No wonder Makenzie Moss was doing cartwheels in an oceanside ballroom at the Inn at Laurel Point. The athletic young Los Angeles-based actor was still on a high after earning plaudits for her performance as Lisa Jobs at age five in Danny Boyle’s drama Steve Jobs.
After wrapping a girl-and-her-dog adventure that she has been filming in Victoria, the nine-year-old dynamo was excited about reuniting with her own dog, Pickles, and meeting Lamb Chop, her family’s new pooch.
Although she admitted “it was sort of a bummer not being there, because I wanted to see the rest of the cast,” Makenzie had to skip the New York première of Steve Jobs, but saw the film with her Vancouver-raised mother, Heidi, at the Odeon Sunday.
Makenzie is one of three actors who play Lisa, who the Apple co-founder, played by Michael Fassbender, denied for years was his daughter. Ripley Sobo plays Lisa at age nine and Perla Haney-Jardine portrays her at 19.
“I had a small part, but if there was no Lisa, it wouldn’t make sense,” said Makenzie, whose character is pivotal to a film that is as much a father-daughter drama as a character study and Apple-empire chronicle.
Makenzie, who made her acting debut in commercials at age four, including a Mott’s Tots advert, originally auditioned for the part of nine-year-old Lisa, “but they thought I was too young,” she said.
Her 11-year-old sister, Olivia Moss, who stars in ABC’s Wicked City, also auditioned.
Makenzie wanted the part so bad that she pleaded with her mother to let her go to “my first producers’ session” while battling the flu.
Before filming began in February in San Francisco and Cupertino, Moss got to meet her co-stars during photo shoots.
“We had a sleepover in the [Fairmont] hotel in San Francisco,” Makenzie recalled.
“It was a separate room with three Lisas — no moms, no dads and no boys.”
The rehearsal process took two weeks, she said. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay was filmed in three acts that coincide with product launches, starting in 1984 with the original Mac rollout.
“Danny loves to rehearse,” said Makenzie, noting that it also gave the actors a chance to get to know each other.
She recalled initially being put in a room with Fassbender; Kate Winslet, who plays Jobs’ tenacious marketing guru Joanna Hoffman; Katherine Waterston, who plays Lisa’s mother; and the other two Lisas, so they could observe each other’s mannerisms.
“The second Danny said ‘Action!,’ they got into character,” Makenzie said. “And Kate and Michael had headphones on listening to how they would talk.”
English-born Winslet affected a Polish accent for her role, and Fassbender, who is German-Irish, mastered an American accent.
“Kate taught me how to do an English accent, and my math. She did my homework!” said Makenzie, who also met Bear, Winslet’s “adorable” 14-month-old son.
“Kate’s so nice, and she smells good — like cupcakes. That’s a plus.”
Winslet also gave her acting advice: “Be really natural.”
While Fassbender might play a jerk, he’s the opposite in person, she said. “He’s a very serious actor, but so nice. Between takes we had a lot of fun.”
Laughingly noting it wasn’t a prerequisite, Makenzie, who uses an iPhone 6s, said, yes, her family uses Apple computers. “I got to play with the first Mac computer ever made,” she said, describing that on-set experience as “mind-blowing.”
Not surprisingly, Makenzie feels at home with technology.
“Oh, yes, I teach my mom everything,” she said. “But it’s my sister who is, not the nerd maybe, but high-tech everything.”
Makenzie’s other roles include playing a homeless girl in Do You Believe?, a faith-based drama starring Mira Sorvino as her mother, and a role in The Charnel House, a thriller she described as “like The Shining.”
Her mother is an actor (Slackers) and musical-theatre performer, and was one of The Doublemint Gum twins in commercials, with her sister. Dad Craig (Bad Ass) is a filmmaker.
Affectionately describing Makenzie as “my little ham and cheese,” Heidi said it helps being aware that “what’s here today could be gone tomorrow” while supporting her daughter’s passion.
“So much of acting is instinctual and you have to be the right kid to be able to do this,” Heidi said. “We know what this business is about, so we can make sure there are safeguards.”