We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tina Alexis Allen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tina Alexis , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I have just completed writing, directing and acting in The Men’s Room, a short film with a male #metoo story at the center. Having written my childhood memoir, Hiding Out, (HarperCollins) a few years ago, about my #metoo past, I heard from men who had read my book and shared their own #metoo experiences. Of course, the #metoo movement is first and foremost about women. And rightly so. But also, I heard first hand from these men that not only had they experienced similar things, but they were still keeping it a secret.
So, I wrote a fictional story about a mother and son set in Hollywood. It’s a behind the scenes look at an actress on the verge of a mid-life comeback that sets her on a collision course with the producer responsible for “metoo-ing” her son when he was in high school. Visually, I was inspired by Inarritu’s Birdman. Emotionally and Psychologically inspired by She Said and Spotlight
I love creating potentially transformational projects, something with the potential to start a conversation that needs to be had. I hope The Men’s Room will do just that.
We will begin the submission process to film festivals soon and hope to engage with one of the streamers who want to have impact by taking a stand for “men too.”
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a creative. Began with an MBA and a business career but made the leap to entertainment at the ripe ole age of 30. Having a late start by most standards lead to an adventurous career of lots of risk and reward and a whole lot of self-generating. I learned to write in order to act more, I learned to produce to be sure what I wrote got made. And so it goes.
At the heart of my creative process is the need to grow and heal and transform what might be problematic, ugly, unspoken and seeped in shadow by bringing it into the light. No one ever got better hiding, keeping secrets and burying an unexamined past.
Some of my most favorite projects are playing “Shurn” in the TV series, Outsiders, (Hulu), writing and performing a solo show Off-Broadway playing my father, portraying the real life coal mining activist and musician, Elaine Purkey in the film, Moving Mountains, opposite Theresa Russell, And most recently, working with Gina Gershon on the Lifetime movie, 12 Desperate Hours.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
It’s not about me is the best lesson ever. The quicker we get that clear as creatives, the sooner we might make a real impact. All that insecurity that every creative starts out with is natural.
But once I understood that my only job was to be of service, my career changed dramatically. I wasn’t there to be good or great, I was there to help.
The terror of playing my father, of sharing my past, all that intimacy, the pain, eventually went away when I realized after some performances that I was affecting people’s lives by being so vulnerable with mine. Same with writing my childhood memoir.
Today going to work, to set has one primary goal – serving the director, the story and my fellow actors.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Yoga and meditation are very useful practices that help me get grounded and create from a deeper, more organic space.
Although I found Kundalini yoga and meditation eventually, those are practices I wish I knew about at the beginning of my career.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.tinaalexisallen.com/
- Instagram: @TinaAlexisAllen
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1017514/
Image Credits
Nina Binder for the photo I uploaded of myself – where you asked for the ONE personal photo