Stealing the show ... with pigtails
Perched on a chair in her Kitchener living room — doting mom hovering from a distance — she seems quite impressive: Bright, confident, but natural, unaffected.
Taylor Thorne is only 14 but, with her disarmingly direct gaze and penchant for speaking her mind, the burgeoning dancer-turned-actor comes off like a consummate showbiz pro, one who perfected her craft though years of dance competitions, Drayton theatre productions and small TV parts.
And now this: A starring role in the Netflix and CBC streaming series Northern Rescue, a heartwarming drama that crosses the family-in-mourning vibe of This Is Us with the teen angst of Party of Five and the bucolic, seaboard setting of Canadian classic The Beachcombers.
Her casting as the youngest in a trio of siblings whose mother dies of cancer and whose search and rescuer dad (William Baldwin) moves the family to a fictional seaside town (Parry Sound, Ont.) to live with their nurturing Aunt Charlie is a case of playing to type. Well, somewhat. “Taylor West (her character) is perfect all the time,” says the excitable teenager, a fastidious ball of energy who twirls her hair constantly.
“I just want to make sure I’m my best all the time.”
In a show that flirts with edginess but is, at heart, as pure as a Hallmark thought bubble — think Ozark without the drug cartels and money laundering — Thorne is front and centre, channelling her inner tomboy as a brainiac with pigtails.
“She’s very confident and caring,” she says, asked to compare herself to the smarty pants 12-year-old who dispenses knowing advice and cavorts with a scene-stealing penguin.
“She’s really smart, driven, very witty.
“And she gets bullied sometimes.
“I moved schools a lot when I was younger. There was a lot of girl drama.”
But there are differences, not the least of which is that Thorne is almost three years older than her character, which gives her the benefit of always being one step ahead, emotionally.
“I’m a lot more girlie,” she says.
“She’s robotic-smart. I’m more math-smart. She’s really good at spelling. I’m not.”
It should be noted there is nothing remotely conceited about Thorne.
When she says that working with Billy Baldwin was “amaz- ing” and that she “learned so much from him,” she’s not sucking up. She means it.
“I was so nervous. He helped calm me down.
“He just talked to me and said, ‘Pretend the camera isn’t there.’ ”
When she talks about Baldwin promising to introduce her to his niece, Hailey Baldwin, “the supermodel,” and her new husband Justin Bieber at the couple’s Puslinch compound next summer, it’s not with a sense of bragging entitlement but with the wideeyed wonder of one who hasn’t yet learned to self-censor.
Plastic Hollywood persona? Not even on the radar.
“I don’t want to have a reputation as that girl who thinks she has everything,” she insists, citing activist/actress Emma Watson as an inspiration.
“I like making people feel something.”
As a kid, she was precocious, says her mother, Bobbie Kennedy, who was a teenager when Taylor was born and raised her and younger sister Addy as a single mom.
“People would stop me in the street to tell me how pretty she was and I would say, ‘I’m not that mom!’ ” recalls the bridal shop manager.
“I’ve always taught her to be humble. We want to keep her as much of a teenager as we can.”
But own your accomplishments. Be bold. Stand up for yourself. Those lessons, in a good way, have also been imparted.
“She works hard for it,” says Kennedy, who calls Taylor “my Beyoncé,” while younger daughter Addy “is my Ellen DeGeneres.”
“Some people think it’s easy, it’s acting. But it’s a lot of hard work.”
Again, the teenager pipes in: “Acting to me is not work. It’s so much fun! I would do it for peanuts!”
Good thing her agent isn’t sitting in the living room; her career would be finished.
But it does speak to a wholesome determination that shines through in her role as a perky goody two shoes who dotes on her family.
“I love to be busy,” she confides as if revealing some deep dark secret.
“It makes me more productive. I get more stuff done.”
“I don’t know if I want to be super-duper famous. I love science. I love kids. I want to have a positive impact on people.”
And if none of these things pan out?
She laughs, her professional demeanour giving way, once again, to the giddy teenager within: “I want to be a guest star on RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Northern Rescue streams on CBC Gem. See gem.cbc.ca for information. Twitter @JoelRubinoff