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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 11 ,2 02 1 | 12 Stop the Spread COVID-19 can be deadly. Stay home. Stay strong. Save lives. Visit ontario.ca/coronavirus Paid for by the Government of Ontario At just 15 years old, Piers Bijvoet has already enjoyed some of the perks of a veteran actor. He's walked the red car- pet at the Sundance Film Festival. He's had his own trailer on a movie set. "That was awesome," he said. But more than any- thing, his first movie, Fall- ing, reinforced just how much he loves acting. The movie drew praise from critics, earning one of the coveted closing night spots at Sundance, as well as favourable reviews at Cannes and the Toronto In- ternational Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a masterful fami- ly drama." Written and directed by its star, Viggo Mortensen, Falling was set to hit thea- tres on Feb. 5. Instead, in the COVID world, it's now available on the Apple TV streaming service. Locally, Falling will also be part of the Oakville Fes- tival of Film and Art's win- ter screening series. Tick- ets are available at eventi- ve.org. Bijovet talked about filming Falling and the doors it has opened for him. What was it like to see the fin- ished product? Because it was my first movie, I was really anx- ious to see it. There were parts of the movie I had on- ly read about in the script. A lot of it was filmed in northern Ontario. I had never seen the farm where they filmed, so it was really interesting to see the movie come together. What was the biggest lesson you learned? I think just learning how a movie is made. I had done commercials and mu- sic videos before, but this was my first movie. My first day, there was half an airplane on set. Just seeing how it's all done made me want to pursue acting even more. Tell us about your role in Falling. I play Will, Viggo (Mor- tensen)'s nephew. I'm the angsty teen and I have blue hair. Lance (Henriksen) is (Viggo's) dad and comes to stay with him. It was funny because Lance plays this really nasty person and he's pretty rude to my char- acter. He says all these ter- rible things and I stand up to him. Every time we did a scene, he'd yell at me, call- ing me all these mean names, then as soon as the cameras were off, he'd start apologizing. He was so nice, which just shows what a good actor he is. Has Falling led to oth- er opportunities? A director from San Die- go saw me doing an inter- view for Falling and asked me to send some tapes. It was really exciting. I was really happy to have an au- dition and I love having the opportunity to be in the movie. Can you tell us a little bit about this new mov- ie? It's called It's Alright Now. It's a 1970s coming of age film about three kids, me, my cousin and my best friend. We're all going through personal issues. They've decided to move the filming to Canada (To- ronto) and we'll start film- ing later this year. 'FALLING' INTO SUCCESS HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com Piers Bijvoet makes his film debut in 'Falling', which is available on Apple TV. It's also part of the Oakville Festival of Film and Arts' winter screening series. 'Falling' movie shoot photo WHAT'S ON LOCAL TEEN'S FIRST MOVIE ENJOYING CRITICAL ACCLAIM