In a successful acting career, as with any profession, you have to take chances. Sometimes that means two sides of the equation taking a chance on each other. Lanie McAuley is all about taking chances. She has played victims in horror movies, Hollywood actresses, dancers… a truly diverse array of roles. One thing McAuley had wanted to invest in was a character that was out of her comfort zone. When she was contacted about the role of Terra in the movie Aeris, she wanted it right from the start. Aeris chronicles the struggle of Terra Madley, a young snowboarder in her breakout year dealing with the adversity of an injury combined with the pressure of living up to the expectations of her peers, fans, and sponsors. Terra is the kind of role that allows the exploration of a strong female character and portrays these ideals to a wide viewing audience. A professional, with an intense work ethic, and the real life concerns that all athletes deal with, Terra allowed McAuley to experience and portray a character not so ever present in Hollywood films.
Lanie had worked with actor Elise Gatien on Lost After Dark, and the two worked together on their audition tapes for the Lukas Huffman film Aeris. When Huffman saw their chemistry on camera, he offered Lanie the lead role of Terra and cast Elise as her best friend. Becoming Terra would require an immense amount of change for Lanie. Due to Terra’s profession and upbringing, she possesses an attitude, language (vernacular), and abilities that are quite foreign to Lanie. She had no trepidation in taking on the part as she states, “I was really excited at the opportunity to play a role like this, because I saw Terra as a very real, multidimensional, and strong female character. She is a driven young woman chasing her dream, but she has a lot to overcome with the adversity of an injury and her own self-doubt in the face of mounting pressure. That was a story I really wanted to be a part of telling. Portraying Terra meant breaking down a lot of barriers in my acting. Traditionally I’ve been typecast into the same kinds of roles – i.e. the girl-next-door or the mean girl – but Terra is a much more raw and multidimensional character than I’m used to playing. There are a lot of layers in Terra ranging from her vulnerability and youthfulness to her determination and grit.” Enthusiasm would give Lanie an edge towards becoming Terra but there was a great deal of physicality attached to this role. As an action star might train and observe for a martial arts film, McAuley needed to learn how to move and carry herself in the way that a professional snowboarder would. Anyone who has strapped a board onto their willing yet apprehensive feet can confirm the difference between “wanting” and “doing.” Lanie reveals, “After booking the role, I got up the mountain as much as I could to try and improve my riding skills and start getting into the headspace of a snowboarder. I also watched some documentaries (including one Lukas made called Lady Shredders) about mountain life and what it’s like to be a woman in the male-dominated profession of snowboarding. I learned a lot. I really tried to study the language and mannerisms of women in the sport. The nice thing was there are so many versions of that; I could make Terra my own. Preparing for this role physically meant taking as many opportunities as I could to go snowboarding before we went to camera. There were only a couple of weeks between my being cast and the start of filming. I knew I would have a stunt double taking the reigns on anything too difficult, so my duty was to get to a point where I could look comfortable on the board and ride convincingly enough for close-ups. I wasn’t asked to do anything physically that I didn’t feel comfortable doing, but I was definitely pushed to my edge. They had hired crewmembers that could all ski or snowboard proficiently, so being the least experienced rider on set was intimidating. I’m an okay snowboarder, but I’m slow. For a lot of the film we shot in the back-country and in the trees, and I was fully aware that if an avalanche were to hit, I’d be the least likely to make it out.”
Lanie McAuley proved to herself and to other women that they can inspire both men and women with tales of their determination, struggle, and bravery. Independent filmmakers like Lukas Huffman create opportunities for actresses like Lanie to communicate the existence of the many powerful and realistic women in modern society. Lanie notes, “I think audiences really connected with Terra’s struggle to live up to the pressures of her image and career, and her eventual resolution when she remembers why she fell in love with snowboarding in the first place. I think it’s a story which a lot of people can relate to. The viewers also really appreciated that we had a female-centric cast, particularly in a sports film. That was one of the things I loved best about the project from the beginning, so I’m really happy that audiences responded to that.”
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