Rachel Skarsten Forever
A Rachel Skarsten Website
Here are the articles in PDF format. A great and fast reader to use is Foxit.
Bayview_Post.pdf
Quotes,_Quips.pdf
RS_McClean.pdf
RS_Norwegian.pdf
RS_Toronto.pdf
Various Articles on Rachel
October 28, 2002
Dreaming of a minivan future, including dog
JOHN INTINI
Rachel Skarsten is a 17-year-old Toronto actress brimming with confidence and for good reason. She currently plays Dinah in the new Batman-inspired TV series, Birds of Prey, and has one of the lead roles in Virginia's Run, a family film about two teenaged girls coping with the loss of their mother, starring Gabriel Byrne. But Skarsten seems most excited about returning home from L.A. for her upcoming season as the goalie of the Leaside Wildcats Midget AA. "The producers of Birds of Prey were really worried I might ruin my face playing hockey," says Skarsten, who became passionate about the game after watching then-Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph in the '99 playoffs. "I was a ballerina and just loved the way he moved. I told my mom the next day I wanted to be a goalie and she just laughed at me. Looking back it was probably fair, since I didn't even know how to skate at the time."
But if Skarsten's acting and hockey careers don't pan out, she has a lot to fall back on. "Acting was never supposed to be this large a part of my life," she says. "In some ways it has been tough, because I've not only lost my anonymity, but my identity, as well. People now identify me as Rachel Skarsten, the actress, and I sometimes just want to say, 'I do so much more.' " In fact, Skarsten studied ballet at Toronto's Royal Academy of Dance and music at the prestigious Claude Watson School for the Arts, where she was a cellist in the orchestra. And while she'd eventually like to go to university, her goal in life is to be a full-time mother. "I want to have kids, a minivan and a dog," says Skarsten, who lost her father to cancer when she was nine and was raised by her stay-at-home mom. "I've always thought it's so rewarding and an honour to raise children." But for now, she's happy stopping pucks and the occasional villain.
Toronto Sun 2002
Thursday, October 10, 2002
She knows the score
By LIZ BRAUN -- Toronto Sun
The goalie got a shut-out when the Leaside Wild Cats clawed the North York Storm to a final score of 3-zip earlier this week.
And if you watched the debut of a new show called Birds Of Prey on TV last night, you've seen that goalie -- she's Rachel Skarsten, a local high school student who also happens to be a musician, an actor and one heckuva hockey player.
Recently, Skarsten got out of school long enough to help promote her new movie, Virginia's Run. It opens tomorrow. Virginia's Run is the story of a family coping without a mother. It's also a coming-of-age tale about an adolescent girl (Lindze Letherman), whose love of horses helps her find courage and hope, and the older sister (Skarsten), who must cope with a troubled romance. Gabriel Byrne and Joanne Whalley co-star. Although the two movies are very different, Virginia's Run is being compared to My Big Fat Greek Wedding for being a similarly straight-up, feel-good, family type film.
Skarsten has appeared in the TV series Angels In The Infield and a TV movie called Jewel that also starred Farrah Fawcett. She has guest-starred on various other episodic shows and will next appear in the film Fear Of The Dark. She was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her performance in Little Men -- and we want to cover this ground quickly, because acting is the least of what she does.
NOT A FAN OF LOS ANGELES
"Acting is just a small component," says Skarsten modestly, "but it's the one that's been publicized." Laughing, she says, "I have to try extra hard because people see that I'm blond and I'm an actress and they assume, 'Hey -- she must be stupid.' It's my new goal to start reading more."
The teenager says she fears the loss of anonymity and identity that being an actor brings. "I'm now identified by my job," she says, ruefully. She doesn't much like Los Angeles, either, though work takes her there. Time-wise, it's demanding. "And I don't want to get caught up in that. I like to be accommodating, but as far as family and school go, that's not negotiable. I need to get home and breathe the air and see my friends and sleep in my own bed and give my dog a shampoo.
