Students may know India Ennenga '16 as just another member of the freshman class, but since the age of nine, she has done voice work and performed in various films and television shows, playing Meg Ryan's daughter in "The Women" and appearing in HBO series "Treme" for the past two years. Ennenga's most recent work is "Nobody Walks," which premiered in theaters nationwide Oct. 12.
In the film, Ennenga plays Kolt, the daughter of Julie (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Peter (John Krasinski '01), a couple living in Los Angeles. The movie tells the story of the effects that an artist from New York (Olivia Thirlby) has on the family's relationships when she stays in the their Los Angeles home to work on a film.
"The family already has a lot of issues but isn't really aware of them ... and (Thirlby) winds up bringing out all of the sort of hidden problems that the family has," Ennenga said. Ennenga's character has a crush on her father's assistant, adding to the tension.
Kolt is an example of a quiet girl going through her "tough teenage span," Ennenga said. The way she deals with her problems resonated with Ennenga and attracted her to the role.
"The character seemed very much like a girl who had gone to my high school, so it was easy to relate," Ennenga said.
For Ennenga, the sense of family that dominates the movie extended beyond the screen. The movie was shot mainly on one set, so a large part of the cast would just sit around and hang out between takes, Ennenga said. "It felt so much like a family at the end of it," she said. Ad-libbing scenes with Krasinski was entertaining, she added.
Ennenga especially loved interacting with Thirlby - for each new take, Thirlby would assume a different approach but stick to the same words, which gave Ennenga a chance to learn and explore the different ways a scene could be played.
Just as she enjoys absorbing new skills on set, Ennenga said she also genuinely loves academic learning. She said her mother never pressured her to go to college, but "I love school, and I didn't want to not go to college. The thought of sitting at home and waiting around for a job is just not something I'm ready for yet."
Once the filming of the new season of "Treme" begins, Ennenga said keeping up with coursework and travelling to New Orleans to shoot may get a bit hard to juggle, but she doesn't plan to let her acting career interfere with her career as a Brown student. She said she is considering concentrating in English or comparative literature but has an interest in ancient religions.
At the age of four, Ennenga said she begged her mother to allow her to become an actress. Her mother eventually relented when Ennenga turned nine, at which point she had what she said she considers her first significant role as the voice of Pinky in the children's cartoon "Pinky Dinky Doo."
Thus far in her career, Ennenga said she has chosen roles to which she can relate, so much so that in daily life she sometimes finds herself wondering "wait - wasn't that a line that I read in a script?"
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