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Press - 2005
Skating still the best part for teen actress
Having a prominent part in a popular movie hasn't changed Kirsten Olson's
goals: the 13-year-old from Savage still wants to be a figure skating champion.
"Every little girl is like, 'I want to be a movie star,' " she said. "But I was
never like that. I always wanted to be a skater."
Kirsten, a seventh-grader at Eagle Ridge Junior High, plays figure skating
prodigy Nikki in "Ice Princess," a Walt Disney Pictures film opening Friday.
Kirsten left her school, coach and family last April to go to Toronto for
filming. On the downside, she said, were days when filming one scene took an
entire afternoon. Highlights, though, included meeting her idol, nine-time U.S.
women's figure skating champion Michelle Kwan.
Although Kirsten said she was too star-struck to remember most of the
conversation, she does know that Kwan asked her if she was an actress or a
skater.
"I told her I was a skater that was acting," she said.
A surprise part
Kirsten said she heard about the movie, then called "Skate," from a flier posted
at the ice rink where she practices. It invited interested skaters to an open
casting call.
Tracy Keefer, Kirsten's coach since 2003, remembered thinking, "We don't have
actresses here, we have figure skaters."
"But before you knew it," Keefer said. "She was flying out to California."
Kirsten said she had all but forgotten about the casting call when, about a
month later, she was called to California for another audition.
She read lines and skated and a couple of days later, she learned she had a
part. Her character, Nikki, is an elite skater who has the nickname "leaping
shrimp" because she is short but jumps well.
Kirsten said that when she first read the part for Nikki, she knew the character
was a total brat, which was fun because it was so out of character for her.
Kirsten, her father, Darrell, and her mother, Brenda, were in Hollywood over the
weekend for the film's premiere. Before that, they attended a preview in Edina
where many of Kirsten's relatives, friends and teachers saw the movie.
"When I was sitting in the lobby, I was bouncing off the walls. I was so wired,"
she said.
Missing home
The filming in Toronto lasted a few weeks longer than scheduled, and Kirsten
said she was happy to return home and resume her training for the U.S. National
Championships.
"I missed my coach a lot," she said. "I just decided that I had to get myself in
gear and really train and fire up and really work hard."
Kirsten finished fifth in the novice division at the nationals in January in
Portland, Ore.
"I think had she not done the movie, she may have had a little better
placement," Keefer said. "But I think it was worth it. She still made it to
nationals. She still did a wonderful job."
In May, Kirsten will start a new season of competition.
"I can't name another kid that I know that could go train, do a movie and come
back and make nationals," Keefer said. "She worked really hard to achieve that
and there was a lot of stress that went with it."
Kirsten said that when the movie's bright lights go away, she is "just going to
skate and just return to my regular normal life."
"I still want to be an Olympic champion someday," she said. "That would probably
be really great."
Ice Princess
Savage seventh-grader Kirsten Olson plays a figure-skating prodigy in Walt
Disney Pictures' ""Ice Princess,"" the story of a bookworm who dreams of
becoming a champion figure skater. The film stars Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall,
Michelle Trachtenberg and Hayden Panettiere. Kirsten spent three months in
Canada filming the movie last spring, then returned to training for the U.S.
National Figure Skating Championships, where she finished fifth in her division
in January. ""Ice Princess"" opens nationally on Friday; for a review, turn to
Variety/Freetime in Friday's Star Tribune.
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