"In Toronto I'm a person. In L.A. I'm just a product."
Are her friends impressed with her acting career? Nah, says Skarsten. "They just get a kick out of the hot guys I get to work with and the free stuff I get."
Skarsten has a scene in Virginia's Run in which she plays the cello. It looks as if she's really playing, too.
"I am playing," she says. "I've been playing since Grade 6. It's such a great instrument." As previously noted, she plays hockey, too. And she sings. And she speaks a couple of languages. And she's very involved in deciding which university to attend next fall. Tuition, says Skarsten, is where her acting money will go. She's not much of a shopper. "The odd pair of jeans keeps me satisfied."
Skarsten's father, a doctor, died when she was 10. Her mother, the obvious source of the tall and attractive gene, accompanied Skarsten on interview day and tells this story about her daughter: Seems Miss Skarsten was told to lose weight by a producer who felt her face looked too full on camera. Seems Rachel's response was a polite 'no.'
"Because I don't live on-camera," she patiently explained to the producer. "I live in real life."
Toronto Sun 2002, July
Check her out
By BILL BRIOUX
PASADENA, Calif. -- Why do so many Canadian actors land starring roles on U.S. television? The answer is simple: hockey.At least that was the case with Rachel Skarsten, a 17-year-old stunner from Toronto and one of the stars of Birds Of Prey, a Batman: The Next Generation spin off from the producers of Smallville airing this fall on The WB as well as on The New VR and Space.
Skarsten, a very poised, sweet kid, would make any parent proud. She looks like Sarah Polley on-screen and Uma Thurman off (she's 5-foot-10). But don't let her delicate looks -- she is the goaltender for the Leaside Wildcats, a Double-A girls hockey team that won the Toronto championships and came fourth in Ontario.
Skarsten is one of three young Canucks with principle roles on new WB series. Gregory Smith from Toronto and Emily Van Camp from Port Perry, Ont., both star in the new Treat Williams hour Everwood.
The WB is famous for raiding the Great White North for talent. Joshua Jackson (Vancouver) stars in Dawson's Creek, Yanic Trusdale (Montreal) is on Gilmore Girls and Eric Johnson (Edmonton) and Kristin Kreuk (Vancouver) are both on Smallville. At Saturday's Everwood press conference, a critic asked Van Camp if Canadians just want to be on TV more than Americans. She suggested that producers are just "keeping an open mind and trying to find the best people for the parts."
While that may be true, Skarsten says stopping slap shots helped steel her for the intense audition process. Birds Of Prey was her first network audition, a trial she characterizes as "a snake pit. You go in there and there are so many girls there that take it so seriously," she says.
Skarsten settled her nerves, read for the part and left the other girls up the ice.
"I'm a hockey player. I stare them down, man."
An Earl Haig grad (like another WB star, Felicity's Scott Speedman), Skarsten the student was more into ballet, piano and the cello than acting. A family tragedy indirectly led to an acting career. Her father died after a brief illness when she was nine and Skarsten sang at the memorial. An agent heard her, suggested she audition for a cereal commercial, and things fell into place from there.
She credits her mother Mary and younger brother John for helping her hold it together after her dad died. Her mom did freak later when Rachel turned in her ballet duds for hockey gear. "My mom thought I was going to turn into this man child," said Skarsten, quickly realizing she was talking to reporters in a mannish suit. "This looks great, doesn't it," she joked (she slipped into a dress for the WB after-party).
Skarsten insists that when she goes into a sporting goods store scouting for new hockey duds, she's still very much "a girly-girl. I go, 'Ooo, I'd love those pads. They match my uniform!' "
On Birds Of Prey she plays Dinah, a teen runaway with strange visions who teams with two other babes (played by Dina Meyer and Ashley Scott) to form a crime-fighting trio in New Gotham City, Batman's old stomping grounds.
Her true colors came through when the producers wanted her to fly down to begin taping the pilot on the same Sunday that Canada's men's hockey team was playing in the Olympic gold-medal final. "I said, 'You are kidding me. You are so American to be asking me to do this!"
Skarsten stayed, watched Canada win and later wore her Team Canada toque down to the set. Don't mess with this plucky Bird Of Prey.
Bayview Post
article from 2000
RACHEL SKARSTEN
Find out how this 14- year old Bayview resident landed a starring role on the CTV show Little Men
By Lisa Kovarik, Bayview Post, April 2000
As Bess in CTV's Little Men- a television series adapted from the Louisa May Alcott novel- Rachel Skarsten plays the picture of 19th century teendom. She's an attitudinal princess in rustling taffeta confections and jaunty bonnets, a willowy porcelain doll with delusions of grandeur.
In person, 14 year old Skarsten, a ninth grade student in the performing arts program at Earl Haig Secondary School, is the complete opposite to her snobbish alter ego. Her laughs are contagious and a sweet smile caps off the pages of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue with her luxuriant halo of blond hair swept back in an unfussy ponytail. Around her, the quiet atomoshpere of a coffee shop during March Break takes on the levity of a pajama party, and her ebullient personality is the guest of honor.
The minute I ask about her new school, this visual art major lights up."It's great," she enthuses."I looked at other programs, but Earl Haig had a certain allure to it. While I was in elementary school I took a trip to see the facilities and they were exciting and inspiring." About her art classes, Skarsten muses, "I like drawing the forms that I see in real life, but this year we're focusing more on abstraction and that's a bit more of a challenge, but it's still fun and I'm broadening my horizons."
The arts program, continues Skarsten, is highly competitive:" You're always wanting to outdo everyone, even in the tiniest details, with a big dramatic presentation, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I take enriched classes so everyone there really wants to learn and they keep you up to par. If you slack off for one night, you come to class the next day and you're behind."
Skarsten is sure that her academic environment, with a student population of 2,600, has helped her become a more insightful actor. She explains that it all has to do with picking up on the verbal exchanges, body language and expressions of a diverse group of students. Just by watching and listening intently, studying the world around her, the actor can tap the personalities of the people she meets every day.
She's careful not to get too hung up on acting though, and doesn't bring her professional life into discussions with friends, for whom she makes time whenever she can. If anything, says Skarsten, it her friends that like to dish about the intrigues of filming and the "hot guys on set."
As for boyfriends, this pretty, green-eyed scholar just doesn't have the time. Though she has noticed some cute prospects lately, her attitude to dating just now, delivered in an uncharacteristically flat tone, is that she'd "rather spend time playing hockey than worrying about what I'll wear on a date, or what I'll say. Unless I can find a 15 year old Toronto Maple Leaf to go out with- in which case I'll think about it."
While other teens troll for guys at the mall and practice mascara application, Skarsten juggles a sizeable schedule. On top of cultivating and 85 per cent average, she tends goal on the school hockey team, plays cello both in class and as an extracurricular activity, and belongs to a youth group at nearby Spring Garden Church. She also speaks Norwegian and is an accomplished singer, dancer and artist.
Though she seems to have the world by the tail, Skarsten still grapples with a personal tragedy. At nine years of age, the actor lost her father to cancer, which had only been diagnosed two months earlier. It was an abrupt and painful end to a chapter in her family life, but through a bittersweet and ironic turn of events, Skarsten was able to direct her grief into a positive and life-altering course.
Following his death, her father was honored on the program 100 Huntley Street and she was asked to sing a tribute to him. Without the knowledge of Skarsten or her mother, a family friend taped the program. Impressed by what she heard, the friend took the tape to an agent. Quite unexpectedly, Skarsten was asked to audition for a commercial.
Though attending grief counseling at the time, the then student at Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts reluctantly agreed to audition. Soon, she made her debut in a Honeycomb cereal commercial and six months after that she played a rape victim in a controversial movie of the week for Global television entitled Justice, which was screened before the House of Commons and subsequently released for a wider audience.
