June 2018

In our ongoing feature Between the Sheets, TrunkSpace picks the imaginative brains of authors to break down what it takes to create the various worlds and characters they breathe life into via the tools of their trade… sheets of paper. While technology continues to advance and change the pop culture landscape, the written word has remained one of the most consistent and imaginative art forms.

This time out we’re chatting with author and life coach Chas Allen about his new book “Evolution: Becoming a Criminal” and his journey from prison to the moment he saw aspects of his life play out on the big screen in “American Animals.”

TrunkSpace: You travel the country sharing the message of “embrace your story.” Your particular story has a lot of layers, and your life has no doubt taken many unexpected twists and turns. Can you tell us what “embrace your story” means on a macro level and at what point in your life you started following your own advice and accepted your personal truth?
Allen: On a macro level, we are experiencing an amazing time in human history. People who once lived in fear of expressing their truth are now reclaiming their voice and sharing their experiences. I believe that everyone has a right to express the truth of who they are and show up authentically in the world. Anything less than the full expression of who we are compartmentalizes our lives, drains our potential, and causes us to live in fear and hiding. When you embrace your story, you make a conscious choice to live in your truth. When you do this, you overcome fears, doubts, and insecurities because you realize that by accepting your truth you have nothing to hide. The incredible thing that happens when you share the truth of who you are is that you open yourself to connect more deeply and build more meaningful relationships with the people in your life, and ultimately, this leads to growth and the potential for healing.

For me, it was hard to accept my personal truth, and I’m always striving to grow and expand further in my understanding of who I am. At 21 I was removed from society and imprisoned for more than six years. During this time, I did a lot of soul-searching and took a hard look at the consequences of my actions. I found that in taking full responsibility for my past, and for claiming my truth, that I am free to choose who I will become.

TrunkSpace: Your third book, “Evolution: Becoming a Criminal” will be released on June 19. Now that you’re three books in, has the process become easier and more fluid? Are you experiencing the same emotions on the eve of releasing this one as you were your debut?
Allen: This third book is the book that I didn’t have the courage to write years ago when I released my first book. Doubts and fears from my past were still gripping me and prevented the full expression of who I am. My first release came with mixed emotions. With this release, I mostly feel gratitude for the ability to express and share my story. Of course, it still comes with a twinge of fear, wondering, “will people like it,” which I believe comes from my own desire to be loved and accepted for who I am. When I feel that fear, I lean into the hopes that my vulnerability will speak to something that someone may be experiencing in their own life.

TrunkSpace: You were involved in a well-known heist at 19-years-old, which is about to be more well-known thanks to the movie “American Animals.” Referred to as the Transylvania Book Heist, the caper involved you and three other individuals attempting to steal first edition books and paintings from the Transylvania University library. Is there something poetic in the fact that you are now an author and creating your own books, and has writing opened the doors of redemption to you on a personal level?
Allen: I felt so misunderstood years ago, after the crime. I felt ashamed and embarrassed at what I had done and deeply sorry for the pain that I had selfishly caused other people in the process. After such public self-destruction, I had a strong need to express that this crime does not define who I am. Writing provided me the outlet to communicate and share the truth of who I am and my experience from the only perspective over which I have any authority: my own. Poetic? I would say it has been a long and continued process of healing.

TrunkSpace: In a way, has writing the book “Evolution: Becoming a Criminal” been a bit like therapy? Has it enabled you to articulate thoughts and feelings about your own experience in a way that you have yet to tap into prior to putting it down on the page?
Allen: Writing is always a therapeutic process for me. When I write, I envision the scene I am writing as if I am there, walking around in the scene, feeling, seeing, hearing, and experiencing as if for the first time. In the process of writing this book, the scenes I stepped into were reliving my past experiences, over and over, and over again. As the old emotions flowed into me, I allowed them to flow through me and out of me onto the page, where they now live.

TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with “Evolution: Becoming a Criminal?”
Allen: I overcame a lot of shame about my past through the process of writing this book. I would say that I am most proud of the internal process that I went through to be able to share the story of who I am through the release of this book.

TrunkSpace: Obviously there is a fictional spin to “American Animals” in order to make it more “cinematic,” but is it an odd experience seeing someone slip into your skin and inhabit you? Is it at all like holding up a mirror to yourself, or is there enough separation between reality and the film that you can still feel distanced from it?
Allen: It’s surreal. In parts of the film, I see Blake Jenner reenacting pivotal moments in my life, and I flash back to my own memories of my experience. His portrayal captures so many layers of emotions that I experienced at the time. I’m grateful to Blake for such a brilliant and authentic performance in the film.

TrunkSpace: How long did it take for you to discover your voice as a writer?
Allen: I spent years studying the craft of writing, emulating my favorite authors. “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts is a book that made a big impact on me. I think reading his writing showed me it was possible to be strong while at the same time vulnerable in the expression of our flaws. I think though that I found my personal voice when I stopped trying to emulate other writers. Mark Twain famously said, “Write what you know.” In seeking to know myself, I think I found expression for that part of me that most needed a voice.

TrunkSpace: Regarding the process, is writing a labor of love for you or does it feel more like labor? Do you enjoy the process?
Allen: It depends on what I am writing. I like to feel deeply connected to my writing. If the connection is there, I love and enjoy the process. The projects that I most enjoy are projects that allow me to explore the human experience on a level that makes us all feel a little more connected to one another.

TrunkSpace: And what does that process look like? What are the ideal conditions for putting in a good day of writing?
Allen: My writing days usually look like this: Instrumental music in the background, usually a beat with a good base-line, sitting at my desk in my high-backed roller-chair, pretending to be a captain of a ship about to embark on a journey, with my dog, a Shiba-Inu named Cleo, curled up at my feet. I love those days.

TrunkSpace: Do you self-edit as you write?
Allen: I do. Some days I feel completely present and tapped into my source, the source, the place where all creation comes from, and the writing flows. I find myself rarely editing on those days. Other days, usually when I’m in a stage of overcoming something in the present moment, I find myself facing resistance, and the writing feels forced. Those are the days I edit and revisit my writing again and again. I find it essential to write through the challenging days because there is always something in there that you needed to express before you can get to your next level of awareness.

TrunkSpace: Where are you the hardest on yourself as a writer?
Allen: I used to be a perfectionist. I still grapple with that every now and then when an internal critic wants to chime in while I write. Now I try to be more understanding of myself and embrace my weaknesses and strengths equally as part of who I am and try to recognize that the good days and the challenging days are all part of the overall process. You can’t have one without the other.

