Secrets Of A Star Trooper
For Kristen Cloke, known to millions od viewers as space marine Shane Vansen in Fox's series Space: Above And Beyond, battling aliens and living aboard the gritty intergalactic battleship the USS Saratoga is the latest step in a lifelong career which has required dedication, persistence and downright hard work.
The actress explains: "My acting
career has been a gradual process - not an overnight success. As a child
I was always organizing, co-ordinating and directing plays in my local neighbourhood
- something which I absoutely loved. When the time came to enter college,
I initially studied psychology at California Stat University at Northridge
- but during my third year the English Department asked me to be in th eHonors
Program. SO I worte millions of papers for my enlgish and acting classes
and did all the theatre that I could possibly do." Golden Advice
Once she found an agent, a close friend offered Cloke, who graced the stage with her presence in such productions as Crimes Of The Heart, golden advice which would have a massive impact on the rest of her life.
"Basically, my friend told me that I couldn't do two things at once, but I replied that I needed osmething to fall back on," she continues. "Well when he warned me that I would always fall back if I created fallbacks, I decided to quit school and become a full time actress."
As Cloke recalls, her parents were far from overjoyed when she announced her aspirations at a family breakfast one sunny morning. "My parents, who are native Californians, never thought that I would pursue acting as a full time career because, although they never doubted my dedication, they knew about the cold and competitive nature of the entertainment business. So they were just a little bit worried."
But the highly competitive and sometimes cold nature of the entertainment business played no part in preventing an ambitious Cloke from pursuing her lifelong goals. Dozens of acting classes later, persistence and positive thinking paid off in the form of her first major role, a bomb specialist defecting from the army, in the action-adventure/Billy Zane starrer, Megaville.
Heading For The Stars
"After taking all those acting classes around town, watching people work and observng where the camera is placed, I was saying to myself 'This is it! This is my big break! Here I am!'"
Cloke's road to success continued hwen she appeared as May-Beth, a divorced mother of three and secretary to Ed Begley, Jr's character on the series Winnetka Road, starred as clothing designer and former model Annie Overstreet in TV's ever popular Silk Stalkings, guest starred on such shows as Cheers, Quantum Leap and Murder She Wrote and grabbed up lead roles in the feature films Caged Fear and Stay Tuned.
"While I was shooting Winnetka Road Ed Begley, Jr. and I were laughing about how every movie is supposed to be our best film. On every set we always hear [from producers] 'Oh I saw the dailies today. You're going to be a huge star when this movie comes out. Don't forget me, when you're famous.' In reality, however, we watch the movie and it's horrible. So more often than not, it's a matter of 'Let's go back to the drawing board until the next project comes up.'"
Though she admits that she was never a massive Science Fiction fan, Cloke who occasionally watched the classic Star Trek series as a child, was especially attracted to Space: Above And Beyond because she felt that Glen Morgan and James Wong's universe reached beyond many current Sci-Fi shows. <
"When they hear that you're on a Sci-Fi series, people tend to say, 'Well, do you wear a lot of prosthetics?'," observes a somewhat amused Cloke. "Obviously, I don't wear any prosthetics on this show. And to be quite honest, I perceive this as a war show - instead of a Science Fiction series. Glen and James are more interested in the dramatic and human aspects of war and its repercussions than the speed of thrusters and space transport capabilites."
"Every pilot season you're barraged with a ton of shows, many of which are too good," CLoke adds. "Then you say, 'Is there any value in it for me as an actress?' But this show is very well written and it provides me with the opportunity to play Shane Vansen as a loyal person who is only too proud to be part of the space Marine Corps."
