“ICE PRINCESS”

About the Production

“Eventually you will find your way to your dream. You’ll know when it’s real.
You’ll see you’ll sparkle and the whole world around you will sparkle, too.”
–Michelle Kwan

	A teen misfit who never thought she’d fit in discovers her personal edge when she risks it all to pursue her dreams of figure skating, in Disney’s inspirational family comedy, ICE PRINCESS. Rising star Michelle Trachtenberg (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “EuroTrip”) stars as Casey Carlyle, the brainy bookworm who gives up a life devoted to schoolwork for a thrilling new world of axels, sit spins, best friends, boyfriends and cutthroat competition as she finds herself in the unlikely position of skating for gold. Daring to attempt what she thought was impossible, the once shy and awkward Casey discovers how to literally take flight. 
	Casey is just trying to please her hard-working single mom (JOAN CUSACK), who’s got her daughter on the fast track to Harvard, when she decides to do a report on the physics of figure skating. Having fantasized on her backyard pond about becoming an Olympic champion since she was a little girl, Casey is ecstatic, and nervous, to finally have a chance to meet the elite skaters at her local rink. What she doesn’t know is that her whole existence is about to be sent for a wild spin when it turns out that Casey’s smarts have helped her become a skating prodigy. 
	Now, as she gets the chance to train with champion-in-the-making Gen Harwood (HAYDEN PANETTIERE) and Gen’s famously tough coach and mother, Tina (KIM CATTRALL), Casey sets off on a fun, comedic and life-changing adventure that takes her into a world she never expected to experience. Not only does she get a crash course in the glamour, sweat and tears of skating competitions, she also gets her first taste of romance as she falls for Gen’s teenage brother, the rink’s hunky Zamboni driver, Teddy (TREVOR BLUMAS). As she trains with gritty determination, Casey’s confidence begins to soar–but with the big championship looming, she is about to find out if she really has what it takes to leave her old life behind and truly become an ICE PRINCESS. 
	Actors become skaters and skaters become actors in ICE PRINCESS, as Michelle Trachtenberg and Hayden Panettiere are joined on screen by such world-class athletes as five-time World Figure Skating Champion Michelle Kwan and Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano in cameo roles. 
	Walt Disney Pictures presents ICE PRINCESS, directed by Tim Fywell (“I Capture the Castle”) from a screenplay by Hadley Davis based on a story by Meg Cabot (“The Princess Diaries”) and Davis. Bridget Johnson produces. Karen Glass and Kristin Burr oversaw production for Walt Disney Studios. William W. Wilson III is the executive producer.

Putting Teen Life on Ice
About the Story of ICE PRINCESS

	A recent national survey found that ice-skating is America’s second most popular sport, with only pro football gathering more votes from sports fans. One of the most beloved of the Winter Olympics events, skating has become not just a showcase for amazing speed, power and gravity-defying beauty but a sport celebrated for giving young firebrand athletes a chance to make their wildest dreams come true. It’s the rare sport in which a young woman can hope not only to become a champion, but to live out the enchanted life of a fairy-tale princess. 
	For all these reasons, figure skating seemed like a fantastic backdrop for a contemporary story of a young girl’s transformation and personal empowerment to ICE PRINCESS producer Bridget Johnson and Walt Disney Studios’ vice-president of production, Karen Glass. They envisioned a kind of circa-2005 Cinderella story about a smart but awkward teenaged girl whose humdrum life as a high school brain changes overnight when she discovers she has the talent to become a figure-skating champion–if only she can believe this crazy-sounding dream is possible. Through hard work, faith and fierce determination against the odds, an “Ice Princess” is born. 
	“We were interested in a story about a young girl who overcomes all kinds of tough and entertaining obstacles to live out her most secret dream,” says Johnson. “We also felt that today’s world of figure skating was a youth subculture just waiting to be explored on screen. Skating is filled with fascinating characters, dramatic conflicts, the most extreme dedication and, like all sports, its own funny, dirty little secrets. It’s also an amazingly precise and difficult sport–and we wanted to capture how awe-inspiring the power, the grace and the sheer magic of it all can be up close.”
	Taking off from the tradition of inspirational films like “Flashdance” and “Bring It On,” Johnson and Glass first approached screenwriter Meg Cabot, who previously wrote the acclaimed family film “The Princess Diaries,” the winning tale of a teen faced with a very different larger-than-life fantasy–discovering that she’s royalty. Cabot brought her trademark touches of modern fairy tale and contemporary humor to the story of ICE PRINCESS, and screenwriter Hadley Davis built upon Cabot’s story, using her own experiences as a teenage ballerina to shape the dramatic conflicts and humorous skating characters.
	“ICE PRINCESS was inspired by my own story,” says Davis. “Like the film’s Casey, I grew up on a pond in New England, where I skated on winter afternoons. My passion, however, was not skating but ballet–a world with many similarities to that of figure skating. The girls I danced with as a child and teenager in Boston Ballet–and their stage mothers–were indeed the prototypes for the three competitive ‘Ice Princesses,’ their parents, and skating coach Tina Harwood. But it is the central conflict of ICE PRINCESS that hits closest to home. Like Joan Cusack’s character, my parents wanted me to attend a top-notch college–rather than dance–and at times forbade me from performing on a school night. At their urging, I gave up ballet to attend the University of Pennsylvania. I do not have regrets but I occasionally have ‘what if’ pangs. ICE PRINCESS is the answer to my fantasy what if I had gone after my Sugar Plum Fairy dream…”
	When executive producer William W. Wilson read the script for ICE PRINCESS, he was taken aback not only by the humor and athletic suspense of the story, but by the story’s emotional impact, even on an adult. “I was really moved by the story of this young girl who grew into an incredible skater against all odds,” he comments. “I found it really inspiring to watch someone stick by her dream, no matter how difficult, and go for it.”
	In the search for a director, Johnson looked at over a hundred feature films, short films and television movies trying to find a director who was able to capture real performances with a light touch and comic timing. She found what she was looking for in Tim Fywell, the British director who recently won acclaim for his magical portrait of an eccentric family living in a decrepit English castle in “I Capture the Castle.” Despite the fact that Fywell had no personal experience with figure skating, his ability to spin a compelling story with teens at the center was clear. 
	“Tim is a really gifted person who cares passionately about storytelling,” says Bridget Johnson. “He wanted to make a film that would resonate not only with a younger audience but would also be a lot of fun for adults as well, and we all shared in that vision.”
	It was the underlying theme of a girl’s empowerment that most captured Fywell’s attention. “This story is about the way that teens need to discover their own dreams–not their parent’s dreams or the dreams they think they are supposed to have because that’s really not going to work–but the things they most want to do in life for themselves,” he says. “It’s really about a girl finding her own way, and it’s also a very funny story about a teenager in a strange new world, and those are the kinds of stories that most interest me.” 
	Always a big sports fan, Fywell also saw ICE PRINCESS as a chance to provide a dynamic and different visual take on the increasingly athletic and extreme world of triple jumps and lightning-fast spins that skating has become today. He was excited to take on a challenge that would push him to his own creative edge. “I didn’t know that much about figure skating when I took on ICE PRINCESS, but I was definitely intrigued by it, and I knew that I wanted to find a way to really go into this world and make it involving for everyone,” he says. “The task for me was to try to really bring skating to life and put the audience out there on the ice with Michelle as she experiences the thrill of flying through the air. With some innovative camera work, I think we were able to capture skating in a new way.” 

