This blog is a personal recollection of Addy's newest adventures as an aspiring actress. All entries are written and edited by her mother, Jaime Miller, and are the opinions and facts as she sees it. All the photographs were taken by Addy's mom or she had permission to post them. These photographs are copyrighted and her personal property. If you would like to use a photo or post a link to this page, please ask permission first. Just leave a comment and her mom will reply. Thank you.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Addy's role in Secret Life of Bees

Well "The Secret Life of Bees" premiered in Toronto this past weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. I emailed someone that went to see it this weekend and asked about Addy's role in the film. I was just dying to know how she did.

Here is what he wrote back:

The film opens with the flashback of young Lily watching her parents from the floor of a closet. The scene unfolds from her point of view. You see the arm of the young girl first, holding a small mirror (I think) then gradually the young girl's face comes into view in the reflection. I was aware of the situation with the two actresses playing the one role, so I did watch carefully; it was sort of obvious to me that the arm belonged to a younger child. Most viewers probably wouldn't notice this, the sequence was put together pretty seamlessly.
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You see your daughter's face for what I would guess is between 5-10 seconds---not terribly long, but long enough to establish who is watching the struggle between the two adults. I would describe her expression as somewhere between frightened and bewildered by what is happening in front of her.
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After you see the child's face, the physical struggle takes place, a gun hits the floor, and the child picks it up. After this flashback/memory, Dakota picks up the role.
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You do see a photo later of young Lily and her mother. I'm assuming this is your daughter as well. Again, you see the photo briefly, about 5-7 seconds.
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Hope that helps. Congrats on your child's part in "Bees", it's a fine film.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

how can this person tell em's arm from addy's arm?

is there a mark on of the girls' arm?

J. Miller said...

What? When you see an arm on the screen, it is Emily's. When you see the face, it is Addy's. They did not shoot any part of Addy's body during filming - only her face. They also never shot any of Emily's face. So editing will not get it wrong.

I think the guy could just tell it was a young looking arm - Emily is 5, Addy is 8. Addy didn't have the pudgy little girl arms like Emily, but Addy could pull off the look of Dakota Fanning young and scared.

I hope this made sense to you.