Alex Rice

Local actress Alex Rice making it in Hollywood

By : Kara Dawne Zemel

Ask any young girl what she wants to do when she gets older and one of the most common responses is she wants to be an actress. There have been songs, movies, and books written about those who move to the west coast in the hopes of achieving their dreams. Ask them ten years later and most have given up. That is not the case for Kahnawake’s own Alex Rice.

Rice left Kahnawake five years ago to pursue her dreams. She packed up and moved to California with the hopes that she could make it. “It has been a struggle but when I do actually get to work and do movies and television it is all worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing about my life,” Rice says about following her dreams. “Ever since I could remember, all I wanted to do be was an actor and for a while I gave up that dream because it seemed impossible. I went to school to get a real job but was never satisfied with the nine-to-five grind. I decided to come out to L.A. and never expected to last more than six months. I did struggle and I still do.”

It was hard to follow her dreams all the way to the other side of the continent, but Rice did it, even though it was difficult. “Loneliness, homesickness, etc., trying to make ends meet. I always knew what I wanted but just took it one day at a time and focused on the thing I could control: my training. Someone once told me that everyone gets a break but will that person be ready for it? I believe that is true and I live by that. In hindsight that hardest part and the greatest accomplishment has been being able to get through leaving my family behind, especially my mom, and starting a new life in a faraway place for a career in the most competitive field ever.”

She stuck to her dream and soon enough began to get jobs within the field, but just because you get a break doesn’t mean you’ve made it and you can stop learning. “I’ve been in L.A. for four going on five years. I have been working extremely hard on my craft as well as on promoting myself in the industry. When I’m not working professionally as an actor I am studying and honing the craft,” Rice says.

Rice’s continuous training is starting to pay off and her resume is starting to fill in. “I feel like I’ve had my best year this year as far as accomplishments go. I did four films this year, two commercials, a play here in Los Angeles and landed a co-star role on an ABC sitcom.” The sitcom in question is Spin City, with Charlie Sheen, Heather Locklear, Alan Ruck, and Barry Bostwick. The episode she will appear in also features guest star Raquel Welch. Sheen and Ruck were in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and Rice says, “Being able to work as an actor with actors you grew up watching in your favourite films is the most incredible experience. I still can’t believe it actually happened.”

One of the films Rice worked on was Doe Boy, with James Duval, who has also been in Independence Day, Go, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. Doe Boy was written and directed by Randy Redroad and won an award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Another film was Remembrance Rising in which she played the White Buffalo Calf Woman. This is an educational short film being presented at a film festival in Europe.

Rice’s biggest project is an Imax film set to be released in 2002. The film is Lewis and Clark : Into the Great Unknown. Rice plays Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who helped Lewis and Clark find their way to the Pacific on their expedition which took place in 1802. Imax is releaseing the film for the 200th anniversary. Information can be found on the PBS website and information about Sacagawea can be found on the U.S. Mint website, as Sacagawea has recently been honoured on the American $1 coin. National Geographic also made a behind the scenes program about the making of the film.

How does getting a role like this happen? “I had several ways of finding out about the film, audition and part. It was released on the breakdowns where my manager had access to the information. The casting director for the film (Rene Haynes) knew of me as I had auditioned for her several times in the past and she has since cast me in four film projects. She called me and informed me that I was a contender for the role of Sacagawea. She had a copy of a film that she had cast me in. It was a period piece and she had it sent to the director for his consideration. About a week or two later at the L.A. auditions my audition was videotaped and sent along to director, Bruce Neibaur at Vineyard Productions in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

Rice was called back by the casting director and told she would be flown to Utah for more auditioning. She spent the day in Salt Lake City, auditioning with the others trying for the roles of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea’s brother.

“Late on Monday morning I was called and informed that I got the role of Sacagawea. I called my mother immediately to tell her.”

A friend of Rice’s had given her a Sacagawea coin when they first were released. “I thought it was a good omen when I heard about the film, but I never got my hopes up and just tried to stay focused on my acting for the audition. I then carried that coin with me the whole way through the journey of the film. I wrapped it in leather and pinned it in the small pouch that was part of my costume.” Rice is set to finish filming Lewis and Clark this winter.

Watch for her on the Wednesday, November 22 episode of Spin City, on ABC, channel 22 at 9:30 p.m.

Hijacked from: Eastern Door Volume 9, Number 42 Nov 16, 2000