From Vampire Slayer to Ice Princess
Casting Michelle Trachtenberg in the Role of Casey Carlyle

	At the core of ICE PRINCESS is rising teen star Michelle Trachtenberg, who, as Casey Carlyle, finds her former life put on ice and a whole fantastic new world opening up to her when she uncovers her true talents as a skater. After starring in the movies “Harriet the Spy” and “Inspector Gadget,” Trachtenberg developed a major following when she took on the role of Buffy’s mysterious younger sister, Dawn, in the cult television hit, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Now, she takes on an entirely new challenge with her biggest role yet, and one that takes her not only into the world of competitive skating but into the heart of a teen girl trying to forge her own path in life. Amazingly, Trachtenberg had almost zero skating experience when she came to ICE PRINCESS, but through a combination of determination, hard work and great coaching, she was able to realize her own skating fantasies as she learned to glide and spin in record time.
	For the filmmakers, Trachtenberg was the perfect embodiment of Casey’s mix of charming innocence and top-notch smarts–and had all the right qualities to reveal her character’s rocky path from a timid, uncertain girl to a confident, mature, amazing young woman. As producer Bridget Johnson notes “Michelle brings a real vulnerability, a certain knowingness and a wonderful poise to the role. She has an inner beauty, a sort of unspoiled quality, yet she is also very funny, and that combination is what we needed for Casey. From the very start, Michelle was always our ‘Ice Princess.’” 
	Director Tim Fywell adds “For this story to work, you really have to get inside Casey’s head and feel that you’re with her in her struggle to succeed, her drive to compete, her awe at suddenly being popular and her dream to take a wild risk and do something different with her life. Michelle has that ability and she also brings a fantastic warmth, a kind of kooky personality and a psychological truth to it that makes Casey very natural, real and just a lot of fun.” 
	The young actress found herself immediately able to relate to Casey and her struggle to figure out her future. “The most amazing thing about ICE PRINCESS is that it’s about a girl that everyone can connect with, someone going through an experience most people go through at some point in their lives, but in a really magical way,” Trachtenberg says. “I think we all feel like we have a certain path we’re supposed to follow in life, whether from our parents or what we learn at school, but Casey makes a bold decision to follow her heart that takes her on this incredible journey of self-confidence and empowerment. I think a lot of girls will relate to that. I also hope that lots of girls will go to this movie and think, ‘OK, Casey took a risk and she reached her goal; I know I can too.’” 
	Trachtenberg threw herself into the role with a commitment not unlike that of her willful character to training for her skating scenes. “I knew I was going to have to train a lot,” says the actress, “but I had no idea that it was going to be months and months of the most intense training sessions, as well as intense ballet classes and hours and hours of being on the ice. I started from scratch and was trying to accomplish what my character accomplishes in the movie, which seemed rather impossible at first. But because I trained so much I can do a lot of fun tricks. And when I watch ice-skating I know all the lingo and I can say, ‘She didn’t get enough height in her axel’ or ‘She flubbed her footwork.’ That’s a cool feeling.” 
	While skating “doubles” performed the more difficult skating maneuvers–such as the double and triple jumps, which take skaters years and years of 7-days-a-week training and constant crashes to develop–Trachtenberg was able to do a significant portion of the on-screen skating herself, which makes her very proud. She continues “I always loved watching figure skating and I always thought it was so beautiful to see all these girls on ice but I also thought I could never do it, because I was such a tomboy. At one point, I even decided to take lessons but I lasted for only one lesson. That’s around the same time that I was cast in ‘Harriet the Spy,’ and acting has always been my passion. But who knew skating was still going to be in my future?” 
	It was also a special thrill for Trachtenberg to meet, and skate with, sports idols and Olympians Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano. “I thought I was going to be so intimidated by Michelle,” she recalls, “because she’s such a phenomenal skater, but she was such a sweetheart! We got on the ice together and she was just stretching and doing her usual warm-up and she was so sweet–she turned to me and said, ‘You know, you’ve got this great comfort on the ice, and you’re really quite good, very natural!’ And it was like, ‘Oh my God, Michelle Kwan just gave me a compliment on my skating.’” 
	Says director Tim Fywell of Trachtenberg’s skating “She really threw herself into the whole skating side of the story very strongly. We discovered that, like Casey, Michelle has a natural kind of elegance and ability on the ice and, through her hard training, she’s become quite a skater.” The film’s skating coordinator, Jamie Isley, agrees “I think my very favorite moments in making ICE PRINCESS came on my very first and very last days working with Michelle as a skater. I so remember on that first day, she came on and had only ever skated a few times before in her life and we were holding hands to keep her steady–and to see her go from that to where she was truly pulling off real skating moves with so much realism and heart was incredibly fulfilling and special.” 
	Two further aspects of skating that Trachtenberg related to in ICE PRINCESS were the cold-blooded competition and the infamously meddling “Skating Mothers,” who were not so different, she discovered, from the “Stage Moms” she encountered as a teen in the acting world. “I was very surprised at just how cutthroat skating is when you get to the elite level. There’s definitely a lot of backstabbing and a lot of parents pushing their kids so hard that it’s scary. I grew up in the entertainment world and you do see a lot of intense, determined parents. They push their kids, and it becomes the parents’ dream, not their child’s. But that’s what makes Casey so remarkable. She enters this incredibly tough world and she learns to believe in herself and do it her own way, and she triumphs.” 

