The night before she and her mom are to fly off to a New York movie premiere, Ashanti Nailah Blaize lounges in front of the family fireplace. Mom, Vivian Blaize, is an animated blur of nervous energy.

"I have so much to do!" she wails.

Ashanti, whose name was taken from the Ashanti people of central Ghana, Africa and it means "one who succeeds," rolls her eyes. Even though she's the one who appears with James Earl Jones in the television movie "The Vernon Johns Story," it is her mother who shows all of the excitement. Ashanti says she likes to keep calm.

The movie is based on the life of the Prince Edward County farm boy turned Montgomery, Ala., preacher who made civil rights waves long before Martin Luther King Jr.

Ashanti plays his middle daughter, Enid. It isn't the 13-year-old Virginia Beach resident's first crack at television. Before filming "Vernon" this summer in and around Richmond, Ashanti performed with "Blossom" star Mayim Bialik in "SeaWorld's Mother Earth Celebration," did a spot on "Big Brother Jake" and made several appearances on Nickelodeon and the Family Channel.

Ashanti's demeanor seems to be the shrugged-shoulders response of any other teen-ager. So she hob-knobbed with Jones, Mary Alice, Cissy Houston and Joe Seneca. What's the big deal? "I thought it was really great and all, to see how they work. How they put their umph into it. But I'm not like most people in the sense that I will go all crazy," she says. "When I'm done, I don't like to think about it until it comes out."

She prefers to concentrate on her lacrosse or basketball skills. An honor 8th-grader at Norfolk Academy, Ashanti insists she's like every other kid. She hangs out with friends and isn't overzealous about school. But she is allergic to bees.

"She was sitting on the set when a bee stung her. She had an allergic reaction," says Blaize. Ashanti's arm became swollen and she had to be rushed to the hospital. After a four-hour stay, Ashanti had the option of calling it quits for the day.

"But she said, `No, I'm going on,' " says Blaize.

Blaize says she couldn't help but be a little star struck, even though her daughter asked her to keep her cool. During one day's shooting, Jones sat in a chair next to Blaize. "I couldn't move. Then he says ...," and Blaize goes into a fairly impressive imitation of Jones asking someone to make sure the area is sprayed for bees so Ashanti doesn't get stung again. Mom squeaked out a "thank you," but worked up the courage to ask for two hugs before the filming was over.

Ashanti doesn't have her heart set on being a movie star. Her sights are set on Princeton University, then Harvard Medical School. "I want to be an ophthalmologist," she says.

Her career choice was influenced, in part, by her television work. While filming the SeaWorld special, Ashanti met blind singer/composer/actor Tom Sullivan. Since Ashanti had just experienced a temporary loss of vision in one eye after being hit with a ball, the meeting was even more significant. Acting is fun, but it's not a destination. "I'll still go to college," she says.

* "The Vernon Johns Story" will air at 7 tonight on WAVY-TV, Channel 10.

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