Several months ago Caroline Horn was just another cute and brainy seventh-grader at Travis Elementary School, but since being plucked from obscurity by Dallas-based movie producer Brandon Freeman for a role in his film “Skateland”, the 12-year-old Lakewood resident has been rubbing elbows with Hollywood’s young celebrities.
“Ashley Green [most famous for her role in ‘Twilight’] was in the movie, but I didn’t get to actually meet a lot of [the other actors] until the premiere,” Horn says.
Because “Skateland” premiered at the world famous Sundance Film Festival, she had her fill of Gen Y star sightings.
“I saw America Ferrera [‘Ugly Betty’], Zoey Deshanel [‘Almost Famous’ and ‘Elf’] and Jessica Alba,” recalls Horn. “It was so much fun. I had to go to a cast party and I had to get these paparazzi photos taken — the flash was really bright.”
Her small role required her to take just a couple days off of school to shoot in East Texas.
“The movie is about this guy, Richie, and it’s sort of a coming- of-age film … I play a kid whose babysitter throws a party at the house, and my line, I’m talking to my brother, and I say, ‘What about me?’ And then, ‘Mom thinks it’s too dangerous!’ That’s it.”
Both Horn and her mom, Shawne Horn, say that it was a little strange seeing a younger Caroline on the big screen.
“She was barely 11 when they shot the movie, so it was bizarre. She has changed so much since then,” Shawne Horn says.
Caroline Horn agrees with a laugh, “I looked like a chubby cheeked little kid.” Though it was one of the best experiences ever, Caroline Horn says, she doesn’t plan to pursue acting as a career, necessarily. “If I get another opportunity to act, I would take it, but for now I am just concentrating on making good grades.”
The movie, which will screen this month at South by Southwest film and music festival in Austin, was a great work, Shawne Horn says.
“Brandon (Freeman) did such a great job — for anyone who lived in the late ‘80s roller rink days, they did a fantastic job of capturing that.”
