By Makenzie Atkins
Ashlyn Lopez, a Newsome High School junior, played a big role in Disney’s newest Christmas movie, Christmas Again.
Last year, when Lopez was a sophomore in high school, she auditioned to take part in a Disney movie. Only knowing that it was going to be a Christmas movie, she acted out specific scenes for the audition in hopes of grabbing a part. After being offered the part of the older sister, Gabby, she had to switch to e-learning for school and fly out to Chicago for three months of filming.
Christmas Again is about a young girl, Rowena, whose Christmas season has a big change with her new blended family. Reluctant to accept the new way of Christmas, she ends up reliving it over and over again until she sees the beauty in the new traditions.
Coming from a similar family herself, Lopez really related to her character and used experience to dive into the character.
“My parents are divorced, and I have a younger sister who is actually about her (Rowena’s) age, so I definitely relate to my character,” said Lopez, “and I also am pretty sarcastic in real life, so I related to her a lot.”
Lopez has been acting since she was just 4 years old and has since been a part of many roles, including Beneath the Leaves, a Netflix movie, and The Wrong House from Lifetime. She hopes to continue acting even after high school, and her dream is to one day become a superhero in a big movie.
Before Lopez left for filming, she could only tell her closest friends where she was going to be. To the rest of her classmates, it looked like Lopez disappeared for three months.
“I came back, and they thought I switched classes or something,” said Lopez, “and I still couldn’t tell them where I was because we were not really supposed to say much before it came out.”
This year, shortly after the movie was released, Newsome had an in-school premier for Lopez. Pulling out the red carpet, Newsome students watched the movie all together in the school’s auditorium.
Christmas Again was released on Friday, December 3 and can be streamed on Disney+ or watched on Disney Channel.
For more information, visit the Christmas Again page at https://disneynow.com/shows/christmas-again/season-1 or stream it now on Disney+.