Now, Skarsten can be seen every Saturday night on Little Men. The series takes after such proven family favorites as Little House on the Prairie and Road to Avonlea, is set in rural Massachusetts and delves into the everyday lives of its hearty denizens circa 1871. It was taped between September 1998 and September 1999. Skarsten appeared in 24 of the 26 episodes and her portrayal of a haughty yet charming schoolgirl garnered a nomination for the Young Artists Ensemble Award.
What did she take away from the experience? Improved concentration and discipline. " I used to be self-conscious about reciting lines in front of people, but that wore off pretty quickly,"she says. "I also figured out that I could subconsciously learn from other actors by watching and then store the information in the back of my brain until I needed to use it."
This spring, the actor will appear in a principal role on a Disney movie of the week called Angels in the Infield, but is pleased to report that her only project now is to get into the swing of high school and a social life." Acting is such a different world," offers Skarsten," Everyone is out for themselves and as much as it's amazing in the beginning, after a while you end up realizing that no one cares about you and you have to be there for yourself. In sports and school, everything has to be more of a team effort and you have to care about others and be genuine." Clearly, she's' already witnessed enough of showbiz life to realize that it's easy to become a product instead of a well rounded person. Too often, she cautions, the boundaries of reality begin to fade.
In order to keep her values intact, Skarsten depends on her mother for wisdom and support, counting her as a trusted role model and confidante. She's the first to joke that Mary Skarsten keeps her daughter level headed with the loving decree," You're Cinderella at home, so go and clean the bathroom!" On a serious note, the actor reveres her mother for keeping the family (she also has a nine year old brother named Jonathan) strong after her father's death and for encouraging Skarsten to minimize regret by getting involved in every possible activity now.
Among the young actor's celluloid heroes are Lucille Ball, Robin Williams and Claire Danes. Of Danes, Skarsten says, " I love her not only for her acting but because she made her education at Yale a priority. She took time away from acting to pursue another path in life and I really admire that."
Skarsten also looks forward to her university days, but admits that she's torn between career paths on a regular basis and doesn't know exactly what she wants to be when she "grows up". One day she imagines herself as an architect, the next a veterinarian. Perhaps most telling is the fact that the word 'star' isn't a part of her vocabulary.
She's modest about her TV credits. Never once does Skarsten suggests that her continued career in acting is a sure thing, since she seems to have grasped the fickleness of the television industry from an early age. She names another Disney series, Jett Jackson,( in which she played a lead character) and the Honeycomb commercial as her most unforgettable acting jobs thus far because they were her first and the on-set scene was completely foreign, not to mention intimidating. The pampering shocked and thrilled her at once, and Skarsten can see why such treatment might cause a swelled head.
That's why she can't help but giggle to herself as she reveals a far flung fantasy. In it, she signs onto mammoth Hollywood blockbusters worth millions, never works again, and buys her beloved Toronto Maple Leafs and lives happily ever after. Her sense of fun is constant because Skarsten refuses to take herself too seriously. Down deep she feels that in order to be a success as an actor, you have to, "Do your work and go back to your life. So many child actors are too immersed. Once you get so into the world of movies and then suddenly for whatever reason no one wants you anymore, you go back to the real world and you're devastated. You don't have a life to return to. It's necessary in all things to keep a balance."
Norwegian Newspaper Article
Jeg føler meg hjemme her i Norge, sier Rachel Skarsten, og krøller seg sammen i stuens godstol. Sammen med moren og sin seks år yngre lillebror er hun på besøk hos onkel og tante på Søreidgrend i Bergen. Skarsten er født i Toronto i Canada og har halvparten av familien der - og resten her. Hennes norske far døde da hun var 9 år gammel, men slekten i Bergen besøker hun så ofte hun kan.
