Title: Sarah Carter - has a killer grand jete
Source: Famous
Date: August 2006
Interviewer: Ingrid Randoja
According to Sarah Carter, ballerinas make great samurai warriors.
The Toronto-born actor wields a sword this month in DOA: Dead or Alive, the live-action adaptation of the megapopular videogame that pits five gorgeous women against one another in knock-down, drag-out fights. Carter plays Helena Douglas, the tournament organizer and expert samurai fighter.
"I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have my history," says Carter on the line from her home in Los Angeles. "I danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and that has always been a help with my work, on all my jobs actually."
Carter moved to Winnipeg when she was five and it was there that she studied dance and acted in school plays. She left the 'Peg when she was 18 and headed to Toronto to study at Ryerson's Theatre School, but dropped out after her first year when she realized she could get paid to act. She landed small TV roles, which in turn led to bigger roles in shows such as Smallville, Entourage, Numb3rs and Shark, a new lawyer series that debuts this fall and stars James Woods.
But DOA: Dead or Alive stands out as the 25-year old actor's greatest challenge to date. Imagine not only learning how to slice and dice with a two-foot sword, but doing so in China with a filmmaketr who speaks very little English, renowed martial arts choreographe-turned-director Corey Yuen.
"It was a life0changing experience," says Carter. "It was pretty traumatizing actually, severe culture shock. Nothing looks the same, sounds the same, tastes the same, feels the same. It was an experience that was very hard every day ut was happening, but in retrospect was the best thing that's every happened to me."
And that includes working with Yuen.
"Corey's a genius," gushes Carter. "With not having English to speak, all we could do was communicate with images and feelings and body language and it was powerful, in some ways a more powerful way of connecting than with language."
Fans of the videogame are holding their breath, hoping Yuen, Carter and the rest of the female cast - Devon Aoki, Natassia Malthe, Jaime Pressly and Holly Valance - will capture the game's ferocity as well as its notorious jiggle factor.
"It is eye candy, " admits Carter. "But it's also a beautiful story of women coming together and fighting for what's right. I love that it starts out as a competition and eventually these women realize they need each other, and need to work together to save the day.
"And you know what, it's testing best with young girls, which is a really nice surprise to me because I thought it would only cater to the videogame fanatics."
