"Moira Kelly takes her bumps as they come"    March 1992

by James Ryan
BPI Entertainment News Wire

She may have had a double for the more complex skating maneuvers but actress Moira Kelly takes credit for the dozes of on-ice tumbles in her first starring roles as an Olympic figure skater in the new film "Cutting Edge."

"I got thrown across the ice, and rolled across the ice, and hung above the ice and dropped upon the ice a few times -- I did my share of falling," says Kelly ,the 23-year-old daughter of Irish immigrants who already has six movies to her credit since graduating from New York's Marymount College two years ago.

Actually, says Kelly, she didn't mind the bumps and bruises: "I would rather do it myself 'cause it sort of puts you in the mood of the character.  It feels real.  It might hurt, but it feels real."

With that attitude it's not hard to understand why the actress has been in such demand.  Within a month of graduation, she started filming her first movie, "The Boy Who Cried Bitch," and in quick succession completed the TV miniseries "Love, Lies, and Murder," in which she played teenage murderer Cinnamon Brown; "Billy Bathgate," in which she played the title character's girlfriend; David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" movie, playing Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle's role in the TV series); and Richard Attenborough's Charlie Chaplin biography "Charlie."  There, she portrays two characters: the legendary comedian's first love, 15-year-old dance Heady, and his last, fourth wife Lady Oona Chaplin.

Before auditioning for the role of rich skating prodigy Kate Moseley, who teams up with ultimately falls in love with a sidelined blue-collar hockey star (D.B. Sweeney), Kelly had only donned ice skates once.

"I told the director, 'I can't skate, I'll be honest with you, but I'll do whatever I have to to learn how to skate," she recalls.  not leaving anything to chance, she then brought her younger brother, Michael, along to skating auditions at Manhattan's Rockefeller Center.

"I told him to skate next to me and if you see me start to fall or if I'm about to be harmful to others, help me out," she continues.  " I didn't fall, but I didn't get around as smoothly as I though I would.  It was easy for me to go backwards, I just couldn't go forward!"

After two and a half months of intensive training with 1980 Olympic Gold Medallist Robin Cousins and his coach, Evelyn Kramer, Kelly is not at home on the ice, however, having mastered spins, camels, crossovers, lifts -- even a waltz jump.

Now, whenever shooting on location, whether in Los Angeles; Slough, England; or Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Switzerland, she checks out the local rink.  "Have skates will travel," she says, her intense grey eyes lighting up.

"I was pretty impressed with my progress.  I did Irish step dancing for seven years so my coordination is pretty good."

While Kate is a spoiled only child with her own private rink, Kelly grew up in a strict, middle-class Catholic household in Long Island, N.Y.  Her father is a musician and her mother a nurse.  Two siblings are in the military, one is a music teacher, another is studying to be a physical therapist.  Only Michael, who is still in high school, is considering a film career.  Up until a few years ago, the actress, a devout Catholic, says she was considering becoming a nun.

"This is just as much a shock to me as everybody else," she says of her quick success.

Was it difficult playing a character so different from herself?

"She's quite bitchy, but there's reasons why.  That's what I liked about Kate," she replies.  "You see her change because you find out the reasons why she is the way she it.  Imagine yourself being under that pressure.  It's great to have money and lot of things in life, but you usually sacrifice some other things that can make for some miserable living."

The demands of Kelly's rapid rise have not been without their own set of sacrifices.  She considers Long Island her home base, but has been on location steadily for the last year and a half.  Keeping in touch with friends and loved ones hasn't been easy.  A Hollywood hotel is her current home away from home wile she undertakes a round of auditions for her next role.

Finding a project as challenging as "Cutting Edge" or "Charlie" won't be easy.  For "Charlie," for example, Kelly had to master an Irish accent (her mother helped her out with that); transform herself into a sexy, redheaded dancer to play Heady; and then age 36 years for the character of Oona.

"The makeup (liquid plastic) wasn't so bad," she recalls.  "but they had to streak my hair gray.  They had it professionally done so for about a month I was walking around with gray hair.  I'd wake up in the morning forgetting I was gray.  You'd look in the mirror --Ohhh! It changes your whole personality.  I was more tired-feeling, weak.  My social life wasn't good to start with -- it sucked after I got that done."