TrunkSpace: What are you working on now and what will people be able to read next?
Allen: Following the release of “Evolution: Becoming a Criminal,” I’m working on the sequel that picks up when I leave the world of my childhood behind after the heist and am thrown irrevocably into a grown man’s world behind prison walls. The title is, “Revolution: Becoming a Convict.” I have also been commissioned to co-author two more non-fiction projects. One is the true story of a man named Steve Keller who created a multi-billion dollar industry, only to have his company dismantled, his assets sold to his competitors, and to be personally imprisoned for more than a decade. The book, titled, “Pay to Play,” explores what happens behind closed doors when the lines between the highest level of politics and business merge for the preservation of power. The second project is a self-help book I am writing with a subconscious behaviorist named Jim Rudolph, to empower readers with templates for how to share more meaningful and authentic relationships in their lives, titled, “Naked Relating.”

“Evolution: Becoming a Criminal” is available June 19 from Motivational Press. You can pre-order here.

“American Animals” is in theaters now.

No, we didn’t shirk our daily responsibilities and run off into the city with Alan Ruck to take in a Cubs game and be seated alongside the Sausage King of Chicago at a fancy lunch, but that didn’t make our chat any less exciting. The star of the iconic 80s comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has had an impressive career that has spanned four decades, but it is his most recent role as Connor Roy in the new HBO series “Succession” that has him giddy with excitement.

We recently sat down with Ruck to discuss the dramatic turn his character takes in an upcoming episode, the reason the show’s writers search for the comedy in every scene, and why he considers himself the cockroach of the acting world.

TrunkSpace: What struck us right away about “Succession” is that it’s story, character and performance, which seems to be a rarity in this super hero, everything-is-based-on-something else age.
Ruck: Yeah, it really is. It’s beautifully written. Jesse Armstrong and his gang of writers are really gifted. It’s also funny and… there’s a line in the show, I don’t know how many episodes you’ve seen, but in one of the episodes the character of Tom, played by Matthew Macfadyen, tells Greg, who’s played by Nick Braun, “Being rich is like being a super hero, only you get to wear a suit that’s designed by Armani.” In that way, I guess we are like super heroes… or maybe super villains. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: There’s certainly a lot of villainous twists and turns. From a performance standpoint, does that help to keep things interesting for you knowing that your arc could really go anywhere?
Ruck: Yeah, it’s exciting. When I auditioned for this, just the little description on the page sent to me from my manager said this character will evolve as the series progresses. In the pilot, and in the first three episodes, I really don’t do that much. And then in Episode 4, all of a sudden I was given a certain amount of responsibility at a sort of a corporate function, and things progressed from there. And then in the second season, and I think we will get a second season, Connor’s going to pursue some political aspirations, and it’s insane.

Clearly this guy, he suffers from delusional disorder, and we were kind of discovering things as we went along. I think maybe Jesse has known all along, and he’s allowing me to discover these things, but it could be that Connor is on the spectrum somewhere, in terms of maybe something like Aspergers. But he definitely suffers from delusional disorder, which I found out is on the same spectrum as schizophrenia. A schizophrenic will say, “I’m becoming a giraffe,” and you’ll say, “Okay,” and then a delusional personal will say, “I’m going to become President.” So technically it’s within the realm of possibility, but not very likely.

TrunkSpace: And the character’s personal journey within the family, being that he was the son from a previous marriage, makes for an interesting dynamic.
Ruck: Yeah. The old man is hard as nails, and probably the character that’s most like him is Siobhan (Sarah Snook), who’s our sister. She’s just as tough and smart as him, and ruthless. But the old man is not really heartless, and I actually think he feels a little bit guilty about Connor, because that marriage was a disaster, and then my parents got divorced, maybe when I was eight years old, so in a way I think maybe the old man thinks that he kind of abandoned me or stranded me. But for all of us, for all the kids, really the driving force is to win the old man’s approval. For Connor, here’s a guy in his 50s, and he still wants daddy’s approval. It’s sad.

TrunkSpace: Which brings me to our initial thought when we first heard about the series. “This is the really dark version of ‘Arrested Development’.”
Ruck: (Laughter) Absolutely.

TrunkSpace: As twisted as the relationship is with all of the kids in the “Arrested Development” fictional family, they also are all really just looking for some kind of validation or approval.
Ruck: Yeah. There was a movie that was made, I don’t know, 45 years ago or something – “I Never Sang for My Father,” with Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas. And even in that, there’s a line where he says, “Just because a person dies it doesn’t mean the relationship ends.” I think it is a life long challenge for many people to make peace with the relationship they have with their parents, or didn’t have – trying to figure that out or just get right with it.

TrunkSpace: And then you throw a business into the mix, and it becomes something else entirely.
Ruck: Yeah, and it’s fun, just because we’re talking about billions of dollars and the dynasty, and these people live in a way that most of us can’t even really imagine. So it kind of elevates it to the level of kings and emperors, and all that sort of nonsense, which makes it fun, because then it’s fabulous… in the true sense of the word, like once there was a king named Logan Roy.

It’s exciting to work on. Obviously Jesse Armstrong is such a steal for this world. He’s been fascinated by it for a while. He did write another thing about Murdoch, and then he decided to go in a more fictional vein, which I think is better, because then we can go absolutely anywhere.

TrunkSpace: What we enjoyed about it as well is that while it’s familiar ground, it also has a very unique voice and tone.
Ruck: Yeah, and I think a lot of that is Jesse and Adam McKay, and we’ve had some terrific directors along the way. Mark Mylod and Adam Arkin and Miguel Arteta and a woman named S.J. Clarkson, and they were all on the same page. And I think Adam just set this thing up with, “Let’s mine every possible comedic moment – whatever we can find that’s even vaguely funny, lets focus on that and see if it works.” Because otherwise this would by a grim business, just really examining the life of these entitled assholes.

TrunkSpace: You can really hear your excitement for the series in the way you talk about it. Do you still get the same level of excitement stepping onto a set for the first time as you did when you started out in the business?
Ruck: Well, it goes up and down, it goes in and out, and I think a lot of it depends on the material and the people involved. This time I’ve kind of struck gold, because top-notch network… I mean, if there’s a network that everybody wants to work for, it’s HBO. So right away, because they support the show and you kind of have, in a way, carte blanche – there’s no sort of censorship or anything – you can just take it where you need to. Fantastic writers, fantastic directors and top-notch cast, so it’s, “Oh yeah, I can live here!”

And then another thing we do that’s very exciting is Jesse and his gang, they write this material, and it’s wonderful, and we do the scene as written, say three or four times, and then they can’t help themselves… they have all these alternative lines that they’ve come up with. Sometimes it’s just one or two and sometimes it’s like a page and they’ll come up and go, “What do you think about this? We want to try this. How about this for the button on that? How about in this exchange with her you try out this line.” So then we change it up in the middle, which is fun, and then we’ll do that for a few takes and then almost always, Adam McKay certainly, all of them would say, “Okay, free one, just do whatever.” And what’s exciting about that is, you’ve done the scene now six times or whatever, so it’s sort of the DNA of the scene is in your bones, right? So you know what the transactions are, you know what the structure is, and then you just go and you improvise, whatever comes out of your mouth, which is pretty similar to what they’ve written, but every now and then somebody throws a curve ball, right? So now what we get is jazz, and it’s just a blast to do, because it’s like you don’t know what’s going to happen because somebody might go off, and then you just hang on for the ride.

