Imagine being seven years old, going to PetSmart to buy a fish and leaving as an actress. For Elizabethtown College student Carly Katz ’17, this isn’t so far-fetched.
Katz, her sister and her father were shopping at the pet supply store to get fish for their aquarium. “Some lady was following my sister and me around. We knew at 7 and 8 years old that it’s weird for someone to be following you, so we kept moving away from her.”
Eventually, the tall red-headed woman approached the sisters and asked, “How would you guys like to be actresses?” Katz couldn’t contain her smile as she remembered the moment. “So, we obviously said, ‘Yes! Definitely’!” And the girls took the talent scout, Meghan, to their father, where they exchanged information.
“We kept saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to be famous’,” Katz said. Though the girls were excited, their parents were very skeptical, especially due to the location. “It’s a pretty small town, so stuff like that doesn’t happen often.”
Katz explained that her parents have friends in California who are involved in the business. Her father’s best friend is a producer, and his wife is a talent scout for models. The friends ensured that it was a credible company. Once it was verified, the family settled in for a discussion.
Her parents warned that it would be a lot of hard work, adding that the sisters would need to keep up with their school assignments, as well. When the girls showed a desire to pursue acting despite the difficulties, their parents agreed to let them try it.
They went to the agency to sign a bunch of papers, which gave the company permission to “change our hair, place us and … put us in specific clothes,” Katz explained.
The company also required that the girls stay in school and continue their education. There were documents that needed to be signed by the elementary school principal, too.
After everything was signed, the company held a meeting for everyone who got scouted. Katz estimates that there were around 200 kids present. After the meeting, modeling pictures were taken, and the company recorded the ages and heights of the children.
“I actually had a broken leg when we were modeling,” Katz remembered. “I was not happy, but I pulled through for the pictures. They did our hair. They did our makeup.”
The sisters attended an acting school in Philadelphia. There, they took classes where they were taught how to do voice overs and script reading. The classes met once a week.
“Two months later, I got called to do a movie called ‘Hide and Seek’ with Dakota Fanning [and Robert De Niro]. They wanted me to be her extra,” said Katz. Unfortunately, the call came on a Jewish holiday, and they wanted the youngster in New York immediately. “My mom said, ‘I can’t pack up a seven year old and get to New York …” said Katz, adding that their house is located more than two hours away… “I was very upset, ya know? It was the first time I got called to do anything.”
The next call was to be extras in an episode of Law & Order, also being filmed in New York City. Filming took all day long. “It was a really long day for a seven and eight year old. We were there until probably two or three in the morning.” The Katz sisters were able to choose their own outfits because they were extras, but they had to bring a change of clothes and show the outfits to a producer who then decided which he liked best. “I remember crying because it was so late at night, and I was tired and hungry. There was no food there.”
After filming was completed, they were told when the episode would air. “We watched the beginning scenes where we were throwing balloons and playing. It was supposed to be a little kid’s birthday party,” Katz explained.
It’s something to share and to tell. You tell people, and they’re like, ‘What? You were in Law and Order?’
Katz’s sister Jessica got to do a movie called “Little Manhattan” with Josh Hutcherson, Bradley Whitford and Cynthia Nixon. She played “Libby,” the main character’s best friend. She was supposed to have a speaking role, but she was too shy to do the scene because the director wanted her to yell at an elderly woman. Jessica ended up being in 10 or 11 scenes.
When the movie came out, Katz’s parents took family members and friends to have a viewing party at the local theater. “We were screaming and cheering every time she would come on the screen,” Katz said. “There was this kid who had a huge poster of the movie, and his dad made him give it to my sister, so it’s now framed in my house.“
The sisters also did a voice-over for Ovaltine chocolate milk powder. “We sat in room for hours going over and over the script,” said Katz. “It didn’t have to be memorized, but they didn’t want you to stumble over it.” The process was especially difficult for the sisters, but at the time they didn’t know why. “We didn’t know we had learning disabilities,” Katz said. They only knew it was difficult to read and memorize the script.
Though she liked acting and it would have been a dream to continue, Carly and Jessica eventually had to bow out of acting. “I knew I loved doing it,” Katz said. “My sister was upset, but she didn’t necessarily like it as much as I did. I wish we had kept going with it.”
Overall, Katz thinks the experience had a positive effect on her. “It’s something to share and to tell. You tell people, and they’re like, ‘What? You were in Law and Order?’ At the time, I liked getting the attention from people. Now it’s just a fun story.”
Katz said she now wants to be a talent scout. “It changed my life because I never would have experienced what I did …”