Sometimes the only thing harder than getting onto a hit teen-and-tween show is getting away from it.
Addison Riecke, who plays the wisecracking Nora on Nick’s long-running superheroes comedy The Thundermans, may have already started to beat those odds.
Addison Riecke.
At 13, Riecke can currently be seen in movie theaters as well, alongside the likes of Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell in Sofia Coppola’s Beguiled.
Riecke plays Marie, one of the students at a Civil War-era boarding school.
“Everything was very different on Beguiled,” says Riecke. “She’s a very different character from Nora, and the time is very different, too. When you put on the costume, you feel like you’re in that time.
“We also shot it in a real house, as opposed to the soundstage where we do The Thundermans.”
Addison Riecke, left, with Emma Howard, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Sofia Coppola, Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning at the Cannes Film Festival.
There was also the part about having famous actors everywhere, and Riecke admits she was a fan as well as a colleague.
“I’ve enjoyed all their work,” she says. “So it was really really cool to meet them. Then when we were filming, you saw how they were all so professional.”
Speaking of professional, Riecke added some of her own contributions to Beguiled. Coppola liked several of her improvs so much she left them in the final cut.
“A couple of times I reacted to something like I would in real life,” says Riecke. “It was so cool that she left it in.”
Beguiled also enabled Riecke to stretch her acting chops.
“The Thundermans is comedy,” she says. “You’re playing to younger kids, so you always want to come up energized.
“In Beguiled, I had to bring that down a bit.”
Addison Riecke, right, with Diego Velazquez in The Thundermans.
Riecke stresses that she isn’t looking to bolt from The Thundermans, which is closing in on its 100th episode.
“I love doing the show,” she says. “I could definitely see continuing to play Nora.
“When the show started, Nora was just the sassy little sister. Now she’s a person, a real-life character. You can see how she’s grown.
“She’s a challenge to play, but she’s fun. She’s become a part of me.”
The longer-term challenge, and not just for Riecke, is what happens after Nora, whenever that day comes. The streets of L.A. are teeming with actors who were successful enough on Disney or Nick or Freeform or MTV shows so that, ironically, they had trouble getting cast as any other character, particularly one who was a little older.
That’s one reason Beguiled was a valuable step for Riecke.
Addison Riecke, top left, in Beguiled.
“I know sometimes it can be hard to move on after a kids’ show,” says Riecke. “I think Beguiled can help my career, and it’s wonderful that so many people are seeing it.”
Like many young actors, Riecke started performing before she knew it could become a vocation.
“When I was a little kid, I’d put on plays at sleepovers,” she says. “I was always interested in being creative.
“I don’t think it was because I wanted to be on TV. It was more about getting to play a lot of different parts. When you’re acting, you can be so many things.”
She went to acting school in New Orleans in 2011, when she was about 7, and a year later she auditioned for The Thundermans.
She got the role and unknowingly also gave Nora her first signature touch: a bow in her hair.
“I wore it when I auditioned,” says Riecke. “And it became part of Nora’s character.”
Perhaps because she’s been performing for so long, Riecke says she isn’t fazed even when big stars walk onto the set.
“I don’t really ever get nervous,” she says. “Because this is something I like to do.”
Not surprisingly, she plans to keep doing it, and perhaps expand her range.
“It would be really fun to do live theater someday,” she says. “I’d love to do some sort of Broadway.”
For the record, her current Broadway favorites include Wicked and Hamilton. Elizabeth Schuyler, anyone?
When she’s not acting, Riecke works with a number of charities, in areas from literacy programs and food distribution to anti-bullying programs and the Humane Society.
She also still goes to school in New Orleans, which she says gives her two sets of friends: from her hometown and from her acting gigs.
“It’s cool to have both worlds,” she says.
In Beguiled, second from right.
As all this suggests, she doesn’t have a lot of time to do things like watch television. She does admit, however, to being a big fan of Riverdale and the recently ended Pretty Little Liars.
And whatever the future holds for her career, she’s already left her mark as Nora Thunderman.
“I meet some kids, 5 or 6 years old, who recognize me and think I have superpowers,” she says. “That’s very cool.”
0B4580�^�W