Alex Cohen, host of KPCC-FM's "All Things Considered," has an alter ego. Her name is Axles of Evil, and she's the roller-derby trainer who taught Ellen Page, director Drew Barrymore (who also appears on-screen in the movie) and the other actresses in the cast how to roll for "Whip It."
Being surrounded by thespians is familiar territory for the New York-born, Los Angeles-raised Cohen, who attended a performing arts high school. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in religious studies, Cohen held a series of odd jobs -- bartender, parade float builder, temp in city hall -- before heading overseas to teach English.
"I was teaching in this tiny village in the middle of nowhere in southern rural Japan and started to realize, once I was away from it, how much I really missed news and knowing what was going on," Cohen said. "And that launched an interest in journalism. I went back to school at UC Berkeley and got my master's in journalism there a little over 10 years ago now. And I've been doing radio ever since."
Cohen was in Austin, Texas, to do a story on roller derby when she recognized her affinity for the sport. "I was really bummed out that there wasn't a roller-derby league in Los Angeles," she said. "I was like, 'This is totally the thing for me. I used to roller skate as a kid, and these women are the kind of women I like hanging out with, and this is such an empowering sport.' "
A couple of months later, she was at an art gallery in Los Feliz, and her husband found a flier recruiting skaters for a brand new roller-derby league in Los Angeles. Today, Axles of Evil is an L.A. Derby Doll, co-author of a forthcoming book on roller derby and the trainer for "Whip It." "I knew from square one: 'OK, this is what I'm doing now,' " she says. " 'I'm hooked.' "
Precarious positions: To the uninitiated, roller derby might look like an undifferentiated pack of skaters in campy costumes moving counter-clockwise around a banked track. There are actually two separate teams and three distinct positions -- only the "jammers" can score points by lapping their opponents. "I'll play jammer once in a blue moon, but I would much rather hurt people than get hurt, so that's why I like playing blocker," Cohen said. "And there's also a position called pivot, which is the leader of the pack, so to speak. And they're a special class of blocker that's up at the front of the pack and determines the speed. I like playing pivot because it's a thinking woman's position."
