Guerrero talks about her first 'Plumm' role
As a sports and entertainment broadcaster, Lisa Guerrero already had an enviable career in most people's eyes.
Her resume includes covering the Super Bowl and World Series, as well as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes.
However fun and stimulating, live TV broadcasting leaves a fleeting legacy, if any at all, the Chicago native said.
That's why she and her husband, former New York Yankee's pitcher Scott Erickson, decided to produce the film "A Plumm Summer" through their production company, Home Team Productions.
"This is one way to get a message out there and be proud and say, 'This is what I put out there in the universe,' " she said.
Their first project was going to be a TV pilot about baseball players' wives, but then Guerrero heard that financing had fallen through for "A Plumm Summer," in which she had landed the role of the mother.
"I had fallen in love with this character and with the script, so we decided to do this," she said.
The film is about two young brothers who investigate the theft of a TV star marionette in a small Montana town in 1968.
Directed by Caroline Zelder, it stars William Baldwin as the father, Henry Winkler and Brenda Strong as the owners of the marionette, Chris J. Kelly as the older brother and an utterly charming Owen Pearce as the younger brother. It is narrated by Jeff Daniels.
The film is being featured in the 24th annual Chicago International Children's Film Festival, which runs through Oct. 28.
Sweet and humorous, the movie also has realistic undertones, for much of narrative is centered around the conflicted relationship between the father and the older son -- though like any good children's movie, it has a happy ending.
Having lost her Chilean-born mother at a young age and not having any kids of her own, Guerrero said that playing the mother's role was a challenge.
"I knew it was really going to take some acting ability, but then my maternal instinct kicked in, and I became extremely close with both kids," she said.
Guerrero said she began using her mother's last name after getting approval from her father.
"In TV there are very few Latinas, and I felt really strongly that I wanted to connect with my heritage," she said.
Her dual role as a lead actress and producer was stressful but well worth it, she said.
"This is a coming-of-age film about a boy, but girls will relate to it and families will relate to it," she said. "The bottom line message is that family comes first."
Home Team Production's next project is a thriller set in a U.S.-Mexico border town where Guerrero will, once again, play the role of the mother.
If you go
What: "A Plumm Summer"
When: 11:30 a.m. Oct. 27
Where: Wilmette Theater, 1122 Central Ave., Wilmette
Tickets: $6 for children, $8 for adults
Info: visit cicff2007.org or call (773) 281-9075