TrunkSpace: Based of what you know of how the industry operates nowadays, do you think it would be more difficult starting out in 2018 than it was for you when you kicked off your career in the early 80s?
Ruck: I think it would be impossible. Young people come up to me and they say, “Hey, how do you get started?” And of course some of them just want to know how you get on the red carpet or how you get to be famous or whatever, but other kids, that really want to know how do you get started as an actor. I feel like I don’t have anything to offer them, because I started out in Chicago, about 1980, and it was a different world. Chicago then was sort of like Toronto, at the top of the minor leagues, not New York or LA, but it was a place where thing were happening. A lot of theater was going on, they were shooting a lot of films there… it was a location city and that’s how I got started. You could walk into any talent agency in Chicago, back then on a Wednesday, and say, “Hi, I’m new, I’m 23 years old, please take my resume,” and they would sit down, and talk with you, and say, “Okay, leave a few pictures and put our stamp on them and if anything comes up for you we’ll give you a call.” And that was kind of like a golden age, and the door was open. And now that is gone. As far as I understand, it doesn’t exist anymore. So I don’t know what to tell young people. It’s definitely harder now.

TrunkSpace: If you take the business aspect out of the equation and just focus on the craft itself, have the roles become more interesting over the years because the projects themselves have gotten more sophisticated or is it because you have lived more life and now have more interesting parts available to you?
Ruck: I’m not exactly sure. It’s probably a combination of all that stuff. I’m a funny type. I’m basically a character actor without a lot of character, and I looked very young for a long time. I played an 18 year old when I was 29. It was just the way it was for me, and then I kind of fell into a bit of a trough, where I didn’t look young enough to do that stuff anymore, but nobody wanted to cast me as a lawyer, and so I just kind of made my way, I worked in some sitcoms, finally got a good one, with Michael J. Fox, 20 years ago, and I think in a way I’m just a survivor. (Laughter) I’m kind of like a cockroach of the acting business… try to kill me, but maybe you can’t.

“Succession” airs Sundays on HBO.

Chef Ronaldo Linares
www.ronaldolinares.com
Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube

Chef Ronaldo Linares has blazed a culinary trail that burns hot enough to flambé anything within a 30 mile radius. He honed his knife skills growing up in his family’s kitchen, then as Sergeant and Food Services Specialist in the Marines and as a high honors graduate from ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) in New York City.

We recently sat down with Chef Ronaldo to talk about “Old Cuba” as a paradise, what it’s like to run a kitchen on your first Friday night rush, and the “Knotted Apron” pop-up restaurant he recently put together in Los Angeles with some of the food industry’s best Latino chefs.

TrunkSpace: When and why did you start cooking and who has been the biggest influence in your life with regards to your culinary journey?
Chef Linares: I have been in the kitchen since childhood, my two biggest influences in this game have been my father and mother. They have showed me what hard work, technique and patience will do to your craft. I have watched them closely. One of the biggest lessons I learned was to develop habits in the kitchen. Habits bring excellence.

TrunkSpace: What style of cuisine do you enjoy creating the most and why? And what would you consider your signature dish?
Chef Linares: It has to be Cuban cuisine. It speaks to me the most. Cuba has so much culture, history… different cuisines that influence what Cuban food is today. Signature dish? It has to be a plantain mash called Tre-Fongo made with sweet plantains, green plantains, and yuca. Some sofrito, pork skin, and topped with Roasted Pork Shoulder, aka Pernil Asado.

TrunkSpace: It’s been said that food is the gateway into a culture, that it identifies a history, family and a region. What do you feel your food says about your culture and history?
Chef Linares: Food is definitely a gateway to one’s culture. My food, the Cuban people’s food, is a staple. It tells stories of the old Cuba, a paradise, and it’s my belief food keeps that paradise alive. That’s why I fight so hard to keep Cuban food on the map.

My food is authentic, it fights, it tells you stories. The best compliment that you could get as a chef, in my opinion, is someone telling you that the flavors, textures and smells brought them back to the glorious moments in Cuban history. That is a great feeling.

TrunkSpace: Every cook and/or chef has a really bad service, and it haunts them, but they grow and learn from it. Do you have a worst service memory that keeps you up at night? And how did it change you as a chef?
Chef Linares: Such a great question. One year after I got out of culinary school, my mother got sick and dad was not around. During that time my mother ran the kitchen, and I had to jump behind the wheel – this happened on a Saturday. In the outside I was cool, calm and collected, but on the inside, I was like, “Holy shit!” So, dinner service starts and orders start coming in, and I was feeling confident at the moment because everything was calm. Not having the experience, I did not anticipate the dinner rush. The time is now 7 p.m. and that printer started to sound like a really bad song. Before long tickets were backed up, everyone is asking me a million and one questions, wait staff is asking for tables, people are leaving, and here I am thinking, “What the F happened?” It’s a good thing I didn’t burn myself as well in the process, luckily a kitchen burns kit is a staple in a kitchen.

So, here I am, 15 years later absolutely crushing it!

TrunkSpace: On the flipside of that, do you have a particular memory of your best service or a moment in your career that really stood out and has stuck with you?
Chef Linares: Recently I put together a pop-up dinner in Los Angeles – the place was “The Knotted Apron.” Some of the best Latino chefs in the game gathered for one night. We put together an eight-course dinner paired with eight different cocktails. Using my connections, I was able to get “Hispanic Kitchen” to live stream a few cooking demos along with top influencers and celebrities that joined the dinner. That night was memorable, dinner was perfect, no mistakes, just good food.

The reason I loved this dinner so much was the family feel of it, but it was a true tale where my career has evolved too.

TrunkSpace: With the advancement of technology in the past years, food has also advanced in many ways. Has it changed the way you cook at all?
Chef Linares: In some ways it has, for example, sous vide is a great technique of cooking. It allows you to bring crazy flavors out of foods, from greens to proteins and even starches. The secret lies in playing around with ingredients and checking out other leading chefs that are doing it better than you. I would anyone and everyone to get the Best Sous Vide Cooker and create some delicious dishes. Hope that makes sense.

TrunkSpace: Molecular gastronomy… is it mad science? Or mad tasty? Do you feel it has a place in the culinary scene as entire dinner courses, or should it be used more in balance to further enhance traditional dishes?
Chef Linares: Molecular gastronomy, oh boy! I cannot comment on this one. I am very traditional with my food. From time to time I dabble with molecular gastronomy in my food and see how it plays with traditional dishes.

TrunkSpace: Chef life and tattoos seem to go together like sweet and savory. Do you have any food inspired ink? And if so, what does it mean to you?
Chef Linares: Love my tattoos. I have a lot of ink. One of my food-inspired tattoos is on my right pec. There is a skull in the middle screaming with an old school French chef hat on, surrounding the tattoo is a clever, chef knife, salt shaker and wooden spoon – my favorite tools in the kitchen. The ink keeps me focused to stay on track with my career.

