CANADA COURIER

by Christopher Guly

From Vancouver with love

Out in cyberspace, thanks to America Online, Allison Warren, 32, is letting the world know of her Ukrainian heritage. Her maternal roots originate in Ukraine through the Syrnyk (her grandfather's family name) and Popovich clans.

Ms. Warren's paternal roots, meanwhile, are British West Indian, with a historic Welsh connection. Her father's family name is Pidduck. Dad now lives in Antigua, but was born on the Caribbean island of Dominica. His family is descended from late 18th century British naval hero Viscount Horatio Nelson.

But Ms. Warren speaks neither Welsh nor Ukrainian. "When I was a kid, my grandparents read [Ukrainian] books to me," she says.

Now that you know about Ms. Warren's roots, Ms. Warren would like the world, particularly the Hollywood film industry, to know about her acting abilities.

In the early 1980s, the Vancouver-based actor began her show business career as a model. Ms. Warren appeared in a few student films before moving to Antigua, where her father owns a riding stable of 16 horses and where she immersed herself in the equestrian world.

Ms. Warren began riding horses when she was a child - earning top ribbons in English stadium jumping and dressage (the execution of precise movements by a horse in response to barely audible signals from its rider).

She returned in 1990 to Canada where she attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and obtained her undergraduate degree in theater and film acting. More training followed, including master classes in the classic Stanislavski method with the Moscow Art Theater's Alexei Batalov.

But the "big break" largely eluded Ms. Warren. Mostly, she did stunt work, including an appearance in the recent, and largely forgettable, Tom Arnold vehicle, "Carpool."

However, Arthur Hiller directed the movie, which is significant, considering he also serves as president of the Screen Actors Guild, of which Ms. Warren is a member. He told her an actress who could do her own stunts carries considerable capital in the industry today. "A lot of women are starting to take more of an active role in stunts, like Geena Davis," says the green-eyed brunette.

Recently, Ms. Warren's fortune did turn around when she had a small role in the science-fiction series, "Millennium," which stars veteran actor Lance Henriksen and was created by the immensely successful Chris Carter - who is also responsible for the award-winning TV series, "The X Files." Both shows, along with such other supernatural-oriented series as "The Outer Limits" and "Poltergeist," are shot in rainy, gloomy looking Vancouver.

In that sense, Ms. Warren is well-situated, whether she wants her career to follow a path into the outer limits of subject matter or not. Vancouver has become the West Coast Canadian version of Hollywood moviemaking and has matched Toronto as a city for film shoots.

But Ms. Warren also has set her sights on another, more distant location: Ukraine.

She bubbles as she explains how the opening scenes in last year's "Mission: Impossible," starring Tom Cruise, were filmed in Kyiv, and that Chinese martial artist/movie star Jackie Chan shot his latest movie in Ukraine. "There's a sort of allure and intrigue with the Soviet era, so I would definitely consider the kind of role that would involve playing a spy," she says.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 20, 1997, No. 16, Vol. LXV

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