Every four years, figure skating re-enters the cultural zeitgeist, transforming from a niche discipline into a global obsession.
For Canadians, that excitement reached a fever pitch in 2018, when Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s magnificent “Moulin Rouge” free dance cemented their status as the most decorated Olympic figure skaters of all time.
Now, ahead of the Winter Games in Milan, Netflix is looking to capitalize on the quadrennial interest in the sport with a pair of new shows: “Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing” (debuting Feb. 1), a documentary series about the current top ice dance teams; and “Finding Her Edge” (Jan. 22), a soapy young-adult drama series set in the world of competitive figure skating.
Based on Jennifer Iacopelli’s 2022 novel and inspired by Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” “Finding Her Edge” follows three teen sisters — Elise (Alexandra Beaton), Adriana (Madelyn Keys) and Maria Russo (Alice Malakhov) — who are heirs to a fading figure skating dynasty founded by their Olympic-winning parents.
In a last-ditch effort to save the family rink from foreclosure, middle sister Adriana returns to ice dance and fakes a romance with her new partner, Brayden Elliot (Cale Ambrozic) — all while still harbouring feelings for her former partner and now rival, Freddie O’Connell (Olly Atkins).
Keys, a 24-year-old Ottawa native stepping into her first major lead role, describes Adriana as a “scrappy, determined teen” who may have “the responsibilities of an adult” but “maybe not the life experience” to navigate a love triangle.
She and her sisters have tragically lost their mother; she has been trying to help her father (Harmon Walsh) stay afloat financially and emotionally; and they are still working in the pressure cooker of the only sport they’ve ever known.
Over the first season, “it’s really on her to decide where her mind is leading her versus where her heart is leading her, and how sometimes those things are at odds,” Keys said.
In the same vein as recent YA love triangles on “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “My Life With the Walter Boys,” the series will likely ignite debates over who Adriana should end up with.
For Adriana, Freddie represents a connection to her younger self, and the two have a long shared history. “There is always going to be a piece of her that associates being with Freddie with when times were really good, when things felt comfortable, when Adriana didn’t have to be an adult,” Keys said.
“(Freddie) spent his whole life growing up pretty much with nobody to rely on, and he turned himself into a person that anybody could rely on,” Atkins added of his fiercely “loyal” character. “I think that’s one of the greatest things that you can look for in a partner, romantic or otherwise: someone who’s always there for you and, in some instances, who’s even willing to give up what they want for you, too, because they love you.”
Brayden, on the other hand, represents “something totally new, totally exciting” for Adriana.
“She always wants to be responsible, in control, doing the right thing, very measured,” Keys said. “And when she’s with Brayden, there is this sense of, ‘What if I just let that all go for a little bit? Could things still be OK?’ He doesn’t do any of those things. He’s not controlled, he’s not measured, and yet he’s one of the top ice dancer males.”
Despite his reputation as the “bad boy of figure skating,” Brayden gradually drops that veneer in front of his new partner, revealing a young man who is “a very broken human being,” Ambrozic said. “I think he feels a sense of, ‘Since I’ve dropped my façade, you know who I am now; you’re supposed to be with me.’”
While much of “Finding Her Edge” is told from Adriana’s perspective, the series also fleshes out her sisters.
As the eldest Russo child, Elise has always been unapologetically ambitious, “wanting to be at the top of her game,” Beaton said. But after circumstances force her off the ice, Elise has to rediscover her sense of identity outside of being a solo figure skater.
“I don’t think she’s dealt with any type of feeling outside of ambition for a really long time. I don’t think she ever processed her mother dying. She just threw herself into training. When what happens to her happens, all that gets taken away,” Beaton said of her character’s arc.
“For a lot of the season, she feels like these (bad) things are happening to her. And later on, through some conversations she has with an older adult that’s really impacting her life, she begins to look inwards. I think that is where (she learns about) the personal sacrifice and what it even means to be a team player.”
Although they believe the series tells a universal coming-of-age story that transcends the rink, the actors still had to look semi-convincing as elite figure skaters.
Keys declared in her initial self-tape audition that she had “incredibly average” skating skills but was a “fast learner” and hard worker. Beaton and Atkins’ abilities were similarly limited, but they believe their past sporting experience — she grew up dancing, he is an avid skier — helped them marginally with the fluidity of movement and the required co-ordination on thin blades.
Ambrozic grew up playing hockey in Edmonton, but he pointed out there is a fundamental difference between the two sports.
“It’s a really beautiful thing to actually have figure skates on (and) to realize that there is a toe pick and you can eat it. It’s really scary because you don’t have any equipment on and when you fall, it does not feel nice,” Ambrozic said.
“But I did pick it up really quickly just because the people that we were training with were fantastic. They were so gracious and gave us so much time and really wanted us to do as much as we felt comfortable doing.”
The actors had two weeks of skating “boot camp” before filming began last February, followed by regular ice time during the three-month shoot.
To bridge the gap in skating skills, the production enlisted high-level figure skaters to serve as both body doubles and technical advisers. While filming short cameos for the show, two-time Olympic silver medallist Elvis Stojko and reigning Canadian ice dance champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were also on hand to answer questions about the mentality of figure skaters.
The hardest part for the actors wasn’t necessarily the skating itself — which was mostly done by doubles — but simply looking comfortable enough on the ice in close-ups.
“The start and end of a lot of the routines is something that we drilled a lot, and actually it is us for a lot of it,” Atkins said.
The actors had to keep track of small details: getting on and off the ice, skating into the start of routines, being hyperaware of their body positions.
“I think we all have a new appreciation for the art form,” Keys added, “and we’ll absolutely be watching the Olympics with new eyes.”
Shot primarily in Barrie and Orillia with several days in Toronto, Brampton and Wasaga Beach, “Finding Her Edge” arrives on the heels of another Canadian-made sports romance series, but viewers should not be expecting hot and heavy sex scenes that rival those of “Heated Rivalry.” (After all, the former is co-produced by WildBrain, a Canadian production company known for younger programming.)
“I think if you liked ‘Heated Rivalry,’ you could like our show. But if you’ve only seen our show, I probably wouldn’t recommend ‘Heated Rivalry’ just because of the differences in the ratings on the shows,” Keys said with a laugh.
“But it’s been incredible to watch those actors and the creative teams behind them be celebrated. I don’t think that there’s a need to compare, just a need to celebrate everybody.”
After years of playing second fiddle to Hollywood, Canada has gradually emerged, amid an ongoing trade war with the U.S., as a growing power player in the global entertainment market.
Atkins remarked that Canada has historically “been viewed sort of as a service industry for film and television” with “some of the best technicians and assets in terms of studios” in the world.
“But I think what the success of a show like ‘Heated Rivalry’ and our show is going to do is hopefully show people that we don’t just make other people’s shows,” added Atkins. “There’s some incredible creative talent here. I hope that people will realize that we have a lot to offer from the ground up in terms of creativity, and there’s some amazing ideas and stories coming out of here.”
