Starlet Courtney Paige is an adrenaline junkie.
But it’s not stunt work that gets her heart in motion — it’s the stage and screen.
Since the age of five, the Kelowna native has been impressing her dramatic flare onto those around her.
At nine, she penned a horror screenplay with the help of her friend Christie and the two made a movie. Unfortunately, it didn’t get passed the censor — Paige.
“There was a scene, and this wasn’t supposed to be in the movie, but my friend was filming at the time and she filmed me going pee,” she said. “I didn’t know how to edit — the movie we were filming was just from the camcorder. I didn’t know how to delete that (scene) so I wouldn’t let anyone see the movie.”
Still, the ingénue grounded her lofty dreams, seeking out nursing as an initial career path after high school. “I didn’t think it was possible to have a professional acting career in Canada,” she admitted. “I was kind of uneducated about how much film and TV actually exists in Vancouver and Toronto.”
While at an audition for an indie horror film, Paige learned from the organizer there was an acting world beyond the Okanagan Valley. “If I took a full-time program and got an agent, it was very possible,” she said. “It was probably at that moment that I realized it was a possibility and that it made me want to move.”
That was two years ago, and since then Paige has moved to Vancouver. She booked a film roll in A Mother’s Nightmare with 90210 actress Jessica Lowndes and another on the television series Untold Stories of the ER.
Though Paige enjoys thrillers, she says she wants to make a difference in people’s lives. She admitted to being picked on at a young age, and she wants to use her own experiences as inspiration.
“I was bullied quite a bit and people think that I’m crazy,” she said. “Girls really are just jealous because they wouldn’t write things about and care so much if they weren’t.”
Paige admitted it will take a lot of work and time. But that’s something she prepared for.
“This industry is one of the toughest industries ever,” she said. “You really have to work hard, and work on your craft.”