The most captivating films can also sympathetically highlight life’s most vital lessons. That’s certainly the case with the new relatable sci-fi dystopian movie, ‘South of Hope Street,’ which masterfully showcases the importance of valuing and supporting mental wellness and self-discovery. Actress Tanna Frederick shines as the vulnerable yet independent Denise in the drama, during which the at-times struggling protagonist immediately captures viewers’ hearts with her gritty persistence.
 
Jane Spencer wrote and directed ‘South of Hope Street.’ Besides Frederick, the film also stars Judd Nelson, Billy Baldwin and Michael Madsen. The movie is now playing On Demand, courtesy of Buffalo 8 Productions, following its theatrical premiere on April 18 in Los Angeles.
 
Set in 2038, ‘South of Hope Street’ follows Denise, who lives in the relatively safe world of a neutral European country, as she notices that strange things are starting to happen. Earthquakes and tornadoes are occurring in places where they never used to happen, and there are two moons in the sky.
 
Despite her efforts to make people notice, nobody seems to care or believe her. Even her roommates, Xenia (Patricia Sluka), a pretentious performance artist, and her sycophant friend, Universe (Stefanie Alder), belittle Denise’s concerns and urge her to focus on other matters, like getting a job and maintaining her appearance. Denise’s only ally is Patrick (Gianin Loffler), who is also trying to fit in with society.
 
Denise observes that people are beginning to wear big, ugly, black shoes as a symbol of conformism, which makes her feel lost and even more out of place. She begins to wonder why she would want to fit into such a world.
 
Life seems to improve for Denise, however, when she meets Tom (Nelson), a janitor/poet, and his young nephew Andre (Maximilian Preisig), who lost his arm in war. They are both fugitives from a new world war that has broken out, along with Wes (Craig Conway), a dispirited army veteran. Tom is trying to keep Andre from being drafted, and avoid being sent back to the war where he was once injured. As a result, they’re both hiding in Denise’s neutral country.
 
As the sky becomes stranger with each passing day, the media focuses only on the war and its casualties, diverting attention away from the unusual phenomenon in the sky. When Denise’s country enters the war, the four characters must hide from the
city where fascism is spreading, and the Black Shoe Movement is gaining power.
 
Wes knows a professor named Eduardo (Angelo Boffa), who has formed a group with other nonconformists seeking refuge in the mountains. Denise joins them, and she discovers a world of nature and freedom that makes her feel happy and in love with Tom.
 
However, the reality of the war keeps intruding on their idyllic refuge. Tom’s vision of a utopian world where art can make a difference seems foolish to Denise in light of everything happening. Her dream starts to turn into a bleak reality as she realizes they are hiding and doing nothing but dreaming. She must now make a choice on how she wishes to live her life and save her future.
 
Frederick generously took the time recently to talk about starring in ‘South of Hope Street’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom. Among other things, the actress discussed that she was in part drawn to star in the drama because she feels its story is pertinent to the current political landscape. She also shared that she cherished having the opportunity of working with Spencer and her co-stars, as everyone was open to building the characters and story together.
 
Film Factual (FF): You play Denise in the new sci-fi dystopian film, ‘South of Hope Street.’ What was it about the character, as well as the overall movie, that convinced you to take on the role?
 
Tanna Frederick (TF): It was a great and interesting film.
I felt it was very pertinent to the political landscape. We started filming the movie in 2014, and I felt that. even then, it resonated with that landscape of what was happening in the world.
 
I felt the two moons in the sky were symbolic of what is going on in in the world, and people’s negligence, today. I don’t want to say that in terms of putting the human race down, and implying that people don’t want to see what’s going on in the world.
 
People also choose not to look at the fact that there are some extremely chaotic and dangerous things going on. But what is really going on is very frightening.
 
I think the fact that everybody has these black shoes on in the film, as a way to succumb to this denial of what’s going on, is interesting. In this world, they’re persuaded to join a movement that’s led by Billy Baldwin, who does a tremendous job in the film.
 
My character is saying, “But there is something going on. There are two moons in the sky.” I think those people in society who are saying, “We need to look at what’s going on. We need to do something. But what do we do?,” are really important.
 
I really resonated with my character. I also felt honored to play her because we look around and we see that there’s all of this consternation in society. Yet, at the same time, what do we do about it, except talk about it?
 
My character is definitely is trying to talk about it to everybody. Yet everybody starts to wear black shoes and saying, “No, everything‘s going to be fine. There are rules and there is order. The world is going to be fine.” So in that respect, the character really appealed to me.
 
FF: Speaking about working with Billy, the drama features an ensemble cast that also includes Judd Nelson and Michael Madsen. How did you approach working with your co-stars in building Denise’s relationships with the other characters?
 
TF: This was actually the third film in which Judd and I play romantic leads together. That was really cool because Judd and I have been friends for about two decades now.
 
So there’s an ease. a comfortability and a trust that we have with one another in our artistic choices. We also have a relaxation that we have when it comes to doing a scene together. So when he tries something, I just roll with it. When I try something, I’m not afraid to throw him off his game because I know him so well. I know that he’s not going to get mad at me, for the most part. He’s a brilliant artist.
 
There were so many moments in the movie that were unexpected, where I felt like we were just two kids playing together. When you have that ease and lovely tennis match with somebody, it’s the best thing that you could possibly ask for with someone.
 
I just watched the film; I waited to watch it on the big screen. There were moments in it that I didn’t remember that we did that take things to the next level.
 
I remember there was one moment where I was supposed to hand Judd some papers. Instead, I grab the papers away from him and wouldn’t hand them to him. I remember the look on his face; he was like, what are you doing? I could tell that he was thinking, what is she doing now? It was so fresh and great on film. That’s the sort of loveliness that you get when you’ve been in this town for a while and work with the same actors.
 
Billy Baldwin is such a sweetheart. I wrote him this text recently about what a great actor he is because he played that character so menacingly. The reason that he was so menacing is because he has this underlying sensitivity. He’s also a very intelligent man. That makes him, as the antagonist, very compelling.
 
The antagonist was very smart. He wasn’t a typical gnashing your teeth kind of antagonist. He’s a very believable person, and you want to follow him. He’s tall, handsome and smart.
 
But he also has a quiet presentation of his case in the film, which makes you wonder, is this guy right Should I be following this guy? Should he be the leader? In the real world, there are leaders like that.
 
So I think that that was a really important casting choice. We want the antagonist to make us question, is this the good guy or is this the bad guy, or is this the smart one?
 
That also goes for my character of Denise, who’s sleeping in people’s corners. So you think, maybe we should actually be following Billy Baldwin’s character because he is going to help the world out. So he’s a really amazing actor.
 
So it was really great to work with him, and, of course, the rest of the cast. Patricia Sluka, who plays Xenia, is amazing. She’s like every girl in high school who you wanted to be your best friend, and they’re not. You long for them to like you so bad. She’s just wonderful at that. She’s gorgeous and is always going to parties. She’s just an incredible person to be Miss Popular.
 
She and I had so much fun on set. She is one of the nicest, loveliest women I have ever met. So we had a great time of her being mean to me and me being the pathetic one who’s trying to mooch off her. She was terrific.
 
FF: Jane Spencer wrote and directed the drama. What was your experience like collaborating with her while you were developing your character of Denise?
 
TF: It was wonderful but also challenging in the respect that with any indie film, you have to raise money. We started filming a teaser for this movie in 2014, and we didn’t finish the film until 10 years later.
 
I think it’s helpful when you have that sort of time to develop the characters. I think it gave Jane more time to come up with great character plots and development.
 
In in the original script, Billy Baldwin’s character arc was smaller. But then he had this great powerful presence in the final film.
 
Over the course of the years, Jane also sent me more material. She said, “I have this great monologue for you.” We got to know each other better, and she learned who I was. So she then sent that to me.
 
I also know that Judd and Jane had a similar process. Judd’s a very collaborative actor who cares so much for every project that he does it. So he would send things over to Jane and ask, “What if my character did this? I think that (his character of) Tom would say this or act this way.”
 
When you have that long of a time, I think it becomes a very communal piece. So the underlying emotions really pop because everybody’s invested. It’s not just, “Okay, we got the money, let’s do it. We have three weeks, let’s go.”
 
We did this over the course of 10 years, so we all grew together, and that’s something that’s magic. It’s tragic that you can’t always get it done quickly, but having that much time to make this film did create a magic.
 
FF: ‘South of Hope Street’ had its theatrical premiere on April 18th in Los Angeles, which was followed by its On Demand release the following day. What was your experience like premiering the film in L.A.?
 
TF: I think my chin was just on the floor the whole time because I had no idea what to expect! (Frederick laughs.) It was absolutely phenomenal. I was really proud of our work.
 
It was amazing to have everybody come back together; it was like a family reunion. To have it play in such a large theater with such a big audience was beautiful.
 
To have forgotten so much of the movie because we made it over such a long period of time. So to then see it after it was finished was magical.
 
There was also a bit of melancholy because we lost two actors over the course of 10 years. I was very close to one of them, Matthew Marcy, who played Mr. Shoes. He was very funny. We also lost Barry O’Rourke, who played this character who’s always asking my character out. We lost both of them, so to realize what people go through is very sad.
 
I think if you’re not in the filmmaking business, you don’t realize what people go through in order to get a film made. You also don’t realize what people hang their lives on. So sometimes outside of this world of filmmaking, people might look at making films as being fun and maybe silly and trite, and just as a neat job. But it’s a lot more than that; it’s something that we take very seriously.
 
Of course, it’s not brain surgery. But at the same time, we give our lives to it as artists because we believe in it. When I say we, I’m talking about me and people in this film who I worked with on it. But we believe that there’s something behind it that we’re imparting to other people. So it was it was really special and emotional to have been able to go to the premiere with everyone.