Ashley's Rising Star In Hollywood
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written by Doug Foley March 10, 2004 Like most Hamilton high school students, Ashley Leggat will be looking for work this summer. But unlike most, she will be job hunting for movie roles in Hollywood. And the 17-year-old St. Thomas More student already has a pretty good reference on her resume, a key role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Leggat landed the role of Marcia, one of the "bad" girls who try to make life miserable for the movie's star, Lindsay Lohan. "I was pretty much in every scene," Leggat said recently of her movie role. "A lot of parts were cut out but a lot stayed in. My friends were all, 'oh my God' when they saw it and everyone at school is saying 'that's the girl in the movie.'" Leggat has been involved in entertainment since age two when mom Patty enrolled her in dancing school. She eventually branched out into singing and acting, landing the role of Marta Von Trapp at age nine in the Theatre Aquarius production of The Sound of Music. "After having four boys playing hockey my mom had had enough of that and got me right into dance," Leggat said with a laugh. "Over the years I have learned and incorporated into acting. I love dancing but I think I am going to be an actress or even a singer but not a dancer. I think I have always wanted to be more than just in the background." That certainly is the case in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. She landed the role on the strength of an audition tape and a background that includes about a dozen TV program roles, including Real Kids, Real Adventures and Ace Lightning, a role in Matthew Broderick's The Music Man TV movie and a host of local theatre and dance roles, including that of Clara in The Nutcracker at Hamilton Place. "I went for the part of the mean girl but she was already cast," Leggat said of her Confessions part. "Then they created two extra roles for two more mean girls." Leggat became friends with the movie's star, Lindsay Lohan, and bumped into her recently while in Los Angeles making the rounds of meetings and auditions. Ironically, the lead was supposed to belong to Hilary Duff but she had other projects. Leggat knows Duff from appearing with her in a 2002 made-for-TV movie, Cadet Kelly, that also filmed in Toronto. Leggat hopes her recent Los Angeles jaunt will produce some results for her return in the summer. She has an agent in Toronto and a manager in Los Angeles. "The feedback we have been getting has been really great. People there know that when you have been doing it since you were little that you are serious about the business." But Leggat wasn't all business on the trip. The highlights for her were going to Elton John's Oscar party and saying hello to Johnny Depp. "He was at the apartment where we were staying. We went up said hi and he said hi and we just kind of drove away. But he was cool." Leggat's mom accompanied her to California. Patty and husband Roy, a member of the Leggat automobile dealership family, also have four sons, Rob, Brett and twins Todd and Bram. Leggat is currently getting ready for the local competitive dance season. Like another Hamiltonian who had a part in Confessions, Amanda Balen, Leggat dances out of the Tiffany's Dance Elite studio on the Mountain. She is also catching up on school work. "I have March break coming for that. My school actually helps me so much. The teachers are amazing. Anytime I need anything I can go to them and they will help me. And my friends are the same. I don't think it would be possible to say I am missing anything. I never expected (to do) half the things I have done, let alone do them at 17." |