FAME

Asher Book stars in the forthcoming reboot of movie classic Fame. Having caught the acting bug at an early age, he is now singing and dancing while adjusting to life in the spotlight

When the remake of Fame comes out this Fall, the factoid you’re most likely to find out about star Asher Book is that he attended one of the real-life “Fame” academies in New York City. But the 20-year-old acting/singing/dancing triple-threat’s life has been movie-like in other ways, too. Imagine, for a moment, that you are watching the film version of Book’s life. We open on a farmhouse in Virginia horse country. Seven-year-old Asher Book runs into the kitchen: he’s just heard about an open call for the role of Chip in the national touring production of Beauty And The Beast. He begs his mother to take him to the audition. “I mean, I didn’t even know what an audition was,” Book recalls. “Mom put me off for a while. But I kept pressing her...”

Cut to: a casting office. Nervous little kids pace the hallway, running lines. All over the United States, this scene has repeated itself; a national talent search is underway. Enter Asher Book, total amateur. “I was like, what am I doing?” comments Book. “Some of those kids – there must have been 70 or 80 trying out that day – were walking around in tuxedos. I’m in shorts.” He laughs. And Asher Book can laugh, because what happened next is so cliché, a modern-day movie scribe would be embarrassed to write the scene. Except, of course, it happens to be true. “I got the part,” Book says, matter-of-factly. “They offered it to me on the spot”

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