When Madelyn Keys went into her audition for the Netflix hit series Finding Her Edge, she tried to temper her expectations. “There are so many auditions, and your rates of success are so low that I try to leave an audition and pretend it never happened,” Keys tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview.
Just in time for the Winter Olympics, Finding Her Edge — based on a Jennifer lacopelli novel inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion — follows an elite figure skater, Adriana Russo (Keys) as she returns to competition to help save her family’s struggling ice rink. But what begins as a comeback story quickly becomes more layered — high-stakes skating, a complicated love triangle, and a family navigating grief, legacy, and pressure under the same roof.
“When I got this audition, I knew very little. It wasn’t called Finding Her Edge at the time, so I didn’t even know it was based off a book,” Keys says. “I knew it was a love triangle, that it was Jane Austen, and that there was figure skating. I was like, ‘This is going to be a great time. I’m in.’” After submitting a self-tape and completing Zoom chemistry reads, her fate was sealed quickly. “That night, I got the call that I got the job,” Keys says.
Now, months later, Keys is still processing the response the show received, climbing into Netflix’s Top 10 shortly after its debut. “It happened incredibly quickly,” Keys says. “It’s been a combination of being so proud of us and so glad so many people get to see the hard work everybody put in on this project, and also, whoa, this is crazy.”
One of the biggest draws of Finding Her Edge is the skating itself. For many viewers, it taps into nostalgia — from The Cutting Edge to Disney’s Ice Princess — but with a sharper competitive edge. To bring the story and ice skating to life, “we have some incredible doubles who do the really complex sequences throughout the show,” Keys says.
The production and actors worked with real-life skating doubles Nadia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont, who handled the most complex routines. “You only have so much time to train,” Keys explains. “To teach these champions a brand-new routine would be incredibly difficult and expensive… so essentially, it was more them teaching us what they already knew, as opposed to us all trying to learn something new at once.”
Of course, aside from the skating, what also ignited the internet was Adriana’s love life. Team Brayden and Team Freddie quickly became part of the show’s identity, with viewers firmly choosing sides. “I’m Team Russo. Through and through,” Keys says with a laugh. However, she still understands why fans are divided. “I love them both as options for Adriana. They both bring out such different sides to her,” she says.
Freddie represents history and something deeper. “He was with her in the last moment she really felt happy, when her mom was still alive,” Keys says. “And Freddie is somebody who is always kind to Adriana, even when he’s upset with her.” Brayden, on the other hand, challenges her in new ways. “Brayden brings out such a passion in her, a spontaneity, a confidence that she really appreciates.”
While the love triangle fuels conversation, the show is just as much about family — particularly Adriana’s complicated relationship with her sister, Elise. “At her core, Adriana just wants Elise to love her,” Keys says. “She really just wants to be her friend, to be supported.”
The tension between them stems from competition, grief, and the pressure of carrying a family legacy. Keys believes Elise’s behavior isn’t simply jealousy. “In single skaters, there can be a stereotype that there’s only room for one,” she says. “I think Elise felt threatened by Adriana at times.” That layered dynamic is what makes the series resonate. No one is purely right or wrong. Everyone is navigating loss differently.
Keys also sees parts of herself in Adriana. “Something we share is a desire to help the people we love, even if our efforts are misguided,” she says. “Adriana is always trying to do what’s best, but she doesn’t always have conversations about what people want. She sort of thinks, ‘This is what’s going to fix it, and I’m going to do it myself.’” She laughs, adding, “I’m very happy to say my family is a lot nicer to me than Adriana’s family is to her.”
With Season 2 confirmed, Keys hints that the stakes will only rise. “There’s got to be some more drama. There’s got to be some more wonderful skating,” she says. “You get to see these characters that you’ve grown to love try and fail and fall again, and see what comes of it.”
For Keys, though, the most meaningful part of the experience wasn’t the skating or the romance. “My favorite part, without question, has been the people,” she says. “When you’re working on something like this all day every day, it becomes its own little family.”And in many ways, that’s what Finding Her Edge captures best: the messy, competitive, complicated kind of family that pushes you, challenges you, and ultimately, shapes who you become.