Up-and-coming Richmond-born-and-bred actor Lee Booker clearly has a great relationship with her mom.
Booker, 21, cut mom Olwen Walker out of her inaugural, self-directed and produced short film, What We Do — which attracted a double nomination at the Joey Awards hosted in Richmond Saturday night for young, Canadian film and TV talent.
Rather than lambasting her daughter for robbing her of a momentary shot at fame, Walker went out and bought a couple of dresses for Booker’s big night at the awards held at the Radisson Vancouver Airport Hotel.
The awards Booker was up for — “Best Actress in a Short Film Age 13 and Over” and “Best Young Female Filmmaker” — didn’t go her way Saturday night.
But it won’t take the shine off an exciting period in the Hugh Boyd secondary grad’s fledgling career, which Booker spoke about during a sit-down and coffee/water last week with the Richmond News.
Not least the fact she landed her debut, feature film role in a yet-to-be screened movie about a volleyball team, starring William Hurt and Helen Hunt.
However, it wasn’t quite the part she’d prepared for.
“I’m very excited about (the movie). It was filmed in the Vancouver area in the fall of last year,” said Booker, who switched to her stage name “Lee” from Colleen while studying in Toronto a few years ago.
“It’s based on a true story about a high school volleyball team; I actually auditioned as one of the volleyball players.
“I can’t play volleyball but I had a call-back for this character. I had to contact one of my old high school teachers, who used to coach the high school volleyball team and, for a couple of days, I put the knee pads on and practiced diving.
“But they didn’t even do any volleyball at the audition. I was waiting to hear (about the part) and waiting and waiting.
“I got a call from (my agent), saying I didn’t get the volleyball part. But then, a couple of hours later, there was another missed call from my agent with a voicemail saying that they wanted me to play William Hurt’s daughter in the movie.
“It’s a smaller role in terms of how many lines I have, but I was obviously very happy to be playing William Hurt’s daughter.
“I only had four days on the set of the film, but all of my scenes are with William Hurt, which is amazing.”
Needless to say, this is Booker’s biggest break thus far.
“I’m hoping this could be a catalyst for my career,” added Booker, who also has a role lined up in an upcoming teen Disney flick.
“I’ve heard whispers of (the Hurt film) coming out next spring, but nothing official.”
Of her first attempt at professional writing, producing and directing — and the cutting of her mom — Booker said it was a very rewarding experience.
What We Dofollows the day-to-day life of Carly, a 9-1-1 call-taker struggling to navigate her job and personal life after developing PTSD in her line of work.
The film is written by Booker, who grew up in the area of No. 2 and Blundell roads, and draws on her own experience training and now working part-time as an EMR (emergency medical responder).
“I went to the Justice Institute in New Westminster to do the course,” she said.
“A lot of (her film) was based on conversations I had during the course with paramedics and other people taking the calls.”
Booker has strong family connections to the emergency services, adding that What We Do was “kind of a love letter to people who want to talk about PTSD, but don’t know how.
“The main character takes 9-1-1 calls, but you wouldn’t ordinarily think of the person taking the calls as the one suffering.”
