Utahn a talented little 'Thing'

PLEASANT GROVE — 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-grade Valley View Elementary student 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."

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E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com

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