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Tanna Frederick Lives the Hollywood Dream
It seems appropriate that actress Tanna Frederick’s breakthrough came in a film called Hollywood Dreams, Henry Jaglom‘s tale of an aspiring actress who takes Hollywood by storm. With absolutely no connection to the movie business, the Iowa native has proven herself a force to be reckoned with—"determined" would be an understatement—and has found a kindred spirit in Jaglom, who can’t say enough kind things about his new muse. With Hollywood Dreams coming out on DVD in early May and their latest collaboration, Irene in Time, showing at the Iowa Independent Film Festival (an event Frederick herself help to found, which kicks off on April 25th), they’re also in the process of making a sequel to Hollywood Dreams, Queen of the Lot. Not bad for an actress whose been in Hollywood for just a couple of years now.
Jennifer Wood (MM): At first glance, your story sounds like the ultimate Hollywood fairytale, but your success has been as much about talent and determination as it has been about luck. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone in your previous situation—an aspiring actress with no connection to the movie industry looking to get her first big break?
Tanna Frederick (TF): I think that there are many pieces of advice I’d give to people starting out in the industry—acting, producing, directing, whatever. This business relies predominately on determination. Talent is subjective—there will always be people who hate your work or think it’s mediocre or think your talentless and hopefully there will be people who think you are talented and like some of the stuff you do. To come out here and try to prove to people you’re talented, that will keep you running in circles and wearing yourself out, because that opinion will always be endlessly changing depending on who’s judging your work. You basically need to just be doing it to have fun and have the drive to want to work, and the determination to not give up until you’ve gotten the work—and keep getting the work.
And luck? Well, I don’t really believe in luck either. (As I knock on wood and thank my lucky stars and throw salt over my right shoulder.) But seriously, I think that opportunity has come for me from putting myself in as many places as I possibly and humanly could, getting my headshots out, getting people to see my work by producing plays, running all over the city and taking my headshots into every casting director’s office, calling my mom in Iowa and asking her if she’s met anyone else in Iowa who knows somebody’s brother’s cousin’s friend who might be able to get me into a film…
Honestly, when I first moved out here, my mother and father were my right-hand team in Iowa talking to everyone they knew and finding out if they had any connections out here—so I’d call that person they had met, then call that person’s recommendation, then call the next person’s buddy on the such and such lot, and sometimes it would get me something and sometimes I just met some nice people who couldn’t necessarily help me out. But I don’t think it’s luck that got me, or gets a lot of people, where they’re at. I think it’s work and staying power.
So the long short of that answer would be to meet everyone you possibly can meet, and ask for help, because the lovely thing about the film industry is it’s based on a sort of familial trust where once you’ve worked with someone, they’ll use you again, or they might eventually ask you for work, and that’s just a given—people ask you for help, you ask people for help. It’s a favor kind of town, in the most good-natured sense. I might be a little Pollyanna-ish, but that’s my take.
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From An Inconvenient Truth (2006) to Sicko (2007), movies are becoming the choice medium for exposing societal problems in an effort to fuel change. Patrick Creadon’s I.O.U.S.A. is another documentary intent on exposing America’s troubles, this time taking a harsh look at our current economic situation and offering suggestions on how to make the nation financially secure for the future. The film is not just a presentation of the facts, however; the minds behind it have decided to take a more proactive role in making sure their movie inspires dialogue among viewers.
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