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.

MM: Though the idea of success in Hollywood being all about “who you know” is certainly changing—particularly with so many people getting their start on the Web with YouTube, etc.—there’s still no denying the power of having a major industry player as one of your biggest supporters, which is something you’ve certainly found in Henry Jaglom. People often talk about trust being one of the most important aspects of a great actor-director collaboration; how has working with Henry proven this to you?

TF: Trust is one of the most important things I think an actor-director collaboration should have—100 percent trust. And Henry and I have that. I ask myself why that is—what makes this relationship so unique and the work and ideas flow so easily and explosively. I think it stems from the fact that we have the same sense of humor. It’s like collaborating with a best friend; from the moment we met, we found we liked the same films, were annoyed by the same actors and balanced each other out with his sort of sophisticated posh New York upbringing and my Podunk Iowa sticks upbringing.

We somehow shared a lot of similar belief systems in life and attitude toward work and the process of filmmaking and acting. And I come back to the sense of humor because mostly we just make each other laugh, and there’s something about that, in my opinion, when you both just “get the joke,” as we like to say. Perhaps nobody else is laughing and it’s just an Enchanted Cottage sort of deal (watch it—great movie), but we get our “joke” and when we work together we keep that sense of entertainment going throughout the production process, and it makes it a good time.

MM: Can there ever be a downside to working so closely with one person?

TF: I suppose there could be a downside to working with just one person, but my relationship with Henry is not like that… I still have other films I am working on with other directors and producers, I’m just lucky to have this home base with Jaglom where I have a fantastic time making crazy lovely work again and again.

MM: How do you continue to challenge each other when you develop a natural shorthand?

TF: I don’t think there is a natural shorthand that Henry and I have developed, he’s a dynamic artist, and he keeps himself on his toes; during the last three films everything has changed from the amount of script we adhere to, to the crew, to the tone and flavor of the story. Henry’s a creator who doesn’t stick to one methodology just because it worked on the last film. He changes everything constantly, so I have to work to keep up with his whims. But that’s a good thing, I think. It keeps everything forever fresh, new and exciting.
MM: Speaking of your collaboration with Jaglom: You guys are expected to show a rough cut of your latest film, Irene in Time, later this week at the Iowa Independent Film Festival, a fest you founded last year. As an artist, is it important for you to give back to your community? As someone who has experienced the festival circuit firsthand, how do you think the Iowa Independent Film Festival stands out?

TF: I cannot stress the value of the festival circuit enough. Nowhere else can you get such an amazing, educated, supportive, enthusiastic, open group of people to watch your film and give you the straight skinny on how they feel about it. I first found out about the glory of film festivals through the Ashland Film Festival when we took a rough cut of Hollywood Dreams up there—it was our first rough cut screening and we held a long three-hour Q&A after and it was completely invaluable to the completion of the film.

Going up to Oregon made me think of my hometown, Mason City, Iowa, and what a fantastic venue it would be for a festival. Last year was our first Festival, and this year will be our second. I think we’re at the beginning of a beautiful run in terms of the Iowa Indie Festival—it has the whole small-town deliciousness to it. I brought out as many L.A. filmmakers and actors and their wonderful films to Iowa as I could. We had the opening night party at my mom and dad’s house and fed everyone corn and burgers, and the L.A. folks were driven around in a navy blue limo the entire time and we saw a calf being birthed and some of the filmmakers (David Proval—not to name any names) even cried when they left good old Ioway.

The most important thing about creating the festival though was the amount of inspiration that came from it. Students and local artists realizing the accessibility of Hollywood—that they don’t need to move out here, that they can make great art right in their own backyards with the immensely advanced yet inexpensive equipment available now… and they did! I guess this year we have a ton of great films submitted locally who attended the festival last year and decided to go out and make their own film. I love that.

MM: And now you and Henry are back together again for Queen of the Lot, a sequel to Hollywood Dreams that will pick up three years later. What’s the status of that project? Did you ever imagine that, just five years into your career, you’d already have created a character that demanded a sequel?

TF: It is pretty unbelievable to me that five years into my career I’d already be doing a sequel for a character I created, but I am so excited to have that opportunity because Margie is such an intense and delightful and somewhat maddening character to play—everything that I look for in a role. And now to layer her successes—she’s become an action film star and had to change her name and is dealing with addictions and her life in Hollywood once the smoke and mirrors have been removed—it’s going to be a good time. We’re filming the first segment of the movie in Iowa at the film festival, I’m going back with Henry and a film crew as Margie Chizek/Maggie Chase… and we’re shooting Mason City’s reaction to her and her fame, how her relationships have changed with friends and family and the guy who would never ask her out in high school. Noah Wyle is attached as my love interest, a tell-all paparazzi journalist typem, and David Proval and Zack Norman still running Margie’s career and now producing the films she’s in, so there is a lot of wonderful lying and manipulating and falling in love… very Lubitsch Trouble In Paradise. We will continue to shoot through the summer and fall.

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