GINA PIERSANTI

Sundance Film: It Felt Like Love

Age? “14.”

Where are you from? “Hoboken, New Jersey. But it’s close to Manhattan, so I usually say New York. We went to Paris last Spring and the first time we got into a cab, the driver asked where we were from. And he was like: ‘Jersey, really? You’re not that loud.’ We have such a bad reputation.”

Blame Alex Shaffer if you bump into him on Main Street. What was your big break? “This movie. It’s my first feature and the biggest scale project that I’ve ever done.”

So what have you heard about Sundance? “That the skiing is great because no one is on the slopes during the festival. Also, I’ve heard about the Sundance Flu—my director told me: ‘Everyone gets sick there!’ ”

Describe your character in one sentence. “She’s very innocent and inexperienced compared to her friends, and her desperation to fit in blurs her judgment.”

What’s the buzz about your movie? “I feel like I hear buzz about the buzz, but I don’t really know what the buzz is exactly. It Felt Like Love is a dark coming of age film about Lila, a 14-year-old girl from Brooklyn. Her best friend is having a summer romance, so Lila feels like a third wheel. She meets a guy—an older guy—on the beach one day and then invents this relationship with him to tell her friend about…and to compete with her. In the end, it comes back to bite Lila.”

Are you a Robert Redford fan? “I know his name but can’t think of what he’s done. I was born in 1998.”

ALEX SHAFFER

Sundance Film: The Lifeguard

Age? “19”

Where are you from? “Jersey. I can be really loud and obnoxious.”

Big Break? “Losing my Sundance virginity last year [as Paul Giamatti’s costar in Win Win] was one of the best moments of my life—I loved getting free shit and seeing all the famous people. What’s his name? That actor who was in I Love You, Bro.”

Paul Rudd from I Love You, Man? “Yeah, Paul Rudd! He said I did a good job. I remember being starstruck.”

So what’s the buzz about The Lifeguard? “Kristen Bell is amazing and damn, Alex Shaffer looks good with a blue mohawk.”

Describe your character in one sentence: “He had a very rough life.”

What’s next? “I just did a pilot called Trooper for TNT. Having Mira Sorvino play my mother is fantastic!”

MILF alert? “Yeah, she’s a good-looking lady.”

What about before you became a Sundance sensation? “Well, in sixth grade I had a part in the Pirates of Penzance. I did a kick-ass job—my mom said so! And I won the New Jersey State Wrestling Championships two years ago. That was awesome.”

Could you pin Robert Redford? “Yeah! Let’s set up a match.”