Tilfeldig oppdaget
I forbindelse med farens død, ble det holdt et spesielt minneprogram på tv, hvor Skarsten sang til ære for faren sin. En agent så henne, og spurte om hun kunne tenke seg å bli skuespiller.
Jeg var veldig opptatt av ballett på den tiden, og var i utgangspunktet ikke interessert. Agenten ba meg likevel om å gå på bare én audition, og så kunne jeg bare glemme alt etter det hvis jeg ville. Jeg gikk, og før jeg visste ordet av det var jeg med i en tv-reklame for frokostblanding, sier hun og smiler.
Da hun var 13 år gammel, fikk hun fast rolle i tv-serien «Little Men». Deretter ballet det på seg, og det ble flere gjesteopptredener i ulike serier og små roller i tv-filmer. I 2002 fikk hun en av hovedrollene i filmen «Virginia's Run». Hun var bare 17 år da hun flyttet alene til Los Angeles for å spille i serien «Birds of Prey». Serien «Rovfuglane» går nå på NRK2.
Superheltens datter
«Rovfuglane» handler om tre jenter med overnaturlige krefter, som alle er døtre av ulike superhelter som blant annet Batman.
Serien kan beskrives som at Batman møter Charlie's Angels, sier Skarsten.
I hennes rolle som Dinah i serien, kan hun lese andres tanker og flytte ting ved hjelp av sine egne.
Min karakter i serien er en stor nerd. Det er annerledes fra alt jeg har gjort tidligere. Jeg har alltid spilt den blonde og populære jenta, mens Dinah er veldig usikker, sier den tilsynelatende selvsikre jenta. Selv om hun ikke er fornøyd med klærne hun må bruke som Dinah, er hun veldig fornøyd med at mange fabrikater, blant annet Nike, gir henne gratis klær og utstyr. Hun synes det er mye gøy som følger med å bo i LA, som for eksempel kjendisfestene med alle de store stjernene.
Mange kjendiser er så mye hyggeligere enn man tror. De er jo bare helt normale, sier hun.
Måtte gi avkall på mye
Da Skarsten tok avgjørelsen om å flytte til LA, måtte hun gi avkall på mye av livet, vennene og familien hjemme i Toronto. Hverdagslivet i LA viste seg å bli ensomt, og det hjalp ikke så mye på da hun fikk beskjed om å slanke seg 10 kilo umiddelbart.
De syntes jeg så for feit ut på tv, og ga meg et strengt diettprogram. Skarsten syntes inne noe særlig om slankingen, men det måtte til dersom hun ville beholde rollen. Hun måtte også fjerne piercingen i nesen, og fikk streng beskjed om verken å klippe eller farge håret sitt. I tillegg fikk hun en stand-in som liknet henne, og som skulle gjøre alt av farlige eller mindre farlige stunt i serien.
De passet på at jeg ikke gjorde noe som var farlig for meg, sier hun.
Men til tross for strenge regler, ble hun også oppvartet i hardkjøret.
Lange dager på settet
En vanlig arbeidsdag på settet er opptil 11 timer. I pausene fikk Skarsten privatundervisning for å fullføre siste skoleåret sitt under innspillingen.
Dagen begynner med at man blir hentet hjemme, gjerne halv fem om morgenen. Da kan man bare gå ut i bilen i pyjamasen hvis man vil, og fortsette å sove der, sier hun fornøyd. Når hun kommer på jobb, får hun vasket håret sitt og får klær. Så begynner hun å øve på replikker før hun blir sminket og gjort klar til filming.
Man må ofte si det samme 30 ganger, og vi bruker vanligvis en uke på noe som til sammen blir 40 minutter i serien.
Skarsten forteller om den gangen hun fikk sitt første kyss noensinne, og omkring 100 mennesker som sto rundt og så på henne.
Det var under innspillingen av «Little Men», og kyssescenen skulle gjøres aller først. Mamma var med på settet, og skulle absolutt ta bilde av mitt første kyss. Det var litt pinlig, minnes hun.