Of Mothers and Daughters
Casting Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall as Dueling Moms

	ICE PRINCESS also delves into one of the most important relationships in a teen girl’s life–the often volatile and revealing bonds between young women and their mothers–casting two highly lauded actresses in the roles of Casey’s and Gen’s moms Joan Cusack and Kim Cattrall. 
	A two-time Academy Award® nominee (“Working Girl,” “In and Out”), Cusack plays Joan Carlyle, a teacher and single mother who has struggled for years making sure her whip-smart daughter would get the chance to attend Harvard University and follow the path she had dreamed of for herself. When Casey takes up figure skating instead of physics, Joan is thrown for a major loop. 
	Cusack was immediately intrigued by the role because it seemed so true to life. “I think a lot of parents can really relate to Joan’s experience of coming to this point where you have to let go of your children and your hopes for them and let them discover for themselves what they want to do with their lives,” she explains. “A mother like Joan just wants what is best for her gifted daughter, but it’s tough to give your kids independence. She’s worked really hard so that Casey would have lots of opportunities and she thinks it’s such a great dream for Casey to go to Harvard. I think everyone can understand why she might want that for her daughter and why she has a hard time swallowing Casey’s decision to skate instead. But, in the course of the story, she comes to realize that she can’t impose her own dreams on Casey.” 
	For the filmmakers, Cusack, a mother herself as well as an acclaimed comic actress, offered a unique mix of quirky personality and emotional authenticity. “Joan’s got tremendous heart,” sums up Bridget Johnson. “Her presence just elevates the work of everyone around her in every scene.” 
	In preparing for the role, Cusack had a lot of fun developing a tight-knit relationship with Michelle Trachtenberg, whom she came to admire. “It was inspiring just to be around Michelle because she has so much exuberance and excitement about everything,” says Cusack. “It was fun to be in her world and to think about the mother-daughter bond from her perspective as well. Michelle is such a talented, smart and genuine performer that playing her mom was a pleasure.” 
	Adds Trachtenberg “Meeting Joan was incredible. She’s one of the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with. She’s just so funny and great to be around. The other interesting thing is that Joan and I both have the same birthday, and we seem to also have a lot of the same personality traits, so we were great as mother and daughter, especially because I think Casey and her mom are really kindred spirits, both very independent, passionate people who, no matter how much they don’t see eye to eye right now, really love each other and always will.” 
	Also joining the cast is Emmy® Award-winning actress Kim Cattrall in the key role of Tina, Gen’s mother and Casey’s steel-hard coach. Best known to television viewers as the ravishing seductress on the HBO series “Sex and the City,” Cattrall takes a 180-degree turn with the character of Tina–a tough-minded former skater and ambitious mom who has long been trying to redeem herself from a sports controversy that dashed her own dreams when she was a young girl. 
	Cattrall loved the idea of doing something so unexpected. “Tina is so completely different from what people perceive me to be, I thought it would be really interesting to play her,” she says. “I also felt it was a wonderful transition, to go from a half-hour comedy for adults to a Disney movie that is a very moving story for teens, families and especially mothers and daughters.”
	Growing up in Canada, Cattrall was surrounded by ice-skaters and hockey players and fell in love with the sport watching the Olympics year after year. “I always thought it was such a great metaphor for life to see these skaters crash to the ice, then get back up and do a triple jump or a camel spin and go on to win,” she comments. “I also knew some competitive skaters as a kid so I know the tremendous dedication and sacrifice that go into it. You have to start very young, it’s a tough road and, even for those who make it, it doesn’t last very long.” 
	She continues “This is why Tina Harwood knows it won’t be easy to train a great champion. Her daughter Gen is good enough to be a champion, but she doesn’t really want to be a skater–she wants to be a teenager, discovering boys, and doing things that take away from her skating practice. Then she meets Casey, who not only has amazing talent, she has tremendous desire. But Casey’s mother wants her daughter to focus on getting into Harvard. So you have these two moms at odds with their daughters and with each other over what they want for their kids–a really interesting and realistic situation.” 
	On set, Cattrall found herself developing two equally rich, but very different, relationships with Hayden Panettiere and Michelle Trachtenberg. “Hayden was such a delight and challenged me in a lot of different ways,” says the actress. “I do see myself in Hayden quite a bit. She makes me laugh, she’s courageous and way beyond her years. There were times when I felt like I was the teen and she was the 40-something-year-old. Michelle, too, is a beautiful young woman. Seeing Michelle skate was especially emotional for me because she worked so hard and turned out to be so talented. She truly put her butt and her heart on the ice for this role, and I applaud her for it.” 
	Panettiere was amazed to see Cattrall make such a complete transition between her character in “Sex and the City” and her ICE PRINCESS persona. “She became exactly the way I imagined Tina, she hit the nail on the head and totally created this very tough coach and mom who you know deep down is trying to face up to her own past,” says Hayden. “I think the audience will be thrilled to see her in such a different way. And for me, it was truly great, because I really came to love her like a mom.”
	Sums up director Tim Fywell “We were really lucky to get two such fantastic actresses to play two very different moms with two very different agendas, but who both want so much for their daughters to do great things in life. Joan and Kim are each very funny and very warm, and yet very opposite. They were perfect for a story that is also about how the dreams of mothers and daughters are so often connected.”  

Of Best Friends and Boyfriends
Casting Hayden Panettiere and Trevor Blumas as Gen and Teddy

