Enchanting experience: NJ actress stars in highly anticipated Disney sequel

At age 19, Gabriella Baldacchino had had enough.

The aspiring actor, a Glen Rock native, was done with auditions, call-backs, more call-backs — only to be rejected, again and again. She auditioned for "Annie" on Broadway, "Godspell," "Matilda the Musical" and "Mary Poppins" — and while she always came close to being cast, inevitably she'd be turned down.

Baldacchino, now 21, felt hopeless. "I was washed up," she says. "I was retired." She was, she believed, a failure.

So she took a break from all those near-triumphs, from all those days and nights memorizing lines, learning dance routines, singing yet another new song and never ever landing the role, to become a student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, studying how to produce and create movies and shows — not be in them.

"I came with the intention of working on the other side of the industry," Baldacchino says. "I wanted a more stable career." So much so that when, in January 2021 in the midst of COVID, her agent sent her an audition call for a Disney film — and not just any film but the sequel to "Enchanted," one of Baldacchino's all-time favorite childhood Disney films, she said, "No."

She was no newbie, no starry-eyed ingenue. She knew exactly what was going to happen if she auditioned. "I’m not going to be cast in this," she recalled telling her agent. "I’m not going to get this. What are the odds?"

Turns out, the odds were excellent.

Today, you can catch Baldacchino on your home screen on Disney Plus playing Morgan, the teenage stepdaughter of hopelessly romantic Giselle (Amy Adams) in "Disenchanted," the long-awaited (15 years) sequel of "Enchanted," a musical comedy that was a worldwide box office success. Baldacchino stars in the movie, a live-action/animation hybrid, with Patrick Dempsey (her dad in the film), Idina Menzel and James Marsden, as well as Maya Rudolph.

Yes, she auditioned — "The movie was a crucial part of my childhood," she says. "I had to do it" — and she is so glad she did. "I am at a loss for words to describe this film experience," says Baldacchino. "Not only was it a dream I’ve been working towards pretty much my whole life, but it was also the most incredible learning experience. I had a master class in acting. I learned so much."

And though she worked hard — the crew filmed for five months in a lush green town in Ireland, working from 4 a.m. to late into the night — she loved most every minute of it. "I was in awe of Amy Adams every day," she says. "It was so cool." And so unreal. "I kept waiting for it to be real," she says. "It was overwhelming in the best way possible, surreal. I'm still a bit in denial that it really happened."

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Yet, she says, it is the role she had been studying for "my whole life without knowing it." She is after all not far from her teenage years and she has a teenage sister. "I understood (Morgan)," she says. "I could easily step into her shoes."

Try, try again

She began stepping into the shoes of others when she was 5 years old, first by playing a part in her elementary school play. She performed again in second grade and then at age 9 in "The Sound of Music" at the Wyckoff YMCA. "I knew then this is what I wanted to do," she says. "There was something about me that loved being an entertainer. I got the bug."

While other kids did sports after school, she took voice lessons and dance classes and went to auditions, all the while doing her school work. "I loved school. I always did my school work."

She performed in her first off-Broadway show at age 12, playing in the family musical "Freckle Face Strawberry." "There is such an excitement being on stage," she says. "You never get over that feeling." At age 13, she landed a "swing" (an understudy for many roles in a show) role for the musical "A Christmas Story." "It was a huge gift every time I got to perform," she says.

Still, she notes, she didn't get a real featured role. "I was so close, yet so far." Then the rejections began.

"Theater is all about how you fit into the show," she says. "It's so impersonal. Your success is not a reflection of how hard you work, or your love for the work. It comes down to other factors out of your control: what you look like, your voice, whether it's too high or too low, whether you look too much like someone else in the show, whether you fit into the last person's costumes."

Apparently she had the right voice, the right height and the right look for "Disenchanted." And while she loved the experience, she plans to continue her education and see where life takes her next. " 'Disenchanted' derailed my life in the best possible way," she says. "But I want to see where the world takes me."

She would like to start her own production company some day, she says, but in the meantime she's going to finish school and, yes, go on auditions. "If another opportunity comes along, I'll go for it," she says.

After all, she's learned not to give up on her dreams. "If I've learned anything from this experience, it's never be hindered by fear of failure, never let any self doubt hold you back. I almost gave up."

But now she knows, she says, that "anything is possible."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Disenchanted cast: Gabriella Baldacchino in the sequel to Enchanted