Leah Cairns

Leah Cairns
PerformerRDM
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Portrays:	Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson
Date of Birth:	June 02, 1974
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month! ,
Age:	51
Nationality:	CAN
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Official Site (archived)
IMDb profile

Leah Cairns (born June 2, 1974) is a Canadian film and television actress who portrayed Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson in the Re-imagined Series.

Born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Cairns grew up in Kamloops, B.C., with dreams of becoming a professional dancer. She was named after a Roy Orbison song that her mother loved. She began dancing at age 3 and trained intensively in ballet, jazz, and tap for 13 years, dancing six days a week until she was 16.

Those dreams were dashed when she broke her back in a car accident at age 16, when she was hit by a drunk driver on the highway in her hometown. She spent a month in the hospital undergoing major back surgery, during which her back was wired and rods were placed in her spine, followed by three months in a brace. Despite returning to dance for one final year, the pain ultimately forced her to quit.

When her dance team went to the North American Championship for the first time ever in her graduating year, rather than stay at home while they competed, she headed off to Costa Rica on an environmental research trip, starting an eight-year backpacking odyssey that took her to 36 countries. The extensive travel experience profoundly influenced her acting approach, as she noted: "During 8 years of travel I met every kind of person imaginable... I've never come upon a character, that I've auditioned for or played, that I was like 'I don't understand that person' because I've met all kinds." She spent significant time in India, including volunteering at a children's orphanage in South India and working on building projects in Ladakh. During her travels, she also worked as an English teacher in Japan, where she developed programs for teaching toddlers and babies, and worked as a hostess to finance her travels. Between her travels, she completed just over two years of university credits at the University of Victoria, pursuing a double major in Environmental Studies and Geography before ultimately deciding her travel experiences were more educational than formal study.

Prior to returning to Canada, she stumbled into an improv class at an ashram in India, where she began her acting career after being encouraged by the instructor who mistook her for a professional actress. She attended the improv night simply because it was the only activity on the ashram's bulletin board that she understood, with all other events being spiritual activities unfamiliar to her. When she returned to Vancouver, she enrolled in an acting class "just for fun" and realized she was just as capable as the professionals, leading her to seek representation and begin working professionally.

Career

Cairns earned her first on-screen credit for her work on The Chris Isaak Show in 2002. Her first acting class had been only five years prior, with her very first audition taking place on September 11, 2001.

She has appeared in CTV's comedy series Robson Arms and as a regular on the CITY-TV comedy series Godiva's as Jenna, a waitress and dancer. The role was particularly relatable to Cairns, as she had worked in restaurants throughout her travels and continued serving tables in Vancouver while building her acting career, describing herself as "a fantastic waitress." For her performance in Godiva's, she received a Leo Award nomination in 2006 for Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series.

Moosehead Beer commercial airing in 2003 featuring Warnyca (left) and Leah Cairns (right).

She appeared in a Moosehead beer commercial alongside future Battlestar Galactica colleague Allison Warnyca, which was filmed during Halloween in freezing conditions. The commercial featured three women discovering a secret lake and preparing to swim, unaware that three men had the same idea from the opposite side. The shoot proved extremely challenging, as it was filmed on Halloween day in temperatures around 1°C (-1°C), requiring the actors to pretend it was a hot summer day. The cast had been sent to tanning salons beforehand to achieve a summer look, but Cairns ended up with sunburn, making the removal of tight clothing over exposed skin particularly painful in the freezing conditions. The male actors had to repeatedly jump into the frigid lake with paramedics standing by due to hypothermia concerns, while the actresses had to endure having cold water thrown on them while nearly naked in sub-zero temperatures. This commercial shoot marked the beginning of her friendship with Warnyca, and they later worked together again on I Want to Marry Ryan Banks. Warnyca described the commercial experience as "my worst acting experience ever" due to the extremely cold weather conditions, noting they were sent to a tanning salon beforehand which resulted in sunburn that made removing their clothes painful.

In February 2003, Cairns starred in the music video "Taking My Life Away" by Canadian band Default, which was filmed in a loft underneath the Granville Street Bridge in Vancouver. The song later won a SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers of Canada) Number One Award.

Cairns appeared opposite actor Al Pacino in the feature film 88 Minutes, as well as in a recurring role on the TNT television series Saved. She also appeared in the pilot for the web-based series Sanctuary, as a character who became the basis of the witches of William Shakespeare's MacBeth. She also starred as Emily Hollander in Season 2 of Kyle XY. She noted the contrast of this role, joking that on Kyle XY she didn't "wear a helmet, a rubber flight suit or get naked so its a whole new world for me!"