	One of the key themes in ICE PRINCESS is friendship–and the importance of caring about other people as you pursue your life’s greatest ambitions. This comes to the fore in the sometimes rough, often comical, and ultimately life-changing relationship between Casey Carlyle and her newfound friend in the skating world, Gen Harwood. Played by accomplished teen actress Hayden Panettiere (“Raising Helen,” “Remember the Titans”), Gen appears to be everything Casey isn’t enormously popular, destined to be a champion, totally attractive and yet, as it turns out, she’s also unhappy with her life. Pushed by her mother–a former would-be skating champion whose career went down in flames, played by Kim Cattrall–Gen is only just discovering her own lease on life. 
	Like Michelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere came to the role of Gen with shockingly little figure-skating experience. But she, too, dove into training with an Olympic-like spirit and accomplished extraordinary things in a short period of time. “I’m very athletic and I’ve always loved sports,” she says, “and I was really interested in the role of Gen because I’ve never played anyone like her before–the cool, popular girl who seems completely perfect in the beginning but goes through this amazing transition. You see Gen go from Miss Popular to someone who is really hurting, who’s afraid of losing her mom’s love by quitting skating but who just wants to be a regular kid and do normal teenage stuff. She starts realizing that she has to stick up for herself and go after what she wants, not what her mom wants or what other people want. It’s part of what I think is a really great message this movie sends to kids that you only live once and so you’ve got to live out your personal dreams the best that you can.” 
	For Panettiere, the friendship between Casey and Gen was another big draw because it’s something so many teens can relate to with its realistic depiction of both jealousy and camaraderie. “It’s really cool because basically Casey and Gen are living out each other’s dreams. Gen just wants to go to school and pass math so she can go to college and Casey is like this physics whiz but all she wants is to skate. They sort of end up swapping lives, but they also end up teaching each other a lot of stuff which is what really great friendships are all about,” says Hayden. 
	Tim Fywell was immediately impressed by Hayden’s emotional and physical immersion in the role. “I think she’s an extraordinary actress,” remarks the director. “She’s playing a girl who at first you think is rather steely, ambitious and mean, but then she peels away her layers and reveals a lot more depth and a good person underneath. You get to watch as she and Michelle change their lives together.”
	On the ice, Panettiere (who, as a gymnast for 8 years, is no stranger to athletics) was equally impressive. Her skating trainer Mark Hird watched as she made lightning progress. “Hayden’s not at all typical and she took to the sport like a natural, progressing much faster than other skaters. Her attitude is fearless,” Hird observes. “She’s aggressive, adventurous, and willing to put herself out there. In four weeks, she learned to skate well enough to pass her Preliminary Free Skate Test she can land a toe loop, waltz jump and salchow. She really rose to the challenge and came out a winner.” 
	Even Hayden was surprised at her progress. “At first, I was tripping over my toe-picks and I was constantly sprawled out across the ice. I never thought I’d be able to jump and spin and I absolutely love being able to do that,” she says. “But it wasn’t easy. I had an uncountable number of bruises. I think my bum only survived because it’s got a bit of padding on it–or maybe it just got numb after a while! But it was worth it to learn such a fun and exciting sport.” 
	Approaching skating, and Casey, from a completely different point of view is Teddy, the rink’s hard-working maintenance man and Zamboni driver, played by Trevor Blumas. Teddy’s budding relationship with Casey is quickly complicated by the fact that Casey is his sister Gen’s new best friend and his coach mother’s latest protégé–yet somehow Teddy manages to literally and figuratively smooth the ice for Casey on her journey.
	Blumas was drawn to the character because he’s the last person anybody would expect to fall in love with the whip-smart, brainy Casey. “Teddy and Casey come together because they’re both offbeat outcasts in their own way. He’s used to seeing all these skaters around the rink but she immediately stands out as different from all the rest,” he explains. “I also think Casey helps Teddy to realize there’s more to life than he previously thought.” 
	While Michelle Trachtenberg and Hayden Panettiere trained on skates, Trevor Blumas trained on the Zamboni, the behemoth vehicle (which can weigh up to 9,000 pounds fully loaded with snow) that cleans the ice for skaters. “It was awesome,” he says. “It’s every Canadian guy’s dream to drive a Zamboni. I trained for, like, 2 weeks and soon I was able to make ice for all the skaters, to create what they call a ‘good flood.’”
	Blumas also got an in-depth intro to the world of ice-skating, which opened his eyes to the excitement of the sport. “ICE PRINCESS was a whole new world for me,” he admits. “I mean I’d seen the Olympics and watched some skating before but now I had a chance to learn a lot more about it. Just hanging out at the rink all the time and seeing the girls train, I gained a lot of respect for all the incredibly hard work that goes into it. It’s pretty amazing. But the great thing is that you don’t have to be a figure-skating fan at all to enjoy this movie. There’s also a lot of humor, a little romance, an inspiring story about going after your dreams, all the qualities of a great teen film.” 
	Then, of course, there was Blumas’ on-screen kiss with Michelle Trachtenberg. Says Michelle “Trevor is a really good guy. I started to consider him as more of a brother, we got along so well. But then when it came time to kiss him, it was like, ‘Oh, this is a little weird,’ but it wasn’t too hard to think of him as the guy Casey is crazy about. Trevor is very cute, all the girls will fall for him.” 