A Tragic Heroine
As fans of
the show will undoubtedly know, Vansen's personal history is scarred
by tragedy and loss - thanks to AIs, human-looking robots built to fight
in an ongoing and incredibly vicious war against the aliens, which brutally
murdered her parents during childhood. "A virus which was placed into
the AIs' heads by the doctor who created them caused a rebellion among
their ranks and, in turn, lead to a seperate war with the AIs," Cloke
notes. "In Dark Side Of The Sun, the second episode, she gets
revenge on the AIs but she doesn't stop having nightmatres about her
parents' deaths - so the moral of that episode says, 'Hey, your demons
are you demons and you just can't revenge pain'. And I really don't
think that you overcome the loss of anyone - especially your parents
- something fuels her determination to be strong. That's why I think
she'll always hold a personal vendetta against the AIs." Ever since she signed on for her galactic tour of duty, Vansen has struck up an emotional and special comradeship with Nathan West (Morgan Weisser) - who becomes seperated from his girl-friend, Kylen, after his place in a colonization programme is given to an In Vitro - part of a race of humanoids hatsched from test tubes. Cloke firmly believes that there is a rock strong unspoken understanding between the two star troopers.
"Sometimes special moments shared by Shane and Nathan are solely based on a certain look which passes from Shane to nathan or vice versa - so each person knows exactly what the other person is thinking," Cloke expands.
"In Dark Side Of The Sun, there's a great scene where we end up in a tunnel after being attacked by a bunch of AIs. We've lost a couple of Marines and I'm sitting there completely shell-shocked and unable to move or speak. But, because an oder needs to be given, Nathan looks at Shane and Shane, who is basically saying 'Help', looks back at Nathan without opening her mouth. Then, Nathan charges out the order."
Marooned Thoughts
The special
closeness between the two characters also comes into play during The
Enemy, in which the Marines find themselves marooned on a planet
where the aliens tap into their darkest and most unexplored fears. "In one scene, Nathan thinks he hears Kylen, his lost girlfriend, calling him - but Vansen pulls him back nad says, 'Nathan, you know you'll find her.' Well, obviously, that's a very short statement - but, because it comes from Shane's lips, he totally udnerstands it and realizes that the aliens are preying upon his fears to deceive him into believing that Kylen is out there."
Cloke remembers The Enenmy as a very tense and daunting episode and firmly believes that the story provided the life thread for a special and ever-lasting bonding between ehrself and her fellow cast emmbers - Lanei Chapman, who plays Vanessa Damphousse, Joel de la Fuente, otherwise known as Paul Wang, Rodney Rowland, alias Cooper Hawkes and the aforementioned Weisser.
Confronting Fears
"As I've indicated, Nathan fears Kyeln's fate, Damphousse fears blood, cooper fears claustrophobia, Wang fears cockroaches and I fear the dark - so we had to really confront those fears in our characters and get in touch with our inner selves to experience those feelings for real. Taht way we would really convince the audience that everything we were experiencing was real. I'll never forget that day as long as I live because we all got one another through the experience. As a result, I've gained a tremendous amount of admiration and repsect for everyone who works on the show."
Maintaining a solid lifeline to the fans, meanwhile, the actress and her fellow stars often participate in lively on-line chat sessions via the internet.
"We've done chat on the special Space page," she says. "People seem to like Shane because she's this strong and determined person who doesn't hide under the hat of being a woman. And they definitely trust and believe in this Marine who has a kind soul and a wonderful heart so I think tht's a real compliment."
"We also
have a big female following on-line - but users appear to comment about
the male character more often than the female characters," Cloke continues.
"Instead of being stereotypical brainless hunks, they really do see
these characters as warm and interesting men." The ability to play a realistic and battle-hardened character and the fans' positive and encouraging feedback is a solid mix which makes Kristen Cloke more than just a bit happy with the direction in which her career is speedily moving.
"Ultimately, I'd like to be able to pick and choose projects and have some sort of control over those things which do and don't appeal to me. I'd love to do features, play a zillion different parts and go from personality and personality while working with different types of people. I think that would be an incredible achievement, but, for right now, I try to remain happy, shoot for my goals and do the best job possible. After all, that's what it's all about."
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