Rachel Marcus, left, 11, has a lot in common with Booky, the role she plays in Booky’s Crush, produced by Platt Productions and Shaftesbury Films and premiering on CBC TV, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m.
“I’m determined to get what I want, and I love to solve other people’s problems. I’m always trying to figure things out,” Rachel said in a recent telephone interview.
Booky’s Crush is the third instalment in a series of made-for-TV movies based on books set in Depression era 1930s Toronto – That Scatterbrained Booky, With Love from Booky, and As Ever Booky – by Bernice Thurman Hunter, a former department store clerk who wrote her first book in 1981 when she was already a grandmother.
Rachel also played Booky – her first professional job as a result of her first audition about 1-1/2 years ago – in the second instalment of the movie series, Booky and the Secret Santa, for which she received a Gemini nomination.
A competitive dancer who has won awards in musical theatre, Rachel, a Grade 6 public school student in Thornhill, has also appeared in a number of school plays.
“I decided I wanted to act professionally after I met Daniel Magder [17], who played in the TV series Life With Derek. I asked him how he got into acting, and he told me to try out for an agent. I did that, and she gave me a script to memorize. Then I got the Booky role.
“I don’t feel like I am Booky, but I do know her very well. If she wanted to act, she would try, just like I did. I had a lot of fun during the filming. I never got nervous, because I have lots of experience on stage with my dancing.”
In her new role, Booky and her friends are just discovering boys, and she is quite interested in a new boy that she has been chosen to tutor. “My mother in the movie [Megan Follows] is very smart, and she helps me out a lot. We had lots of money worries, but we always managed.”
Acting and dancing keep her quite busy, Rachel said, “but I always have time for my friends. They’re very important to me, and I would not give them up for anything. I think Booky would be like that, too.”
As for her future plans, Rachel said she wants to finish school – her favourite subjects are art and drama – and she wants to play Booky in a third movie. “I want to act for the rest of my life, and I’m looking forward to acting on stage.”
