Jade Ma (zero chill on Netflix) interview

the first to showcase ice skating, but it’s one of the only ones to encompass both figure skating and ice hockey into one package. Starring actors who actually know how to skate, the series taps into an authenticity with its performances that you won’t find in most other shows or films that use CGI to portray the highly-difficult skill.

Jade Ma stars as Sky Tyler, a former skater who’s forced to give up her passion due to her battle with leukemia. The actress is fairly new to the fit on one line! try, but a total natural. And she’s already landed a supporting role in Marvel’s Black Widow. Not bad for only her third project ever.

Jade sits down to chat with Galaxy about how she got started in acting and the importance that ice skating had during her childhood, now leading to her first big role. We’re excited to see what the future holds for the star as she embarks on this next level of her young career. The sky is truly the limit.

SPOILER: How is it working on a show that’s so focused on ice skating? JADE MA: Honestly it’s absolutely incredible! I had the best time. I actually grew up figure skating but I quit when I was 11 or 12. Having the opportunity to go back to it while also being able to act alongside it was pretty special.

SPOILER: During auditions, did they ask how well you could ice skate? JADE MA: We were asked whether we could skate. For the UK audition I had to send in video proof of me skating because they were really focused on having a cast that was as much figure skaters or hockey players as we were actors. I know the Canadian auditions, for the people who play Kayla and Mac, Grace [Beedie] and Dakota [Taylor], they had to actually do a skating audition in person as well. But I had to send in video footage. I went in to do reads in person as well, but they also wanted me to send in proof. So I had to run down to my local rink in the UK and be like, “Guys, I really need to use it for literally like, 10 minutes, please!” [laughs] They were in the middle of doing an adult ice dance class, so there were these really sweet older couples skating around the perimeter of the rink and I was in the middle trying to figure out how to ice skate again.

SPOILER: Was it something that you had missed? JADE MA: Definitely. I absolutely loved it growing up. But I got to the point where I was getting injured quite a lot because I was training pretty competitively twice a week. I was young and my body was going, “You’re doing a lot right now!” So I started losing my love for it a bit. But there was always this voice in the back of my head going, “What if you never gave it up?” So having the opportunity to pick it up again and marry that love of skating with acting was really, really special.

SPOILER: Is it easier to learn as a kid? Because I tried learning a little while ago and I kept falling on my butt. JADE MA: I think it’s definitely easier to learn as a child. Because when you learn to figure skate, there’s literally a switch in your brain that happens. Your brain rewires itself to figure out how to be aware of your body while you’re on this incredibly slippery surface with essentially what are footknives. So as you’re growing up and learning things as you go, it makes it easier than taking an alreadyformed brain and trying to rewire that. Not to say adults can’t learn to skate. There are plenty of adult skaters learning and doing great.

SPOILER: Zero Chill is one of the only ice skating shows I can think of. There aren’t many. JADE MA: There [have been a few], but I think ours is kind of the first that combines figure skating and hockey. There are a few that focus on one or the other.

SPOILER: Do you think the show is more drama or comedy? JADE MA: I feel like the story has so many different aspects to it. The thing that I love so much about it is it’s got the drama and all the intense story going on, but still finds moments to be light and funny and relatable and very familyfriendly, and I think it’s really sweet.

SPOILER: What is your character Sky Tyler all about? JADE MA: Sky is a figure skater, a kindred spirit for Kayla and has this very cute, puppy-love relationship with her twin brother Mac. She’s super quirky, sassy at times, and incredibly strong-willed. And she cares incredibly deeply about the people around her. In the show,

she’s kinda stuck between the twins and she’s in this place where she has to learn how to balance her relationship with each of them without compromising the other one.

SPOILER: How would you describe the relationship between Sky and Mac?

JADE MA: So Sky ends up dating Mac on the show. They have a very cute little first meeting where she’s just met and befriended Kayla and they both have mustaches drawn on their faces [laughs], and Mac shows up and is talking to Kayla and sees Sky, and they have this instant flirtatious banter and connection that’s very sweet from the get-go. You see their relationship develop over the course of the season, and it comes to fruition in the second half. They’re able to be very vulnerable with each other. They have a very loving, kind, healthy relationship.

SPOILER: How thrilled were you when Zero Chill started trending on Netflix? JADE MA: It was so exciting! We have a cast group chat, and that was going off like crazy. It was just amazing to see how it was trending, not just in North America or the UK, but globally. We were getting fans from the show sending us images in Brazil and Argentina and Germany. It was amazing to see that our show has such a global impact.

SPOILER: Is acting on ice difficult to do? JADE MA: Part of the reason that I love this show so much is the fact that it’s both a physical and mental challenge. Obviously with acting you’re very mentally engaged, but a lot of the time you’re either walking or standing or sitting. But with this show specifically, I was on the ice doing a whole figure skating routine and having to act simultaneously. And that was just a really fun, engaging experience.

