|
Jennifer Sky, primed for life in the Fastlane
Written by Brent Simon
When talking to Jennifer Sky, the word “slut” seems to come up a lot. Now, not an unreasonable amount, mind you, but just a lot more than you might expect it to in a conversation with young actress and budding star. Now, lest you go getting any wrong ideas, it must be noted that the sluts she’s referring to have to do with some of the characters she plays, nothing more.
Sky got her start on Xena: Warrior Princess, and then moved on to the spin-off Cleopatra 2525. All told, it added up to several interesting years on location in New Zealand (though she has no vegemite sandwich horror stories to share, “other than the horror of the thought that other people actually consumed it”).
“Feisty,” “ballsy” and “tough” are other words that pop up in connection to Sky’s roles (all with the obligatory “heart of gold”), but if you ask her why she thinks she seems to be typecast as assertive women—“chicks,” in the best sense of the word—Sky will allow only that it may be because she’s assertive in real life too. If she hasn’t figured it out, casting directors certainly seem to have.
If I were a smarter writer, I might perhaps find a way to avoid making reference to “the sky being the limit,” but Sky does indeed appear poised for even greater success with two high profile projects on the fall television docket.
First up is Fox’s highly touted Fastlane, the television bow of Charlie’s Angels director McG. “McG is one of the most energetic, enthusiastic guys,” says Sky, “just full of ideas. We called him McGenius, really… because he’s been born to do the job that he does. He had this idea last pilot development season, which would be last fall. And [he and] John McNamara sat down and wrote the pilot, after which there was a bit of a bidding war because McG has a lot of buzz around him. Then they got Peter [Facinelli] and Bill [Bellamy] and somehow I got thrown into that mix. I know they were looking for someone who was kind of unknown, and that’s one of the fabulous things about the success that I’ve had — they’ve been popular [shows] but not a huge, Buffy the Vampire Slayer-type thing.”
Fastlane, which debuted this past Wednesday and continues next week, may change that. It’s a slick, colorful and high-octane melange of everything that made Miami Vice successful, The Fast and the Furious kind of irritating and Charlie’s Angels, well, beautiful to look at. Sky plays a mysterious fence opposite stars Facinelli and Bellamy, an East Coast/West Coast cop combo on the prowl for Bellamy’s brother’s murderer during an undercover operation gone wrong, and she has one hot love scene (slow your roll, playboy — rebroadcasts are no doubt imminent). “I think that’s the best sex scene I’ve ever seen,” Sky confesses. “I mean, the way they cut that was phenomenal. I can’t believe they made me look that good, like a total goddess.”
While her return as a series regular seems a given if the show is a success, Sky adroitly dodges specifics. “I think they had it in mind that she could reappear, but that was really up to the actor, and whether the audience wants it. And it’s still kind of up in the air,” she demurs, but not very convincingly.
One thing that is certain is that Sky also worked with director Jon Avnet on Boomtown (Sundays, NBC), a show, from Avnet and writer-producer Graham Yost, that each week examines the circumstances surrounding a single crime, jumping back and forth in time and location as it peels back layers and reveals new folds. While the concept seems destined to live or die based on the writing for each particular show, Sky’s guest-starring episode—slated to be either the second or third of the season, Oct. 6 or 13—features a nice twist. In it she plays a stripper whose husband is murdered — yes, another “ballsy” role.
As the interview winds down, Sky has one request: “Let me know when this runs so I can send my mother some copies.” Oh. Ummm… about that intro… |
