Airdrie twins Mila and Luca Ricioppo are now eight months old, but will make their television debut as three-week-old infants in the much-anticipated HBO series The Last of Us.
“The story is quite a fluke,” says the twins’ mom, Lindsey Ricioppo, who moved to Airdrie with her husband, Fausto, about a year ago.
“My hairdresser’s mom owns a talent agency, Platinum Talent Management, and when I was getting my hair done last year – about a month before my twins arrived – her mom was there and we got to chatting. She told me she was actually looking for twins to cast in a huge upcoming TV series on HBO, so I told her depending on when they are born and how things are going, I’ll keep her in mind.
“My twins were born May 7th, everything was going really well afterwards, so I reached outand said if she was still looking for twins I’d be happy to send her photos of my little ones. She said “Yes”, submitted them to production – and we got chosen!”
The twins were on-set at the end of May last year, says Ricioppo, and even had their own movie trailer with their names on the outside!
“We were treated like royalty, it was an amazing experience! I also got to meet the director and executive producer right on set which was really neat! We filmed two separate scenes over two days.”
The Last of Us is the largest film production in Alberta history, with more than 900 cast and crew working over a period of 17 months.
The twins’ episode will either be the second last or last episode of the nine-part series.
