Westender Magazine Interview
July 8, 2004

Who: Jacqueline Samuda

What: Director and writer of 50 Questions, a short drama produced under the Crazy 8's banner. 50 Questions screens next at Summer Shorts 2004, 7 p.m. Thursday (July 8) and 1 p.m. Saturday at Pacific Cinematheque. Samuda is also the former head of Woman in Film and Video Vancouver, the host organization of Summer Shorts.

Best advice I ever got: "'Rejection is part of the job: I can't remember who told me that, but it was early on in my acting career, and it serves me in every aspect of my career as an actor, writer and director. You throw your hat in the ring, and if it gets thrown back out, you dust if off and move on to the next ring. It's simply part of the job, and it can't slow you down unless you let it.

Wish I'd said that:"`Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.' I work this into every conversation I can.. (kidding, but I love it)."

Film I've never seen and always wanted to: "Sunset Boulevard What's wrong with me? How could I NOT have seen this film yet?"

Dream colleague: "The Coen Brothers. I was blown away by Blood Simple when I was in school by the effectiveness of the film despite its small budget and size. They seem to renew themselves with every project. There seems to be no pattern except their quirky perspective and original execution.

On my night table: "A very mixed bag! The latest Harry Potter; Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe (I love string theory) and a book on pregnancy massage since I'm halfway through my pregnancy, expecting in November.

Chuck that off my resume: "I did a few non-union movies when I started out that I HAVE chucked off my resume, but every once in a while, someone discovers one of these old credits on the web somewhere and asks me if they can see this or that horror movie. I just don't think anyone needs to see me turning into a spawn of the devil."

In my secret life: "Scrabble rules."

Before I quit my day job: "I was baby wrangler for a Huggies commercial once, and I had to stand by and hand over toys on command to the baby director. It was such precision work in that it sounded like I was assisting in an OR, except instead of 'Scalpel' the order would be, 'Elmo!' or 'Barney, quick!'"

Brush with greatness: "I lived in L.A. for years, and one day right after I'd arrived, I was pulling into a strip mall in Santa Monica, just as Meryl Streep was coming out of an ice cream shop with a girlfriend. They were giggling like two kids, and it looked like it was from the simple excitement of being Meryl Streep and just going in there and getting herself an ice cream cone. It was really cute."

Next gig: "Over the summer, I'm doing an re-write on my feature film script Bread, that Movie Central is developing (Produced by Andrew Williamson and Rob Riley, exec Produced by Karen Powell). I look forward to it being ready for me to direct as my feature directing debut in the next year or two."

Mary Frances Hill