Girl lands part in Heaven is for Real

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This article was published 31/07/2013 (4748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A little girl has earned a supporting role in a big movie being filmed in Winnipeg.

Eight-year-old Lane Styles is playing Todd Burpo’s (played by Greg Kinnear) daughter in Sony Pictures’ Heaven is for Real, a movie based on true events in which a young boy discusses his experience going to heaven while unconscious during a surgery.

Mother Debbie Styles said her daughter has been unofficially acting since she was four years old.

“She was picking up lines when she would watch movies,” Debbie said. “She would memorize Harry Potter lines and have the perfect English accent.”

As a result, Debbie enrolled Styles into some acting classes at Expressions Film Studio (EFS) at 126 Sherbrook St.

Owner Reena Shah opened the studio in September of 2011. Classes are open to youth aged seven to 18. EFS teaches acting in film and film production in 10-week sessions.

“If you want to actually embrace the art in its full capacity, you would need to understand all facets of it. And that includes script analysis, understanding camera angles. It includes understanding how to create a character and creating objective and plot lines and storyboarding,” Shah said.

Styles began to take acting seriously in late 2011, when Shah called her about a movie that was looking for a six-year-old girl to audition. The movie was called Mad Ship.

After Styles auditioned, she received a phone call three days later, informing her she got the part.

At first, Debbie and her husband couldn’t believe the news.

“I really thought it was a prank call. (Casting director Jim Heber) was reading off the film lingo and talking about the money. My husband and I were like, ‘This isn’t happening’, because we had no idea about the business,” Debbie laughed.

Mad Ship screened last week at the Gimli Film Festival (as well as at last winter’s Whistler Film Festival.

Styles’s audition for Heaven is for Real was different from her past auditions.

It was only three minutes long but she waited six weeks to hear she got the part.

Styles is enjoying the character she’s portaying.

“She’s a quieter kid and she loves to read. She really cares about her brother,” Styles said.

During the hectic shooting periods, Debbie is constantly by her daughter’s side.

“As a parent, your first concern is your child is being looked after, and obviously they have tons of support on this film.

“So far it has been awesome,” Debbie said.

Heaven is for Real will be Styles’s fourth movie following Mad Ship (2012), Silent Night (2012), and Reasonable Doubt (to be released in 2014).

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