Matilda Kimber lands Mortal Kombat role in first ever acting audition

A St Ignatius schoolgirl has been keeping a very big secret about what really happened when she decided to audition for an action blockbuster earlier this year.

Adelaide schoolgirl Matilda Kimber, 12, never expected to actually land the role. Picture: Tom Huntley

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A St Ignatius schoolgirl who knew little about the Hollywood action adventure film shooting in Adelaide, Mortal Kombat, walked into a key role after her first acting audition.

Matilda Kimber, 12, has been keeping secret from her friends her role in the movie that has her joining a diverse international cast including Indonesian martial artist Joe Taslim, Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada and American actors Lewis Tan and Mehcad Brooks.

Matilda, who grew up in Shanghai where her father Richard Kimber worked as a lawyer – she is a niece of Adam Kimber SC, the state’s former Director of Public Prosecutions – moved to Adelaide in 2017 and signed with Adelaide Model Management. Two weeks later she was auditioning.

“It was just for the experience. I really wasn’t thinking I would get the role – just getting the chance to audition was exciting already,” Kimber says.

As it happened the Mortal Kombat team had been scouring the country looking to fill a particular role that Kimber, bi-racial with an American accent after attending an international school in Shanghai, walked into it. Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid said the producers were particularly thrilled to find her in SA.

“She is such a great kid who instantly became an integral part of our Mortal Kombat family,” McQuoid said. “She has a very bright future.”

Kimber, who has been keeping up her schoolwork on set with the support of her teachers, has almost finished filming, just as school holidays are about to begin.

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“I’m so grateful to be part of this movie,” she said. “Just watching the other cast and seeing what the crew do, I’m in awe.”

Predictably, it has left her with a taste for more and she has learnt a lot by being around such experienced cast and crew. “I love it, I want to do more in the future – we will have to see what opportunities I get,” she said.

Mortal Kombat, from New Line Cinema, is set for release in early 2021 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros.