Visit the Photo Place

New Rogen film features area grad

Actress who grew up in King George County getting first big role in movie with Seth Rogan

Date published: 3/29/2009

By Rob Hedelt

THE Fredericksburg area is getting an impressive collection of actors and actresses making names for themselves in films and television.

This week I heard from Collette Wolfe, who grew up in King George County, where her family still resides.

Wolfe, who graduated from King George High School and Virginia Tech, will star with Seth Rogen, Ray Liotta and Anna Faris in the comedy "Observe and Report," which opens April 10.

Rogen plays a slacker mall security man, and Wolfe is a sweet young girl from the cinnamon bun shop who befriends him.

It's the biggest role so far for the daughter of James and Rhonda Wolfe.

Wolfe said she got her first big break with a role in the independent film "The Foot Fist Way."

In the "it's a small world" department, that was the film that launched actor-director-writer Danny McBride on a career that's landed him more than half a dozen big movies and his own series, "East Bound and Down" on HBO. McBride grew up in Spotsylvania County.

Wolfe met McBride and his partners--Ben Best and Jody Hill--when they held auditions in North Carolina for the film about a karate instructor, played by McBride.

"I didn't know he was from the Fredericksburg area until I was doing the audition," said Wolfe, who once did productions at Riverside Dinner Theater. "He said, 'You're a King George girl?' and teased me about being from out in the country."

Though the film didn't catch on commercially right away, it got noticed by a core of creative folks in Hollywood--Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow included.

Hill, who co-wrote and starred in "The Foot Fist Way," is directing "Observe and Report," which Wolfe hopes will open new doors for her.

"You prepare and work for every role the same, getting into it in every way you can," said Wolfe, who traded studying for a master's degree in sociology for work at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. "But it is different when you've got a larger part in a film like this. You feel like you've got more of a stake."

Follow us on

Date published: 3/29/2009

Most recent reader comments: