16-y-o ‘Jamerican’ lands big role in Morgan Freeman film

NY:

Kingston-born Elaine Wallace Buck, who migrated to the USA 19 years ago, is today beaming with pride, given that on Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27, her 16-year-old daughter, Tayler, will hit the silver screens, starring alongside award-winning actor Martin Sheen ( The West Wing) and Edi Gathegi ( The Blacklist) in the independent feature film Princess Of The Row. Golden Globe and Academy Award- winning actor, director and narrator Morgan Freeman is the executive producer of the film.

“I’m so proud of Tayler,” Buck, the mother of two girls, shared exclusively with The Gleaner.

“It’s a journey I never thought was possible until now. As a Jamaican mother, it is important to keep the culture alive and it is important for my daughters to know where they come from,” she confessed.

Producer Shawn Austin and director Max Carlson cast Tayler as 12-year-old Alicia Willis, a young foster kid who decides to run away to live with her mentally ill, homeless father, hatching a plan to escape the city with him. She has been honoured for her performance as Alicia from the Florida Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, Method Fest and WorldFest Houston.

Asked how she landed the dream role, she shared, “I auditioned a few times, and actually was put on a few phone calls with director Max Carlson, to really understand how he wanted the character to be portrayed. After that, I got a call from my manager telling me that I booked the role! It was a very exciting day for me.”

Tayler, who confessed her favourite Jamaican dish is oxtail with rice and peas and cabbage, and who loves chicken patty, said she was inspired to pursue acting by her older sister Bianca.

“I’ve been acting since I was four or five years old, and at that point in time, I wanted to do everything that my sister was doing. So when she got into acting, I didn’t think twice about following in her footsteps,” she said.

Besides Princess Of The Row, Tayler has appeared in the award-winning Golden Globe movie, The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and most recently played Sandra in Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living, which airs on BET TV. She has also appeared in the hit Newline/WB movie, Annabelle: Creation. Given her incredible success as a young, black actress in Hollywood, the comparison was inevitable to Kerry Washington, whose mother was also born in Jamaica.

“I’ve never met Kerry, but I have watched her in many shows, recently Little Fires Everywhere, and it’s clear that she is an extremely talented actress. I definitely look up to her, and hope to meet her some day,” Tayler said.

Her advice to other young aspiring black actors/actresses, “You will hear a lot more ‘no’s’ than ‘yeses’ and it’s important to brush off the rejection and continue to work hard to get where you want to be in life.”