"Ice skating is very difficult. It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of hard work. It's fun, but you are there on the ice every morning freezing and trying to do these moves and these tricks"
About this Quote
Trachtenberg punctures the glossy fantasy of figure skating with the bluntest possible detail: the fun part is real, but it’s rationed out after hours of cold toes and repetitive failure. The line works because it refuses the inspirational poster version of discipline. “Very difficult” and “a lot” aren’t poetic; they’re deliberately plain, the kind of language you reach for when you’re trying to be taken seriously about something people assume is effortless or cute. Coming from an actress, that’s a quiet bid for credibility: she’s not selling magic, she’s testifying to labor.
The subtext is about performance culture more broadly. Skating is an aesthetic sport that demands you make suffering invisible; you smile while your body bargains with gravity. Trachtenberg emphasizes “every morning freezing” because it’s the opposite of glamour. It’s also a subtle correction to how audiences consume beauty: we’re trained to applaud the finished routine, not the thousand mornings that built it.
Context matters here: Trachtenberg played a figure skater in Ice Princess, a Disney-era pipeline of “girl power” stories that often sanded down the grinding parts of excellence into montage. Her quote functions like a behind-the-scenes caption, insisting that the narrative isn’t self-discovery alone; it’s repetition, discipline, and bodily discomfort. “It’s fun, but...” is the hinge. The “but” is where the truth lives, and it’s aimed at anyone who confuses polished performance with ease.
The subtext is about performance culture more broadly. Skating is an aesthetic sport that demands you make suffering invisible; you smile while your body bargains with gravity. Trachtenberg emphasizes “every morning freezing” because it’s the opposite of glamour. It’s also a subtle correction to how audiences consume beauty: we’re trained to applaud the finished routine, not the thousand mornings that built it.
Context matters here: Trachtenberg played a figure skater in Ice Princess, a Disney-era pipeline of “girl power” stories that often sanded down the grinding parts of excellence into montage. Her quote functions like a behind-the-scenes caption, insisting that the narrative isn’t self-discovery alone; it’s repetition, discipline, and bodily discomfort. “It’s fun, but...” is the hinge. The “but” is where the truth lives, and it’s aimed at anyone who confuses polished performance with ease.
Quote Details
| Topic | Training & Practice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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