THE RIGHT NOTE
Nico Parker adds ‘Suncoast’ to acting playlist
Nico Parker, having starred in “Suncoast” opposite Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson, was doubly delighted when the just-ended Sundance Film Festival awarded her its US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance.
Parker, already a veteran at 19, was just 11 when her film career was launched in Tim Burton’s live-action Disney remake of “Dumbo.”
Her Sundance surprise happened, she said in a Zoom interview, “When my dad called me really early in the morning and I was like, ‘Why is he calling me in these hours?’ Then he got my younger brother to tell me, which was very sweet.”
Was she surprised? “Surprised doesn’t even cut it. I didn’t even know that was a thing. So, you know, I cried. It was surreal. Beyond surreal.”
“Suncoast” is set in a Florida divided by a celebrated and very real right-to-die case involving Teri Schiavo. Teri’s husband wanted to pull the plug while her parents fought that decision for seven years. In 2005 her feeding tube was removed.
Parker plays 14-year-old Doris, virtually ignored by her strung-out mother (Linney) whose teenage son is brought, comatose and in all respects unresponsive, to the Schiavo hospice for his final days.
Doris, who is on scholarship at a Christian high school, is very quiet, obviously very smart, able to express herself in the classroom. Yet at home, she’s treated like Cinderella as her mother is obsessively focused on her brother.
“It was only when I first met Laura and started speaking about the character did I understand the gravity to Doris’s situation. To me the way into a character most of the time is in music. I made a playlist for the phone and then I just kept adding to that. That always helps me hone in and get in the zone.”
It’s said that writer-director Laura Chinn based “Suncoast” on similar events in her life. Was Parker playing Laura?
“I think initially. Although I was very much like, ‘I don’t want to feel like I should be imitating the fabulous force who is Laura Chinn’ — because I don’t think anyone could do justice.
“But I very quickly realized that she was way cooler than Doris. She had loads of friends (in high school) and was really popular. “And I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not being you as this meek, mousy, kind of loser.’”
Next up for Parker, the live action remake of “How To Train Your Dragon.”
“There’s nothing about it that I didn’t find incredibly attracting. I was obsessed with those movies. They’re so genius. Dean DeBlois who directed and wrote the animated originals is doing this.
“So yeah, it’s wonderful.” “Suncoast” streams Feb. 9 on Hulu