Lights, Camera, Axels
Skating Gets a Visual Make-Over in ICE PRINCESS

	From the outset, ICE PRINCESS director Tim Fywell wanted ICE PRINCESS to be a great teen comedy with heart, but he was also committed to directing a dynamic sports story that would bring the glitz, glamour and athletic extremes of skating to the screen as they have never been seen before. Awed by the unexpected exhilaration and excitement of watching live competitions, Fywell wanted to capture figure skating with a new immediacy and style. 
	First, to add to the film’s authentic skating credentials, the filmmakers invited Olympic heroes Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano to take on cameo roles as skating commentators who add flavor and color to Casey Carlyle’s competitive events. Both skaters were thrilled to get a chance to share the love of their sport in a Disney family film.
	“This is my first feature film role and it’s truly exciting for me,” says Michelle Kwan,
who is the most decorated skater in American sports history. “I liked how the story of ICE PRINCESS really captures the intensity of the skating world and the dynamics of competing, but at the same time, you don’t have to know anything about skating to enjoy the movie and get swept up in Casey Carlyle’s dream to transform her life.”
	For Brian Boitano, who won an Emmy® for his starring role in the HBO movie “Carmen on Ice,” his participation presented fresh opportunities “I thought the script was imaginative and fun, and the title character was a great role model. I also thought it would be a lot of fun to branch out into something new and different and to work with Michelle in a way we’ve never worked together before.” 
	While Boitano has previously worked as a commentator, for Kwan it was an entirely novel experience–and a fun chance to turn the tables, having been the subject of skating commentators for so long. “So many times I can remember skating by the commentators and hearing Peggy Fleming or Dick Button say, ‘She’s going into her triple lutz,’” says Kwan. “It was great to be on the other side!”
	With Kwan and Boitano “in the booth,” Tim Fywell began concentrating on how to make magic happen on the ice. “I was looking for visual ways to really get inside the sport, to put the camera as much as possible inside the head of the skater, if you like, as they’re approaching their jumps and spins, rather than looking at it from the usual grandstand point of view,” he says. 
	To accomplish this, Fywell knew the production would require some truly creative innovation. The filmmakers brought in highly regarded director of photography David Hennings, who previously brought the extreme sport of teen surfing to the screen in the hit “Blue Crush.” Hennings wanted to do for skating what he had done for surfing–giving it a larger-than-life, you-are-there visceral excitement. He started by forging special camera rigs flexible enough to shadow the skaters’ every move, and fast enough to keep up with their extraordinary speed, in a way that would normally be impossible under competition conditions. 
	Says Hennings “My aim was to get inside the sport psychologically and emotionally. I want the audience to feel like they’re participating in what’s happening on the ice rather than just watching. The goal is for the camera to take the audience on a ride they’ve never experienced before. Most of us can only relate to the sport of skating from television sports coverage. I don’t think most people have seen it quite like this.” 
	The key skating rig was adapted from airport vehicles which tow baggage trailers–and was equipped with studded tires for traction, special crane arms and gyro-stabilized camera mounts which allowed the cameras to whirl around the ice at 18 mph after a speeding skater. “That’s never been done before,” notes Hennings. “Nobody’s created a vehicle like this. It is small, the center of gravity is very low, and best of all, it has tremendous traction on ice. The vehicle allowed us to photograph the skaters at high speed and close proximity.” 
	This rig, in turn, towed an ice sled–known as “The Spider” because it crawled along the ice–upon which the actresses and skating doubles rode while being filmed from the waist up. The ice sled was rigged with a windsurfer component which allowed it to pivot 360 degrees as a skilled grip on skates (skating ability was a prerequisite for the production crew!) pushed the device with a waist-high handle. “Our biggest bottom line was always safety,” notes Hennings. “Filming on ice at the speed that these athletes attain can be phenomenally dangerous, yet it was essential I push the envelope. There were some heart-pounding moments but, short of a few blisters, everyone emerged with big smiles.” 
	Sums up producer Bridget Johnson “David Hennings brought tremendous visual invention to this movie, which is why we sought him out.” 
	Further adding to the dazzling skating scenes are the efforts of sought-after Hollywood choreographer Anne Fletcher (“Catwoman,” “Bring It On”), who designed the dance elements of the skater’s trick-filled programs, and skating coordinator Jamie Isley, who translated Fletcher’s moves to the ice. Each of the individual skaters in ICE PRINCESS received her own unique dance style and music–ranging from Tiffany’s romantic “Romeo and Juliet” to Zoey’s rebellious Pink–to which Fletcher set fun, stylish, contemporary dance movements. As a stage choreographer, Fletcher had never worked with skaters before–but this allowed her to create truly unique skating numbers that defy some of skating’s conventions.
	“Anne would choreograph each dance in the studio to the music, and then I would come in and try to create an equivalent of that on ice, knowing what skaters can and can’t do,” explains Isley. “Then, we brought in the movie’s stars and skaters and refined the skating numbers even more. It was a very creative process, and because Anne didn’t start with the standard language of skating choreographers, you get lots of original style that really works on screen.” 
	To pull off Casey’s and Gen’s gravity-defying double and triple jump combinations, the filmmakers also recruited a handful of former competitive skaters to serve as “body doubles” to the film’s main actresses. These included six-time reigning Canadian Ladies Champion Jennifer Robinson, U.S. Figure Skating Junior Champion Sandra Jean Rucker and Canadian Junior Figure Skating Champion Lauren Wilson, who make everything from triple flips to flying sit spins look easy. 
	As for the other elite skaters in the cast, the filmmakers set out on a wide search to find a group of exceptionally charismatic and athletic girls. “The casting calls actually stipulated ‘Looking for skaters between the ages of 13 and 19 who can do triples,’” recalls executive producer William Wilson. Ultimately, winning roles out of some 1,200 applicants were 
12-year-old Kirsten Olson, 2004 Intermediate Ladies Minnesota State Champion, as the little “shrimp” dynamo Nikki; 14-year-old Juliana Cannarozzo, one of America’s most promising skaters and a first-place winner in the 2003 North American Championships, who plays the punky Zoey; and Canadian Jocelyn Lai, an accomplished competitive skater and professional dancer with acting experience, who portrays the glamorous and tough Tiffany. 
	“The production was a mix of teaching skaters how to act and actresses how to skate!” says Jamie Isley. “Everyone involved worked so hard that it worked.” 
	Finally, adding their own touches to the enchanting atmosphere of ICE PRINCESS are production designer Lester Cohen and costume designer Michael Dennison. For Cohen, the task at hand was to create a sense of Casey Carlyle’s two competing worlds her home life with her mom and her new and exciting life at the skating rink. “Our goal was to create a world for Casey at home that was warm yet, at the same time, claustrophobic. Her house is filled with books, papers, pictures everywhere, and no empty space or breathing room. When she discovers the skating rink it is the opposite–a wonderful, spacious place where Casey finds beauty and freedom on the ice.” 
	Meanwhile, Michael Dennison went to town designing skating’s famously flamboyant costumes, suiting each outfit to the character’s individual personalities. “Michael Dennison did a brilliant job designing the costumes, both on and off the ice,” says Bridget Johnson. “I especially loved how he created the evolution of Casey’s character from her science-nerd appearance early on to her glamorous ‘Ice Princess’ persona by the end of the film. He even found a skating costume from the ’70s, which he used as an inspiration for the red dress that Tina lends to Casey.”
	“I’m very color-driven,” notes Dennison. “I like to give each character a color motif so the audience can follow them visually through the story.” His palettes included periwinkle and mauve for Gen, who he says “dresses as if she would rather be Homecoming Queen than a skater–she’s living one life and dreaming of another”; firecracker red for the flashy little sprite Nikki; bohemian earth tones for Casey’s mother, Joan; and icy blues for coach, mother and former skater, Tina. 
	Meanwhile, Dennison created two opposite palettes for Casey, which shift as her character changes. At first, her colors are more muted forest greens, tobacco browns and autumnal aubergines. But when she triumphs at the end of the film, Casey skates in a blue silk dress sparkling with Swarovsky crystals with a tiara to match–having transformed with awesome grace into the ultimate Ice Princess. For all of the cast and crew, it was this books-to-skating-medals transformation that was the key to the entire contemporary fairy tale of ICE PRINCESS. Sums up Michelle Trachtenberg “Casey goes from struggling to skate in a straight line to following her ultimate dream of being a great skater, and that’s really inspiring to see happen, she never gives up.” 

A Quick History of Ice-Skating’s Heroines

	When Casey Carlyle dreams of becoming a great skater, she joins a long tradition of American girls and teenagers throughout the last century who put all their hopes and aspirations into the art of gliding, spinning and jumping on the ice. Though ice skates have been around since 800 B.C., skating first grew into an extremely popular activity among families and romantic couples in 19th century Europe. As athletes began to invent tricks and dances on blades, figure skating turned into an exciting new sport and, by 1908, became the very first sport added to the new Winter Olympics. Almost from the beginning, skating was an outlet for young women with big dreams. In fact, in 1902, the British skater Madge Sayers became one of the sport’s early heroines when she entered the London World Championships to compete against men and came in second place only to the legendary Ulrich Salchow, who invented the jump named after him. 
	In the 1930s, the beautiful Sonja Henie, dubbed “Pavlova on Ice,” changed skating forever and sparked a new skating craze around the world–by bringing a magical ballet-like grace and glamour to the ice, winning three Olympic Gold Medals and going on to create a new Hollywood genre the skating movie.
	In 1956, Tenley Albright took the platform as the first American Olympic Gold Medalist in women’s figure skating–after courageously triumphing over polio as a child. Following in Sonja Henie’s tradition came Peggy Fleming, the 1960’s Olympian whose beauty, artistry and humility soon made her a household name and international superstar. As the athleticism of women’s skating exploded, the single jumps (requiring one complete 360-degree revolution) were soon replaced by double jumps, which Americans Janet Lyn and Dorothy Hamill soon mastered, and then by triple jumps. In 1990, Midori Ito became the first woman in the world to land an unprecedented triple axel–a jump requiring 31/2 complete revolutions, taking off on a forward edge and landing on a backwards edge, once thought next to impossible. 
	In recent years, new skating heroines have emerged, including the first African American Olympic skating medalist, Debi Thomas; Olympic Gold Medalist Nancy Kerrigan, who won despite controversy and an attack brought about by her fellow competitor Tonya Harding; the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in skating history, Tara Lipinsky; and Michelle Kwan, a five-time World Champion and eight-time U.S. champion who has become one of the most famous figure skaters in the world, renowned as much for her indomitable spirit as for her extraordinary skating performances.

