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Press - 2005
The worlds of math and figure skating collide in 'Ice Princess'
Little did anyone know that when the two mother/daughter teams were cast for
the ice skating film "Ice Princess," both mothers and daughters shared the same
birth dates. Kim Cattrall and her on-screen daughter Hayden Panettiere were born
on Aug. 21, and Joan Cusack and Michelle Trachtenberg were born on Oct. 11.
"Isn't that funny?" says Cusack in an interview with Zap2it.com. "I think that's
part of your job as an actor, having some sense of intimacy, and then we had the
same birthdays. That's a great conversation starter, you know?"
Panettiere says she totally forgot about Cattrall's "Sex and the City"
character, Samantha, and they connected quickly. "She's such a sweet person and
she's really good in this film, it's crazy that we have the same birthday," says
Panettiere.
"Ice Princess" explores the world of competitive figure skating. Trachtenberg,
known as Dawn on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," plays a bookworm who concocts
mathematical formulas to improve on ice skating techniques. Her serious mother,
played by Cusack, sees her daughter on the fast track to Harvard.
Cattrall plays a disgraced skater with a devious past who is now running her own
skating rink and is grooming her daughter (Panettiere) for championship
competition. Problems arise when Trachtenberg's character decides she wants to
compete, too, and wants Cattrall's character to help her without her mom
(Cusack) knowing.
She worked as hard for the role as her character did in the film, Trachtenberg
says. "I was training five hours a day, five days a week, and I had ballet every
other day. We were shooting seven days a week and after 10 hours they went home
and I was still there on ice skates, I was working 20-22 hour days."
That resulted in a few torn ligaments and a dislocated knee for the actress. For
Panettiere - who rode a zebra recently for "Racing Stripes" - even her training
as a gymnast didn't prevent a few minor injuries.
"I definitely went through many more bumps and bruises on my legs and my rear
end went through a beating," she says about skating. "But I'm proud that I
learned most of my tricks and they used them in the film."
Real-life champions Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano made cameos in the film and
watched the actresses on the set.
"I was the biggest nerd," Trachtenberg says of her first meeting with Kwan. "To
see her on the ice is like I would imagine watching Sean Penn or Dustin Hoffman
work. It's just so effortless and brilliant. And she turned around to me and
she's like, 'You're good, you're a natural for what time you've had and what
you've accomplished. I'm impressed.' So that to me that was the utmost
compliment."
Actual skating competitors were used in the film, and they razzed the actress.
"I fell on my butt a couple of times in front of a couple of thousand extras,
but for the most part, they were all very nice, so I laughed," Trachtenberg
says.
And unlike her character, she hates math. "I always thought it was pointless,
but one day my teacher explained how it teaches you logic, so that was one way I
was able to accept math, that's how I connected," Trachtenberg says. "And I
actually understood the physics. I was really proud of myself."
Cusack's mother is a math teacher, and she says she loves math and emphasizes
the importance to her sons. "I think with kids, trying to find the right balance
with social life, academics, sports and arts is a big thing," says Cusack, and
pointing to the moms in the movie, she adds, "We're both kind of pushing what we
think our kids should be like. It's sort of crossing that line where you want to
shape your kid, but you don't want to shape them into you."
Trachtenberg's real-life mom isn't like either of the mothers in "Ice Princess,"
she says, "She is really proud of me, and said, 'If you want to be an actress,
that's awesome but you have to go to school. You have to have your education,
that's first and foremost.' She's never a stage mom. She's just always been
there for me, and that's really important."
Trachtenberg says she isn't at all like the glamorous girl she becomes in the
film with the jeweled tiara and skimpy skirt. At 19, and dating actor Shawn
Ashmore (Iceman from the "X-Men" movies), she admits, "The real me is sitting at
home, no makeup, in my old sweatpants, watching DVDs."
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