Starring in a surfing movie was Abigail Spencer’s destiny, even if she didn’t want it to be.
The daughter of Pensacola surfing legend Yancy Spencer III grew up in her late father’s Florida surf shops before trading waves for movie scripts and relocating to Los Angeles.
But even while rising from roles in soap operas (“All My Children”) to stints in award-winning television shows (“Mad Men”) to parts in blockbuster movies (“Cowboys & Aliens”), Spencer couldn’t escape her fate.
With the surfing movie “Chasing Mavericks” now open, her life has come full circle.
“I knew this script deep down inside,” the 31-year-old actress says. “I grew up in this world as part of a surfing family. It’s as if I was meant to be in this movie.”
“Chasing Mavericks” follows the true story of young Jay Moriarity (Jonny Weston) as he enlists the help of local surfing legend Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler) in an attempt to surf one of the biggest waves on earth. Spencer plays Hesson’s wife, Brenda, who she subconsciously based on her own mother.
“My mother was the consummate surfer’s wife,” says Spencer, who is also in “The Wizard of Oz” prequel “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” set for release in 2013.
“She never put herself in front of the waves. She was just such a good model of understanding someone’s passion. She challenged and supported my father.”
Sadly, her father died last year of a heart attack on Valentine’s Day. He was 60.
“He was out in California visiting me and my young son, and he went out surfing for the afternoon at County Line (Malibu),” recalls Spencer. “He called me on the way out to say it was a beautiful day and the waves were perfect. Then, he called back a short time later.
“He was really calm. He said, ‘Abby, I’m having a heart attack. Call 911. I love you.’ When the fire chief found him, he was holding my mother’s Valentine’s Day card and looking out at the waves that changed his life.”
By her own admission, Spencer’s life “went into chaos” upon her father’s sudden death and when the opportunity to be in a new surf movie arose, she resisted.
“People kept saying, ‘You need to be in this movie for your father, for your legacy,’” she says. “But it was too soon after my father’s death. I didn’t know if I could handle it. The whole thing felt like too much.”
Spencer showed up two hours late for her audition, read her lines and left, not caring if she got the part. But destiny could not be denied and three months later, she was cast as Brenda.
“Still, nobody knew my personal connection to this movie,” she says. “So I sat everyone down and told them about my dad and how I grew up. Bringing my own story to this movie really made it bigger than life.”
And so, in honoring her father, Spencer became her mother.
According to the actress, “In the movie, Gerry [Gerard Butler] looks just like my father, especially the way he does his hair. And I look just like my mother. Only in hindsight did I realize that this is a piece of my life.”
Ironically, despite being the most experienced surfer onset, Spencer never stepped foot in the water while filming “Chasing Mavericks.” But that was just fine with her.
“I’m going to be totally honest,” she laughs. “I hate surfing the Pacific. The currents are really strong. I’m totally a Gulf Coast girl.”
josterhout@nydailynews.com
Source : nydailynews[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment