Julianne Hough plays a small-town girl who comes to Los Angeles with big dreams in Rock of Ages, the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Feature film newcomer Diego Boneta co-stars as a wannabe singer who works at a popular LA club while hoping to one day take the stage instead of just cleaning it up in the musical comedy/drama from director Adam Shankman. Set in 1987 and featuring the music of Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Journey, Rock of Ages also features Tom Cruise as a rock god, Malin Akerman as a Rolling Stone reporter, and Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand as the guys who run the club where all the action takes place.

Together in LA for the press day of the New Line Cinema release, on screen couple Hough and Boneta chatted up their roles and the challenges of making it in Hollywood:

On what Rock of Ages gets right about the 1980s:

Julianne Hough: "I think that Adam Shankman did this movie right so there doesn’t need to be any more ‘80s movies, right? No, I think the music is so incredible and the melodies from the ‘80s are what really made the songs so iconic and classic. I wish there would be more melodies like that today in music."

On the difficulty of pole dancing:

Julianne Hough: "It was extremely tough. I thought it was going to be a lot of bumping and grinding on a pole and then I come to find out that there’s like actual upper body strength that you need to have - and my arms were totally ripped. Yeah, I watch the movie, every time I see those girls, the pole specialists, there’s one girl that like walks down the air and backwards and hanging onto one hand, I’m like, 'That is absolutely incredible.' So, it was tough."

On what it was like making it to Hollywood:

Julianne Hough: "Well, mine was again very unconventional. I had $2,000 in my pocket when I came to L.A. I told my dad I had five so I could move out here, and my rent was $800 a month so it was not a lot of money. That was one month’s-worth, basically. But I was lucky. Everything that I went out for, whether it was booking a commercial or doing something for choreography, I just knew I had to get it otherwise I’d have to go home. So I just always somehow got it and I worked really hard for it. I remember I 'This sucks.' They wouldn’t work for like a month and they would just be in their pajamas from when I left and when I came home they’d still be in their pajamas from when I’d be working and trying auditioning and everything. I thought they were so lucky and everything, but we’re still really good friends now. It was hard. I was working my butt off."

Diego Boneta: "It was tough, man. I moved in from Mexico City with my family and it was starting again from ground zero. You’re moving to LA where there’s a lot of competition. It’s the Mecca of the entertainment business and I realize how much I loved what I did and how much I wanted it. It was all about the perseverance, the discipline, and preparing and not giving up that made all this happen."

On going from stardom in Mexico to unknown status in LA:

Diego Boneta: "It was crazy. It was very weird. I felt like I was Bruce Wayne. I was going and doing concerts in Latin America and I was like Batman, and then coming back and no one knew who I was here. It was very humbling and I started appreciating getting recognized a lot more because no one did here and no one really cared. So, yeah, it was very weird."

On the twisted path he took in getting a lead role in Rock of Ages:

Diego Boneta: "This is kind of a crazy story but summer of 2010 I auditioned for Glee, for the role that Chord Overstreet got. It was three finalists and Chord was one of them. I was another one of them and I didn’t get the part. I was very happy for Chord and I was very bummed because I thought that was the perfect job. Then a year later after I get Rock of Ages, Adam [Shankman] and I are talking and for the Glee audition I had to put myself on tape singing 'You Can’t Always Get What You Want.' Adam said, 'You know, Diego, I knew it was you when I YouTube’d you [and] that darn ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ video came up.' And I said, 'I auditioned for Glee with that.' Never in a million years I would’ve thought that that video was going to get me Rock of Ages."

"There’s something brilliant that Steve Jobs said in a speech. He said, 'You can never connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking back.' That’s one of those examples, you just never know."

On Tom Cruise as a rock god:

Julianne Hough: "You said it. He really is. I mean, he is a rock god. I would’ve loved to have seen him actually in the ‘80s as Stacee Jaxx because I think that he would’ve been the most sought after rock star in the ‘80s, if he would’ve been there."