SKATING GLOSSARY

AXEL Named after Axel Paulson, this jump takes off from a forward inside edge and lands on a back outside edge. The single version of the jump involves 11/2 revolutions, and there are now double, triple, and even quadruple versions.

CAMEL A spin which is performed on one leg, with the other leg extended in the air.

FLIP A jump made by vaulting off the skate’s toe-pick, starting out on a back edge and landing on the opposite foot’s back edge.

LAYBACK SPIN A spin in which the skater arches back, almost like a spinning back bend.

LUTZ A dramatic jump in which the skater takes off from the back outside edge and rotates in the reverse direction in the air, landing on the opposite foot.

SALCHOW Named after inventor Ulrich Salchow, this is an “edge jump” in which the skater takes off from the back inside edge, rotates in the air, and lands on the outside edge of the opposite foot.

SIT SPIN The skater spins with the standing knee bent, moving closer to the ice and appearing to almost sit down.

SPIRAL An arabesque performed while moving forward on the ice with the torso tilted forward.

SPREAD EAGLE A balancing glide across the ice performed with both legs turned out at a 180-degree angle.

ABOUT THE CAST

	JOAN CUSACK (Joan) most recently starred on screen in Garry Marshall’s “Raising Helen” with Kate Hudson and appeared in the comedy “The Last Shot” with Alec Baldwin. Cusack has received two Academy Award® nominations, one for her comic portrayal of a Staten Island secretary in “Working Girl” with Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith and one for her role as Kevin Kline’s jilted bride in the critically acclaimed “In and Out.” Her comic versatility has been displayed in her recent television series “What About Joan” for ABC. Among Cusack’s other film credits are “School of Rock,” “Arlington Road,” “Cradle Will Rock,” “Runaway Bride,” “High Fidelity,” “Where the Heart Is,” “Grosse Pointe Blank,” “A Smile Like Yours,” “Broadcast News,” “Say Anything,” “Married to the Mob” and “Sixteen Candles,” among others. 
	The versatile actress made her screen debut in Tony Bill’s “My Bodyguard.” She studied acting at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois, where she grew up. While at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, she appeared with The Art, an improv group. Cusack’s theatre work includes the premiere of “Cymbeline” at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York. She was Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and was directed by Joanne Akalitis in “Tis Pity She’s a Whore.” She was a regular on “Saturday Night Live” during the show’s 1985-86 season and appeared with Anne Bancroft in the BBC production of Paddy Chayefsky’s “The Mother.” 

	KIM CATTRALL (Tina), a Golden Globe® Award-, Emmy® Award- and Screen Actor’s Guild Award-winning actress, has received worldwide acclaim for her role as femme fatale Samantha Jones on HBO’s groundbreaking hit series “Sex and the City.” She has been further recognized with four additional Golden Globe® nominations and four Emmy® nominations. Cattrall intends to continue her relationship with HBO in the wake of the series end. Her recently founded Fertile Ground Productions, a Canada-based production company, is currently in development on two projects set up at the cable network “Sexual Intelligence,” a feature-length documentary which Cattrall will host and co-executive produce, and an adaptation of Clifford Odets’ “The Country Girl,” which she will co-executive produce and star in for HBO films. 
	Cattrall’s extensive acting career has spanned film, stage and television. Born in Liverpool, England, and raised on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Cattrall moved to New York City at the age of 16 to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. On graduation, film director Otto Preminger signed her to a 5-year film contract. A year later, Universal Studios bought out the contract and Cattrall became one of the last participants of the Universal Contract Player System. While under contract at Universal, Cattrall guest starred in numerous television series, which led to starring roles opposite Jack Lemmon in his Academy Award®-nominated performance in “Tribute” and Lead Actress Genie nomination (Canadian Oscars®) for her performance in “Ticket to Heaven.” She starred in a host of Hollywood blockbuster films, including “Police Academy 1,” “Porky’s,” “Mannequin,” “Masquerade,” “Star Trek 6 The Undiscovered Country,” John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China” opposite Kurt Russell and with Tom Hanks in Brian De Palma’s “Bonfire of the Vanities.” Her performance as Jamie in the independent feature “Live Nude Girls” earned her rave reviews at numerous film festivals. She was most recently seen as Brittany Spears’ mom in “Crossroads.” 
	When not working in film and television, Cattrall has returned to the stage, starring in critically acclaimed productions of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (Drama Logue Award), Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” and Molieres’ “The Misanthrope.” She made her Broadway debut opposite Ian McKellen in the National Theater of London’s production of Michael Frayn’s adaptation of Chekhov’s “Wild Honey” and makes her London stage debut in 2005 in “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” an updated version of the Brian Clark drama, directed by Sir Peter Hall. On television she starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the TNT television adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “The Heidi Chronicles,” and in Oliver Stone’s mini series “Wild Palms.” Fans got to see the personal side of Kim in the Lee Grant-directed telefilm “Intimate Portrait.” 

	MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG (Casey Carlyle), an actress with talent and poise well beyond her years, is one of Hollywood’s brightest young actresses. Trachtenberg is best known for her role as Dawn on the hit television series, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Her work on the show garnered her a “Young Artists of Hollywood Award” for Best Supporting Actress.
	On the big screen, Trachtenberg impressed audiences at the age of 10, starring as Harriet in “Harriet the Spy.” For this performance, she won the Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film Award from “Young Artists of Hollywood.” Rosie O’Donnell also co-starred in this film.
	Trachtenberg will next star in Disney’s ICE PRINCESS, opposite Kim Cattrall and Joan Cusack. She will star as a brainy girl who realizes her dream of becoming a champion figure skater with the help of physics, a disgraced coach, three snooty “Ice Princesses,” a chorus of stage parents and the hunky boy who drives the Zamboni machine. ICE PRINCESS is being produced by Bridget Johnson and will be released on March 18, 2005.
	Trachtenberg will also star in Gregg Araki’s independent drama, “Mysterious Skin,” opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Based on the novel by Scott Heim, “Mysterious Skin” is the story of two boys who meet when they are 18 and discover a common past that has shaped both of them in different ways. The story takes place in New York City and Kansas.  Trachtenberg plays Wendy, the best friend of Gordon-Levitt’s character. “Mysterious Skin” premiered at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival and screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.  The film won the Jury Award at the BIFF Film Festival on October 19, 2004. “Mysterious Skin” will be released by Tartan Films in May 2005. 
	Trachtenberg starred in DreamWorks’ ensemble film “Eurotrip,” released on February 20, 2004. Produced by the team behind “Old School” and “Road Trip,” “Eurotrip” is a coming-of-age comedy about a group of young Americans traveling throughout Europe.
	Additionally, Trachtenberg starred on a four-episode arc on HBO’s critically acclaimed series, “Six Feet Under.” Trachtenberg starred as Celeste, a pop star, who hires Keith (Matthew St. Patrick) as her bodyguard. “Six Feet Under” began airing in June 2004.
	Trachtenberg was also featured in Trapt’s music video, “Echo,” in March 2004. Directed by Meiert Avis (U2, Bruce Springsteen), the story portrays the lead singer (Chris Brown) who is still in love with his ex-girlfriend (played by Trachtenberg). Brown is featured going to a party with a new girl, only to have his relationship with his ex-girlfriend (Trachtenberg) act as an “Echo,” overshadowing all of his current attempts at new relationships.
	Trachtenberg began acting at the age of 3 when she appeared in her first television commercial. In 1999, Trachtenberg starred opposite Matthew Broderick in the live-action feature film “Inspector Gadget.” Her other feature credits include roles in the independent films “Forever Together” and “The Cage.”
	Daytime television fans will remember Trachtenberg from her role as the autistic Lily Montgomery on “All My Children,” at which time the drama also starred Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was a series regular on the Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” as well as the CBS comedy “Meego.” Trachtenberg’s other television credits include guest starring roles on “Guys Like Us,” “Figure It Out,” “Dave’s World,” “Law & Order,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Clarissa Explains It All,” and “Space Cases,” as well as the television movies “A Father’s Choice” opposite Peter Strauss and Mary McDonnell, and “Christmas in Our Home Town” with Melissa Gilbert. Trachtenberg was also the host/narrator for Discovery’s “Truth or Scare,” which garnered her a 2004 Daytime Emmy® Award nomination.
	Recently named by Teen People magazine as one of “20 Teens Who Will Change the World,” Trachtenberg has been an active spokesperson for R.A.D.D., DARE America, The Starlight Foundation and many other charities. Her contributions to the fight against drugs earned her the prestigious responsibility of representing the youth of America at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, where she helped President Clinton launch “The Coalition for Drug Free America” campaign.
	Although a native New Yorker, Trachtenberg currently resides in Los Angeles.

	HAYDEN PANETTIERE (Gen Harwood) has an impressive résumé of feature film, television, animation and commercial credits that have made her name synonymous with rising star. Most recently she was seen as the rebellious teen in the Disney comedy “Raising Helen,” opposite Kate Hudson, directed by Gary Marshall, and in the family drama “The Dust Factory.” She stars as an ambitious jockey in the adventure “Racing Stripes” and also recently was seen in the Disney Channel movie, “Tiger Cruise,” a dramatic story based on the events of September 11. She’ll next be seen in “Lies My Mother Told Me,” based on a true story, for the Lifetime Network. 
	 Previously, Hayden impressed audiences as the daughter in HBO’s highly praised “Normal,” which won a Sundance Film Festival award, with Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson as her parents. She also surprised and delighted audiences as the fiery and precocious daughter of Ally McBeal in the final season of the celebrated television series. Her spitfire characters in both “Joe Somebody” as Tim Allen’s daughter, and “Remember the Titans,” in which she co-starred with Denzel Washington, established her as a unique talent. Her portrayal of a young Jeanne, played as an adult by Hilary Swank, in “The Affair of the Necklace” is a cameo performance of depth beyond her years. Panettiere’s other film credits include “Message in a Bottle” with Kevin Costner and “Object of My Affection” with Jennifer Aniston. 
	On television, Panettiere’s portrayal of Lizzie Spaulding on “Guiding Light” earned her a Hollywood Reporter’s nomination for Best Young Actress in a Daytime Series. She appeared as an abused child on “Law & Order SVU,” as well as the miniseries, “Too Rich The Secret Life of Doris Duke,” in which she played the distraught young Doris opposite Lauren Bacall. In addition, she starred in “If You Believe” as the magical and intuitive inner-child of Ally Walker for Lifetime, guest-starred on “Touched by an Angel” as a cancer patient opposite Sheri Stringfield, and had a recurring role as an eccentric teenager on “Malcolm in the Middle.” Panettiere’s voice is as recognizable as her face, with credits including the acclaimed animated feature “A Bug’s Life” as Princess Dot. Her work for “A Bug’s Life Read-A-Long” garnered her a Grammy® nomination for Best Spoken Word Album, as well as a nomination for The Hollywood Reporter’s Young Star Award for Best Young Voiceover Talent. She is also the voice of Suri in Disney’s “Dinosaurs.” 
	Most recently, Panettiere was named the New Face of Neutrogena. In May, she will receive the Exciting New Face Female honor at the Movieline’s Young Hollywood Awards. And, not only does Panettiere sing the ICE PRINCESS closing-credits song, but she is now in the recording studio working on her debut CD. In addition to being a gifted young actress, Panettiere is an Ambassador for the ICUN Wildlife Foundation, which helps to raise funds for endangered species. Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor are fellow Ambassadors. 

	TREVOR BLUMAS  (Teddy) first gained attention as a series regular on PAX TV’s “Little Men,” in which he starred for two years. As his career escalated, he was nominated in 1998, 1999 and 2000 for the Young Artists of Hollywood Awards for two Showtime films “Stranger in Town” and his first lead role, “The Wall–Pencil Holder,” in addition to PAX TV’s “Twice in a Lifetime.” He landed lead roles in the USA movie “Jane Doe,” opposite Rob Lowe and Terry Hatcher, and HBO’s “Claude Monet–Shadow and Light.” Blumas garnered critical acclaim in his feature film debut, “The Unsaid,” opposite Andy Garcia. Among his other credits are ABC’s “Switching Goals” and Court TV’s “Guilt by Association.” He most recently starred in the telefilm “Prom Queen The Marc Hall Story.” Born and raised in London, Ontario, Blumas attended the Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts between grades 4 and 8. He performed in the Original Kids Theatre Company in London, Ontario. His many stage productions include “Annie Warbucks,” “My Fair Lady,” “Beatles Review,” “Bugsy Malone” and “You Thought Your Family Was Strange.”

