As a teen, Sharece Sellem was a fan of R&B singer Faith Evans. This fall, she became her co-star.
Sellem, who teaches drama at Davis Street 21st Century Magnet School by day and performs with a youth drama group by night, snagged a spot in Evans’ newly released comeback music video. She plays a mime who interprets Evans’ emotions as she sings.
“I Was Like, ‘I’ll Be There’”
Sellem heard about the gig from an unexpected source: Facebook.
A week before the shoot was scheduled to begin, Evans’ assistant could not find any mimes in the California area with enough expressive talent. She found a video of Sellem on YouTube and messaged her on Facebook to ask if she lived near Los Angeles.
Contributed Photos
Faith Evans and Sharece Sellem.
The answer? No. Sellem lives in New Haven. But that didn’t stop her from saying yes. Thanks to a family connection — her sister works in the airline industry — she was able to get a free plane ticket the moment she was hired, right after a Skype audition where she improvised to songs in a videochat with a director across the country. The next thing she knew, she was on set with her own dressing room, makeup artist, and even a specific cue.
“It was so cute,” Sellem recalled, “They would say, ‘Mime!’”
Sellem’s ability to react to the music around her stunned everyone on the set.
“The first take that I did, there was huge applause. The makeup artist was crying [and] people said they got goosebumps,” Sellem said. Even Evans came over to express her admiration.
“I was starstruck,” said Sellem. “Just, like, ‘really?’”
An Early Start
Before Hollywood, Sellem found an audience for her talents closer to home: her grandmother. She is deaf, French-speaking, and grew up with a French culture of mimes, so Sellem’s performances are her ideal entertainment.
Sellem said her grandparents (her grandfather, too, was deaf) provide inspiration of their own. Sometimes she finds herself incorporating sign language into her choreography. Because of them, “It just flows out.”
She began miming publicly with her group by putting together a mime play combined with music. Recordings from that play were the ones that ended up on YouTube for Hollywood to find. Now, after about a year of experience, she also teaches a mime to music class on Fridays to adults and incorporates some of her ideas into her day job as an instructor at Davis.
“I know that I’ll always have a career in the arts. I’m not a nine-to-five person,” she said.
Dreaming Big
Sellem has big ideas for her future. First, she’d like to get involved in more music videos. She just put together a promo reel to share with anyone who contacts her, and she’s expecting the inquiries to spike, thanks to Faith Evans.
“After this video goes out, I’m just waiting to see if my phone’s going to ring,” she said with a smile.
Next up is a role in a feature film with local film producer Jet Paine, who just won an award at the New Haven film festival. Then it’s more work with kids with the eventual goal of opening up her own black box theater where she could run amateur programs for the public. As for her biggest dream?
“Well, there are no world-famous mimes now like there used to be,” she mused. “I would be a mime with a new twist.”