To forskjellige liv
Jeg har to forskjellige liv. Et skuespiller- og karriereliv hvor jeg er filmstjernen Rachel Skarsten, og et hvor jeg er den Rachel som bare er meg selv. Jeg holder de to atskilt, sier hun. Hun forteller at hun var litt bekymret i begynnelsen for vennenes reaksjon da hun begynte å få et kjent ansikt, og at hun fortsatt aldri snakker om skuespillerlivet, dersom de ikke spør henne. Hun er lettet over at vennene har tatt det fint, og synes bare det er hyggelig å bli gjenkjent på gaten. Derimot synes hun ikke det er like gøy å bli gjenkjent på fest.
Når jeg er på fest med venner og noen kommer og spør om jeg er hun som spiller Dinah i «Rovfuglane», sier jeg ofte nei, og at jeg bare likner på henne. Det er for at folk ikke skal tenke at jeg tror jeg er noe og at de skal henge seg opp i det, sier hun.
Ser etter norske gutter
Akkurat nå er det livet i Bergen som gjelder, og her kan hun være seg selv 100 prosent.
Det er utrolig befriende å være her, sier hun, og setter stor pris på at hun kan gå seg en tur alene i naturen, siden den slags er altfor farlig hjemme i Canada.
Hun synes norsk mat er fantastisk godt, krabbekjøtt er en av favorittene her.
Jeg pleier å dra ut å fiske krabber med onkel Helge når jeg er i Bergen, forteller hun ivrig. Rachel smiler mye. Plutselig bryter hun ut på norsk:
I morgen skal jeg lage skillingsboller med tante! med en sjarmerende amerikansk aksent.
Når jeg blir intervjuet, hender det at journalistene skriver at jeg snakker flytende norsk. Det stemmer ikke, sier hun.
Skarsten forstår mye mer enn jeg kan si, og synes det er gøy når folk tror hun er norsk.
Jeg kunne godt tenke meg å bo i Norge for en stund. For eksempel som utvekslingsstudent fra Universitetet i Canada.
Og så har jeg lyst til å finne meg en norsk mann, sier hun, og legger entusiastisk ut om en stor båt hun har sett i fjorden full av flotte militærgutter.
Etter ferieturen i Bergen bærer det tilbake til hjembyen Toronto. Der skal hun ha ferie og drive med det hun liker aller best, nemlig å spille ishockey.
- Vil du høre hva mine tre favoritteiendeler er, spør hun.
- Det er bunaden min, ishockeybeskytterne og et brev fra faren min, sier hun.
De tre gjenværende episodene av «Rovfuglene» kan ses søndag kveld fremover på NRK 2 .
Quotes,Quips and Misc Words on Rachel
Quotes and Quips about Rachel from others:
Canadian actor Skarsten, a ringer for early Uma Thurman, made her film debut in Virginia's Run and has gone on to co-star in the series Birds Of Prey. Bristow is convinced she won't go Hollywood.
"Rachel is a lovely person," Bristow stresses. "You should listen to her play cello, and she loves to play hockey. I don't think she's messed up enough for Hollywood
Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Oct 13, 2002. p. D.08
-Leif Bristow, president of Knights-cove Entertainment Corp
Copyright Edmonton Journal 2002)Todd Babiak
Next I get to talk to Rachel Skarsten, the 17-year-old Torontonian who plays Caroline, Virginia's older sister in the movie. Letherman says Skarsten is mean and evil and not nice, and then she giggles. When Skarsten is on the phone, I dutifully relay this information to her.
"Yeah, she's like my little sister," says Skarsten, and they yell at each other for a little while in the party room.
She agrees that small-town Nova Scotia was a bit rustic, but unlike her co-star, Skarsten is wary of Hollywood. "I love Virginia's Run and I'd like to do some independent movies, but I don't want to have a career in the business when I'm 25 or 30. I have other plans in my life."
