(ToroMagazine.ca)

RINGSIDE GIRL: LOOKING FOR TROUBLE WITH BROOKE NEVIN
--Shaun Smith

INTRODUCTIONS: Toronto-born Nevin, 24, got her first big break playing a teenager who battled aliens by shape-shifting into animals in the 1998–99 kids' TV series Animorphs. This spring, she's all grown up in The Comebacks (co-starring former SNLers David Koechner and Chris Parnell, and Carl "Apollo Creed" Weathers), an Airplane-style spoof of films about underdog football squads, such as The Replacements and Rudy.

KEEPING A POKER FACE: Clown training with Toronto's John Turner, of Mump & Smoot fame, and improv experience with The Second City, Los Angeles, helped Nevin keep up with David Koechner on the set. "It's like opening a box with him," says Nevin, whose biggest challenge opposite Koechner was not cracking up. "You just don't know what's inside. Koechner in his skivvies showing a team member how post-game partying is really done is a sight to behold."

HER INNER REBEL: Nevin plays coach Koechner's rebellious daughter in The Comebacks, hooking up with athletes to annoy daddy. Her real-life father is former-NHLer Bob Nevin, who won Stanley Cups in 1962 and '63 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In high school, she played the good girl, but now that she's living in L.A., she says things may change. "Everyone better watch out," she warns. "I have not yet had my rebellious phase. Be prepared: it could strike at any moment."

ANIMAL TRICKS: One difficult scene in The Comebacks required Nevin to try her footwork on the balance beam. "That was a little bit of an exercise in humiliation," she says. "I had a couple of training sessions and it was funny because I was always with the tiny tots. A lot of the exercises had to do with being animals – running around the gym with these little kids pretending to be a bear, or playing leapfrog." Then, referring to her start on Animorphs, she laughs, "It's come full circle!"

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