Jem is her name! Up-and-comer Aubrey Peeples has just landed every ’80s girl’s dream role: that of Jerrica Benton in Jon M. Chu‘s live-action adaptation of the classic Hasbro cartoon Jem and the Holograms.
The 20-year-old star-in-the-making, who plays country music ingenue Layla Grant on ABC’s Nashville, has been cast as Jerrica and her pink-haired rock star alter ego Jem, the Hollywood Reporter revealed Thursday, April 24. It is her first major film role.
Her bandmates, the Holograms, have also been cast, THR announced. Stefanie Scott will play Jem’s sister Kimber, Aurora Perrineau will play Shana, and Hayley Kiyoko will play Aja. All three are relative newcomers, having appeared mostly on TV. Scott is best known for Disney’s A.N.T. Farm, while Perrineau and Kiyoko have appeared on ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars and The Fosters, respectively.
First announced in February, the movie version of Jem has been described by the filmmakers as “a modern-day, live-action reinvention” of the original cartoon, which ran from 1985 to 1988. Producers told THR that the script—by Ryan Landels—would update the story “for a whole new generation with themes of being true to who you are in a multitasking, hyperlinked social media age.”
G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Chu has invited fans to be active in the making of the movie, and has even accepted video auditions. “We want to invite you into our process to help us make our next movie, from writing music to designing costumes to even casting—whatever it is, we want you to be a part of our creative team,” he said in a YouTube video about the film.
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