Birds of Prey, the WB series that Skarsten stars in, debuted Wednesday. "I'm very nervous that Birds of Prey is going to put me into this machine that WB has with all these teeny-bopper chicks."
Skarsten plans to go to university and complete a master's degree in history, maybe write someday. "Acting is just one component of who I am," she says. "I'm afraid I'll lose my identity if I stay in L.A. too long."
One reason she might like to stick with acting and go for the big money, she says, is to support Canadian hockey.
"The Edmonton Oilers are my favorite team ever," she says, allowing that she was only just born when the Oilers were a dynasty. "I don't care. If I ever become a millionaire I'll buy both Calgary and Edmonton."
(Copyright THE WHITEHORSE DAILY STAR 2002) Oct 11,2002
TORONTO (CP) -- Move over National Velvet and Black Beauty.
...................In full agreement is Toronto actress Rachel Skarsten, a Sarah Polley lookalike who plays Virginia's older sister Caroline and who's recognition factor is about to go through the roof as one of the empowered female action stars of TV's Birds of Prey, the WB's new Batman spinoff series.
"I always like to look at things and think 'Would I be proud to bring my grandma and grandpa to come see me in this?' And if I wouldn't want them to see it then it's not something that I should immortalize myself on film in."
That said, Skarsten says Virginia's Run is so wholesome her grandparents' grandparents could see it.
Both actors admit they screened all the horse classics, including Black Beauty, Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka and National Velvet, before arriving in Shelburne on Nova Scotia's scenic south coast for shooting. But both also had personal experiences to help them get into their roles.
Letherman's parents actually bought her her own horse, an Alberta- raised chestnut mare called Rose, so she could learn to ride.
"Don't tell my horse I said this but the horse I rode in the movie is so much better than her," she reveals conspiratorially. "I love my horse but she's just young and inexperienced. And the horse that I rode in the movie, I mean, he's just the best horse ever."
Actually Stormy is played in the film by two horses, Casey and Doc.
Then there's the fact that Letherman's real-life mother was also once involved in a horseback-riding accident, though fortunately, unlike in the film, it didn't prove fatal.
"She was around a horse she shouldn't have been around and it stomped on her and I wasn't allowed to ride -- until I got the call back for this movie."
Skarsten, too, brings some tragedy to the scenes in which she and her screen sister struggle with the memories of their late mother. Her own father died when she was only nine.
"So being able to play Caroline and the loss of her mother was really a gift, actually. It was a lot of, I wouldn't say fun as much as therapeutic."
Letherman says she got all of her acting energy from Skarsten, especially a weepy scene where the two of them together read their late mother's diary.
"It's pretty much if Rachel cries, I cry. I don't know what it is about her. That scene was the last day of filming and Rachel and I, we couldn't even look at each other without crying because we knew we weren't going to see each other for awhile. It was very sad."
Both actors understand the marketing necessities that dictate the film has to take place in the U.S. But despite all the Massachusetts license plates and Memorial Day bunting on the town streets, there's no denying the picture's Maritimes sensibilities, look and feel.
"If I were watching the movie, probably maybe, maybe, MAYBE would believe that it's Massachusetts," says Letherman. "But being there, knowing where I was, I mean, you just say 'That's Nova Scotia.' "
Copyright The Halifax Daily News 2002)MARILYN SMULDERS, The Daily News
...........Speaking of the mall, Letherman admits living in tiny Shelburne with its single shopping plaza amounted to culture shock.
"I gotta have malls, I'm from California! I love make-up and clothes and shopping," she says. "So, I hung out at the stables. It all worked out in the end."
Her co-star Rachel Skarsten, in contrast, fell in love with the place and her mother actually looked around at real estate during the shoot.
"We're definitely coming back," says Skarsten, whose big-screen debut in Virginia's Run coincides with the premiere of the WB show Birds of Prey (airing Wednesdays on ASN). In the TV series, the tall and pretty 17-year-old Toronto actress plays Dinah, a touch telepathic, on the fantasy-adventure, which she describes as "Batman meets Charlie's Angels."
