By JODEE TAYLOR
TRAVERSE CITY -- From Lake Leelanau to ... Hollywood?
Mario Cassem, 12, has traveled that route. Mario, formerly a student at Lake Leelanau St. Mary's, lived in Michigan until July 2007, when he was discovered by a talent scout and sent to New York City for an acting convention. He got noticed -- and awarded -- and took the experience and prizes to Hollywood.
And now he has a small role in "17 Again," opening today.
"I play an Indian boy playing chess with a character named Ned over Bluetooth," Cassem said by phone from Los Angeles. "The director fed me lines and I said them to the computer and I got to add some attitude."
In real life, Mario doesn't know how to play chess.
Mario lives in California with his mother, Maggie, and his twin sister Maria. His father, Ardy, lives in Cedar and older sister Kaitlynn attends the University of Detroit-Mercy.
Mario's next role is even bigger -- he's one of foursome of young teen boys who have a crush on "Stacy's Mom" in the movie of the same name, based on the Fountains of Wayne pop song of the same name. In "Stacy's Mom," Mario plays Juan, a Latino boy.
"I guess I'm lucky because I happen to look like a lot of different things," he said.
He's actually Guatemalan, adopted and brought back to Michigan with his sister when he was 7 months old, Maggie Cassem said.
Sister Maria has dipped her toes in the movie pool, too, playing an extra in "Land of the Lost," starring Will Ferrell.
"Will Ferrell was at the La Brea Tar Pits talking to a class," Maria said, and she was in the front row of the auditorium, wearing a dark turquoise shirt with a rainbow patch on the front.
While the star of "17 Again" was fun to work with, Mario said, it was probably Maria who got a bigger kick out of meeting teen heartthrob Zac Efron. She said she shook his hand and she thought, "I can't believe I'm touching Zac Efron!" When she got home, she e-mailed her best friend in Lake Leelanau.
Mario saw the final version of "17 Again" for the first time Wednesday and found out his scene made it into the movie. His favorite line with "attitude" is while he's waiting for Ned to make a chess move: "The clock is ticking," Mario's character Samir says. "Tick tock tick tock."
Maggie Cassem said she realized, after she saw the movie, that the actual lines used were ones recorded in Rich Brauer's studio in Traverse City.
"Mario did the voice work and shot his scenes in Los Angeles," she said, "but when we came back in the summer they called and said they wanted Mario to do more voice work." Thankfully, she said, they were able to do that here, without having to travel.
