Rebel Wilson is coming to direct and star in a film, and you could be in it

September 10, 2023

By Peter Holmes

Rebel Wilson will direct and star in the Australian film The Deb, and positions are available for people who want to work on the production as extras.

The Deb will be the directorial debut for the international film star Wilson, and will also feature Tara Morice, Shane Jacobson, Natalie Abbott, Jay Laga'aia and Charlotte MacInnes.

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The film is based on a musical first performed by the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) in 2022.

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A notice around Carcoar, about 40km south of Orange, states that "Australian feature film The Deb is coming to Carcoar to shoot for two weeks! We are looking for adults to be paid extras in the film. Age range: 18-100, everyone over 18 welcome (unfortunately we don’t require any children for the scenes)."

The dates for filming are October 17 to 27, 2023.

"If you can be available for work (1-5 days, depending on character), come to our go-see where we will take your photo and get you to complete a brief information sheet. No need to dress up, come as you are, casual, country look required.

"We will then be in touch with those selected to book specific shoot dates."

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The ATYP says The Deb is about a "high school outcast and whimsical mega-dork Taylah [who] longs to be the princess in her own fairy tale. Which isn’t easy in Dunburn – a drought-stricken Aussie town struggling for survival, where cool girls and footy hunks lead the pack".

"But when her hyper-woke, inner-city cousin Maeve comes to stay, the pair join forces on a quest to make their mark on the best night of the year: the town’s annual Debutante Ball."

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The stage production of The Deb was written and co-directed by Hannah Reilly (winner of the 2019 Rebel Wilson Comedy Commission) with original music by Megan Washington.

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In May the project was launched during the Cannes Film Festival. Variety reported it was a private event "aboard billionaire investor [Len] Blavatnik’s yacht, where cast members from the Aussie musical performed a number of songs on the vessel’s upper deck".

Wilson told Variety: “Because I’ve been on set and have done so many musicals, you kind of pick up things like how to shoot a musical number and how to do the soundtrack, because you’re there and you’re part of it."

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In May Wilson also told entertainment website Deadline that The Deb "came out of my scholarship program at ATYP, which is where I learned to act and put on my first show ... I said then that I think this is a film, and after we premiered it last year I said, 'We’ve got to make this into a movie'. Not all projects in Australia have universal appeal, but this one does.”