A LaGrange man has the lead in a docudrama to air this summer on the Discovery ID channel.
James Pearce plays kidnapper Vincent Filyaw, who kept Elizabeth Shoaf, then 14, captive in a bunker in Lugoff, S.C., in 2006 for 10 days until she was able to take his cell phone while he was asleep and text message her mother for rescue.
The dramatization will be aired on a new program for the channel called “I Survived Evil.”
Pearce said the part is non-speaking, but is the first lead role he’s ever played. It was shot over three days outside Columbia, S.C., and should air in late June or July on the network.
“I hope to be cast (more) as a character actor,” he said.
Filyaw was convicted of kidnapping and raping Shoaf, and his girlfriend was convicted of aiding and abetting him.
Pearce has been acting since he was a teenager, working for local man Paul French in commercials and voice overs. French was his neighbor.
While in the Navy, Pearce began acting in local theater in Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlanta. He hopes to become more involved in local theater productions in the LaGrange area now, where he works as a territory manager for Acosta sales and marketing.
It was his agent at Bill Marinelli casting that got him the part in South Carolina.
“He called and said he had a part in South Carolina,” Pearce said. “At first I didn’t want to drive that far, but he said it was the lead. I hope this leads to bigger and better things.”
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