ABC Family is always at the centre of ground breaking television for teens especially, and their new series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, is no exception.
The new scripted drama is about Chloe King, who is looking forward to celebrating her 16th birthday with friends and family, until she starts developing new abilities and discovers she’s being followed by a mysterious figure. Chloe soon learns she’s part of an ancient race, which has been hunted by human assassins for millennia, and that she may be their only hope for survival. That’s a lot for one 16 year old girl to handle.
I recently got the chance to interview the adorable Skyler Samuels (The Gates), who plays Chloe King, and she had some great insight into this new series, which starts on June 14th, at 9/8c on ABC Family.
Let’s see what this adorable girl had to say.
What to expect this season
Well, this first season of The Nine Lives of Chloe King is filled with adventures, thrills, romance, comedy, and drama, and a lot of heartfelt relationships. There is nothing predictable about this first season. It’s filled with a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and it will leave you on the edge of your seat.
On how she became involved in the show
I had an audition for this show back in the fall of 2010, and I went in and I just fell in love. I loved the pilot before, and I was just, I was just in love with the script. Chloe and I have so much in common. I could hear my own voice in the things she said and did.
And a super-embarrassing story—when I walked in on the audition, I introduced myself as Chloe. I was totally embarrassed because I accidently said Chloe instead of my own name, but sure enough, they agreed, because here I am playing Chloe King, and I’m having the time of my life.
Did she read the books?
I have read the books. I read them before we started the pilot to get a little bit of a background about the show. But in all honesty, we’ve taken a lot of creative liberties with the books and our adaptations of the TV show. We kind of have a lot of the same basic ideas as the books—some of the mythology, a lot of the main characters are still the same. But we’ve taken a lot of liberties in making it more exciting, and more action-oriented, and really spicing it up. So I think that the fans of the book will really appreciate what we’ve done with the show.
On whether after being on The Gates, she’s more drawn to supernatural shows
I had a great time working on The Gates, and that was my first kind of real experience doing supernatural television—working with the special effects and the storylines and everything that goes into making a supernatural show. It was kind of complete coincidence that I ended up on The Nine Lives of Chloe King.
I guess I must be subconsciously drawn to the supernatural realm, but I’ve had a lot of fun, and one character—each character is not like the rest. They’re all different, and they all have different powers and abilities. I’ve had a really fun time following the supernatural, and I’m certainly enjoying the experience.
What cat-like superpower would she want in real life?
You can tell the cats at the office I’m jealous of the claws. I wish I had claws, just because how cool would that be? But among my cat-like powers, I also would probably like to have super speed, just so I can get more done in a day. It seems like a much more practical superpower to me.
On her guilty TV pleasure
Oh, my goodness. My guilty pleasure TV show would have to be Glee. I’m weirdly addicted to the show, and I couldn’t explain it to you if I tried. I’ve never been a big musical buff or anything, but I find myself week after week, no matter what, tuning into Glee. So that’s definitely my TV go-see pleasure.
Note from Megan: I don’t blame her, that show is addictive, and of course, one of my favorites.
Describe Chloe
Sure. Well, Chloe is definitely more of a superhero than a supernatural creature. On her 16th birthday, when she discovered that she’s got these heightened abilities—the super speed, super hearing, and these claws, and she’s got, you know, the ability to read peoples’ feelings. This incredible combination kind of leads Chloe to want to help people who are in trouble.
So even though Chloe finds herself running from bad guys and the ones who are trying to kill her because I’m this special girl who can die nine times and people are trying to see if it’s true, and they’re trying to get rid of me and the rest of our feline race, the Mai. Chloe still finds herself trying to help people and save peoples’ lives using her heightened abilities. So she’s constantly torn between the chase and having to save the day.
Character traits that she shares with Chloe
Chloe and I are both kind of quirky, odd balls out that don’t exactly go with the status quo. We’re both juniors in high school full time, and we’ve got quirky best friends and awesome relationships with our moms. But I think the biggest difference and the thing I admire most about Chloe is her willingness to just be adventurous, and take a risk, and do these incredible things. So, Chloe’s like Skyler, but amplified and I kind of love it.
Why should people watch, even if supernatural shows aren’t their cup of tea?
Well, I think that the really cool thing about The Nine Lives of Chloe King is that while it has a lot of supernatural elements and Chloe is kind of a superhero, herself, it is not all about the supernatural. I mean, this show, week-to-week, deals with the struggles of Chloe trying to manage her relationship with her mom. Her mom’s a single mom trying to raise a teenage girl, and so that presents a lot of difficulties, as in what that brings when her mom starts dating, and how does Chloe feel about getting a new dad, and how can she maintain relationships with her friends in high school as they go through all these changes?
And how can you maintain a relationship with a boy you really like if you can’t really be with him. There’s a lot of realistic, really grounded, heartfelt relationships and dynamics on this show to the point where the supernatural elements don’t even strike you. It’s like it all just seems to blend in and make sense.
Her favorite moment filming so far
Well, there’s been a lot of really cool favorite moments, but I think one of the most incredible scenes that we’ve done was in our third episode, we shot underwater, and I was chained up underwater for part of the episode. That was probably the most exciting and frightening thing I’ve ever done, but it was absolutely incredible.
Every week, we’ve got all these big fight sequences, and that one happened to involve an underwater element, which I thought was so fun. And it was absolutely incredible to film.
Her favorite moment from filming the pilot
When we were filming the pilot, there was a scene when we were filming in the school. Ben Stone, who plays Alek—he’s kind of this tall, beautiful, searing, most popular boy in school—comes walking down the hall bouncing a basketball, and he’s throwing it over my head while I’m talking to my best friend, trying to get my attention.
When we were filming, he accidentally missed and got us both in the face with the basketball. Though it kind of hurt, it was absolutely hilarious. We both had the word Spalding indented on our foreheads, and it was very funny. To this day, we give him a hard time about it, but it was kind of a fun bonding experience that we still keep with us.
What she’s learnt about herself so far
That’s such a wonderful and complex question. Being a part of The Nine Lives of Chloe King has absolutely changed my life. In so many ways, Chloe has really opened up this new courageous, brave side of me that I didn’t know I was capable of.
I couldn’t say that I had a fear of heights, because never before was I running on top of buildings and doing the things that Chloe does. But sure enough, being there, sometimes I would think, “Gee, I’m 15 stories above ground level, and now I’m going to jump across a roof. This is a little frightening.”
But every episode I do it, and to think that I’ve been able to accomplish all of these magnificent things is really incredible. But Chloe, also, throughout her emotional transformation on the show; the things she has gone through and experienced, she’s just kind of taught me a lot about myself and life, and to enjoy and take risks. I mean, Chloe teaches me things every day. It’s a never-ending list.
That’s all for now with this lovely and intriguing young actress. Be sure to tune into ABC Family tonight at 9/8c to see the pilot of The Nine Lives of Chloe King, and then please let us know what you thought of it!
