Utahn a talented little 'Thing'

By Sharon Haddock
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Deseret Morning News

Ten-year-old Danielle Chuchran walks up walls in 
Hollywood's latest take on the Dr. Seuss classic, 
"The Cat in the Hat." With the help of wires, 
Chuchran, clad in a red body suit and a poofy, 
electric-blue wig, sails through the air from one 
side of a make-believe town to the other. She 
flips and flops — and had a fantastic time doing 
it. "I felt like I was flying," said Chuchran, who 
plays "Thing 1" in the big-budget movie that opens 
Friday. "My favorite part was doing the stunt work. 
When I was doing flips, they said, 'Just keep doing 
them.' I loved it." Her mother, however, was a 
little more than taken aback. "I think it was more 
scary for me than it was for her," Sharon Chuchran 
said. "I couldn't have done this." It was at an 
open audition in August 2002 that Danielle won the 
role as one of the madcap, irresponsible urchins 
who wreak havoc with "Cat in the Hat" star Mike 
Myers. A month later, Danielle started work on the 
movie. For five months, she got up before dawn and 
headed to Universal Studios. She bonded quickly with 
Brittany Oaks, who plays "Thing 2," and started 
bringing Myers a joke each morning. Myers, in turn, 
sent Chuchran toys when her three layers of costume 
and heavy face mask gave her heat stroke one day. 

Now, as opening day inches closer, Danielle Chuchran 
spends a lot of time promoting the movie. "It's been 
kind of busy," she said. "But I don't mind." She also 
attended the premiere of the flick. "I was so excited 
because I knew it was going to be good — but I'd only 
seen bits and pieces of it," she said. It's difficult 
to recognize Chuchran in her role. The face mask she 
dons in the flick took makeup artists up to three hours 
to apply each day. "Nobody's going to recognize her," 
says her mother. The fifth-grader is interested to see 
how her peers react to the movie — but she's really not 
comfortable making a big deal of it. Danielle, who also 
plays an abused child on the daytime soap opera, "Days 
Of Our Lives," would rather prepare for an upcoming 
dance competition and chat on the phone with Oaks. Her 
parents are pleased with her success — but even more 
pleased with the fact that she's putting money away 
for college. And they keep a careful eye on how their 
daughter is dealing with the demands of Hollywood. 
"She's a very quick learner and very easygoing, so we 
think she'll be OK," said her mother. "One good thing 
is, once she's done with it, she's done with it. She 
doesn't talk about it. She just gets busy with other 
things."