"People would smile at us, or honk their horns when you're walking down the street, and I'm like, you don't even know me! It was truly wonderful and I'm not just saying that because you're calling from Nova Scotia. People were so friendly in Shelburne -- all five of them," she adds laughing.
Copyright 2002 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.
Rob Salem
I was asked to keep an eye out for Rachel Skarsten.
"You'll love her," promised my actress friend, Ellen Dubin, who had played Skarsten's mother ("her young mother," she stresses) on an episode of Tracker.
"Rachel's adorable. Sweet, smart and an incredible actress. But she's only 17 years old and this is her first press tour ever and she's all alone down there in L.A. So I want you to look out for her. Make sure she's okay."
Well, I did. And she was. But frankly, the last thing this kid needs is any help from me. Incredibly poised and glowingly self- confident, Skarsten seemed entirely unfazed by the fact that she is about to make her U.S. network debut as one of Birds Of Prey's crime- fighting femmes- the very same week she opens in her first major film, Virginia's Run.
Birds Of Prey, a distaff Batman sequel series that casts Skarsten as the psychic daughter of a retired super-heroine, debuts Wednesday night at 8 on The New VR, and again at 9 on the originating WB, and yet again Tuesday, Oct. 15 on Space.
Virginia's Run, a feel-good family flick in which she plays daughter to Gabriel Byrne, opens in theatres this Friday.
But Skarsten would rather talk hockey. Don't get me wrong- she's excited and all that about her suddenly stellar career. But not nearly as excited as she was about her hockey team, the Leaside Wildcats, winning the Toronto city championships.
"I'm off to training camp next week," the giggling goalie gushed to the captivated critics who buzzed around her at the WB stars party last July. "Hockey is my passion.
"Acting was never part of the plan. I had my whole life planned, and acting was just one of those wonderful surprises that comes up along the road.
"I was singing a memorial to my father, who died of cancer when I was 9, and an agent saw the show and asked if I would like to go on an audition. So I went, and I got it- it was a Honeycombs commercial. And, you know, I thought it was pretty cool, so I kept doing it sporadically. And here I am."
And that's where I left her. When we parted, we shook hands ... and the girl almost pulled my arm from its socket. "I hate it when girls have wimpy handshakes," she grinned mischievously.
So relax those maternal instincts, Ellen. Rachel's doing just fine. It's the criminals who run afoul of the Birds Of Prey that I'd be worried about
Copyright 2002 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.Rob Salem
Also joining the WB lineup, another superhero series from the producers of Smallville, the Batman spin-off Birds Of Prey. Set in a near-future Gotham City that has been abandoned by its Caped Crusader, the series has a wheelchair-bound former Batgirl (Dina Meyer) teaming up with Batman and Catwoman's secret love child (Ashley Scott) to try to fill the crime fighting gap.
The show also has its requisite hot young Canadian, Toronto actress Rachel Skarsten Little Men, Jewel and the forthcoming feature Virginia's Run, as a psychic small town runaway who joins the Gotham grrls in their war on crime.
Appearances to the contrary, the sophisticated 17-year-old is more than capable of handling herself.
The girl has a grip like an iron vise ("I hate it when girls have wimpy handshakes"), and proudly plays goal for the Toronto city champion Leaside Wildcats hockey team. "I'm off to training camp next week," she beams, clearly more excited about that than this, her big Hollywood coming-out party.
And how do her Birds Of Prey bosses feel about their fair- featured starlet putting her face in front of a speeding puck?
"I don't care," she laughs. "It's my passion. They can't take it away from me.
"But I've been playing for two years and I have yet to get a bruise anywhere on my face."
"As long as she's wearing a mask," sighs exec producer Brian Robbins, who says that hiring Skartsen was "the easiest casting call in history. We saw some tape and that was it. She's just incredible."