To say Nolan Hubbard is excited about his upcoming role in Donna On Demand, would be an understatement.

“I’ve wanted this since I was, like, ten!” Hubbard told a wildly cheering audience on learning of his selection.

The 19-year-old impressed movie producer Corbin Bernsen of Public Media Works and wowed the crowd in Saturday’s final competition to earn the role over 11 other finalists. In all, more than 100 read for the audition and an open casting call during two weekends.

Hubbard says his winning the role is like a dream come true.

Like most young students, he took part in Christmas plays and the like from an early age and by age 10 or 11 he says he aspired to be a stunt man. But a comment from his cousin, Michelle, that “stunt men don’t become famous; why not be an actor?” changed his thinking.

Since that time, he has taken any parts he has had in school drama presentations or other acting opportunities seriously, throwing himself wholeheartedly into the roles. These have included school drama, a part in a Romeo and Juliet spoof with Kipling Community Theatre troupe, a Shakespearian monologue in the local music festival and taking part whenever travelling performers who visited the school offered a chance.

After graduating from Kipling High School in 2005, Hubbard delayed going on to school, opting instead to work at the local SARCAN recycle depot while applying to acting schools.

After having been turned down by the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, he began searching on the internet as well as considering the University of Regina.

Upon learning in July that auditions would be held right in his home town, he once again put off plans for school.

When the first day of auditions came, Hubbard registered for the following day and studied the lines overnight, leaving nothing to chance.

Despite what he thought was a less-than-perfect ad lib portion, he was confident that he had done well.

Even so, “When the phone rang Thursday night, and it was Corbin Bernsen, I nearly dropped the cell phone,” he says. Bernsen was notifying him that he had been selected as a finalist for Saturday night.

His lines were provided to him the following day. However, with family around to celebrate his parents’ (Perry and Debbie Hubbard) 25th wedding anniversary, preparation time would be limited somewhat. That did not show Saturday night, however, as he put forth a stirring performance before an audience of several hundred that packed Kipling Community Centre.

The size of the crowd surprised him, but he was able to calm himself, he says. “I just told myself, ‘If I can jump off the stage in a pink tutu (a reference to the Romeo and Juliet spoof), I can do this,’.”

“What an adrenaline rush!”

Hubbard says he already has the first 30 pages of the Donna On Demand script. He is arranging for a passport and appropriate work permits and hopes to be in Van Nuys, California toward the end of October. Shooting is scheduled to start in November.

Kipling’s trade of the house for the movie role called for the recipient to have “a paid, credited, speaking role”.

It appears that offered to Hubbard will go well beyond that.

He is cast in a lead role as Marcus, an innocent, early twenties, “normal kid”, who makes several appearances throughout the film as biggest fan of the lead actor, played by Bernsen himself.

His first order of business: to get rid of his “Canadian accent”.

“Canadians have an accent?”, Hubbard asks with a chuckle. He’ll work on it, he promises.

In the meantime, he is having great fun with his newly-acquired image. He had no sooner left the stage Sunday when he found himself in front of a microphone. There were numerous pictures taken, interviews with CBC Radio and CTV television (and with The Citizen); autograph collectors have sought him out.

The best, he says, was when longtime family friend Max Krecsy saw him talking to Bernsen, brought his Housewarming program over and asked both of them to autograph it.

“There was my signature, right beside Corbin Bern-sen’s. It was great,” he says.

Hubbard couldn’t be happier. And neither, for that matter, could Kipling, with one of its own Hollywood-bound (or, rather, Van Nuys)!

And there could be more to come. In announcing the results of the competition Sunday, Bernsen expressed interest in filming a subsequent movie, 3-Day Test, in the town itself.

“I have been blown away with the talent here,” Bernsen said, and with the town itself.” He gave a glowing account of his stay here and of his impression of the town and told the audience that all of Saturday’s local finalists would be offered parts if 3 Day Test is indeed filmed at Kipling.

Others in the final were Tara O’Sullivan, Lloyd Warner, Margaret Duke, Michael Kearns, Mark Edmonds, Duane Leicht and Chesney Caswell, all of Kipling; Colleen Molnar of Kennedy, Serina Pappas of Regina, Jennifer Holman of Edmonton and Ryan Dumontel of Estevan.