Christmas hiatus for young Penticton actor

PENTICTON – A young Penticton actor will be looking for his next project now that the Fox crime drama Gracepoint has come to a close.

Nikolas Filipovic played the role of murdered 12-year-old Danny Solano. The final show in the series aired December 11.

The 15-year-old actor is a grade 10 student at Penticton High School and describes his showbiz career to date as “weird, ever since I was a little kid, missing out on different things."

While many teens are trying to nail down a potential career path, Filipovic already has 10 years acting experience on his resume.

“Going to auditions, missing school events, that sort of thing, it’s been a little weird, but other than that it’s been fairly normal,” he said.

Having an acting career while still attending high school can have its issues. Filipovic said he usually misses around 10 days in the fall and winter, but during the spring and summer he can be gone for as long as 30 days, travelling back and forth to Vancouver for auditions.

“As soon as I know I have an audition, say two days from now, I’ll just go to the school and get my homework,” he explained.
“It’s fairly easy for me to catch up.”

Prior to Gracepoint, Filipovic’s acting career consisted of roles in such performances as “Ship,” “The Carpenter’s Miracle,” and “Goodnight for Justice – The Measure of a Man," (part two of a three-part western movie series).

"I played ‘Billy,' a little kid who gets turned into a bandit,” Filipovic said, “and then I go to work on a, kind of like a prisoners release program.”

While filming Gracepoint, Filipovic developed a fondness for Victoria, a place he admitted liking more than Penticton. Still, he says he enjoys life in the Peach City, doing anything my friends are doing, as long as it’s fun.

“I don’t know what my motivation is for acting,” he said in response to a question. At his mother’s prompting, however, he admitted it was because he could “be somebody I’m not.”

More recently, Filipovic did an audition for a feature film called “Forced Entry.”

“Other than that, there’s not that much to audition for right now,” he said, noting that with Christmas the industry has gone quiet.

Is he looking for a career in acting?

“I can see that as a possibility, not a big possibility,” he said with a laugh.

Filipovic said he was impressed with a number of actors he’d met, including Michael Pena, David Tennant,  Sebastien O’Shea, Keifer Sutherland, Marcus Giamatti, Luke Perry and Noah Wylie.

Bumping elbows with some big names in the movie industry hasn’t had much affect on Filipovic’s status with his friends, who he says, “don’t really see me any different. They kind of joke around about it a lot.”

Gracepoint provided a memorable acting experience for Filipovic, who said he “got the least screen time, but I also had the most influence on the show. And I got hit on the head with an oar,” he said.

"I was a little excited for that,” he said, pleased to have been able to do his own stunts on the show.

As the Gracepoint series moved towards its final chapter, Filipovic’s mother, Danica, called Burger 55 and told them they should create a burger in honour of Nikolas’ character on the show. She says they agreed and the Danny Solano is a good burger.

After the series finale on Dec.11, Filipovic said rather than feeling let down it was over, he was relieved because he didn’t have to be on his guard about revealing the show’s ending, which was meant to be a big secret.

“ A lot of people were asking me about the ending,” he admitted, “and sometimes I wanted to say it, but I didn’t.”

Filipovic had some words of advice for those contemplating an acting career.

“You have to commit,” he said. “You can’t pick and choose what auditions you go to – you have to go to them all. You never know which audition is going to be the one that will give you the part."

Acting has also given Filipovic an opportunity to travel, a perk he really enjoys.

“When I auditioned for the movie “Touch” I was sent to Los Angeles and New York for a screen test. I love travelling, seeing places I haven’t been to before.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.