Skye reaches for new heights
Local actress stars in sci-fi program
It’s taken a while, but SeraLys McArthur is finally where the action is. Literally. The Saskatchewan-born actress stars in the martialarts sci-fi program Skye & Chang, an innovative and award-winning TV movie that could become a fullblown series down the line.
With two butt-kicking females — one aboriginal, one Chinese — in the lead roles, Skye & Chang doesn’t look or feel like anything else on TV. McArthur plays Skye Daniels, who runs a dojo and stunt-double business with her buddy Emily Chang (Olivia Cheng). But, as these things go, they’re soon drawn into a sinister plot crafted by a secret society bent on global destruction.
The movie won the award for best short live feature at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.
“I loved it pretty much right away,” says former Arctic Air star McArthur of the Vancouver-filmed project directed by Cree/Metis filmmaker Loretta Sara Todd. “I really love action films and TV shows. I was a big Xena fan when I was growing up, so it was basically a dream come true for me to even be considered for the role.”
McArthur’s character may not wield a chakram like Lucy Lawless’s character in Xena: Warrior Princess, but she does have a superpower: Time-slipping. “People who have seen the pilot say it’s almost like you’re having a vision, and that’s definitely a native (American) thing,” she says.
“You go on vision quests in aboriginal spirituality ceremonies, and it can seem like your consciousness is opened up to a new state of awareness, which is essentially what the time slips are.”
“She’s not actually leaving the plane that she’s on, but she feels like she’s in a different reality that has been revealed to her. It’s almost like an intense migraine.”
Also intense: the action sequences in Skye & Chang. The show opens with a punch or five, leads into a series of chases and explosions and ends with Skye and Emily pitted against a couple of dark-suited attackers, amid the chaos of an outdoor concert to boot.
“I didn’t have a big martial-arts base to begin with, but I always liked it. As a kid I did some taekwondo, but I haven’t for a really long time,” says McArthur, who performed some of her character’s stunts. “(For Skye & Chang), I did about three months of pretty solid martial-arts training, but it wasn’t like I got to go into the studio with a private teacher every day.”
Though McArthur has appeared in the miniseries The Englishman’s Boy and the film Hard Core Logo 2, she thanks the CBC show Arctic Air for helping her land Skye & Chang — she played assistant cargo manager Hailey Martin for three seasons before it was cancelled in March.
“It’s taken my career to a new level of visibility. Now, I’m that girl from Arctic Air,” she says.