	CONNIE RAY (Nikki’s Mom) just finished filming “Thank You for Smoking” with Sam Elliot and Robert Duvall. Other films include “About Schmidt,” “Stroke of Genius,” “How to Deal,” “Hope Floats” and “My Fellow Americans.” She was the star of “The Torkelsons” on NBC and The Disney Channel and has done numerous TV guest appearances. She has performed on- and off-Broadway. She wrote the musical “Smoke on the Mountain” which ran off-Broadway for 13 months and was subsequently the most produced musical in the United States from 1991-2001.

	KIRSTEN OLSON (Nikki) began skating at age 3 on an outdoor hockey rink, taking periodic “Learn to Skate” lessons until age 8, when she began training with a figure-skating coach. Since then she has won numerous awards. Most recently she became a three-time Minnesota State Champion, winning the Novice Ladies title in 2005, the Intermediate Ladies title in 2004 and the Juvenile Ladies title in 2003; also, she was an Upper Great Lakes Regional Medalist and a 2004 U.S. Junior Championships’ Intermediate Ladies Silver Medalist. Since the shooting of the movie, she became the Bronze medalist at the Upper Great Lakes Regional competition, the Silver Medalist at the Midwestern Sectional competition and placed fifth at the State Farm U.S. National Championships as a Novice Lady. Thirteen-year-old Olson, who makes her acting debut in ICE PRINCESS, is also a high achiever outside of the rink. She was president of her school’s Student Body in grade 6 and recently was awarded the President’s Award for Educational Excellence for maintaining a straight-A average in grade school. She was born in Savage, Minnesota, where she still lives.

	JULIANA CANNAROZZO (Zoey) is one of America’s most promising skaters. The 14-year-old makes her film debut in ICE PRINCESS and is an eligible member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic team. In the past 2 years Juliana has won the Novice Ladies division in the 2003 North American Challenge Championships and the Juvenile Ladies division of the 2002 New England Regional Championships. In other competitions, she placed third in the Novice Ladies division 2004 Sectional Championships; second in the Novice Ladies division 2004 Regional Championships; second in Intermediate Ladies at the 2003 Junior National Championships; third in Intermediate Ladies at the 2003 New England Regional Championships; and second in the Juvenile Ladies 2003 Junior National Championships. Cannarozzo, who began skating at age 5, is in grade 8 and lives in Reading, Massachusetts, a small town north of Boston.

	JOCELYN LAI (Tiffany) began her acting career in school plays, signing with an agent at age 13. She subsequently appeared in the Canadian television show “System Crash” for a season, in CBC’s “Must Be Santa” and in an episode of “Odyssey 5,” in addition to a number of commercials. Lai is also a trained dancer and was a member of the NBA Toronto Raptors Jr. Dance Pack from 1995-1999, among other achievements. Her acting talents combined with her accomplished skating landed Lai, who started skating at age 5, the role of Tiffany. She placed third in the Central Ontario competition in addition to passing the Gold Tests, which cover all aspects of figure skating. She stopped competing at age 17 to study bio-medical science at University of Guelph. She plans to be a pediatrician, but is also keen to pursue an acting career. “Filming ICE PRINCESS was one of the best experiences in my life. I was totally excited working with all these enormously talented actors. I would do it all over again in a second and I wouldn’t change anything.” Lai was born in Manchester, England, and lived briefly in Hong Kong before moving with her family to Toronto where she was raised and still lives. 

	MICHELLE KWAN (Herself) is the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history. Kwan’s skating brilliance and accomplishments have earned her a place among the all-time greats of the sport. In her career she has won an unprecedented 42 championships, including five World Championships (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003), seven consecutive and eight overall National Championships (1996, 1998-2004) and two Olympic medals (silver, 1998; bronze, 2002). Her seven consecutive national titles (1998-2004) and 11 consecutive national medals (1994-2004) are both U.S. records, to mention but a few of her accomplishments. Among her other awards and honors are the 2003 U.S. Olympic Committee Sportswoman of the Year; 2001 Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in America; and 1998 Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation, among others. She recently earned her seventh U.S. Figure Skating Skater of the Year Award (1994, 1996, 1999, 2001-2003), the only multiple winner of the prestigious award. In an unprecedented move, U.S. Figure Skating renamed the award in her honor in 2004, now known as the Michelle Kwan Trophy.
	Kwan began skating at age 5, winning her first competition at age 7. She has enjoyed great success in the entertainment world, among which her primetime TV special, “Reflections on Ice Michelle Skates to the Music of Disney’s Mulan,” was selected as Best Produced Skating Special 1998-99. Her autobiography, Michelle Kwan Heart of a Champion, published in 1997, is now in its sixth printing. She has also authored two books, The Winning Attitude! and My Special Moments, collaborated on the six-book fiction series, Michelle Kwan Presents Skating Dreams and stars in her own interactive game. In addition, she serves as national spokesperson for the Children’s Miracle Network, was selected as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” for 2000 and serves as spokesperson for the Walt Disney Company.

	BRIAN BOITANO (Himself), a three-time Olympian, has won more than 50 skating titles, including 23 international gold medals, two world titles, six world professional titles, four U.S. national titles, as well as the 1988 Olympic Gold Medal. He has been inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the National Italian-American Hall of Fame. His signature jump, the Tano Triple, is so difficult, it has rarely been completed by anyone else.
	Boitano began his figure-skating career in 1972 at the age of 8. At 14, he became the U.S. Junior Men’s Champion and gained world recognition when he was 19 as the first skater to complete all six different triple jumps in a World Championship.
	Boitano was the first American male athlete to have his own network television special, “Canvas of Ice,” which aired worldwide and was seen nationally on the ABC Network. The critically acclaimed special won awards in the International Film and Television Festival of New York and the Chicago Film Festival. He won an Emmy® Award for his starring role in the HBO movie, “Carmen on Ice.” He and fellow Olympic Gold Medalist Katarina Witt toured North America in three successful ice shows “Skating,” “Skating II” and “Skating ’92,” broadcast on network TV. In 1994, he starred in “Nutcracker on Ice” with Oksana Baiul. For 15 years, he toured with “Champions on Ice,” headlining in 25 national tours. Boitano has provided expert commentary on televised skating shows for ABC, NBC and Turner Networks. In 1995, Boitano co-founded White Canvas Productions to create figure-skating shows for both live and television audiences. More than a dozen White Canvas specials have aired on NBC, USA Networks, and TNT. On January 1, 2005, NBC aired the “Brian Boitano’s 7th Consecutive New Years Day Special.” In the last three years, Boitano has headlined more than ten TV specials with such entertainers as Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach and Andrea Bocelli.