STARRING ROLE IN FESTIVE ADVERT FOR MADDI
MEET Maddi Platt – the little Welsh girl whose super-cute performance in the new Sainsbury’s Christmas advert will melt your heart.
The bubbly six-yearold from Cwmbach in the Cynon Valley is one of the stars of the highly-anticipated advert from the national supermarket chain.
Maddi attends JKs Performance Academy and Agency in Aberdare, and her show-stopping performance as a purple bauble was the first time she has ever appeared on TV.
The ad, which was filmed in October and directed by The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, takes the form of a Christmas show and features a cast of 59 kids aged six to 11, all dressed as a variety of Christmas staples – including a turkey drummer and set of Christmas lights.
Featuring a cover of You Get what You Give by The New Radicals, the cast all dance and sing along as the stage transforms to reveal a 40ft Christmas tree and a 14ft glitter-filled gravy boat.
The children’s real parents were featured in the crowd too, and were kept away from the castings and rehearsals until shoot day, so the cameras could capture their emotions when they see their children perform.
Maddi’s adventure started during the school summer holidays, when the pupil at Cwmbach Community Primary School attended an open audition in Cardiff.
“She sang A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman,” said Maddi’s mum Jamie-Lee. “At the time obviously we didn’t know that the director of The Greatest Showman was actually directing the advert.
“She got recalled to an audition in London, where she had to sing and dance again. Then after that Julia, who runs JKs Performance Academy, rang me to say she was pencilled in. Then she rang me to say she was heavily pencilled in. Then she finally rang me to say she was in the advert.”
Maddi, who has been attending JKs for two years, took everything in her stride when she had to travel to London for rehearsals and to film the advert.
“We knew from when she could talk that she was a little star,” said JamieLee. “She’s just a funny character. We took Maddi to that first audition on a whim as we thought it would be good experience for her. We never expected her to get the advert. This is the first thing that she has ever done.”
Maddi’s mum said the hardest thing for her daughter has been keeping the advert a secret.
“Maddi hasn’t been allowed to tell anyone anything,” she laughed. “She got so sick of people asking her questions she started telling people she was a carrot for Home Bargains!
“I told her, ‘Mad, you can’t tell people that, they’re all going to be looking for it!’ She replied, ‘Well, I’m not allowed to tell them anything else’. For a six-year-old not to tell anyone is incredible. She loved Michael Gracey because she loves The Greatest Showman, so for her not to even tell people she met him is amazing.”
Jamie-Lee added that, being six years old, her daughter doesn’t quite grasp how big the advert is.
“We showed the advert to her and her reaction was, ‘Wow, Mammy, it’s beautiful.’ She thinks it’s wonderful and doesn’t realise how massive it is, which of course is a good thing.
“She’s so young she just enjoyed doing it and getting dressed up as a bauble. She loved being a purple bauble so much.”
In a hilarious behindthe-scenes video released to coincide with the advert, Maddi is interviewed and tells viewers how she feels “like a superstar” in her outfit.
“My costume’s very purple, just like I wanted it to be – very beautiful.”
In another clip she topples over as she rehearses dance steps and as she struggles to get up she says: “I’m OK.”
For Jamie-Lee and Maddi’s dad Michael, the whole process has been an emotional one.
“Oh my gosh, we haven’t stopped crying,” said Jamie-Lee. “When we saw the advert and then the interviews, we were crying and laughing. All my family, my sister, my mother, we’ve all been crying.”
Maddi’s starring role is yet another notable achievement for JK s Performance Academy, several of whose pupils have appeared in films, adverts and on television.
“Julia works really hard to give these kids opportunities, showing that you don’t have to live in London and spend hundreds on massive agencies,” said Jamie Lee. “In an economically deprived area like Aberdare, for her to go up against all these London agencies is brilliant.”