Interview: Skyler Samuels From ‘The Nine Lives Of Chloe King’

We had the pleasure of chatting with Skyler Samuels who stars as Chloe in ABC Family’s The Nine Lives of Chloe King! Skyler talked with us about the challenges of playing Chloe, how she became involved in the project, her guilty pleasure TV shows, and more! Check it out below!

How did you become involved in the project?

Skyler 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.

I’m curious if you read the books to sort of prepare for your role.

Skyler 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.

Has it been a challenge for you playing sort of an element of the supernatural?

Skyler Playing a supernatural is more realistic than I thought it would be. It’s a lot of fun, absolutely, because having super hearing and super vision and super speed and all of the super things you can have is certainly not normal, and it’s a lot of fun. But on this show, it always comes back to something very realistic that I can relate to from my own life. So it’s been not as difficult as I thought it would be to play the supernatural. It’s been quite fun and easy.

You were on The Gates, and I love that show. I was wondering is there any kind of conscious attempt on your part to play in supernatural-type TV shows, or did it just work out that way?

Skyler 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 character traits of Chloe King that mimics your own?

Skyler 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.

Is there any characteristic of Chloe that is complex that you had to take time to adjust to it?

Skyler I think Chloe definitely has challenged me as far as the situations that she goes through. Chloe is always involved in situations where it’s life and death, and I think having to put myself in the fear factor mode is definitely a challenge. But it’s been really interesting trying to adapt to that and trying to get into Chloe’s head and be like, “What does it feel like to be in this life and death situation? What would I do? How would I handle it?” So that’s definitely been a challenge; but a fun one.

Have you had a chance to see many of the episodes yet, yourself?

Skyler No, I’ve seen the first episode; the pilot, which is very cool. But I’ve seen little bits and pieces and I work all the time. But, we just started episode eight this week, and it’s amazing to me, because looking back at what the pilot is, it’s like a completely different show.

I mean, the pilot is exciting, and it’s both thrill and adventure. But when I look at where we’ve come now—I mean this season has just taken the most incredible twists and turns. I think our audience is going to be really pleased with how this season ends.

In watching the pilot, and also just in shooting it, do you think it feels kind of more like a supernatural show, or an adventure show, or a teen series? Or does it have kind of more a lean one way or another, or is it just a big blend?

Skyler Well, when I first saw the pilot I cried. I was so excited at what I saw. I mean, making it, I had the most incredible time, and to see it all put together, it was better than I could have hoped for. It was absolutely magnificent. It had everything that I dreamt and thought it would.

It was filled with real emotion and realistic relationships between my friends, my mom and I, all the people on the show. It’s a very grounded show, and there’s a lot of heart. The action was incredible, andI was like Chloe King is officially the coolest girl I know. There’s just no contest. So I think it totally encompasses everything you’d want in an hour of television.

What is your guilty pleasure TV show?

Skyler 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.

The Nine Lives of Chloe King, premieres tonight, Tuesday June 14 at 9/8c, after the premiere of Pretty Little Liars at 8/7c!

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