LAUREL — An accomplished actress with ties to the Pine Belt is currently filming a movie in New Orleans.

Parker Posey, who spent her teenage years in Laurel, has been cast in WWE Studios’ “Inside Out,” which features WWE Superstar Triple H.

Posey, whose father Chris has operated a car dealership here for nearly 30 years, said that from a young age, she knew she wanted to perform.

“I was a ballerina when I was nine and auditioned for the ballet school at the North Carolina School of the Arts,” she said. “I didn’t get in and my dad called the school. He asked what he could do and they said tell her that she’s an actress. That’s how it started.”

Posey said she had a teacher in 7th grade that told her she was “going to do something really special.”

“I did a couple of plays at Watkins (Laurel High School),” said Posey, who moved to Laurel at the age of 12. “They actually cast me and my brother in a play together as husband and wife. I had to kiss him and kissed him on the cheek.”

In “Inside Out,” Posey plays Claire Small, the wife of high-strung, low-level mobster Jack Small (Michael Rapaport). However, she has never stopped loving her former beau, AJ (Triple H), a parolee determined to go straight after serving 13 years for the murder of his abusive step-father.

“Our characters were all friends in high school,” she said. “Basically, Triple H went to jail and Michael Rapaport moved in on him. I was alone, but I still have feelings for Triple H. My husband wants to continue in the criminal world, but Triple H learned how to make pickles in prison and wants to capitalize on that.”

While the premise sounds humorous, Posey said the film helps display a number of sides of the former WWE champion.

“He’s a sweetheart,” she said. “He just looks like the Incredible Hulk. His first film was with me in ‘Blade: Trinity.’ I look forward to seeing what kind of career he has.”

Posey said she has known Rapaport, the star of more than 50 films and several television series, for many years. And, of course, the City of New Orleans is a star in itself.

“I grew up coming here,” Posey said. “It’s great. There are a bunch of characters down here.”

Posey said the 2008 “The Wrestler”, starring Mickey Rourke, has opened the door for professional wrestlers in the film industry.

“It provided an opportunity to bring back another kind of movie that is domestic, PG-13, not a cartoon or genre film,” she said. “I think it’s going to be really fun for people to see them act. These movies will play well all over the world, where these guys are larger than life.”

Posey, who herself has been in more than 50 films, said she is “really lucky” to have the career she does. She has acted in such blockbusters as “Superman Returns” and “Scream 3” to independent films.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I get to play all of these different parts, in different styles. (WWE) is a different subculture, different than the Christopher Guest world. I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Mike Pavone, executive vice president of WWE Studios, is serving as producer on the film. Pavone said New Orleans provided a great place to shoot the company’s slate of six films.

“New Orleans has always offered terrific incentives,” he said. “It’s a great city that embraces film making. They want us to be here and that makes it very comfortable for us.”

Pavone said New Orleans can also provide a number of different looks. Film crews have already made the city look like Oklahoma and California.

Pavone said “Inside Out” is a New Orleans-based movie so “we can see the city and show it off.”

“Algiers, a nice residential area right outside of New Orleans, also afforded us a great look,” he said. “We don’t build a lot of interiors on stage because our budgets don’t afford it. We have to use a lot of practical locations.”

Pavone said Triple H plays a character that is “fairly intense.”

“He’s a terrific actor and has been a joy to work with,” he said. “I like working with athletes a lot because their training and mentality is different. The WWE superstars are really dedicated and show up on time, ready to go.”

Pavone said he has worked with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to make good interesting films.

“Because they are lower budget, they are character driven and have great actors,” he said. “We have to be very careful how we use the WWE superstars.

“Usually, we put them in an ensemble cast,” Pavone added. “We don’t want pressure on them to carry the movie. We have some wonderful, wonderful actors (in the film) in Parker, Bruce (Dern) and Michael.”

Pavone said the goal for WWE Studios is to make household names out of the current talent such as John Cena. Cena, who has already starred in “The Marine” and “12 Rounds, will next be seen in the next WWE Studios production “Legendary.”

“John Cena is a talented guy, who is tremendous and a really hard worker,” he said. “He comes into film making with that sort of athletic background. He’s always looking to get better at his craft and is trained to listen well.”

Pavone said WWE’s slate of films such as “Big Red,” which he directed, carry a “tight budget with no margin of error.”

“We’re very careful who we invite into our little family,” he said. “We do an awful lot for very little money. You have to have to right people playing with you. So far, we’ve had tremendous luck with our cast.”

Another WWE project that is making waves is a biopic on “Gorgeous George” Wagner, perhaps wrestling’s most well known star on the 1940s and 1950s.

“It’s a passion project for Vince McMahon,” Pavone said. “(George) had such an influence on modern day wrestling in general and what we’ve come to know from WWE. But, he was also the father of pop culture.

“People like James Brown, Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan have given Gorgeous George a lot of credit for showing them the way,” he added. “John Waters, Elton John and Liberace hearken back to things that Gorgeous George did. He became popular when TV was invented and the only thing on was wrestling and Uncle Milty.”

Pavone said the story of Wagner and wife Betty is a “great love story.”

“We have a wonderful script written,” he said. “It’s a much bigger budget movie. We’ll probably not go into pre-production until sometime in 2011.”