SPOILER: Did you get nervous your first time on set? JADE MA: There were definitely moments. Meeting everyone for the first time is always a little nervewracking. Before we even started training, we had a little dinner with one of the producers and the directors of the first five episodes, Angelo [Abela]. We all met up in London. It was me, Grace, Dakota, and Jeremias [Amoore]. We had dinner together and got to meet for the first time. And that was definitely nerve-wracking, as it always is when you’re first meeting the people you’re going to be spending the next few months with. But everyone got along really well. It’s a really great cast. We really got the time to bond.

We then spent the next nine weeks training together.

The other times [I got nervous] were obviously when we were about to shoot the skating routines. There’s always a little bit of nerves because we have to get through them and do them right and do them well so they can use the footage. If we were to mess up or fall over, we’d have to reset and start again. But we had some incredible coaches and incredible doubles, so they were all there to support us.

SPOILER: So is the MacBentley family the royal ice skating family of that town? JADE MA: [laughs] So the MacBentleys are a Canadian family who have moved to the UK for Mac’s hockey scholarship. They moved their whole lives over to follow that dream. And Kayla’s a little bit miffed because she’s like, “What about my dreams? You’re literally giving up my entire life and what I love in Canada for my brother.” The show really revolves around that dynamic. I kinda come in to be her support, and then I meet her brother and it all goes from there.

We were out there [in England] for a long time. We started shooting in 2019, and we were meant to finish in the middle of March 2020 when coronavirus happened and delayed everything. So we closed production and came back in August for a couple more weeks. But there were definitely a lot of takes, not because people messed up, but because they were trying to get as many angles and shots that they could. Production wanted the audience to really feel like they were on the ice with the skaters and hockey players.

SPOILER: Before this you were in another winter project, Surviving Christmas. How was that? JADE MA: That was my first job in film in general. It was a fun first experience. I played a small role named Soon, an exchange student from China who was staying with an American family when they visited their British sister for Christmas and I was tagging along. It’s a very sweet family comedy film for Christmas.

SPOILER: Do you think Zero Chill will get a season 2? JADE MA: I hope so. I think the whole cast has their fingers crossed. We’d love to come back to it and revisit these characters and these

relationships and explore them more, and obviously get back on the ice and do more skating.

SPOILER: How was filming in the UK? JADE MA: It was filmed in Sheffield. And actually all the jobs I’ve done so far have been in the UK, so I can’t really speak to how the experience differs. I lived in the UK for 5 years before I moved out here, so most of my professional experience has been there.

SPOILER: What made you want to get into acting? JADE MA: I started out as a dancer. For a period of time I gave up dance for figure skating, and then when I gave up figure skating I went back to dancing. My dance teacher and mentor, a lady named Giselle Liu, she’s wonderful, we were doing a lot of projects together. And she started working with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, run by Lindsey McAlister, and they do a flagship musical every year. When I was 15 they were putting on a production of A Chorus Line, and it was kinda the perfect opportunity for me with a dance background to get into the musical theater and acting side of things. Between Lindsey and Giselle, they convinced me to audition for it, and I ended up getting cast as Val, which was definitely interesting at 15-years-old [laughs]. So I fell in love with the acting side of performing and just went from there, applying to drama school at 17.

SPOILER: What’s in the works for you in the future? JADE MA: Currently I’ve been auditioning again and seeing what comes up. I have a few possible things in the pipeline that I can’t really speak about yet. And also I have a small part in Black Widow, which I’m really excited for.

SPOILER: Were you nervous working for a Marvel franchise? JADE MA: Definitely. It was very surreal to be part of something so big. It’s such a big franchise and such a large scale production that it was something where I was like, “People dream of being here, and I get to live it. This is insane.” I’m forever so grateful and so lucky to be part of a production like that.

SPOILER: You’re killing it right now! Is there a plan in your mind for the future? JADE MA: [laughs] Not at all! I’ve always kinda wanted to approach my career as, “Let’s just see where it takes me and see how I fit into this industry.” With an industry like this, it’s not really something you can plan. Because it’s not up to you 90% of the time. So I want to keep an open mind and see where my career takes me and I’ve just been incredibly fortunate so far.

SPOILER: Do you have a preference between working in TV or film? JADE MA: Honestly at this point in my career, I’m not super picky. I’m very open to both. I’d actually love to be able to do both in the span of my career.

SPOILER: Do you feel that the superhero genre is dominating these days? JADE MA: I think there’s room for everything at this point. Everything’s gonna have a slightly different fanbase. So of course superhero shows and films have such a large fanbase, and they should because they’re so great. But there’s also a lot of shows that are on Netflix like The Queen’s Gambit or Bridgerton that have a very different fanbase. So I think there’s really something for everybody out there.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JADE MA: Possibly. I’m open to the idea of it. I wouldn’t say a hard “yes” or “no” at this point. But I’m open to the idea of there being things out there that we don’t know about yet. But I’ve never experienced things personally—that I know of.