Islas in the stream

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This article was published 07/11/2024 (495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Child actors from Winnipeg named Isla are having a moment in the spotlight. Nine-year-old Isla Verot has appeared in enough films to fill a Netflix subcategory, while 11-year-old Isla Horner is following up her featured role in Rainbow Stage’s Mary Poppins by earning a spot at the Stratford Festival for its upcoming season.

The Free Press caught up with both Islas to chat about their burgeoning careers.

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Christmas is Isla Verot’s favourite time of year.

“And my birthday,” says the Winnipeg actor, who recently turned nine.

It’s a good thing she has an affinity for festivity, because Isla has spent the last year in a world of Hallmark and Hollywood cheer.

The charismatic Grade 4 student is wrapping up her busiest film season to date, having been cast in five locally shot productions, including as a Sunday school student named Becky in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, out today and starring Judy Greer and Pete Holmes.

Isla landed her first lead role this year as Lucy, the daughter of a widowed innkeeper, in the forthcoming Hallmark flick, Following Yonder Star, set to be released next month.

Winnipeggers will also likely recognize her among the cast of the incredulous kids in Recycle Everywhere’s latest campaign (she’s the one seated cross-legged in an office chair delivering a sassy “Hello?”).

Movies run in the Verot family — though the holidays aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.

“(Hopefully) she’ll get all the Christmassy stuff out of her system then I’ll pull her into a nice gritty genre film,” jokes dad BJ Verot, a local stunt co-ordinator and filmmaker.

Isla’s first onscreen experience was a small cameo in BJ’s first feature film, The Return, a haunted-house thriller. She was three years old at the time and quickly caught the acting bug.

“I like playing roles of other people and getting to meet everyone (on set). I just find it really fun and I like talking in front of really big crowds and lots of people,” she says.

Isla, who says she’s never experienced stage fright, enrolled in acting classes at age five and started auditioning for background roles soon after. She landed her first gig as a British child in a holiday rom-com series — a minor speaking role for which she prepared by watching Harry Potter to brush up on her English accent.

Isla enjoys performing but also takes the job seriously. To prepare for roles, she practises her scenes and runs lines with her parents using a detailed, colour-coded script binder.

“Memorize it, but you have to be ready for changes,” she advises, adding it’s also important to be prepared for disappointment.

“It’s OK if I don’t get the role; at least I tried hard.”

For Yonder Star, she had to learn 166 parts for the three-week shoot.

“The two leads actually nicknamed her ‘Scripty’ because if they forgot their line, she knew it and would whisper it to them,” mom Ashley Verot says.

Isla has received kudos from directors and established actors for her professionalism and ability to take direction.

“I think that’s what provides longer-term success, coming prepared and showing them that you’re ready to work, even at (nine) years old. She has such a good memory and capacity to retain all of these scenes and all the dialogue that her character has. That’s a skill set of hers that will be invaluable moving forward,” BJ says.

“It’s important for her to still be a kid – you only get one childhood. She’s enjoying it now and that’s great, but we don’t want to put everything on acting.” Ashley Verot

BJ is proud to see his daughter following in his footsteps and excited she’s finding success in a busy Manitoba film industry with many more opportunities than when he started out.

At the same time, the family of four (including Isla’s younger brother) strives to find a balance between filming and life.

“We don’t want to overload her where she’s just completely worn out at the end of the day,” BJ says.

While some child actors are homeschooled to focus on their career, Isla loves attending school and keeps up with homework while on set. She also plays right wing on her hockey team, practises gymnastics and takes horseback-riding lessons.

“It’s important for her to still be a kid — you only get one childhood. She’s enjoying it now and that’s great, but we don’t want to put everything on acting,” Ashley says.

At the moment, Isla has a similar perspective on her future.

“I’m probably gonna be a part-time actor because I want to work on a hobby farm with my best friend,” she says.

The property will be full of “chickens, goats, cows, any animal that you think would be on a farm. And I want a leopard Appaloosa horse and I’ll name it Galaxy.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney

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Isla Horner’s next big field trip is to Stratford.

After appearing as Jane Banks in this summer’s Rainbow Stage production of Mary Poppins, the 11-year-old Winnipeg actor was encouraged to audition for the upcoming season at the prestigious festival in Ontario, the largest classical repertory theatre company in North America.

“Since I couldn’t go in person, I sent in a video audition and a couple of weeks later they sent my parents an email and asked me if I could come for the final callback. And then a couple weeks later they sent me an email telling me I got the part, which was really exciting,” says Horner.

The part is that of July — one of the girls at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage whom Horner calls “the mother orphan” — in the musical Annie.

Horner has been dancing since she was three years old, and is currently a student at the Shelley Shearer School of Dance, studying under Joseph Sevillo, a Winnipeg choreographer and performer who also started his career at Rainbow Stage.

Horner says her teacher gave her some inspiration and encouragement to pursue not just dance, but musical theatre, which she quickly fell in love with.

“My sisters both danced there,” Horner says, meaning that she spent a lot of time watching and learning from their performances.

“I was kind of always at the studio when I was a baby, so it’s like my second home.”

After her run in Mary Poppins, the show’s director, Alexandra Herzog, and her dance school’s co-owner, Lori Watson, suggested Horner throw her hat in the ring for Annie.

Horner had to compete with hundreds of other auditioners from across North America. Once she got to Stratford for her callback, she was put through her paces.

During a two-hour dance call, she learned the choreography for Hard Knock Life, and a few hours later had an individual audition, singing Maybe, Tomorrow and Hard Knock Life, and acting her way through two other scenes.

“I just love singing and dancing, so whenever I go, I’m not nervous, I’m just excited to show them,” says Horner, who says she’s loved Annie since she was a kid.

It wasn’t all work without any play, though: Horner got to watch the Stratford production of La Cage aux Folles.

“It was so cool seeing the theatre in person,” says Horner, who has received vocal training from Joy Lazo and Alyssa Crockett.

Rehearsals don’t start until February, at which point Horner will return to Stratford for a full immersion into the festival.

The Stratford run of Annie goes from May 27 until Nov. 2, directed and choreographed by Donna Feore, who will be in her 29th season at Stratford.

Horner isn’t the only performer with Winnipeg roots cast in the upcoming season. Kelsey Lacombe will make her festival debut in the ensemble of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, while Julie Lumsden will return for her second season, appearing as Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables, in two roles in The Art of War and as an understudy in Sense and Sensibility.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com