along fairly well, so I think we would have a lot of fun.”
Celeb Secrets: Yeah, definitely. And, we hear there are a lot of surprises in this season. So, what do you think we can expect from this season and from Kit?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “There’s going to be a lot of twists and turns. There’s a lot of Kit overcoming her fears, so we’ll have to see if she does end up on a horse and what happens; and there’s also a bit of a Covington mystery that the girls have to go through and solve, so I’m really looking forward to people seeing that.”
Celeb Secrets: You mention that her biggest fear is riding horses?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “Yes.”
Celeb Secrets: Do you have a biggest fear?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I have— I’m afraid of everything. I think that was the difference between Kit and me, is that she has one really big fear which is horses, and I have a lot of really little fears like heights and really big waves and getting shots at the doctor and the list could go on forever. So, I don’t know if I could pick one (laughs).”
Celeb Secrets: Why do you think people should tune into Ride on Nickelodeon?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I think people should tune into Ride because it’s a really unique show. It has a lot of really heartfelt moments. It’s about friendships. It’s really real, it’s down to earth and it has this beautiful element with the horses where it’s about kids who compete, so its sports and what they’re passionate about, and it gives you something a little bit different. I don’t think there’s really been anything like it on TV before.”
Celeb Secrets: Nice, and then, since we’re Celeb Secrets— any secrets you had while filming the show that your fans wouldn’t know when watching?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “Oooh,I think people may not know that a lot of pranking went on— on set.”
Celeb Secrets: Sounds fun!
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I know, it was a lot of fun. Oliver who plays Will and Manuel Pacific who plays Nav in the show were usually the masterminds of it, so there was a lot of jumping out and scaring you or planting things; or, every so often, they would make funny faces at you from behind the camera and made sure that you had to kind of get through and pretend they weren’t there (laughs).”
Celeb Secrets: Any favorite Nickelodeon shows growing up or any now?
Kendra Leigh Timmins: “I love a lot of the cartoons. I’m a really big fan of Spongebob Squarepants, Power Rangers, Rugrats, and then I also love a lot of the Dan Schneider shows; I love The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, and Henry Danger now is one of the ones that I like a lot.”