Posted by Lisa


April 30, 2010

Cutting Edge 4 Interview with Brendan:

Your fans have been eagerly awaiting the airing of Cutting Edge 4. We know that you have played hockey since childhood, so coming into this project you probably already had a high comfort level with the ice. What additional training did you have to make your role as a speed skater turned figure skater believable?

As you saw (or maybe not) in the behind the scenes videos on ABCfamily, I took both figure skating lessons (obviously) and ballet. The ballet was an absolute riot and I quite enjoyed it. I actually got pretty flexible (really??? for me!) in a short while. It was a pretty good workout and a really good sweat. Having an Eastern European Ukranian teacher that basically carried a whip around added to the beauty of it. Maybe it was just the back of her hand but man, could she ever snap that thing.

What was it like seeing your image plastered on the side of an RV? Were there any other props used in the movie that you would have liked to (or did) take home with you?

The RV “skin” was pretty awesome. It apparently was the very same bus Paul McCartney rented when he was in Montreal. Just a little tidbit there. The bobbleheads though take the cake. They did make 2 and I have them both. I look like Barack Obama a little in the one without the helmet. See pic attached somewhere. They look more like me in real life. No really.




One of my favorite scenes in the movie was the strip poker scene, which brings two trivia questions to mind. The first, who (James or Alex) had the winning hand before Alex’s mother walked in? The second, which comic book was featured in that scene? My bet was on Spiderman.

I have no idea. We weren’t even playing poker. We were just dealing 5 cards and laying it down immediately and the best hand would win. It was almost like the “Go Fish” version of poker. The comic on the underwear wasn’t anything like that. It was, or appeared to be, just a print a company bought or came up with. The sayings on them ranged from ”Get ready to blast off” to “Nuclear Fallout” or something like that. You can guess which was on the front and which was on the back. We actually had a close up of the underwear at one point but you could read the sayings and considering the content and placement, the network nixed it.

What do you consider the most challenging scene you filmed in this movie? How many takes did it take to get it right?

We didn’t get a ton of takes on this film. We shot the whole thing in 15 days which is insane given the fact we had to film figure skating competitons and that eats up a ton of time. Most of the time we really ripped through the day if you count getting through 12-13 hours in 12-13 hours “ripping through”. The initial scene with Phillip was the most difficult and one I still kinda cringe over. It appeared well written enough but when we first did it, it had a monotonous tempo of “question-answer, question-answer, etc.” It was really kinda boring and without having time to really rewrite it or tweak the dialogue significantly I was fighting to find certain colors in the scene. It’s funny ‘cause going in I thought it’d be a no-brainer and really good opener but as I’ve found in other projects, sometimes the scenes you think are going to be fun and “easy” turn into real grinds.

This is the 4th film in the Cutting Edge franchise. Did you watch any of the other movies before you signed on to do this one? Would you consider reprising your role for a 5th movie?

I saw the original and it’s a classic. I then watched 15 minutes of “3” to size up my “competition”. That was pretty much it. Since a lot of the people behind 3 were doing 4 I figured I could get a feel for what I was getting into and what kind of finished project I had to prepare myself for. As for a 5th? Well it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice as I think any actor out there prefers original material but you never know what life brings you so I rarely say never. The experience I had on 4 wouldn’t hurt the chances however.

What was it like working with Francia Raisa? My husband wanted to know if she was as cute in person.

I never saw her in person. We did all our scenes separate and then they cut them together. She refused to work with me based on my Canadian heritage. She loved our poutine and beaver tails and used us for them dammit. I’ll call the RCMP before I let her get away with that again.
Oh, and it was fun and she is.

The setting of this movie was supposedly Seattle, but I know it wasn’t filmed there. Where was principal photography?

Montreal if the above “poutine” and “beaver tails” didn’t tip you off.

Who do you credit for making you and Francia so believable as figure skaters? Are you allowed to disclose who your skate doubles are?

Does the editing crew count? Sherry Kennedy (geez I hope I spelled her name right. I’m too lazy to double-check) and Slavo Boroweicki (I’m definitely sure his last name is spelled wrong and he’ll make me pay for it I’m sure). They were awesome and we spent a lot of time hanging out with them. They worked really hard and were awesome.