His screen time was brief, only a few seconds, but for a 12-year-old Langley actor, the chance to appear in one of the biggest movie franchises in history, was pretty darn exciting, indeed.
Pacey Gillespie, a Grade 7 student at Peterson Road Elementary School, made his major motion picture debut on Nov. 16, when Breaking Dawn, Part 2 entered theatres.
In the final film of the wildly popular Twilight series, Pacey plays a young member of the Quileute wolf pack. He doesn’t have any lines, but his character can be easily distinguished. He’s the boy who slips while running down a hill in the forest.
Although filming took place several months ago, the young actor and his family had to keep quiet, explained Pacey’s mom, Tanya van Gerven. There’s always a chance a scene will be cut and so the family didn’t know whether he’d actually be in the movie until they saw it for the first time.
Of course, there’s been another trip to the theatre since then, and likely more in the future, said Pacey.
During two days of shooting in a Metro Vancouver park, Pacey was able to meet one of the film’s three main stars — and fellow pack member — Taylor Lautner.
He described the experience as “fun” and “exciting.”
Pacey was submitted for the role by the agent he has had since he was nine.
Inspired by the prominent role played by Aboriginal people in the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the success of First Nations actors like Adam Beach (who films the CBC television show Arctic Air in nearby Aldergrove) van Gerven thought her son children might enjoy an opportunity to act.
This wasn’t Pacey’s first role. He and his younger brother, nine-year-old Mason, both appeared as classmates in an independent short film titled The Mary Contest earlier this year.