Young Star Continues to Shine in Film and TV
“
There is work, and there is pleasure. Acting is pleasure.” – Sofia Vassilieva
In Jodi Picoult’s 11
th book, the award-winning 2004 best-seller
My Sister’s Keeper, she dealt with the timely subjects of stem cell research and “designer babies.” The emotional tale of a child conceived via genetic manipulation as a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister matched the current national debate about the ethics of scientific research and how those ethics often conflict with human emotions and feelings. That debate is about to be renewed with the release of the feature film version of the novel.
“There are scripts when you fall so much in love with your character,” says IMTA alum Sofia Vassilieva, who stars as the cancer-plagued Kate. “And if you are lucky and offered this part you should not tempt your fate and go to the greatest extent to be/to play this character. If you have an opportunity to do that and you do not, it's shameful.” The Child Actress of the Year at IMTA New York 2000, who reportedly booked the role after another actress refused to cut her hair, added, “Shaving my head was the least I could do for Kate to experience the degree of her isolation and outcast from a 'normal' healthy life. It is like balancing between two realities.”
The film, which also stars Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric and Joan Cusack, has been described in pre-release publicity as being “based on” the book. However, author Picoult recently saw the movie and noted, “Yes - it ends differently from the book. And yes, you’re still going to like it. The acting is phenomenal; the movie is beautifully shot; and I highly recommend investing in Kleenex before you go.”
Vassilieva, who currently also stars as the eldest daughter in the TV series “
Medium,” recently finished filming the feature thriller
Hurt with Melora Walters and William Mapother. In the film, a family that is grappling with the untimely death of the father take in a mysterious foster child (Vassilieva)…and a series of tragic, inexplicable incidents begin to occur. The film does not yet have a scheduled release date.