Click here to read Charlotte’s piece about Vice Provost Steve Farmer
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Dazzling, Considerate, Passionate: Charlotte.
By Jaclyn Lee
First, the entrance. Her walk, her face, her demeanor – everything is being watched. Eyeballs belonging to directors scrutinize every move. Her memory cannot fail now. She must deliver and be perfect – and she is. To say Charlotte Matthews was born to be in front of the camera would be an understatement.
“Acting is the portal through which I see things through another person’s eyes and allow myself to be vulnerable to the obstacles that my characters go through,” said Charlotte.
With her glossy, voluminous brown locks and mega-watt smile, it’s no wonder she has landed over a dozen commercials and appeared in television shows including Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“I act for the thrill of nailing a scene,” said Charlotte with a sparkle in her eyes and a tugging smile. That thrill is what led her across the country, nailing auditions in New York, Atlanta and LA. Charlotte’s accomplishments are no easy feat, yet she speaks with such unpretentiousness and warmth. At age seven, she starred in The Sound of Music at the Lovett school.
“It was then I realized that I had a passion for acting and that I had potential,” said Charlotte. The rest, as they say, is history.
“I must have auditioned for over 100 roles and although some were intimidating, I have to remind myself not to get scared because I’m not playing Charlotte,” she added.
This sort of focus is why she was offered her own Nickelodeon show at the young age of 12.
“My mom said that we would have to pick up and move to LA in two weeks and I didn’t think it was fair to uproot my entire family for something they didn’t even ask for,” Charlotte said. Her selflessness is why she turned down the role.
“It was an option, but not an option for me,” she said.
In the Hollywood world of glitz and glamor, many child stars rise to fame, then crash from the so-called celebrity lifestyle. Yet, Charlotte’s down-to-earth attitude is why she refuses to let it compromise her morals.
“You can get so wrapped up in the whirlwind of it that you lose sight of what made you who you are in the first place,” she said. “To me, the most important thing is family.” Charlotte does not regret her decisions because she has grown up with a sense of normalcy, something that she is grateful for.
By age 14 she had booked her first feature film, The Greening of Whitney Brown, portraying the mean girl.
“It was so fun playing someone opposite of me and stepping into someone else’s shoes,” Charlotte said.
Now 17, she has filmed episodes for a teen talk show and auditions about four times a month. Still, she is mature for her years.
“I want to have an career in Television either in acting or news anchoring, but I’ll stop if the spark burns out.”