Her most prominent role in film came in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014), where she appeared alongside Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. She also had a significant role opposite Al Pacino in 88 Minutes, which included a memorable dance scene that she helped choreograph. Director Jon Avnet specifically sought her out for her dance background, and she essentially wrote her own scene during the audition process.

Following Battlestar, she appeared in the genre series Travelers as Kathryn "Kat" MacLaren over three seasons from 2016 to 2018. She has also founded a production company called Arabesque Pictures with friend Orsolya Szabo, which has produced documentary films. She has expressed interest in making documentaries about life in India, stating "Pick one...any one.... they all fascinate me."

Cairns has been active in science fiction conventions, appearing at events such as FedCon XVII in Bonn, Germany in April 2008, where she appeared alongside fellow Battlestar Galactica cast members Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Nicki Clyne, and Michelle Forbes. During the convention, she conducted Q&A panels and shared behind-the-scenes stories, including anecdotes about cast pranks and the technical aspects of filming in the Raptor sets.

Battlestar Galactica

Cairns was one of the many actresses who auditioned for the role of Number Six, which later went to Tricia Helfer. She expressed gratitude for not getting the Six role, stating "Thank god I didn't get it because I can't imagine anyone but Tricia playing Six." Her audition for the Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson role was particularly challenging, as she found science fiction difficult to perform without understanding the universe's context. Her husband helped her prepare by showing her scenes from Top Gun to understand the pilot dialogue and aerial combat context. During the audition itself, she accidentally ran into a bathroom door and injured her eye, causing involuntary blinking and tears throughout her performance, yet still won the role.

She first appeared as Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson in the Re-imagined Series season one episode "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II," initially intended as a one-episode character. However, the production team liked Cairns' performance so much that Racetrack became a recurring role throughout the series. Edward James Olmos predicted her return after filming her first episode, telling her "See you next year!" when she insisted it was only a one-episode appearance.

Cairns has expressed a desire for Racetrack to become a viper pilot, noting "I definitely think the first thing I would do is make her a viper pilot. Definitely! I really want to fly vipers!" She has speculated about her character's psychology, believing Racetrack's hard exterior hides pain, saying "My gut feeling is that she is hiding a huge amount of pain and that the crusty exterior is just her way of protecting herself." Despite her desire for character development, she has expressed concerns about the show's tendency to kill off characters who receive more screen time, joking that she would prefer to stay alive and continue receiving scripts.

Cairns developed her own backstory for Racetrack, later incorporating elements from fan fiction that she felt improved upon her original concept. She confirmed that the "urban legend" about her reading Helo and Racetrack fan fiction and incorporating it into her performance was "absolutely true." She and Tahmoh Penikett worked to develop an implied romantic subplot between Racetrack and Helo through improvisation before and after scenes, though much of this material was edited out of the final episodes.

Cairns became a devoted fan of the show, describing herself as "the hugest Battlestar Galactica fan" who refuses to miss the Sunday night broadcasts or watch episodes after everyone else has seen them.

Personal Life

Cairns has been married to Kevin Hawryluk since July 24, 2004. She has one younger sister, Lindsay, who was a model. Her mother works with mentally challenged seniors and her father is a salesman.

Cairns has traveled extensively, including multiple trips to Germany. She visited Berlin in 1993 and Munich in 2006, expressing particular fondness for Berlin and interest in exploring the German countryside in future visits. She also had a memorable experience visiting Prague, where a visa mix-up at the border resulted in her and a friend being issued what turned out to be fake visas by border guards, leading to complications on both entry and exit from the Czech Republic. Despite the bureaucratic difficulties, she "LOVED" Prague and described the architecture as the most beautiful she had ever seen.

Leah Cairns with her chihuahua, Godiva, during filming of the Re-imagined Series.

Cairns' hobbies include scuba diving, rock climbing, horseback riding, skiing and salsa dancing. She owns a long-haired chihuahua named "Godiva," who appeared with Cairns in the film Coffee Diva and received an IMDb credit. The dog was named after her Godiva's role, as she received the pet and booked the show on the same day.

On February 9, 2020, she informed her fans of her fight with stage 3 breast cancer, which she had been diagnosed with after starting her first acting job since Travelers. Attributing a supportive cast and crew on that production for helping her while undergoing chemotherapy, she was able to complete her work there. As of that announcement, she noted that she had finished 3 of the 8 chemotherapy treatments, which would segue into surgery, radiation treatment, and an additional 17 weeks of post-surgery treatments.

References