My First Principal Role

Posted by Paige Kriet
            I don’t know that I’ll ever forget the day that I was cast for my first principal role. I was in the middle of a class and probably shouldn’t have been on my phone, but something in that moment told me to check my email. When I did, I was greeted by a congratulatory message letting me know that I was being offered a role in a film’s opening scene. Not just any opening scene, at that, but a story straight out of my childhood.
            As a kid I always had an obsession for all things creepy and strange, so when I learned what a Ouija board was, you can bet that’s where my allowance went for that month.

         With this Ouija board a couple of friends and I managed to drum up a completely false entity that came completely out of my clever friends imagination. She scared the hell out of my friend Rachael and I and we ran screaming through the house, disturbing my mother who was watching reality TV on the couch. In receiving this part, it was amazing to me that I would identify so much with my first character to play.
            Of course I was a little nervous on shooting day. I had a class presentation that Thursday morning and had to leave to Lawton straight from there. Once on the highway I was greeted by THREE, yes, three, tolls that required exact change I didn’t even have. I already felt vastly unprepared. It wasn’t the best way to start off a groundbreaking day, but once I actually got to Lawton and met my fellow actors, I knew it was all going to be just fine.
            Matt was great at creating an open environment so we could all get to know each other before we shot. The girls were incredibly welcoming and we laughed for the majority of the way we drove to shoot. We had some hiccups. It was much windier than we had anticipated and a huge yellow CAT grader just so happened to be working on the same road in the middle of nowhere where we shot that day… But it just added to the experience. This was an incredible group to shoot with and I am so grateful that my first professional experience with acting was with this one.

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