One night, Joel catches Lauryn at the club during a dance; After an argument, in which Lauryn realizes that Joel is losing the family garage due to stacking mortgages and bills, she decides to ditch the stage and return to Indiana to save the garage. Soon after though, Joel catches a peek of Lauryn joyfully dancing in the garage one day, and asks Lauryn to give the audition another shot. Lauryn returns to Chicago for a second audition. She nails it, and happily embraces Russ, who has come to encourage her. Lauryn goes back to Ruby's to apologize to Brenda, but finds a surprise congratulatory party awaiting for her, and the party breaks into dance. Cast Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lauryn Riley Smith as Russ Tessa Thompson as Dana Julissa Bermudez as Carmen Karen LeBlanc as Brenda John Reardon as Joel Ashley Roberts as Brooke Matt Kippen as Wayne Production Early conception "What attracted me to "Make It Happen" was the fact that I could really just incorporate a lot of styles that I had done over the years. You have the dance element, and each little dance routine was going to be like its own little music video," Grant explains. When it came to helping the director to tell the story, Grant went to work with longtime collaborator, 1999 Kodak Cinematography Award winner David Claessen. "I've worked with David since I was a PA and an electrician, and I always liked the way he lights. We've done music videos that have been amazing and every frame is like a portrait or a picture." On July 10, 2007, the casting of Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the lead role was announced. Winstead was excited by the challenge of taking on a lead role and getting to dance onscreen. Winstead, who started dancing at the age of four, was thrilled and a little shocked to be offered the role of Lauryn. "I actually got offered the role kind of out of the blue. And I was extremely excited because it's a dance film and dance has been a passion of mine for a long time, especially growing up, so it was just a really great opportunity." Soon after, Winstead began practicing the dance moves with choreographer Tracy Phillips. In June, Riley Smith announces his association with the film in his official website. On August 16, Ashley Roberts was announced as joining the