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Teen girls make acting debut in TIFF feature film By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Two Oakville teenagers say they're both excited and nervous to see themselves on the big screen for the first time when Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film premieres Monday (Sept. 10) and plays again on Tuesday (Sept. 11). Neither Lindsay Rolland-Mills nor Rachael Nyhuus, both 16, has seen the feature-length film prior to its opening. They will get their first view of it at a private screening tomorrow (Thursday). "I'm excited...(but) I don't like watching myself on TV," said Rolland-Mills, an Etobicoke School of the Arts student. "I'm just scared for how I'm going to look on screen in front of a whole bunch of people." "I'm really nervous," added Nyhuus, who attends Oakville-Trafalgar High School. "I don't even like the sound of my own voice, so having to watch myself in a movie is just going to be stressful. We've never acted, so this is all new to us. We really have no idea how we did." The pair -- who did not know each other before the film was shot -- help make up the main cast of the film, which is comprised mostly of young women like themselves. Foxfire is an adaptation of a novel by the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. It's set in a small town in upstate New York in the 1950s and features a main cast of six girls, Nyhuus being one of them, who form a gang bent on taking revenge on any male who has wronged them. Nyhuus plays the pretty girl, Violet, who is initially disliked by the other girls for her good looks and her reputation with boys. However, the leader allows her to join the gang after she's teased by a group of boys in school. "She's not as tough as the other girls. I may describe her as the bait. They use her a lot," Nyhuus said of her character. Violet understands she's being used by the others, such as when she's told to lure men, but she will do anything to be part of the gang. Rolland-Mills comes into the film later on, as one of several newbie characters that joins the gang as the movie progresses. Although she appears in the film later on, she and Nyhuus play a vital role in the climax of the movie. "My character was more energized, always wanting to do something crazy. She's described in the book as maybe Rolland-Mills said. Both teens got cast in the film in different ways. Nyhuus, who has always wanted to pursue acting in film, but with little luck, had given up the dream. However, she attended an open casting call and was called back to more auditions until she was given the part. Her new friend, Roland"We knew this was going to Mills is part of a be a feature film. We didn't music theatre know it was going to end program called up at TIFF. We didn't know a Acting Up Stage whole lot about it. We knew in Toronto that was visited by the it was a tough girl gang film filmmakers, so so I went in trying to look she decided to tough." audition for it. "We knew this Lindsay Rolland-Mills, actor was going to be a Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang feature film. We didn't know it was going to end up at TIFF. We didn't know a whole lot about it. We knew it was a tough girl gang film so I went in trying to look tough," she recalled. "We're not the toughest people on the planet," joked Nyhuus. The pair got their parts and the bulk of the film was shot last summer in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. with some extra winter scenes shot in Peterborough, Ont. during the winter exam period, so neither girl had to miss much school time. The film is a close adaptation of the novel, the Oakville girls say. It was directed by Laurent Cantet and is rated as 14A. The Monday showing is at 5:45 p.m. at Ryerson Theatre and the Tuesday showing is at 3:30 p.m. at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 7. For more information, visit www.tiff.net. Dominik Kurek can be reached at dkurek@ oakvillebeaver.com or followed on Twitter at @ DominikKurek. Artscene 25 · Wednesday, September 5, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com Beauty & Spa eric riehl / oakville beaver / @halton_photog MONA'S Back to School Promo Laser Hair Removal Half legs 8 sessions making their professional acting debuts at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the feature film Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, which premieres Monday. slightly mentally unstable," said RollandMills, who plays a girl named V.V. "My character gets other characters exiled. She's all about the rules. She's very into the gang and devotes her life to it. Our primary rule is no guys. So when one of the girls gets a guy, my character makes her leave even though she's not the leader." The girls are all rejects, either castaway by their families or kicked out of school, and form a bond together to create their own family. 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