TrunkSpace: If someone offered you a blank check to open your own restaurant, whether that would be a brick and mortar, food truck or gastropub, what would your vision be? Where would it be located and what type of food would you focus on?
Chef Linares: It would definitely be a brick and mortar. That’s usually the best way to have a restauarant. People enjoy coming in and sitting down for a meal. One of my friends actually just started a restaurant. He said that he uses a POS system and software in Perth that helps him to manage his business efficiently. Maybe I’d have to recommend that software to anyone thinking of opening a restaurant! Anyway, my restaurant vision would be to bring old Cuba back – when Cuba was a paradise – the restaurant will represent that vision. The food would of course be farm to table, dishes will represent all regions of Cuba, but would blend the cultures that migrated to Cuba over the last 100 years. It would become the best Cubano restaurant.

The creative fulfillment Madeline Zima gains from being on a set is visible in the way she speaks so passionately about her craft, and it makes sense considering she has been working in front of the camera since she was a child. After spending most of the 1990s starring on the CBS sitcom “The Nanny,” the Connecticut native went on to build an impressive career through performance, including a memorable turn as Mia Lewis on the series “Californication” where her presence was felt in every single scene she appeared in. Now she’s making that presence known on the other side of the lens, writing and directing her first project, the short film “Warm Human Magic,” which is set to have its world premiere at the Dances With Films Festival in Los Angeles on June 14.

The film, which she calls very personal, stars her sister Yvonne Zima, Chasen Bauer and Adrienne Barbeau, with a score crafted by James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins.

We recently sat down with Zima to discuss her connection to the film, why 99 percent of our digital imprints are not as they appear, and how pouring herself into “Warm Human Magic” for the last year has been a breath of creative fresh air.

TrunkSpace: The scene from your film that really resonated with us upon watching it is when Mary, played by your sister, is on her laptop and phone, but also talking with Siri. Within this crazy device-driven society we’re living in, she couldn’t even be present for Siri. That really struck us.
Zima: Thank you. There was some talk of maybe cutting those scenes, and I’m like, “No! The whole point is the TV is on in the background, she’s got her laptop, she’s also on her phone.” That’s one of the main points of where we’re at in society, and where we’re at personally in our lives, not being present to any part of our lives. We can’t even choose a screen to be present on.

TrunkSpace: And in a way, for the character, Siri becomes her only human connection, which is probably how most of us feel in our day to day now… sort of disconnected from each other.
Zima: Yeah. We have all these substitutes for real human connection, which is what we’re all searching for so desperately. I mean, I feel like pretty much anything in life has to do with wanting some kind of acceptance, connection, validation… that we seek that love, for lack of a better word. (Pause) I think it’s a perfect word. We seek that love on every level through every avenue. I certainly made this film hoping to connect with people, and hoping that some part of it would make people feel less alone and less crazy. And I had to finish it soon because I’m in my thirties now. I’m in my early thirties, but still, I don’t connect to it as much as I used to. This was definitely sort of a love letter to my twenties, and the way that I went about trying to connect to people was so wrong.

I would, in my early twenties, go to a bar or whatever because I didn’t have anywhere else to go because I didn’t have a community yet of people and places to gather. And so you go to a place that’s terribly dark, where you can’t hear anyone or see them, and try to have a conversation, and it doesn’t really work. Then we use substances to try to help us feel a little bit more freer to connect, and that doesn’t really work either. It takes us even further away as well from being present in our lives, which we’re getting less and less good at.

TrunkSpace: And nowadays it seems people are more in tune with seeing what other people are doing in their lives via social media instead of living their own lives.
Zima: Yeah, and chasing illusions because everybody who has any kind of digital image, knows that it’s 99 percent bullshit. You’re putting something out there that’s the best angle, the best version. And then there are people who are brave and confident enough to put less than perfect versions of themselves out there. I confess, I’m not one of those people. I very rarely put up a picture where I don’t have makeup on, and that’s… I wish I felt free and confident enough to put stuff out like that, but I still have a long way to go as a human being, so I’m very honest about those kinds of things. It’s a bizarre world that we live in.

TrunkSpace: Well, and being a creative person, you’re now in a position where this film is going out into the world and will also be judged. That must add a whole different layer to it, because now you’re sort of exposed in a different way?
Zima: Yeah. I’m so excited about that though, because although it’s my first time writing anything or directing, I’m very proud of this as a first effort. I’m very proud of the work that everybody put in – that everybody worked for free basically, except for one or two people, crew and sound. But the actors and the composer, and everybody else, did it for free, and just empowered me creatively to try to make the best version of this story I could make. And I’m actually really so happy to share it. My sister is in it and she’s fabulous. And Chasen Bauer, the lead actor, is fabulous. And Adrian Barbeau, I worked with her on a film while I was doing post on my short, and I just asked her on a lunch break if she would do the voiceover, and she so graciously, again, also worked for free, and just offered her talents and her incredible voice to that beginning scene, which is really important. I was just so grateful of the generosity of people to help out with this, and to support me as a first time writer / director.

TrunkSpace: Did you find that writing and directing fueled an aspect of your creative brain that acting do…
Zima: Yes! (Laughter) I don’t even need you to finish the question. Yes! Yes! Yes! I feel like for the first time ever in my 30 years of being an actor that I was actually empowered creatively. I mean, there was probably one or two other films where I felt, as an actor, empowered, but very few directors give you that. Very few combinations of different energies, and actors, and you know… very few combinations will allow you to feel the kind of creative freedom you should feel, and this was the first time. I put up my own money. I did everything myself. I was my own PA, running gear around town.

I actually had somebody offer me to make the film for about 10 times as much money as we actually ended up making it for, but their company wanted to own it. They would have paid for festivals, and everything like that, which would have been fabulous, but I wouldn’t feel the same creative freedom that I felt having complete ownership of what I wanted the story to be about, which is a combination of different things for me. It’s hard to sort of pin down exactly what it’s about. When people ask me… “Well, it’s about a girl trying to get laid. It’s about being lonely. It’s about depression. It’s our disappearing humanity in the digital age.” It’s about a lot of things to me, but I hope each person gets a little something different out of it. You’re the first person to say that scene with all the screens was something that stuck with you because, I mean, it was there for a reason, but you never know if it’s all coming across or not.

TrunkSpace: With this being your first foray into writing and directing, did you go into it with nerves?
Zima: All I know is I wrote it, so I felt some ownership of the story, and I felt like I knew what I wanted to do. I definitely spent time doing sort of a sped up version of storyboarding with my DP, and that was really valuable. I spent time on my shot list. I watched a lot of films beforehand. I still didn’t get all the shots that I would have liked to. I think I had a 65 or 66 shot list, and I think we got 50 something of them.

TrunkSpace: Time is one those commodities you can never really plan for on a film set.
Zima: Yeah. We shot seven pages a day. We shot for two days, and that was all we had to cover a lot of ground. Just to scope it, to put it into context, a half-hour pilot that will be about twice as long, just about twice as long, they’ll have seven or eight days to shoot – or five at least. We made really good time considering all the ground we covered with the dialogue and the different locations, but it was also super contained, which was important just to be able to make it an achievable goal. I understand the way a set works more than I understand pretty much anything in life, just because I’ve been on sets so much and over the span of so many years, and I’ve had time as well off of sets to reflect on how it could be done better. I have a respect for all the moving parts of it. My aunt is a Teamster, so I have respect for each part of it, and I always have as an actor.

I think that’s one of the things that helps buoy some of your confidence and lift you up a little bit, but I was nervous. I was nervous that it was not going to cut together. I wanted to cover all of my bases and just prove to myself and to others that I was competent as a director. I always had an inkling that I could direct, and I wanted to direct. When I was a kid, I directed my sisters in films with our little tape recorder, and I had to rewind, and then you stop, and then you record over something, and that’s how you do editing. (Laughter) You edit all the day. It’s been always a part of the dream. Even doing interviews, I’ve always said that I would like to direct, and I’m very proud that I finally have done it, and have not waited for anyone to give me the opportunity. I had to create it myself. I knew that nobody was going to say, “Oh, hey, that actress who was in so and so, or this and that, she might have something to say,” or, “She might be competent enough to direct something.” I know a lot of my male counterparts who are actors had no problem transitioning into directing, and for me people gave me a bit of a hard time about it.

TrunkSpace: Did you consider putting yourself in the film at any point during the process?
Zima: At first I was gonna actually put myself in it, but I respected the process of directing, and wanted to just explore that unto itself. At one point people were like, “Oh, you wrote it? Oh, and you’re gonna direct it? Well, who is gonna be in it? You’re gonna do all of those things?” I’m like, “Well, Charlie Chaplin did it.” It’s actually kind of a natural thing. And the next piece that I do, I don’t know if I’m going to give myself the lead role or anything, but there’s one that I’m working on now and it is something that I’m considering putting myself in, even if just in a Hitchcock, in-the-background way.

TrunkSpace: Now that the film is complete and you did it in the way that you wanted to, do you hope that your peers and people within the industry will see you in a different light?
Zima: I hope so. I hope that people will see that I have more value than I feel like I’ve been given – more value than I feel like people reflect back to me. I surprised myself and I hope to surprise other people with my ability as a director, and my care. It’s obviously a very personal story, and it’s a version of several nights I’ve had with people over the course of my twenties, so I hope to share that in hopes that people go, “Oh, you know what? She could direct this. She might be good to bring on board this…”

I just felt like it was actually like taking a breath for the first time in a long time, and that I had become something that I always wanted to be, which is a very beautiful feeling. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt that. Certainly, you feel creatively satisfying moments as an actor, but they are moments. They’re not this complete process that has gone on for the last year.

For more information on the “Warm Human Magic” screening at Dances With Films, visit here.

Artist: Brother Dege

Album: “Farmer’s Almanac”

Label: Psyouthern Records

Reason We’re Cranking It: Brother Dege is, in a way, one of the music world’s best kept secrets. He remains entirely independent and thus maintains his own sense of artistic integrity and focuses on his craft instead of being forced to produce for a huge record label. This formula has worked well for Brother Dege, and it even landed him a Grammy nomination for his track “Too Old to Die Young,” which Quentin Tarantino personally chose to be part of the musical background for “Django Unchained.” The fact is, you know that when you pick up a Dege album, it’s going to be legit, and it’s going to be a serious piece of music.

What The Album Tells Us About Him: Brother Dege’s look, life and music is not just an act or a persona, and “Farmer’s Almanac” gives us a deep and leering glance at the ghosts and stories that populate his consciousness. From the musical intro to the final musical outro, the album takes you on a boot-stomping journey that will leave you with the same warm, comfort food feeling you would get from eating at your favorite local gumbo joint.

Track Stuck On Repeat: We can’t get enough of “Country Come to Town.” It’s the perfect storm of a catchy beat and the marriage between Dege’s vocals and steel guitar. The song is more of a feeling and emotion that grabs you, only to then sink in like humidity on a summer day.

Coming To A City Near You: Brother Dege tour dates can be found here.

And that means…

After five seasons of heartwarming storytelling, the beloved family drama series “The Fosters” is saying good-bye to fans with a three-day season finale event, which concludes tonight on Freeform. Star Danny Nucci, who plays Mike Foster, feels strongly that the viewers have come along with the cast throughout the storytelling process, growing as their characters have, and he relishes in the symbiotic relationship that has made his time on the show the most fan-centric project of his career thus far.

We recently sat down with Nucci to discuss the possibility of returning as Mike Foster in the future, why his time on the series was an eye opener, and where he is expanding on his career within the industry.

TrunkSpace: With the “The Fosters” coming to an end, you’ve had to say good-bye to your on-set family, but in a way, does it also feel like you’re saying good-bye to the fans? They have come with you on this journey since 2013 – are they part of the equation with it now signing off?
Nucci: Not at all. It’s more of a resounding “Thank you!” for your support through the years. Many of them are now interested in what’s next and seem to feel like part of an “ongoing” family. It’s almost as if we’ve all gone through these stories together and come out on the other side closer and more connected.

TrunkSpace: You spent over 90 episodes playing Mike Foster, which as we discussed last time you stopped by TrunkSpace, is the longest you have spent with a single character. Now that the job is officially done, is it easy to walk away from Mike knowing that you probably won’t be slipping into his skin ever again?
Nucci: There is a spinoff, so I can’t say that’s true as of yet. But it’s a feeling of gratitude that I’m left with – that I got to explore a character for that long.

TrunkSpace: Have you been surprised at how passionate and loyal the fans have been with “The Fosters” and have you ever directly experienced a group of viewers who were so invested in a project?
Nucci: I’ve never been part of any project with such a social media tie in and “exchange” so it’s all been a revelation of the affect being part of a show that people respond to can be.

TrunkSpace: Outside of starring on the show, you also had the opportunity to direct an episode of “The Fosters.” Was getting to step behind the camera an unintended side effect of your time on the series or was it always your hope to call “Action!”?
Nucci: The first time we all got together for a hang with the producers I made my pitch and they were very clear that it would be a few seasons in before I’d get the opportunity, but they made good on their promise and now I’ve got a new addiction.

TrunkSpace: Obviously you have such familiarity with the cast and crew. Does that make your job as director easier or more difficult? Do you think you would have had a different experience if you came to set not knowing anybody?
Nucci: Oh, I’m sure it would be completely different. The cast knows I’m one of them so there was an inherent trust. And the crew was rooting for me to do well and went the extra mile for me to make our day. And the execs felt like I had a great understanding of the time, story and characters, so there was an automatic trust factor.

TrunkSpace: Did the process of directing an episode of “The Fosters” give you a different perspective on your own character at all? Did it alter your own POV in terms of performance?
Nucci: No. Different mind set completely. Perhaps it would’ve been different if I had to direct myself.

TrunkSpace: We know you can’t really go into details, but you’ve been spending time developing a new series that you have been involved with on the writing side of things. Is that an area that you hope to spend more time focusing on in your career? Are the behind-the-scenes aspects becoming more interesting to you as you get older?
Nucci: As an actor, by the time I add my input most of the work has been done or prepped by the writers, producers or directors. The opportunity to be at the beginning of the storytelling process and make choices that impact the entire project is something I am really enjoying. I love exploring choices that are more “actable” and are “easier to accept” for an audience. Frankly, it’s thrilling. When we come up with a great line of dialogue or particular setting or motivation for a given character it’s as exciting as finding a great moment as an actor.

TrunkSpace: Have you ever been at a crossroads where you considered walking away from acting? Do you still get the same thrill walking on a set for the first time as you did when you started out in the industry?
Nucci: I always get a thrill from walking on a set I’m working on. It’s always that feeling of, “I snuck in – no one noticed and I’m in!” I love the challenge of acting. It’s always a risk/reward thing. I look forward to more experiences where I’m asked to have a creative voice. Sometimes, “Stand there, say these lines, thank you…” feels like a profession I have a modicum of skill to complete. It’s still a great job though.

TrunkSpace: If you could sit down and have a conversation with your 15-year-old self, what would he have to say about how your career has played out? What aspect of your life would surprise him the most?
Nucci: “Duuuuuuude,why aren’t you super famous??? C’mon!!”

I guess he’d be surprised that I’m not driven by a need to be adored or approved of, but a desire to feel all the things my characters have to feel so that the audience can just observe and relate or be entertained or in an ideal moment have their perspective altered in a positive way. And being the best I can be to suspend belief for the time I’m on screen or on stage.

TrunkSpace: Finally, as fans gear up to say good-bye to “The Fosters” for the last time, what do you want to say to them about the journey and how their loyalty to the show has impacted you over the course of its run? How have they made this a fulfilling chapter in your own life?
Nucci: I would just like to say that I appreciate the interaction, the kind words and encouragement that I’ve received. I have felt an added sense of responsibility to make Mike Foster a real person who suffers, struggles and celebrates life and love like the rest of us humans.

“The Fosters” series finale three-night event concludes tonight on Freeform.

After five seasons of heartwarming storytelling, the beloved family drama series “The Fosters” is saying good-bye to fans with a three-day season finale event, which continues tonight on Freeform. Star Hayden Byerly, who plays Jude Adams Foster, grew up on the show alongside of his character and is both excited for what the future holds, but appreciative for what came before – namely, the family and fans that supported him throughout his “The Fosters” journey.

We recently sat down with Byerly to discuss the wonderful surprises that the series brought into his life, why he feels he never fully understood Jude, and how his ideal career involves working nonstop.

TrunkSpace: Is saying good-bye to “The Fosters” a bit of a mixed bag, as in, you’re excited for the future and the next chapter of your life, but at the same time, sad to see this chapter close?
Byerly: Of course. As to be expected. It’s always one of the bittersweet moments of life – moving forward and hoping for the best and wondering what the future holds, but making sure to remember and being appreciative of the past.

TrunkSpace: You have to say good-bye to your on-set family, but does it also feel like you’re saying good-bye to the fans as well?
Byerly: I would say in a way. I know for a fact that “The Fosters” fans, the people who have been so supportive of the show from the start, is such a great community. They are very kind people who have really made a change in the world and made a difference and allowed this show to continue for so long. I think it is definitely a goodbye in a way, but I can only hope that “The Fosters” fans see not only me, but everyone else in the cast moving forward in our careers and continue to support us in many other things that exist in the world.

TrunkSpace: One of the things that we noticed was just how positive and supportive “The Fosters” fan base is. Was it a surprise to see how invested they became?
Byerly: It was. I was certainly taken aback, especially at a young age for so much positivity – not only that they were super interactive but people were so supportive as well. It was definitely surprising but in a wonderful way. I think it’s always beautiful when you have a show like this and so many people back it up and so many people love it and love what you do. It feels good to have that and it makes you happy to know that you’re doing something that changes the lives of so many people in such a great way.

TrunkSpace: You shot over 100 episodes as Jude. What was that long-term character journey like for you, especially not having spent that much time with a character before?
Byerly: It’s pretty remarkable because the interesting thing about it is that Jude and myself grew up together. I started the show when I was about 11 or 12 years old, as Jude was about the same age, and so he was learning a lot of things in life and growing up and going through a lot of the things that I had gone through or was also going through. And there was also many differences between the two of us. He was living a life that was very different from mine. A lot of the challenges he faced and that he had to overcome I personally did not. I was not only growing up and living my own life and trying to understand who I was, I was also going through all the trials and tribulations of Jude and all the things that he had to explore and understand about himself.

It was really wild. I never felt like I fully understood Jude because he was always growing and learning and that was something that I loved. I felt as though I was learning with him and that we were together on this ride to figure out who he was and these final three are a little… there’s a time jump, so Jude’s older. He’s got some more stuff figured out, but of course we all have pinnacle moments in our lives in which something else goes wrong or there’s a bump in the road and so Jude is still going through his own things in life – his own problems. It’s remarkable that even five years later he’s going through things that I won’t go through and that I won’t have to worry about. I’m very lucky and fortunate to live two lives and two kids who are so different.

TrunkSpace: Does it keep it fresh for you as an actor to show up and find Jude on a new path? Does that continuous growth in the character make your own journey with him more exciting?
Byerly: I feel like no actor can ever say that they fully know the character that they are, in my personal opinion. I think that there’s always so many things to learn and to understand about someone, because we are the same way. I know myself better than anyone else on this planet knows me and there’s still a lot of things that I don’t know about myself. There’s a lot of things that I question or have to figure out, and so for someone to say they completely understand a character, I don’t think that’s a possibility because we are constantly growing and changing, just as these characters are.

TrunkSpace: After spending so much time and headspace with Jude, are you in a position within your own personal journey as an actor to sign on and play another character for that long? Is that something you’d be interested in coming off “The Fosters” at this stage in your career or are you more interested in going out and trying on as many new skins as possible?
Byerly: I think all of it. I would love to do everything. I would love to spend another 100 episodes as someone else. I would love to spend a couple months, a couple years, a few moments. I think that’s the beautiful thing about this industry is that you can be so many different people in such a long or short amount of time. You can choose to really dive and divulge in a particular person as little or as much as you’d like. You can walk onto the set of a commercial and just be some suburban white kid with an adopted family and just wander around driving trucks or something, and you don’t even have a name. And then you can walk on a show and spend 100 episodes being a young foster kid and going through someone else’s entire life story. There are so many things you can do and experience in this world and I think that’s the beautiful part is that I’m fortunate and lucky enough to understand and live the lives of many people.

