Tara Reid has been putting all this free time in lockdown to very good use.
While some have used quarantine to catch up with old friends, binge TV, tackle some home improvement projects or focus on something a little more introspective, Reid has been spending her days at home learning the ins and outs of producing.
Speaking with TooFab, the actress explained that when she had an agent, she’d always be waiting by the phone for a call — but “was never getting anything” of substance. After sitting around watching Netflix and wondering why she wasn’t getting calls, she decided “to take this in my own hands” and really learn the ropes of production.
Helping her through her journey: LinkedIn.
“When this time [in lockdown] came, I was like, ‘How can I do this?’ I went on LinkedIn and started doing research, contacting different directors and writers,” she explained. “I’ve been involved with all that and helping them with my connections with distribution. It’s just been an incredible time in a certain way, that this lockdown has given me the chance to do this.”
“The agents that would say no to me, ‘No, not Tara Reid,’ now I’m calling them up like, ‘I’d like to make a million dollar offer to who,'” she continued. “Everyone else is in lockdown, so heads of the studios now that are taking calls that would have never done it before. It’s been great connection wise to put these amazing films and TV shows together. At the end of the day, everyone’s looking for content.”
Reid teamed up with director White Cross to form their own LLC, which will produce the upcoming movie “Masha’s Mushrooms,” starring Reid, Vivica A. Fox and Beverly D’Angelo.
“I started going on LinkedIn and saying, ‘I’m looking for funding for ‘Masha’s Mushrooms’ and all these financiers came on and said, ‘How much are you looking for?'” said Reid, who said they are fully funded. “Just every day I’m on the computer, meeting new people, making deals and they’re all legit. Everything’s real.”
The actress says that, thanks to her time online, she’s “already gotten nine movies” lined up for this year.
“It’s been so exciting,” she said. “I’m on the phone the whole entire day. I know that I’m building something for the future and meeting great people in the meantime. I’m just at a really good place right now, I’m happy where I’m at and I feel like I’m making things happen.”
While she waits for “Masha’s Mushrooms” to start filming, Reid is working on the post-apocalyptic vampire flick “Bloodthirst.” The actress actually filmed her scenes as a vampire queen in Las Vegas this month, amid the ongoing pandemic.
“I’m a little bit nervous because I am a vampire. I’ll have to suck blood, that’s a little scary,” she told TooFab before the shoot. “But everyone’s got their COVID test, everyone’s negative, they check the heat, every day temperature. We’re under all the regulations and stuff.”
Reid also made sure she shot her scenes “at the very end” of the shoot — when everyone had a full grasp of the safety protocols.
Speaking more generally about the state of the country right now, as coronavirus cases continue to spike in certain areas, Reid said she wishes “we could get it together.”
“Every other country is coming through, going back down and we’re just skyrocketing up,” she vented. “I can’t tell you how many people are inviting me, ‘Hey, let’s go to this party.’ I’m like, ‘No, are you crazy?!’ It’s insane.”
“I had my first meeting yesterday, but it was at the Beverly Hills Hotel, by the pool. It was 5 people, but at a huge table that sat 13 and we had masks on,” she continued. “What a new way of life. It’s so crazy. It’s just not getting better, no one’s helping us get it better. We need someone to say, ‘Guy, get in the house, it might be horrible, but get in the house and don’t leave. Stay home.'”
In addition to another mandatory lockdown, Reid said anyone who breaks quarantine should be fined $1,000 — adding, “Then you’ll see how many people that fast stay inside, that would work.”
