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Sudbury boy getting his five minutes of fame

When Chelsea Solomon tunes into the Sochi Olympics this February, she'll be paying more attention to the commercials than the feats of athleticism.
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Five-year-old Brayden Solomon will star in a Canadian Tire commercial set to air during the Sochi Olympics this February. Supplied photo.
When Chelsea Solomon tunes into the Sochi Olympics this February, she'll be paying more attention to the commercials than the feats of athleticism.

The reason? Solomon's five-year-old son, Brayden Solomon, is set to make his onscreen debut in a Canadian Tire commercial during the Olympics.

The commercial, which was filmed by Hideaway Pictures in Sudbury Dec. 15 and 16, is part of a Canadian Tire promotional campaign called “We all play for Canada,” which focuses on how the love of sports unites Canadians.

Solomon said she learned Canadian Tire was looking for a young boy of Aboriginal heritage for the commercial through a friend who runs North Star Model and Talent Agency out of North Bay.

Brayden, who lives in Sturgeon Falls with his family, but originally comes from the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation in the Sudbury area, plays a little boy who makes snow forts and snow angels with an actress depicting his mother.

Solomon said she was nervous before the shoot, as she wasn't sure how her son was going to perform. It turned out she didn't need to worry.

“The scene where he was supposed to run from off-camera and plop into the snow — my son the one-shot wonder, he took the lady's hand and they ran in from off camera and plopped down,” she said. “It was like he'd been doing it his whole life.”

The senior kindergarten student at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Elementary School has always been a bit of a ham when someone pulls out a camera, Solomon said. He also takes direction well from adults, she said.

Solomon is no stranger to show business. A trained actor, she's worked for the last few years as a freelance assistant director.

“I'm really incredibly proud of Brayden and glad he gets to experience what his mother's done for a living for so long,” she said.

Given his success in his first acting job, Solomon now hopes she can get Brayden more work in the field.

“You don't see a lot of native children in the mainstream media,” she said. “I'm hoping to find him an agent and find him some more work in the near future because I think there could be a real niche for Brayden in modelling and commercial work.”

@heidi_ulrichsen

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Heidi Ulrichsen

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