Being cast in The Wolf of Wall Street was “a very big first opportunity for Giselle,” says Erika, “and it has created so much abundance.” Now that Giselle has been in a Scorsese movie, she says, “It’s opened a floodgate of opportunities. We’re really very fortunate.”
Giselle has already filmed two other major motion pictures, both set for release sometime in 2014. In Imagine, shot in Los Angeles last July and August, she plays Hope Donnelly, granddaughter to Al Pacino and daughter to Jennifer Garner and Bobby Cannavale. The plot involves Pacino as a famous musician who discovers a cautionary letter written to him in his youth by John Lennon — a letter he didn’t receive — prompting him to track down his biological son whom he’s never met. Then in Basic Math, Giselle will be seen portraying a character named Nell Hargrove, daughter to Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel.
Giselle’s other credits include a current television commercial for Garnier BB Cream and she filmed a public service announcement for New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT), due out in February, promoting awareness about recognizing and supporting leadership for women early on in life.
On television, look for Giselle next month on a new NBC show, Believe, playing the younger version of the main character, Bo, an 11-year-old with supernatural powers. Giselle also recently shot an episode of Law & Order SVU and is in a new CBS show, The Ordained, portraying actor Sam Neill’s granddaughter in a show about a priest who becomes a lawyer.
Giselle’s career started when her older sister, Julia, now 14, started doing some modeling and acting at age six, says Erika. At age three, Giselle decided that she wanted to be involved, too, and Julia’s agent took on representation of both girls.
Erika’s background is in marketing and advertising, work that she says has helped her to prepare her girls for the inevitable rejections of show business. “My husband was an actor before I met him — he’d done some commercials — so between his knowledge of what it means to be an actor and my knowledge of what it means to be the person hiring the actor, we had a good understanding from the beginning of what this universe looks like and how it works,” she says. “Most of the time, for an actor, the answer is ‘no.’ I know the rationale for why the answer is often ‘no’ and I can help my children prepare for that. So for them, it’s just fun and exciting and when the answer is ‘no’ for them, they sort of naturally just let it roll off them.”
Julia has small roles in several of the films Giselle has been in and helps her younger sister rehearse lines. Their dad, Richard Eisenberg, is in IT software sales now and no longer involved with acting, but Erika says they have a lot of fun doing voices and improv with the girls around the dinner table. The family enjoys skiing in Vermont and the girls both play piano (Giselle was inspired by her recent experience on the film Imagine to learn the song for her piano recital). The first grader at Duzine Elementary School in New Paltz also enjoys ballet and has even written a “script” with a rather plausible-sounding plot line.
And what part of all this does Giselle like the most? “Just meeting everybody,” she says.