TrunkSpace: The future holds so many question marks for everybody, but if you could pave your own path and write your own way, what would it look like? What’s the ideal career moving forward?
Byerly: I think the ideal career moving forward for me would be getting to continue to work nonstop. That’s the one thing I love. That’s the one thing I’m passionate about, is being on set. Everything else falls into place in life when you get to do what you love and when you’re passionate about what you do. And I don’t really have a particular set thing I want to do. I would love to knock it all out. I would love to do a huge movie, move onto another show. I did some motion capture for a video game a long time ago. I’d love to do more animated things. I’d love to do everything because it’s all so different and it’s all so incredible. I’ve got a hunger to do everything. I’ve got a drive to do it all.

The industry is constantly changing and evolving and if you don’t adapt and keep up with it you’re going to fall behind, so making sure that you stay up to date and try as hard as you can and continue to push and give 100 percent is the most important thing. I talked to my dialogue coach, who is a wonderful actor and was on “The Fosters” for a long time as the dialogue coach. I value him immensely as a person and as a friend and he was talking to me a lot about a couple of different auditions and he always helps me and he was saying that it’s a competitive industry and you can’t just walk around expecting anything to be yours. No one can ever expect something to be for you. Even if you’re the perfect fit for a character, even if a character is written for you, you still have to try as if it wasn’t. You still have to give it so much effort and care and attention and that’s what determines a good actor from a great actor is that it’s someone who never stops – it’s someone who always puts in more work than seems necessary to do better.

“The Fosters” series finale three-night event continues tonight on Freeform.

Name: Emily Winter

Socials: Twitter/Instagram

Why We’re Laughing: Smooth and polished like a precious stone, Winter delivers comedy gems for any season. Rain or shine, hot or cold, you will laugh yourself silly.

TrunkSpace: Was comedy always in the cards? Were you a “funny” kid, even at an early age?
Winter: NO times a million. My mom is pretty adamant that I was NOT a funny child, and I had no interest in comedy until I was in middle school and started watching “Seinfeld” and “Friends” and hanging out with a very funny girl, which sort of blew my mind because I thought “funny” was for boys. Even when I figured out that I liked comedy and could be funny, I didn’t realize that I wanted to pursue comedy – or that it would be a viable option for me – until after college.

TrunkSpace: When did you decide to pursue stand-up comedy as a career and did you make a plan for how you would attack things?
Winter: After college I was working as a news reporter in Wisconsin, but spending all my free time trying to write a comedy pilot. So after just three months of being a reporter, I quit, moved to my parents’ home in Illinois, worked at the mall and took a script writing class at a college in Chicago. From there, I applied for an internship at “The Colbert Report,” got it, and moved to New York. I only had to waitress in Times Square for a few months before getting a job as a Vogue contributing editor’s writing assistant, and that allowed me to afford to stay in New York and work on comedy writing. It would take five more years for me to get the guts to go on stage. I never saw myself as a stand-up, but it’s hard to break into professional comedy writing without being part of the comedy community. I figured I would try stand-up to boost my writing career, but I (surprisingly) fell in love with it from the first time I took the stage.

TrunkSpace: How long did it take for you to discover your voice as a comic?
Winter: Some days I feel like I still don’t know who I am or what my voice is! But I’d say it took me two years to start getting comfortable on stage, then three more to really open up and add some performative range. I feel like my point of view was relatively set from the beginning, but that’s because I was older than most when I started doing stand-up, and I had already lived through the years of discovering your identity, beliefs, politics, and sense of humor. And by starting late, I’d also (mostly) grown out of the urge to say things for shock value alone.

TrunkSpace: Is the approach you take now on stage different from the approach you took when you first started out? Is it one act that grew into itself or would you consider them two completely different acts?
Winter: I used to write my jokes out. I couldn’t conceive of any other way to create an act. Now I do a mix of free writing and just blabbing at lightly attended shows to find new material.

I think I still use one joke from my first few years, but most of my old material is just not that good. My act is always evolving – I keep things I like, I chuck jokes I’m sick of or jokes that don’t get as many laughs. And I weave old jokes into new ideas.

TrunkSpace: Is the neon “Open” sign in your brain always turned on, and by that we mean, are you always writing and on alert for new material?
Winter: Yes and no. Since I’m a writer too, I spend a lot of time thinking, “Where does this comedic idea belong? Is it a tweet? A stand-up joke? A New Yorker submission? A pilot? A graphic? A sketch? A text to my boyfriend? A slideshow? A game? A one-off themed live show? A character? A song?” Trying to figure out a place for an idea is a challenge in itself, and that takes up a lot of my time and mental hard drive, both when I’m awake and asleep. (I dream about the mundane parts of comedy almost every night. It’s a little embarrassing.) But I do think it’s important to be able to stop seeing the world through the lens of “how can I use this for comedy.” Sometimes you just have to be a person and genuinely connect with the world and people around you. Otherwise you are a sociopath.

TrunkSpace: How much work goes into a joke before it’s ready to be tested out in front of a live audience?
Winter: Not a lot! If I have a new idea I’m excited about, I’ll try it that night, unless it’s a high stakes show: one that’s super packed, or attended by particular people I’m trying to impress, or if I’m being paid well to be on my A game. But typically, I’ll start with solid material, test out new material in the middle of my set, and then end with more crowd-pleasing material. This allows me to see if a new joke has legs without it tanking my entire set.

TrunkSpace: If a joke doesn’t seem to be working, how many chances do you give it in a live setting before you decide to rework it or move on from it altogether?
Winter: If a joke isn’t working at all, I’ll probably kill it after about three tries. If parts of it are getting some laughs, I’ll keep working on it, either until I find something I like better, or it gets polished up into good material.

TrunkSpace: Is it possible to kill one night and bomb the next with essentially the same set, and if so, what do you chalk that up as?
Winter: Yes! There are so many variables every time you perform: audience members, audience size, age of audience, room setup, temperature, mic volume, lighting, stage height, what you’re wearing, how you’re feeling, the host, where you are in the lineup, state, city, and neighborhood you’re performing in, how you’re introduced… the list goes on and on. Your job as a comedian is to try to navigate all of these variables, but there is no “right” way to do that. For every show, the answer is different. That’s what makes every show a unique experience, even when the material is the same.

TrunkSpace: Does a receptive and willing audience fuel your fire of funny and help to put you on your game for the rest of your set?
Winter: Hell yeah! As a comedian, you always walk into a showroom hoping the audience will be warm and receptive. If you can get a collective energy going, it creates an almost tangible buzz in the room. This is why show hosts are always trying to get people to sit in the front row – they’re trying to fill in the space between the comedian and the farthest laughter to create a unifying, collective electricity. So fill in those seats! The entire show will improve!

TrunkSpace: What is your most memorable performance experience (good or bad!) that will stick with you for the rest of your career and why?
Winter: Ah man! One time pretty early on I was bombing my dick off at a show, and then suddenly I got a HUGE laugh. I was thrilled that a joke had finally worked, even though I continued to eat it for the rest of my time on stage. When I got off stage, I realized a button was missing from my dress. Another comic informed me that it had popped off during a punchline, revealing my bra, and that’s why everyone had been laughing. That moment will keep me humble for the rest of my career.

TrunkSpace: How do you handle hecklers? What approach do you take?
Winter: Kill them with kindness. My first tactic is to kindly ask a heckler to stop. Sometimes, audience thinks comedians like it when you heckle, and they just need to be educated. If that doesn’t work, I’ll usually say something to let them know that I’m not happy, but will also get a laugh and keep the mood up. For example, I’ve told men, “You’re so handsome. It’s too bad you’re so annoying.” If that doesn’t work, I’d probably signal for the show’s host to ask them to leave. Luckily, I’ve never been in a position where I’ve felt threatened by a heckler who refused to leave and there was no one around to kick him out, but I know that stuff happens.

TrunkSpace: What are your thoughts on the stand-up landscape in 2018? Are you optimistic for the future of live comedy?
Winter: I live in Brooklyn, and the market is soooooo oversaturated right now. There are too many shows and too many comedians. It’s great that there are always shows to do, but it’s a pain to produce quality shows when you’re competing with other shows in the same neighborhood – or even on the same block! One positive thing is that the Brooklyn scene has been very dedicated to diversifying lineups. You won’t see an all-white, all-male lineup in Brooklyn the way you did just five years ago, which is awesome. A diversity of voices is what makes a comedy show great.

TrunkSpace: Finally, who do YOU find funny?
Winter: Some comedians I love and admire are Mary Mack, Ophira Eisenberg, Josh Gondelman, Kyle Kinane, Aparna Nancherla, Jo Firestone, and Chris Calogero. I love Chris so much that I hunted him down and made him my boyfriend!

After five seasons of heartwarming storytelling, the beloved family drama series “The Fosters” is saying good-bye to fans with a three-day season finale event beginning tonight on Freeform. Star Sherri Saum, who plays Lena Adams Foster, is still in awe of the impact that the show has had on viewers, but she’s even more enamored by the impact that the viewers have had on her.

We recently sat down with Saum to discuss what she learned in her journey as Lena, how she will always compare future jobs to her time on “The Fosters,” and why she’d be extra motivated to solve mysteries on a full stomach.

TrunkSpace: With “The Fosters” coming to an end, you’ve had to say good-bye to your on-set family, but in a way, does it also feel like you’re saying good-bye to the fans? They have come with you on this journey since 2013 – are they part of the equation with it now signing off?
Saum: I feel I have forged a connection with the cast and the supporters of our show that will transcend the end of the series.

TrunkSpace: Over 100 episodes is a long time to spend in another person’s skin. It’s not your longest span with a character, but was Lena different? Did her journey affect you differently as an actress than that of previous jobs, and if so, why?
Saum: I’ve learned more on “The Fosters” than I’ve learned on any other show. Things that informed me not only as an actor but also as a person and especially as a mother. I’ll take these lessons with me for a lifetime.

TrunkSpace: How much did Lena grow and change from the first time you read for her to where she is in the final three episodes set to start airing tonight on Freeform? Within that span, what were some of the biggest character shifts or storylines that you didn’t see coming?
Saum: Lena began as a definite momma bear, the soft heart of the family. And while she was fierce in her role as momma and protector of her kids, she wasn’t always as good at fighting for what she deserved in her career. She became a fighter over the seasons – probably influenced by Stef – and in the end of the series we finally see Lena stepping up and owning her full power as a woman, a mother, and a community leader.

TrunkSpace: It’s so hard to tell what will connect with people and what won’t when it comes to television. Was it a surprise just how invested viewers became in not only the series but in your character as well?
Saum: I think part of me is still in awe of the impact but the other part totally gets it. We gave much needed validation and visibility to families and people. It had been so sorely lacking in the landscape of TV.

TrunkSpace: What is something that you are going to take from your experience on “The Fosters” that you will apply to your professional life moving forward?
Saum: Being part of such a special project has set the bar high for me as an actor. I’m not so naïve to think I won’t have to take on some projects in the future for practical reasons – but I’m always going to have a sense of wanting to do more – to be part of telling better stories because of my experience with “The Fosters.”

TrunkSpace: What about personally? Where has the series impacted your life the most and what will you look back on in 20 years and think of fondly?
Saum: Personally I’ve been able to meet people and hear stories about the impact “The Fosters” has had on them. Stories that humble me beyond belief. I’ll never forget how it feels to make people feel included and loved. People all over the globe. It’s astonishing.

TrunkSpace: You posted a picture on Twitter about a month ago, drinking coffee (we assume that was just coffee!) while watching “Scooby-Doo,” referencing it as living your best life. So, we have to ask, if dropped into a real-life mystery complete with “jinkies” moments, which “Scooby-Doo” character’s mystery-solving skills would yours most resemble and why?
Saum: I’d be Scooby-Doo or Shaggy for sure. Always extra motivated to solve a mystery if I’m well fed!

TrunkSpace: Continuing with the idea of living your best life, as you look forward, what does your best professional life look like? If you could write your own future, how would you script your career moving forward?
Saum: In my perfect world I’d be a serial series monogamist. And some of my roles would include physical bad-assery. In some superhero way.

TrunkSpace: You’ve guested on some great shows over the course of your career. Is there a character who was particularly interesting to you that you wished you got to explore further?
Saum: To be honest, I’m still in a love bubble stupor over “The Fosters.” It’s eclipsing anything I’ve done previously. I can’t recall ever being so emotionally and creatively fulfilled in my work as I have been with “The Fosters.”

TrunkSpace: Finally, as fans gear up to say good-bye to “The Fosters” for the last time, what do you want to say to them about the journey and how their loyalty to the show has impacted you over the course of its run? How have they made this a fulfilling chapter in your own life?
Saum: I just want fans of the show to know that their support and love of the show has elevated the experience into something I will never, ever let go of. And I will always remember how hard they fought to keep it going.

“The Fosters” series finale three-night event kicks off tonight on Freeform.

Song Title: “Dark Side Of The Cross”

From The Album: Blues For A Dying Planet

Single Sentence Singles Review: Combing Black Sabbath-like guitar riffs and power vocals, Spiral Skies delivers a haunting and melodic sound with “Dark Side Of The Cross,” transporting you to another time full of witches, and of course, METAL!

Beyond The Track: Blues For A Dying Planet is out now on AOP Records. Stay up to date on future tour dates here.