'Spivet' actress Niamh Wilson visits local museum

Actress and artist Niamh Wilson at
Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village
T. Lucas photo

Toni Lucas

Niamh Wilson is a pretty young lady that has a lot of talent.  She plays violin, draws, paints, dances, acts, and has a thirst for life.  She lives outside of Toronto, is going into her grade 10 year of high school, and is currently playing in the The Young and Prodigious Spivet being filmed in the Pincher Creek area.


She visited Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village (KBPV) in Pincher Creek last week, and one of the buildings captured her imagination.  She took less than an hour to create a pencil sketch of one of the buildings on the site.  "This is the beginning of a drawing," said Wilson referring to the pencil sketch in a fresh sketchbook.  She also showed a photo of her partially finished painting of a guitar resting in a rocking chair.  When asked if she played, she said that her brother was the one that played guitar.

Niamh Wilson's sketch of museum building

 She has close bonds with her family and talked about her older brother Vaughn Wilson, who is going into acting as well.  She said that her family are an incredible support to her, especially her mother, who is travelling with her during the 'Spivet' shoot.

Having those strong family ties are helping her to relate to her character in the film.  "I  play the main character's older sister, she's named Gracie.  I love the role, she's great.  She's kinda sassy, and she's fun to play.  She bugs her younger brother, (T.S. Spivet) even though we all know she loves him,"  she explained.

"Gracie is so out of place.  Her mom is a scientist, her little brother is a genius, and Layton (Gracie's other brother) and her dad are cowboys.  She doesn't understand her little brothers.  She wants to go to a big city and live her dreams of shopping and big city life.  She loves her family, but is so frustrated.   She is such a character to play.  She has this one scene where she has an outburst and rants.  It was so much fun to film that."

Wilson talked about her co-workers, Kyle Catlett and  Jakob Davies that play her younger brothers in the film.   "The two younger boys who play my brothers are great.  They're both smart, and fun to be around.  They are awesome. Kyle, who plays T. S. Spivet, Kyle especially.  He handles himself so well.  He's on set every single day, and he is incredible.  I remember working at his age, but I was never doing anything this intense.  I have so much respect for him.  Kyle is nine years old, and he is so talented.  he speaks Manderin, and Russian, and he is a martial artist.  He is considerably knowledgeable for nine years old. Layton is played by a boy named Jacob, and he is the less studious brother.  He's (Jacob) just a pleasure to be around.  He's very kind hearted and so much fun.  He's very happy, and fun to talk to.  It's a pleasure to work with both of them."  Wilson is thrilled to be working with the enormously talented Callum Keith Rennie who plays the father, and one of her favorite actors, Helena Bonham Carter who plays Dr. Clair, the mother.

Wilson loves the role of Gracie, and was excited when she got to meet the author Reif Larsen in Montreal during some of the earlier shooting.  "It's one of my mom's favorite books.  I got the chance to meet to meet the writer, and that was a pleasure.  He is a such a nice man, and younger than you would think.  He signed me a copy, and said 'Thank you for bringing Gracie to life'.  I couldn't tell if I was what he imagined Gracie to look like, but he was so nice."  She is also delighted to be working with Director Jean Pierre Jeunet as she loves the French film Amelie, one of his earlier films.

Wilson has been acting for 10 years, and started her journey to play the part of Gracie in March, and is thrilled to be a part of this movie.  "I've done some other movies, but this is one of the biggest roles that I ever had."  She admits that the  characters all  have some troubling times to work through in the course of their respective roles.  About the title character  Wilson says that, "He gets an award from the Smithsonian for his maps and he doesn't want to let anyone know how old he is because he is afraid that no-one will give him the award, so he basically runs away from home and backpacks across Montana to get to Washington to get this award.  It's about his trip there and the families reaction back home."  Wilson  and the characters grow and the family dynamics change dramatically through the course of the movie.

"Pincher Creek is great.  the people are so friendly, the weather has been great, and just outside of town the view is amazing, everywhere.  I love the windmills,"  Wilson enthused about shooting in the area.

If you would like to find out more about this young Canadian actress, you can visit her fan site at http://niamhwilson.net/ or join niamhthewilson on twitter.

Note:  Since this interview Niamh Wilson has generously agreed to donate the sketch to be auctioned off to benefit KBPV at a future date.