I'm so very pleased to share an interview with the incredible actress Tanna Frederick today. Tanna has been very active in independent films (love it!), but also has worked hard in other areas - she founded the Iowa Film Festival, and co-founded Project Save Our Surf. She recently received the 2009 Maverick Award from the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival and the Performer to Watch Award at the 2009 Method Fest. Earlier awards include Best Actress for her performance in Hollywood Dreams at The Fargo Film Festival, the Montana Film Festival and the Houston International Film Festival. Such accolades are well-deserved. We were lucky enough to sit down and chat with Tanna about her new film, upcoming projects, and more. Here's what she had to say...

WE: Please tell us more about your new film, Irene in Time...

TF: IRENE IN TIME is a story about fathers and daughters – how that delicate dynamic between them growing up can affect a woman’s opinion of herself, outlook on life and love, finding the right ‘mate’ to settle down with…We’ve been running in the Leammle theatres in LA now for nine months…Pure joy!

WE: What led you into acting?

TF: I saw a production of Oliver Twist in Iowa with a Girl Scout troop when I was eight, I watched the kid who played the Artful Dodger and thought, ‘I belong up there, playing that part’…Then I went and saw the show about ten more times, and joined the theatre right after that.  Ironically enough, the ‘kid’ who played the Artful Dodger, my inspiration, is now playing my romantic counterpart in the play I’m in, Just 45 Minutes From Broadway.

Also, my grandmother dreamed of being a professional singer.  She was very influential on my pursuit of chasing the arts because she would come to all of my recitals, plays, concerts, everything growing up.  And each time remind me how she left show business (singing on the radio in Minneapolis) for my grandfather and ‘gave it all up’.  That drove me – the loss of her dream – and sacrificing her ambitions…I always felt like I was stubbornly following my passion not for myself, but for the both of us.  I named my first film character after her in Hollywood Dreams – ‘Margie’ – after my grandmother.

WE: What was it like, working with Henry Jaglom, your director in Irene in Time?

TF: Freeing and intense.  There is not a lot of time to shoot, so everything must be produced quickly and perfectly.  There are, at most, three to four takes of a scene, and some scenes are set and some are not.  It’s challenging to facilitate the mercurial rhythms that Jaglom’s scripts demand, difficult to try to keep the focus when being allowed so much space to move in.  But that’s what is exciting about the process, the discipline and details I’ve acquired in my work while doing the last three films with Henry.  He’s a delightful artist – with great respect for actors, an ‘actor’s director’ as they say. 

WE: What draws you to films from the Golden Age?

TF: Everything.  The actors, directors, wardrobe, sets, behind the scenes stories of the studio system and it’s fascinating inner workings…There was a work ethic then that is a bit rumpled up now…I went to the premiere of That’s Entertainment II and to watch Cyd Charisse and Julie Newmar and Esther Williams (though in a wheelchair looking fabulous) and other actresses who thrived in the studio system standing up straight, put perfectly together, no outward competition but just all subtle, inward diligence maintained from the days when they weren’t allowed to show up on set without manicured nails or their skirts out of place…Though I’m a completely messy tomboy, there’s something fascinating and beautifully elegant about that.

The flavor of the acting choices of that era compel me…I’m not sure why.  But the boldness of Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn, the gumption they mustered to sell themselves rather than conform into a Hollywood actress amalgam…The cheese factor of a lot of the dialogue in so many of the ‘40’s gangster films completely omitted through intense commitment of Bogart and James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson, that really gets me – bold choices, unapologetic, and committed performances…

WE:  Can you please tell us more about Project Save our Surf?

TF: Project Save Our Surf is a non-profit organization I founded two years ago, run for surfers and by surfers with a commitment to clean up our oceans.  Co-hosted by Shaun Tomson and PT Townend, this year PSOS is presenting Surf 24: 24 Hours of Surf on June 19th and 20th (International Surfing Day!), in which surfers will be in the water around the clock catching waves next to the Pier in Huntington Beach to fulfill their pledges and raise funding and awareness toward the dire need of attention and action our oceans require at this time in the earth’s history.  We have some great components this year – a music element and film element – at night we will be screening some great legendary surf films to be followed with a Q & A by the cast and directors…Director Randal Kleiser will be on hand with the cast of North Shore, and Shaun and PT will of course be talking about Bustin’ Down the Door’ – my personal favorite surf doc.  Bands will be playing on the beach all day along with speakers from Surfrider, Heal the Bay, and Inside the Outdoors, our three beneficiaries for this year’s monies raised.

WE: And can you share with us more about the Iowa Film Festival? What's on
for this year?

TF: This year we’re rolling into our fourth consecutive year!  It’s been going really well; last year we had over 800 entries and some incredible films.  This year we’re showing filmmaker Julie Davis’ Finding Bliss and a sneak preview of my next film, Queen of the Lot, directed by Henry Jaglom and co-starring Noah Wyle…And an amazing cast that includes Katherine and Mary Crosby, Chris Rydell, David Proval, Beege Barkette, Zack Norman, Kelly DeSarla, Diane Salinger…just to name a few.

WE:  What's up next for you?
TF: Just 45 Minutes From Broadway has been extended through April - so I’m just holding on for the ride…It’s great to be in a stellar theatre piece in Los Angeles – Henry Jaglom is a brilliant playwright – and to have an 8 month run of a play in LA is just a dream.  In the fall we’re releasing Queen of the Lot in theatres, and in August I’ll be co-starring in a film produced by Jon Fitzgerald with Director Ron Vignone called Serendipity Green, which I actually adapted from a book by Rob Levandoski.

WE: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

TF: I’m running the LA Marathon in March with a goal of finishing with a time of 3:20 and qualifying for the Boston Marathon…I’m raising money for the North Iowa Alliance On Mental Illness and the North Iowa Area Transition Center.  There is little funding for the mentally ill right now, and any donation helps enormously-please check out my website www.tannafrederick.com- and click on the LA Marathon box and give a little to help out.  For every five dollars I’ll run five seconds faster and facilities for the mentally ill will be five times stronger!

Thanks for the great interview!

WE: Thanks so much, Tanna. You've got so many great projects going on - you're sure a star to watch!

For more information, please see:
http://www.tannafrederick.com/

All photos courtesy Tanna Frederick