Diego Boneta: "Like Joe Elliott from Def Leppard said on set when he performed 'Pour Some Sugar on Me,' he went up to Tom and goes, 'You’re a movie star, you’re a rock star. I effin’ hate you!' What can’t Tom do? And not only is he very talented but he’s just as humble as he’s talented, which is my favorite combination."

On having the original rock stars on the set while filming was going on:

Julianne Hough: "It was very cool. Even some rock star girls, which I didn’t really know her name. I will probably find out and probably get slaughtered for not knowing her name, but she brought some of her clothes that she used to wear on stage. I wore one of the corsets and stuff. I don't know why I’m blanking. It was not Pat Benatar. It’s like Debbie Gibson, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, I know those girls."

Diego Boneta: "All in the scene in the mashup of 'We’re Not Gonna Take It,' it’s all the rockers. Sebastian Bach is there and Nuno [Bettencourt] from Extreme is there too. They’re all with Russell [Brand]. All the rockers you see there, they performed for us at a lunch break once which was insane."

On working with Mary J Blige:

Julianne Hough: "Oh my gosh. I mean, yes, I was starstruck to work with Tom Cruise but I mean there’s also this overwhelming nervousness that I had when I would sing with Mary J because I don't think there’s anybody who’s as influential, in especially R&B music, as Mary J has been. Just the success that she’s had and just the human being that she is... I think the coolest part about working with her was that we were on set for hours in a strip club, right? So a lot of the times we weren’t being used because they were shooting the other dancers, so there was a lot of down time where we just bonded. I mean, we’re really close. She calls and leaves me messages out of the blue all the time. She’s like, 'I just want to let you know that I love you so much, Julianne, and you are so amazing.' Just boosts my confidence every day. And she’s like, 'I’m here for you whether I’m your friend, your sister, your aunt, your mom. Whatever you want me to be, I’ll be.' My dad’s kind of obsessed with her. He did not get starstruck over anybody and hasn’t with anybody that I’ve ever been around. He got to sing Happy Birthday to somebody with Mary J. Blige and so he still talks about it. Even if he’s talking about something completely else, he will bring it up somehow because it’s the highlight of his life."

On songs that were cut that may make it onto the DVD:

Julianne Hough: "'Rock You Like a Hurricane' was the duet that I did with Tom and it is bad frickin’ ass. I mean, literally ass. No, literally this was the sexiest but like rough performance in the movie and I think it was a little bit too much for people. I think that people didn’t really...especially women...didn’t really like Sherrie after that. So, they cut it out, but it will be on the DVD for sure. I like to say it’s a musical lap dance. I mean, take out the music and yeah, it’s a little woo, but with the music there we were singing and dancing and this is the most physical dancing that I saw Tom do and so I can’t wait for you guys to see that too. He was amazing."

On future roles that don't involve singing or dancing:

Julianne Hough: "I actually just did another film with Russell, too. It was Diablo Cody’s directorial debut and I didn’t dance in that either. I just love to entertain. Dancing is a part of my life where when I don’t dance I feel like there’s something missing, because I’m such a physical person who loves to express myself through dance. But I love to act. I love to sing. I love to entertain, so if I’m passionate about a certain project, I want to do it. So I hope to stretch my acting skills. I got to a point in my dancing where I felt like I did so much hard work and I achieved a lot of great things, and I wanted to try something else and put that same kind of commitment that I'd put into my dancing into something that I was also passionate about. So I had so many opportunities with my dance and now I’m just excited to get better as an actress."

Diego Boneta: "I am working on my third album. I’m working with Adam Levine. He signed me to his label and we’ve been working together, finding just the right songs for this album which will be hopefully coming out later this year. And I’m also in Chicago right now shooting an MTV show called Underemployed, which was created by Craig Wright who’s an amazing writer. It’s my first time playing the comedic levity of a project which has been a lot of fun and there’s a lot of funny scenes. It’s been a great learning experience."

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Rock of Ages hits theaters on June 15, 2012.