Yellowjackets' Kevin Alves on his journey from figure skater to actor

Q17:46Kevin Alves on starring in Yellowjackets

As an actor, Yellowjackets star Kevin Alves thrives when things are unpredictable.

"From the beginning of the show, I told the creators I don't need to know anything except for stuff from [my character's] past that we're going to find out about in the future," he told Q's Tom Power in an interview.

Yellowjackets follows a team of talented female soccer players who end up stranded in the Canadian wilderness following a plane crash. Alves plays a young Travis Martinez, the son of the team's head coach.

The actor said understanding Travis's repressed emotional trauma was key to his portrayal of the character.

"It was really important to go back to what kind of life skills did I really have at 13,14, 15 — those adolescent years," he said. "Travis is … in a world in 1996 that expected him to hide all his feelings and never say anything that wasn't strong, and so he does that."

"That's how he acts and he doesn't talk much with everyone, but when he does speak, it's aggressive."

Cult fandom

As a puzzle box show, Yellowjackets has inspired a lot of online fan theories from its cult following.

"My favourite part about the show is that every time I meet someone who watches it, it's usually because someone bugged them to watch it," said Alves. "It's like a cool way to know that passionate fans are making the thing."

Now in its second season, the show has even garnered some celebrity fans, including the likes of Stephen King. 

"Stephen King's legendary.… You respect some of these people so much like Stephen," said Alves. 

WATCH | Kevin Alves's interview with Tom Power:

Sport as performance

Despite his success, Alves has remained humble — and part of that might have to do with his previous career as a figure skater.

"I'll be honest, I think skating has helped my acting career in too many ways to even count," he said. "The biggest ones I would say is the discipline that I gained from the sport allows me to really be committed to whatever I have to do."

At one point in his skating career, Alves was ranked top 30 in the world for his class. His career as a figure skater also opened him up to cultures around the world.

"I got to, at the age of 16 to 20, experience so many people and cultures and differences — I think it really opened up my mind," he said.

As a young boy, Alves was inspired to pursue the sport after seeing Canadian legend Kurt Browning skate while mimicking a clown. 

"I was dying, I was laughing hysterically in the stands," he recalled. "I told my mom that next week that I wanted to skate.… I think I just really liked the performance side of it."

For Alves, skating created a resilience that he's brought to his acting career. 

"I fell on my face multiple times in front of 5,000 people," he said. "So if I mess up a take, that's not even close to falling."

The full interview with Kevin Alves is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Kevin Alves produced by Vanessa Greco.