Arizona has been very good to actress Christina Rose. Her musical, How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song, won the audience award at the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival.

Her film Favor had its world premiere at the 2013 festival.

In December, she was back in the state filming the sci-fi comedy Eleven Eleven, in which she plays Mallory Faris, the daughter of a man who desperately wants to be abducted by aliens to escape his mundane life.

“My character is a teenager who is going through a lot,” Christina says. “There is a secret that is revealed to her that is very traumatic, and for teenagers everything is overdramatic – the end of the world.”

Related

• ‘Skinny Pete’ Rehabs Image in Indie
• Filmmaker Taps Sedona for Sci-Fi Story

Eleven Eleven stars Charles Baker (“Skinny Pete” from Breaking Bad) as Tim Faris, Mallory’s father. Krista Allen (The L.A. Complex, Baywatch Hawaii and Liar Liar) portrays a mysterious women from Tim’s past who shows up looking for her daughter, hightening tensions among Tim, his wife, Eve (played by Phoenix-based actress Jennifer Pfalzgraff), and Mallory.

Writer/director Chris Redish shot interior scenes in greater Phoenix and exterior scenes in Sedona, which he calls “the place” for people interested in UFOs and alien abductions.

On the Set

Christina invited me to visit the set of Eleven Eleven in Sedona on an evening when they were filming a front-porch scene. When I arrived around 6 p.m., the sun was setting and the cast and crew were finishing their dinner break. The next few hours were dedicated to shooting a scene in which Tim and Mallory arrive home and argue about what to tell Eve.

It was a relaxed setting – the Sedona home of the movie’s sound mixer, Mike Burdick. Cast and crew mingled and hung out. As the evening got chillier, they refreshed their coffee mugs from a pot in the kitchen and passed around blankets for warmth. Folks sat down for interviews with me between takes. I was using a voice-recording app on my iPhone. When my battery ran low, it was Baker, the lead actor, who scrounged up a spare charging cord.

Christina says she’s enjoyed working with name actors such as Baker and Allen.

“Everybody is very talented and very giving as actors,” she says. “We all clicked right away.”

Because actors often characterize their costars as “giving,” I pushed her on what, exactly, that meant.

“Actors who give their heart and soul when they’re working so the energy can flow easily back and forth,” she says. “You don’t have to work harder to pull something from them; they’re always giving you so much to work with.”

Landing the Role

Christina says the buzz from Schermann Song – for which she acted, sang, danced, choreographed and co-produced – has helped boost her name recognition.

“It’s been the ultimate marketing tool and a big calling card already in Los Angeles for me,” she says.

When she auditions for roles, many of the casting directors know who she is, having seen the musical or at least its trailer. They realize, she says, that: “This girl is not just some wanna-be actor coming to Los Angeles. She’s a professional, working actor.”

Redish says it played a role in casting her for Eleven Eleven, but was not the determining factor.

“I knew of her because I’d heard great things about How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song. But I hadn’t actually seen it. … However, a friend of mine was taking an acting class with her, and he recommended her.”

On a visit to Los Angeles, Redish decided to audition Christina even though it was early in the casting process. When he did so, he says: “She was just ‘it.’”

At the time, however, Redish hadn’t yet cast his lead actors. “I had to make sure I felt this was a family unit – that everybody looked right. I was so glad that when we cast the parents that she was the right person.”

When the Phone Rings

“When jobs come up that you really want to take, you find a way to make it work,” Christina says. “If I had to put other, real-life things on hold, that had to happen because this job came first.”

Which brought her back to Arizona.

She appreciates “being able to reconnect with all my Arizona people who have been tweeting me and Facebooking me … the people who have been following Schermann Song and Favor, and now they’re super excited about Eleven Eleven.”

Before last year’s Phoenix Film Festival, I blogged about Christina’s use of social media to promote her movies and build a following. She said social media “is an important tool for actors and filmmakers. … It keeps us connected, informed and in each other’s consciousness. A substantial portion of this business is who you know, so keep building relationships in any way possible.”

The fans who have befriended her online are a special breed, she told me in Sedona.

“They’re more loyal. I’ll meet people at, say, a film festival, and they’ll start following me on Twitter or Facebook. And because we keep connecting and talking, and they keep seeing everything I’m doing, they’re always the ones supporting me and writing posts.

“I really value that,” she says. “It means a lot to me that people care [about me], believe in me and see bright things for my future. They tell me this, and it gives me a lot of hope and drive to be the best that I can be at my job because I have these wonderful people who support me and want to see my career take off.”

Hmmm … “take off” is a funny choice of words for someone in a UFO movie, but her sentiment was sincere.

Opportunities in Hollywood

Originally from Michigan, Christina relocated from New York to Los Angeles in August 2012 to further her career – a move she believes already has paid off.

“When I was in New York, I did Broadway and a lot of musical theater, and that’s when I started to get my foot in the door with film and TV,” she says. “But it was such a struggle to get my agents to see me as just an actor because they always knew me as a singer/dancer/actor.” She would tell them: “You don’t always have to send me out for just singing and dancing roles. Send me out for straight acting work.”

That is not an issue with her new agents and managers in Los Angeles, she says.

“Right away, we had the same exact goals for me, which were film and TV. We saw eye to eye on the types of roles I’m going up for, which are series regulars, leads and principal roles. I also have a voiceover agent now and am going on bigger auditions and meeting bigger casting directors than I’ve ever met.”

“We’re shooting for the stars,” she continues, as the unintentional UFO puns keep coming. (She’s worked with zombies and ninjas before, but Eleven Eleven is her first experience with aliens.)

Still, Christina knows that the movie business is no joke.

“I take this career very seriously,” she says. “I work very hard. Los Angeles is the perfect place for me right now, and my career is doing really well.”

Among other projects, Christina recently did a pilot for a television show called Two Wrongs.

“I don’t know if it’s going to come out because it’s a pilot,” she says. “If they don’t get picked up, you never see them. But, for us, it’s a good paycheck.”

Christina’s most recent film, director Paul Osborne‘s Favor, is winding up the festival circuit. It will be available via video-on-demand platforms such as iTunes in April and on DVD this summer.  Screenings can be arranged via Tugg, an online service that enables folks to schedule showings in local theaters contingent upon selling a set number of tickets.

Meanwhile, Schermann Song – directed by Gary King – has finished playing film festivals but is available on DVD and iTunes. It also has had showings across the country arranged via Tugg.

According to writer/director Redish, Eleven Eleven should arrive at film festivals early in 2015.

###

Stuart J. Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: alien abduction, Charles Baker, Chris Redish, Christina Rose, Eleven Eleven, Facebook, Favor, Gary King, How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song, iTunes, Krista Allen, Paul Osborne, Phoenix Film Festival, Sedona, Tugg, Twitter, UFO, UFOs