When Tanna Frederick, 46, looks back on her ill-fated marriage to the famous actor and filmmaker Henry Jaglom, 86, she has no regrets.
Although Mr. Jaglom was 40 years her senior, and their union was annulled after seven years, she feels nothing but respect for the octogenarian.
“Being with Henry was like going to NYU film school, which I could never afford,” Ms. Frederick told The Epoch Times. “I learned so much and got to hang out with Peter Bogdanovich and so many other brilliant filmmakers. I was lucky to have those experiences and make seven films with Henry.”
Mr. Jaglom trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and starred in Orson Welles’s last film, “The Other Side of the Wind,” along with Mr. Bogdanovich before becoming a director. Mr. Bogdanovich directed “The Last Picture Show” in 1971, “What’s Up, Doc?” in 1972, and “Paper Moon” in 1973, while Mr. Jaglom is best known for directing “Festival in Cannes” in 2001, “Sitting Ducks” in 1980, and “Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?” in 1983.
Mr. Jaglom also directed Ms. Frederick in “Hollywood Dreams,” “Irene in Time,” “Queen of the Lot,” and many other features.
“We were such great co-creators, and we were best friends,” Ms. Frederick said.
After their separation in 2020, she moved out of his Santa Monica home and took three years off from being in the limelight.
“I stepped back because I needed a break, and there wasn’t much going on during the pandemic,” she said.
Today, Ms. Frederick, who is originally from Iowa, lives adjacent to Los Angeles in Burbank.
“I felt like my life had ended,” Ms. Frederick said in an interview with The Epoch Times. “Burbank is like living in Denmark compared to Santa Monica being like France. It’s a totally different environment, but my dogs and I like it.”
Since then, Ms. Frederick has written a fictional one-woman show called “Hanyak” about a young actress from the Midwest who moves to Hollywood in the 1990s with big dreams only to fall into the web of lies woven by a man dubbed Maestro. Ms. Frederick renamed the show “Lion Eyes” after the Eagles’s popular song “Lyin’ Eyes.”
The first verse of “Lyin' Eyes” describes a city girl discovering “how to open doors with just a smile” with “a rich old man” and “she won’t have to worry.”
As previously reported in TheatreScene.org, Ms. Frederick reveals to the audience, without naming Mr. Jaglom, that she felt financially manipulated and deceived by Maestro.
“I know a lot of women who have been naive in situations where it wasn’t that they were actresses,” Ms. Frederick said. “They were women, and they were naive in situations because they wanted to see the best in their partner.”
In the feature, she plays Denise, who sees two moons in the sky and reports it, but authorities choose to ignore the apocalyptic sign.
“My character is on the verge of being the antagonist because she sticks out like a sore thumb in society, but she ends up being the hero because she confronts the obvious,” Ms. Frederick said.
Mr. Nelson, who became famous in 1985 after starring in the films “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” plays her love interest while Billy Baldwin, Alex Baldwin’s brother, portrays Lt. Daniel Winthrop. Michael Madsen, who starred in “Reservoir Dogs,” “Thelma & Louise,” and “Donnie Brasco,” plays Benjamin Flowers.
Directed by Jane Spencer, “South of Hope Street” began filming in 2012. Ms. Spencer received the Distinguished Work in Auteur and Poetic Filmmaking Award from Producers Without Borders at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.
“Judd’s one of those people that I’m so fortunate to have in my life,” Ms. Frederick said. “He’s always been supportive, and this is our third movie together. Billy Baldwin was very much a sweetheart and a consummate professional. Jane is just lovely to work with.”
“South of Hope Street” will premiere this week at a Los Angeles theater on April 18 and begin streaming on Amazon Prime on April 19.
Ms. Frederick is also making her directorial debut with the short film “Death Pays Flora a Visit” at the Mendocino Film Festival’s opening night on May 30. Academy Award-winning film director Sydney Pollack founded the Mendocino Film Festival before his death 17 years ago.
The 11-minute film stars Eric Roberts and Mimi Kennedy and was written by Sy Rosen, who produced and wrote many hit TV sitcoms, including “The Wonder Years,” “Rhoda,” “Sister Sister,” “My Two Dads,” and “M*A*S*H.”
“Sy had written the film about his wife who had passed [away], and there’s something very elegant and charming about it,” she said.
Because of what she learned about filmmaking from Mr. Jaglom, Ms. Frederick directed the short without a hitch.
“I did not have any challenges,” she said. “Every part of the process felt really great because I had been through every part of post-production with Henry. There’s a grace you have when you’re engaged in art, so it doesn’t matter if conflicts or problems come up. You just solve them in the moment.”
