In the time since Austin Highsmith left Winston-Salem to pursue an acting career in 2003, she has made guest appearances on such TV shows as CSI: Miami, Dirt, Ghost Whisperer, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Now, she has a leading role in the thriller Circle of Eight, which started out as a 10-part online series. The episodes were combined and new footage added for a DVD released this week by Paramount Home Entertainment.
"It was really exciting," Highsmith said by phone from California. "I was really scared at first, but it was really fun, and I was so excited they gave me the opportunity."
Highsmith plays Jessica, a young woman from North Carolina who moves into a spooky apartment building in Los Angeles.
There, she meets its odd assortment of residents, including Ed (John Bishop), the manager whose office is in an elevator; Randall (DJ Qualls), a socially inept amateur filmmaker; and Evan (Ryan Doom), a hunky artist.
Just as she is settling in, Jessica runs across a dead body that disappears when she goes to get someone for help. Then things get even more bizarre.
"I was intrigued by (the script)," she said. "It was such an interesting role to play, on so many levels."
The movie includes a fair amount of violence and some nudity. "That's not me, that's a body double," she is quick to point out.
The role required her to shoot at an especially spooky locale, the Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles.
The hospital shut down in 1991 and has since been used as a shooting location for various movies and TV shows.
"This is the second time I've filmed there," she said. Her first was for a horror movie that was never released.
"This is actually where they shot the first Nightmare on Elm Street, the furnace-room scenes," she said. "And in the file room, it's all the actual desk records of everybody who died in that hospital."
Between takes, she said, "you'll wander into a room while waiting and there's old hospital equipment still in there."
Though this is her first leading role in a feature-length film, she has been staying busy. She recently completed a guest role for the HBO series Big Love for several episodes that will air later this season.
"I'm opposite Sissy Spacek," she said. "She's my hero, she's pretty much the reason I started acting in the first place, so getting to work with her is an absolute dream."
She is also getting ready for pilot season, the time when producers are looking to cast pilots for prospective TV shows.
Highsmith was back in Winston-Salem over the Christmas holiday. "It was fantastic," she said. "I come back twice a year…. This year my little brother graduated from university, so I also came back in May. I'm really close to my family, so it's really hard to be away."
She is still involved in an L.A. theater troupe, but most of her roles these days are in front of the cameras rather than on stage. "I'm surviving at acting alone," she said, "but it definitely gets kind of hairy when you haven't worked for a couple of months. But God provides."
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com
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