Blyth-area native Kelsey Falconer to make big-screen debut at Forest City Film Festival in 'Fortescue'

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Kelsey Falconer, an accomplished actor who was born and raised just outside of Blyth, is making a star turn in Rebeccah Love’s Fortescue, a feature film that will have its world premiere at the Forest City Film Festival in London next month.

 

The film will greet audiences for the first time on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:15 p.m. in London’s Wolf Performance Hall. Written, directed and produced by Love, Fortescue stars Falconer in the lead role, alongside Chelsea Preston, Tyson Coady, Nickolas Franco, Jacqueline Greer Graham and Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato.

 

This comes after an exciting few years for Falconer, who had a recurring role in Netflix’s Grand Army in 2020 and a trio of single-episode roles in 2022 in HBO Max’s Station Eleven, as well as Reacher and The Boys, both produced by Amazon Prime. Then, in 2023, she was in two episodes of FX’s Fargo as Lenore Hunk which gave her the chance to act opposite the two-time Golden Globe Award-winning star of Mad Men Jon Hamm in a memorable scene early in the series.

 

The Citizen last spoke with Falconer in 2019 when she had just appeared in a memorable episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, the Hulu series starring Elisabeth Moss that has won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. Now, she stands on the precipice of a tremendous moment in her career, starring in her first feature film and premiering it in London, Ontario, a city in which Falconer has so much history.

 

Falconer grew up in Huron County, just outside of Blyth, but she went to high school at London’s H.B. Beal Secondary School as part of its theatre program. While there, she was part of four high school projects at The Grand Theatre in London. October’s premiere of Fortescue will be special for Falconer, as many friends and family members from Huron County, London and beyond are planning to be in attendance.

 

How Falconer came to be involved in Fortescue is that a good friend of hers had worked with Love in some of her earlier short film work. Love received a Canadian Arts Council grant to develop a feature film - what would later become Fortescue - and cast Falconer’s friend, a frequent collaborator. However, when she had to drop out of the project, she made a handful of recommendations for her replacement, one of whom was Falconer. There was a proper audition process and Falconer was the actor who booked the role. 

 

This was a first for Falconer, who has a theatre background but had, most recently, worked predominantly in television. So, for her first feature film role to be a starring one, it’s been a lot for her all at once, but she’s taken it in stride, saying that embodying one character for a month or so at a time isn’t unlike much of the theatre work she did in her earlier years in the profession.
“As a playwright enlists her boyfriend and best friend to stage a play for their neighbours, she experiences a frightening psychosis that dramatizes her struggles with mental health and the pains of performing womanhood for men,” reads the film’s description on the Forest City Film Festival’s website, “adding that it’s an “honest and vivid portrayal of the dynamics at play within female friendships, heterosexual relationships, and mental health struggles.”

 

Falconer said she and the cast engaged in the creation of a true independent film, living together in a cabin during its month-long production and shooting in another. Because many of the television roles she’s taken were on big shows for established networks, she said the creation of Fortescue was unique, grassroots and truly magical.

 

She said that while the process was intense, it was an amazing shoot with some very talented colleagues. It was an encouraging environment and everyone was allowed the space to unplug from their roles and get the rest they needed after a day of shooting. Falconer, specifically, said she would release the pressure valve of the day by watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls.
And now, having seen the fruits of their labour finished and ready to meet the world, Falconer says it’s an exciting time for the film and its creators, as well as a special time for her. She had a private screening of the film with Love and some of her castmates and to see the finished product, the story put together, what made it in and what was left on the cutting room floor, was a special experience. That intimate screening of the film before the rest of the world gets to see it, she said, was an experience she won’t soon forget.

 

To learn more or buy tickets to the world premiere of Fortescue at the Forest City Film Festival, visit fcff.ca/events/fortescue/ 
The show is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24 at Wolf Performance Hall in London, Ontario. General admission tickets are $15 each, while tickets for seniors or students are $12.75 each. They can be purchased on the film festival’s website.