Local 11-year-old begins acting career
Published 7:00 am Saturday, September 14, 2019
Watkins, right, visits with her grandma Reba Beebe, left, during a school day. Homeschooling has allowed Watkins to travel for her acting career. Photo by Cathy Cook.
Watkins reviews the acting credits she has already acquired in her two months of work. Photo by Cathy Cook.
Watkins’ love for scary movies helped peak her interest in acting.Photo by Cathy Cook.
Watkins said she loves making new friends when she travels for work. Photo by Cathy Cook.
Carriere resident Victoria Paige Watkins loves horror movies, and now the 11-year-old has landed a big role in a major horror movie scheduled to come out in 2020.
Filming for the movie will begin in one week in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Watkins will be away from home for two months with her mother and grandmother—the longest she’s ever been away from home. Watkins is not nervous for the experience though, she said, just excited.
Watkins’ representation, Alexander White Agency, instructed her not to mention the title of the film, since filming has not begun.
Watkins has only been an actress for two months, she said, but already she’s done extra work in films, commercials and television series and moved from being an extra to landing named roles in two television shows and a feature film.
“It’s a miracle to me,” Watkins said. “I didn’t think I would actually be an actress.”
Watkins became interested in acting after watching film clips on YouTube she said, and she’s always liked watching movies that scare her friends. Watkins really likes the stop-motion animated thriller movie Coraline, but couldn’t picture working on an animated film.
Watkins has yet to see any of her own acting on screen. The first acting work she has completed will air in October. She is in an episode of SEAL Team that will air October 2, an episode of Legacies that will air on October 19 and an extra in an episode of Purge, which will air October 22.
Watkins’ movie and commercial work will be released in 2020.
The 11-year-old was a student at Pearl River Central Elementary School before she began acting, but now homeschools so she can travel for parts.
Watkins enjoys traveling and has visited Hollywood, Los Angeles, Atlanta, North Carolina and New Orleans for acting jobs.
“We always meet new friends,” Watkins said.
While being surrounded by adults has been “kind of weird,” Watkins has fun acting, she said. She enjoys wearing pretty costumes, screaming in auditions and making new friends everywhere she goes.
Audiences can watch Watkins in the comedy drama Big Feat, or the drama The Ballad of Richard Jewell, both scheduled to be released in 2020.
