Local twins share lead role in documentary for Japan

Four-year-old twins Shalee and Shannel Killorn from Lincoln will be well known in Japan within a few months.That's when "Recently World Astonishing News," a popular documentary film series in Japan, will air a documentary that the twins shared the leading role. The twins played Abby, a 4-year-old girl from the United Kingdom, whose life was altered when she burned her head, shoulders, and arm with boiling water.This was their first time acting in a professional production.Sharle Killorn, the twins' mother, said that she first considered finding a talent agent for the girls when shoppers in the grocery store told her there were so few twin girls with blond hair. Skeptical at first, Sharle Killorn said she decided to take the girls to a talent model search in the Bay Area where she met Sherrie Garcia, a model agent for Model Agents Talent Agency. Because Garcia's children had been child actors, according to Sharle Killorn, she "felt more comfortable" about signing the contract.The identical blond twins caught Garcia's attention because, she said, "They were so cute!" Two years later, Garcia's Japanese client, Recently World Astonishing News, requested twin blond girls between the ages of 2 and 4 years old.With a "see where this takes us" attitude, Sharle Killorn recently drove her twins for their first and only audition to San Francisco. The director was looking for actors who could follow directions and were not afraid of the burn make-up. "Actually," Sharle Killorn said, "the girls thought the make-up was pretty funny."As part of the audition, the girls sang a song because Abby liked to sing when she was a child. They pretended to be asleep and say, "Mommy I want to go home." They were selected because they followed directions and could be used interchangeably in the film, according to their mother.The four-day filming took place in two locations. The home location was shot in Fairfax and the hospital scenes at San Mateo Hospital. The girls spent several hours per day wearing the burn make-up and they were "OK with that," Sharle Killorn said. They had face and arm hairs shaved so that the make-up would not hurt when it was removed. Various amounts of make-up were applied to simulate the four stages of the blisters' development. Because the twins have white blond hair and Abby had brown hair, their hair was sprayed brown like Abby's hair. "I didn't know what we were getting into," Sharle Killorn said. "The girls were good at what they did. Whatever they do from here on out, will be easy compared to this film. If they don't do another firm, that is OK, too. Pretty amazing!""Caring for the girls on site was a family affair," the mother added. "We needed one adult at the film site with one girl and another to stay with the girl who was not filming. Their dad (Tyler), grandma (Becky), and pappy (Charles) helped out."