Stream-Flo USA Quality Control Inspector Tabetha Gunnell plays cashier Rosalind in ‘Caddo Lake’ shot in East Texas
For three years, Tabetha Gunnell has been keeping a big secret.
She’s in a movie.
“We actually weren’t told when the movie was going to come out,” said Gunnell, a quality control inspector for Stream-Flo USA in Longview. “I got told about that new “Caddo Lake” movie coming out at work. When I was told by coworkers it finally dawned on me, I was like ‘Yeah, I might know a little about that’.”
Gunnell, who plays the cashier Rosalind in the M. Night Shyamalan produced thriller set in the hauntingly beautiful lake and bayou area between the Texas and Louisiana border, even kept the secret from her kids.
“I made everyone at my house watch it,” she said. “All my kids were surprised, it was fun.”
Gunnell’s path to debuting on the silver screen is certainly an interesting one.
After seeing ads on Facebook and the news looking for extras to appear in an upcoming M. Night Shyamalan movie, and feeling a little bit bored, Gunnell tossed her hat in the ring.
“All they asked for was pretty much a video to introduce yourself, tell them where you’re from, a little bit about yourself,” she said. “I’ve never done anything like that before so I just started recording and said ‘I’m Tabetha, I live here, and here’s my cat…’ I was just kind of all over the place, being myself.”
Striking a chord
The people on the receiving end liked what they saw, and especially liked what they heard.
“About a day later I got an email back and they were saying how much they loved me and how my accent was perfect for this role,” explained Gunnell. “At first I’m like ‘What accent?’ you know, because I don’t hear it, but everyone else does.”
The filmmakers then wanted Gunnell to film herself delivering a few lines. With a little help from her daughter she did so and sent it in.
The producers saw it and loved her for the role of Cashier Number 2, later given the name Rosalind.
“I was not auditioning for a role I was auditioning to be in the background,” laughed Gunnell. “At this time I’m like this is a joke, there’s no way. Sure enough, I had to go into Shreveport to get fitted for what they had me in and I had to be there in some little town close to Caddo Lake at 6:30 am for hair and dress up. It was a cool experience.”
After her 12-hour shift, which included getting to meet the stars of the film Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, and Diana Hopper, the waiting game began.
And while Gunnell did a great job of keeping everyone close to her in the dark about her potential upcoming movie debut, the makers of the movie were doing the same to her.
“I kept in touch with the person I talk to in the movie, she would randomly write me and be like ‘Hey do you know if we’re even still in this movie?’ and I’d tell her I have no idea, we haven’t heard anything in three years,” said Gunnell. “We didn’t know anything about the movie, we didn’t know the plot, they just gave us our script and what we’re supposed to read.”
Tabetha and her scene mate sneak in a selfie while on the set of “Caddo Lake”.
A lone request for Gunnell to provide a voiceover about a year ago gave her an idea that her scene was still likely to be included.
Then, on the day of its release, a flurry of messages from some slightly offended friends that felt Gunnell should have told them about her film debut, confirmed she and her scene had made the cut.
But she wanted to be with her whole family when watching it for the first time.
“Seeing myself on TV, I know my face just got beet red,” said Gunnell, who quickly became her biggest critic, as most of us can relate to. “My kids were so ecstatic, they were just ‘Mom is that you?! Rewind that. Is that you??’….it was pretty cool.”
Content with her cinematic career
Her movie debut, however, has not sparked a desire in Gunnell to pursue the thespian path.
“I was doing it for fun and when they picked me I was just like ‘Oh, well this is a once in a lifetime thing,'” she said. “If it falls in my lap again, I would take it, but I’m not going to pursue it.”
An opportunistic actress, as it were.
And as for what Gunnell thinks of the movie itself?
“It was very confusing but it’s M. Night Shyamalan so it’s expected,” she candidly shared. “But it is a great movie, if no one’s seen it yet they need to.”
We know we’ll be watching, with an extra neat reason to.
Canadians can stream “Caddo Lake” on Crave while Americans can find it on HBO Max