Recording videos with her family during lockdown has led a Watford girl to a “fantastic” role in Wicked: For Good.
Bella-May Bekaraze is “very excited” ahead of her debut in cinemas when the blockbuster movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo arrives next Friday (November 21).
It comes after the 10-year-old Nascot Wood Junior School pupil, who has been acting since she was five, was picked out of the thousands of children who auditioned by director Jon Chu – who has apparently described her as “amazing on set" and "a great kid to work with”.
Parents Byron and Claudia said they are not allowed to give too much away, but the role will be as a friend of one of the main characters during a flashback sequence which opens the film.
“We’ve been seeing her passion to really entertain from such an early age and now we’re so excited for the rest of the world to see it,” Byron, 38, said.
“She first got into acting during Covid. We were literally staying at home and wanted to play games with her so we started imitating and doing the acting. She just took to it and we started filming the scenes.
“She then got signed by an agent coming out of Covid.”
This led to castings in adverts for Barclays, Nickelodeon, and GSK, before landing a role in the short film One Small Step which earned Bella a ‘best child actor’ award.
Her school has apparently been very supportive and helped make the most of each opportunity while keeping on top of her work.
“It’s great to see that her talent and her hard work is really paying off,” Claudia said, detailing the gymnastics, taekwondo, music, and dance that Bella practises in Watford.
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“She’s very excited to be part of this. She understands how great the movie is and she’s definitely feeling the big buzz.”
The dream is apparently to one day become an Oscar winning actor.
Wicked: For Good is the second instalment of the musical adaptation, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked – which was in turn inspired by the story first told in Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wizard of Oz, adapted into the 1939 film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale.
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