Image Source: Everett Collection
If you found yourself wondering why Melissa McCarthy’s youngest self in Thunder Force looks so much like her, you’re not alone. Turns out, the young Lydia Berman is played by her daughter Vivian Falcone. The Netflix film sees two estranged best friends become an unlikely superhero team and try to save Chicago from superpowered evildoers, known as Miscreants, and a villain called The King. The shared role of Lydia isn’t the only family connection, as Vivian’s younger sister, Georgette, plays the “That lady threw a bus” girl and Thunder Force was written and directed by McCarthy’s husband and the girls’ dad, Ben Falcone.
This isn’t the first time Vivian’s worked with her parents; she played a younger version of McCarthy in 2016’s The Boss, which was also written and directed by Ben. While McCarthy and Ben have a frequent habit of working together – McCarthy has starred in all six of his films – they’ve typically tried to steer their children away from acting. “We’ve kind of kept Vivian out of acting, but she’s very good at it. We needed a person to play a 12-year-old Lydia and Vivian is a dead ringer for Melissa at that age,” Ben said in the press notes for Thunder Force.
He added: “She’s like her mom in that she can stay in the scene and then you can pitch her alternate ways that the scene can go based on what you think might be a little funnier or different – and she is able to make those adjustments. And she is only 12.” We only see a glimpse of Vivian’s comedic timing in Thunder Force, including the excellent delivery of “Get in that dumpster, ’cause that’s where the garbage goes.” Here’s hoping we get more family team-ups in the future!
Image Source: Netflix via Giphy
