Not every day a South Cariboo family has the opportunity to be extra in a Bollywood movie.
But that opportunity arose last month for Lac La Hache’s Glen Tanner and Lachlan and Arlene’s children after they caught the wind on a shoot at Barkerville. For four days, Tanner dressed in Western clothes and served as an extra for an upcoming untitled movie.
“We are a very extroverted family, we do a lot of things,” Tanner said. “When the opportunity presented itself to us, I seized it because I had a lot of fun with acting in the past and I wanted to meet my children in it.”
Tanner learned about the production through a Facebook post that he was also looking for. He and Arlene responded to the call in early May for a day of filming at Cottonwood House, just outside Barkerville. After getting into the suit, he said that the director looked at them and said “Hello, you two would be wonderful father and daughter”. “He did not even know we were in a relationship,” Tanner said.
After spending the day playing as bourgeois, Tanner said they returned home. Shortly afterwards, the director called him back and asked him to return. He brought in both Lachlan, 14, and Arlene, 13, and spent the weekend immersed in the filmmaking process.
Due to confidentiality agreements, the Tanners may not disclose much about the film. However, Tanner said the best way to describe the film is a romantic comedy “Bollywood meets the Old West” that addresses related issues.
“In the end, Arlene came up with a lot of scenes and Lachlan and I ended up playing some recognizable bad guys. “We had no lines at all, but we appeared in many scenes as bad,” Tanner said. “We had a lot of fun with it. It was a great experience. “
Tanner has had some cinematic experience in the past, working as a blacksmith in the film Thirteenth warrior. However, Arlene and Lachlan have only played on stage, appearing in the cover of T.the little Mermaid in 2020.
“I know the kids did great because they kept calling them for a lot of scenes,” he said.
Lochlan said the days were long, but it was interesting to see what was going on behind the scenes while we were shooting a movie.
“It was all pretty impressive,” Lahlan said. “It was a lot of fun playing a bad guy.”
Arlene said the costumes were great and also found the backstage work fascinating. It was fun playing with her dad and brother, she added.
“I like the experience of playing an actor and it’s really fun to help with the cinema and the theater,” he said.
Tanner said this was probably one of the biggest experiences he had with his children.
“They would shoot a scene and it would take hours to do it because they kept changing the angles of the camera, but it would all come together in just two minutes,” Tanner said. “This was a top production company and they have a very nice history and the fact that they turned it into Cariboo is just amazing.”
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