Katie Delk as Zoe

 

Katie Delk Draws On Dramatic Tendencies To Play Zoe

 

ATLANTA, Ga. — In order to play bad-girl Zoe in Santa’s Boot Camp, actress Katie Delk, 17, tapped into her inner drama queen.

 

Delk joined Creative Studios of Atlanta at age 15 and was part of the Film Academy program when CSATL founder Ken Feinberg decided to produce a full-length movie. The role of Zoe and the other bratty kids were written for them, so she did not need to audition.

“She’s pretty much the quirky character out of the kids,” Delk said when asked to describe Zoe. “She’s pretty much a typical nerd. She’s a little bit overdramatic.”

 

Zoe is more chill than the others about being abducted by Santa Claus and put to work but sometimes

get overdramatically frightened because, well, she’s a drama queen. She is on the naughty list because

she pushes her brother around and argues with her mother. At one point in the film, it’s revealed she

ate a pie her mother intended for visitors and then framed her brother.

 

Delk admits part of her is like Zoe. To play the role, she just emphasized that aspect of her personality.

Since the role was designed for her, she didn’t need to change much. Her favorite acting moment was

the fight scene shot at the Cobb Galleria Center between Zoe and her brother. The actor who plays her

brother is a friend of hers, so they had a lot of fun.

 

Delk described the overall experience shooting the film as “very interesting,” in particular due to the

weather. Working in extremely cold weather gave them a variety of experiences, including the

inauguration of “The Hypothermia Survivors”—what the actors who played the bratty kids called

themselves after a particularly cold late-night shoot.

 

“I went onto Facebook and created a group called, ‘The Hypothermia Survivors’ and invited everybody,”

she said.

 

She enjoyed working under the direction of Feinberg, whom she’d worked under before in the film Small

World. She said he was very kind and understanding when it was cold and gave them tips on how to

avoid appearing cold during the shoot.