After controversy erupted regarding the scarcity of women involved in the Jem And The Holograms movie, its filmmakers have countered with casting announcements confirming that its cartoon female rock stars, at least, will be played by actual females. Specifically, they’ll be played by a host of young TV stars: A.N.T. Farm’s Stefanie Scott as Kimber, Jem’s sister and The Holograms’ keytar-wielding chief songwriter; Pretty Little Liars’ Aurora Perrineau as guitarist Shana; The Fosters’ Hayley Kiyoko as better guitarist Aja; and, in the important-in-the-sense-that-this-is-important role of Jem herself, Aubrey Peeples.
Peeples has some experience playing a manufactured pop star from a TV show not a lot of people are familiar with, as she currently stars as Nashville’s Layla Grant. And it’s there she’s also proved she can sing and be cool with things that are truly, truly outrageous, such as her obviously gay boyfriend. Come on, Layla. It’s truly, truly obvious.
Anyway, lest the Jem movie also be accused of not including any ridiculous wigs, the Jon M. Chu-directed film has released the below teaser image confirming that, indeed, it will.