Besides Project Save Our Surf, Tanna Frederick (born 1979) is a stage and independent film actress. She also rose to prominence for her title role in Henry Jaglom’s Hollywood Dreams. However for me it’s the Project Save Our Surf work. Yes folks! So Project Save Our Surf saves oceans along the West Coast and in other countries!
In addition, she received the Best Actress Award at the 2008 Fargo Film Festival. In addition to her acting she is an eco actress. My last story about Tanna focused on her efforts along with famed surfer Shaun Tomson, also founded “Project Save Our Surf”. For it’s an an annual event which raises tens of thousands of dollars for oceanic conservation.
Here is my exclusive interview with this ECO BEAUTY GREEN CELEBRITY!!
What got you started in acting?
Seeing my best friend play Oliver Twist in a children’s theater at age 7 with my Girl Scout Troupe. After that the rest was history. I joined the theater, booked a nice big part in Little Woman, and started doing five to seven shows a year. I had to be on stage all the time. The Community Theater even wrote a part in ‘Night of The Iguana’ so I could be in it. I was a little girl German tourist. I had one line, ‘Give me my book’ that they taught me in German.
What started your passion for your organization?
I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was paddling out next to a floating condom. My buddy and I said, ‘That’s it. We’re doing something.’ So we started a 24 hour surf-a-thon to raise money for cleaning up the Santa Monica Bay, some of the dirtiest water in California. We had twenty five surfers or so to start with, and then Project Save Our Surf, along with Shaun Tomson’s help. It grew big and fast. Last year Project Save Our Surf had 5,000 people on the beach. PT Townend and I branded the surf-a-thon Surf 24, and Huntington Beach was awesome and lit up their pier while pros, celebs, and rec surfers stayed out in the water through the night.
Where did you do movies?
In the United States.
OK..Do you believe that movies and tv could help transform the green marketplace?
Yes. Avatar gave me a nervous breakdown. Seriously. I started balling and couldn’t breathe right in the middle so I still don’t know how it ends. It was like watching the pillaging of our earth by technology and the industrial revolution with blue people with really good bodies.
The more stories we tell, the more creative we get. I mean not pounding people on the head mind you. Yet celebrating the beautiful earth we have and expressing that through art. For it can have a huge impact. Art affects the heart, and that is something that sticks to your ribs. So green art – films, writings, paintings, etc. can make a huge impact on somebody’s motivation towards conservation.
And the guys on the Cove were able to call out some horrific business in Japan because of film. Technology now, the bitsy cameras with gorgeous resolution, can make us into Eco-Police. You can sneak into anywhere all over the world and catch illegal dumping or corrupt activities like shark finning or excess deforestation from paper mills – and call people out on it, and stop it, post it on You Tube if nothing else and show what’s happening.
Who are some celebs you know looking to go green but don’t know how?
The Jersey Shore hanyaks. I’d love to have a day to turn their lives into a green hell starting with wheatgrass shots, burning their clothes made by sweatshops in China, and make them poo in a brand new compost toilet installed next to recycled t.p. and a copy of Ted Danson weekly. That would be a prime episode.
How do you want to make a contribution to preserving the environment and making green more sexy?
Check out the last three dresses I’ve worn on our ‘blue’ carpet at the last three Galas…Leah Griffiths makes the sexiest recycled dresses out of paper. Men like to touch them, and the paper falls off really easily. Recycled dresses are the way to go.
And there’s nothing that turns me on more than a dude with solar panels. Sizzling.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlgxTk56gpY&w=360&h=315%5D
Why do you think The Green Living Guy is cool? I mean you were persistent to do this interview so there is something burning inside of you to do things in life….LOL.
Finally, besides the fact you love Project Save our Surf; it’s because you’re the GREEN LIVING GUY. I mean, come on. You’re not like the Green Living Douchebag,’ or the ‘Green Living Michelle Bachman’, or the ‘Green Living Golf Pro’…You’re the GREEN LIVING GUY. Right up there with Eddie Begley. You’re DA MAN. And don’t you ever forget it.
