iFilmGroup’s Newest Film has Three Interesting Support Characters
Through the process of casting for the film, much discussion went into who would be best to play these three roles. The roles are of two sisters who attend a Performing arts school and their controlling “stage mom”. The Campbell sisters are considered Triple Threats which in the performance world means they can sing, dance and act. Their Mother is going to ensure that these two girls make it to the big time and she is going to push them every step of the way if need be.
Talia Mielke - actor
Jessica Fediw - actor
Shelby Simpson -actor
Many people applied for the roles. In fact, the two sisters were two of the most applied to roles for casting. But two individuals very familiar to the iFilmGroup emerged above all the rest. Both are true real-life certified triple threats. The first is Talia Mielke from Sarnia that has been in a large number of theatre productions and played some major roles including Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” and Anne in “Anne of Green Gables”.
Her talent has recently lead to her being accepted into the musical theatre performance program at Sheridan College. She has also worked with the iFilmGroup previously when she played the role of Maizie Dunne in Blue Love. Mielke will be playing the older sister Katherine Campbell. The younger sister role of Cassandra Campbell will be played by another familiar face of iFilmGroup and that is Shelby Simpson. Simpson came to iFilmGroup back at the beginning of filming Blue Love. She actually played two roles in the film due to her ability to change her look and also due to a growth spurt that she had from the first scene to later in filming.
Both Simpson and Mielke have been apart of several workshops in the last year with the iFilmGroup team and participated in the filming for promotional material for Drama Therapy where an instant connection was formed. “Shelby and Talia were paired together for the puppet portion of the workshop and they instantly connected. What was even more interesting is they look like sisters” says Not Ready director and iFilmGroup co-founder Matthew Marshall. That chemistry was shown again at Auditions when they instantly connected again to form a bond when playing the sisters when reading scenes for the film. Again the look between the two of them like sisters was very clear. Even there interactions when not on stage were that of two people that had known each other for years. They both also showed up to auditions dressed like private school girls in uniforms. “We had a lot of good people come audition for the Campbell sisters but two people stood out above the rest on several levels. That was Talia and Shelby” adds Marshall.
The final piece in the puzzle came in who would be cast as Mrs. Campbell. Jessica Fediw someone that Marshall has known since High School and who has acted in many of the Elgin Theatre Guild productions in recent years came to Auditions. Jessica has played small roles in some of Marshall’s films. She was a school board member named Mrs. S. Smith in Malicious Attack. Then she played the mother of a small child in the hospital waiting room in Blue Love. That child was Shelby Simpson for one of her two roles in Blue Love. “Shelby and Jessica share some similarities in looks so they were the perfect mom and daughter for the scene,” says Marshall. So Fediw was a natural top choice to play Mrs. Campbell. At auditions, that choice was confirmed when Fediw showed her acting talent by becoming the “Stage Mom” that would be the mother of the Campbell daughters.
With Talia Mielke, Shelby Simpson and Jessica Fediw all being cast as the Campbell family members it fills in more of the central roles of Not Ready.
More casting selections will be coming from iFilmGroup in the coming days.
iFilmGroup Press Release - Three Interesting Support Characters - Movie- “Not Ready” - 05-19-19