KELSEY ELLISON 🏳️‍🌈

Being Lila Bard for our upcoming Darker Shade of Magic production has been a dream! 

Somebody with a disability playing someone with the same disability, can you believe it! If only Hollywood could listen… 

(We both have glass eyes in our right eye, but myself and Lila don’t let it stop us from doing anything!)

Yesterday Lila Bard took on the White Londoners who ravenously attacked her for her magic. She won- but it wasn’t easy.

For those who don’t know- this is all part of our completely LGBTQPIA+ film version of A Darker Shade of Magic coming out mid-November. It’s been incredible!

Bringing White London to life took a lot of coordination. We had to hunt for a long time to find this stunning location. It was important to us to make sure that everything right down to the day players was intersectional and unique. We were NOT disappointed. Everyone showed up with power and poise!

Our next shoot date is a fight scene between Holland and Lila- we took some creative liberty to really make a bang 😉

Meet Lila Bard played by Kelsey Ellison. Kelsey is a demisexual bisexual queer survivor of retina blastoma- a form of cancer that resulted in the loss of her right eye. In the book series A Darker Shade of Magic- Lila Bard is a genderqueer thief with a glass eye in the same eye. There are three characters who have one eye in the series but Lila is the only one who truly has a disabled experience- although Lila would argue she’s more equipped than any of them.

She also looks spookily like the character! AND big plus- the author VE Schwab is following both of our pages.

If anyone gets cast as Lila is should be Kelsey. We have the opportunity to not appropriate a disabled queer role. To give it to someone who actually embodies these experiences and is a fabulous actor. What do You think?

Today on our A Darker Shade a Magic production we just got in another rough previewshot of our genderqueer Holland (the costume wasn’t finished in this image and makeup hadn’t been done- he’s usually very pale but it’s a neat start!)

We also just shot a few get away scenes of Lila Bard in the cobbled london streets. But I’m not sharing a sneak peek to those until they are color graded! However in the meantime how about this BTS video from this evening of her dancing and singing Mercury’s In Retrograde? Lol relatable- I was dying laughing.

More to come! For anyone who’s interested and cast characters are listed on my profile- the entire cast/crew is queer and/or trans plus intersectional. Why? Because we can.

Hello Holland.

While Holland is a male identifying character who will likely be cast as an older cis male by Hollywood when this actual live action feature is made- we decided to do what we wanted for this because PFT we can. As an AFAB genderless being I’ve gotten some folx already saying that this isn’t a role for me- but they can make their own film I suppose. I’ve taken up learning a danish tinted accent, lowering my vocal octav, and watching Mads Mikkelson for inspiration nonstop. I may not be the typical Holland but I hope I can do y’all justice. So grateful to even have the opportunity to try with great friends supporting. Thank You!

VE Schwab and I have been messaging back and forth- they know we are up to something but shhhh they still don’t know much. Muwahaha. We love Victoria so dang much- they’ve been incredibly supportive and inspirational.

The fan art we are basing this on is a mix between these pieces! We love the artists and their brilliant brains.

At this point we have only filmed one of Holland’s scenes so there’s a lot to do. A fight scene with Lila, blood goblet scene with the Danes, and White London scene with amazing queer and/or trans villagers. We will be posting all the bts here. Exclusively here.

The below is just a test shot- no makeup was applied at the time or final details to the capelet. We shot this very quickly just as a fun end of the night outfit trial in the St Pancreas Renaissance Hotel. Yes he WILL and does have a green eye in the final film haha.