Whitebridge actor Geraldine Viswanathan will star in a Super Bowl commercial with Jim Carrey.
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In the ad, Carrey reprises his role in the 1996 black comedy The Cable Guy.
The big match, between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, begins at 10.30am on Monday.
Geraldine's appearance in the Verizon commercial was made public in a teaser video. Playing the role of eccentric cable technician Chip Douglas, Carrey knocks on a door in the teaser and Geraldine's character looks through the peephole.
"Cable guy," Carrey says, in his unmistakable comic voice.
Geraldine, 26, has starred in films including Blockers and The Broken Hearts Gallery.
Newcastle Herald journalist Lisa Rockman is planning a feature article on Geraldine for Saturday's Weekender section.
Geraldine's mum Anja Viswanathan-Raith said "she was here for the Christmas break".
"We were actually in the Blue Mountains on a family holiday for five nights before she was going back to LA," Anja said.
"That was the middle of January. She was planning to fly back to LA a week later, where she lives at the moment.
"We were only in the Blue Mountains for one night when her team wanted to contact her, but she didn't know why."
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After taking the call, Geraldine looked "happy but stressed".
Anja asked: "Is it good news or bad news?"
"She said it was really exciting but really stressful. They wanted her for an ad with Jim Carrey. They wanted a funny woman and they said they wanted Geraldine."
They felt Geraldine could hold her own opposite Carrey. The pair are the only two people in the ad, Anja said.
"The thing was it was Monday and it was filming in LA on Wednesday/Thursday that week, so we had to make a decision within an hour to pack up our Airbnb and drive back to Newcastle," Anja said.
"They organised for her to be picked up the next day at 5am. She just had time to pack her bags.
"She was picked up by two chaperones and taken to the airport. She had a COVID test and she was on the plane at 1pm."
Anja said it was a "massive, unexpected opportunity" for her daughter.
Geraldine had been in Australia since the end of November, so she only missed a bit of her holiday.
Lisa reported for the Herald in 2020 that Geraldine had just received the keys to a new apartment in Brooklyn when New York went into COVID lockdown.
"She ended up spending consecutive months with Miles Robbins at his mother Susan Sarandon's country home in upstate New York. Robbins, whose father Tim Robbins is also an Academy Award winner, and Viswanathan met while filming Blockers."
Geraldine has worked with Hollywood heavyweights like Hugh Jackman, Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi.
She's a rising star, no doubt.
