Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Lee Ronhovde.
Hi Gina Lee, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Well, I always wanted to write screenplays. At a young age, I would automatically correct or change the dialogue in my head when I watched television shows and feature films. Since then, not only did I become an award-winning screenwriter, I’m also an award-winning director, producer, writer, and artist.
I began my journey moving myself to Hollywood from Minnesota, not knowing anyone in LA, to the Sunset & Vine Area, which was next door to the Los Angeles Film School. I thought I would get a film degree, move back home to Minneapolis, and hopefully get some kind of industry-related job there after graduation.
However, some kind of magical Tinseltown dust blew into my face my very first night alone in Hollywood. I went to the ArcLight Cinemas, and to my surprise, there was a little red carpet going right up to the front doors, with a few actors being interviewed with cameras and microphones. I had never seen a premiere in person, so I asked the film attendant, “What’s going on?” And he shrugged and said, “Some TV show called ‘Breaking Bad’?” I had never heard of it, so I took photos like I was on a safari observing animals in the wild. (and yes, I still have my up-close photos of Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Krysten Ritter).
That first night in Hollywood is kind of an analogy of what it’s been like ever since for me. Thinking I know the situation of what I’m walking into, and instead it turns out to be this surreal surprise instead, for better or worse.
Never would I have imagined in my wildest dreams the journey that would follow: that within months, I learned editing from the guy who created Workaholics (Kyle Newacheck), or that I would fall in love with directing, or that Jay Leno would select my short film for his contest. That I would get to fly to see my short film “Bereft Left” nominated in an Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Never dreamed I would flip the pages on a screenplay like “The Hunger Games,” making corrections with pink and yellow highlighters. Never imagined I would encounter those same Breaking Bad actors again and again. I worked with Anna Gunn and Matt Jones on Kevin Smith’s movie “Red State,” which was one of my most favorite Hollywood experiences ever. I even ended up having the same wedding planner as Aaron Paul and getting married under the same Malibu oak tree as he did, with my favorite Hollywood actors and all my friends and family back home in attendance. Never would have imagined I would borrow George Lucas’s AVID editing equipment from Skywalker Ranch and have the same editor as Return of the Jedi edit the movie I was producing. Never would have dreamed I would get to direct Dominique Swain in my award-winning film Boudoir, an actress I had admired since I was a teenager, let alone live with her and become roommates. Never could have thought I would get to coordinate comedy specials with so many favorite performers and comedians Iike Weird Al Yankovic and Kevin Nealon. Never would have believed that my short film Boudoir would have the same original musician, John Neff, who created music for Mulholland Drive and have it be nominated for Best Music at the Chicago Horror Film Festival.
Years before I ever moved to Hollywood, I had this fantasy of seeing a film of mine play at the Chinese theater in Hollywood, the one with the famous handprints and footprints out front in cement. I also had a fantasy of a film of mine playing in at the Fargo Theater, where I used to live. Toronto, too. In the fall 2015, all those dreams came true within a few months when Boudoir played in every one of those cities at film festivals, and even on the same night in October in both Hollywood and Toronto. Hollywood is just a nonstop surreal trip.
The irony of Hollywood is this — it’s a very small town, and everyone is connected. I am actually from a very small town — less than 500 people — and yet I feel more connected to people in the industry than I do back home. That’s life, full of irony.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Rather than a linear road, it’s been more like a pinball machine called “Unfair Challenge.” It can almost be compared to an addiction, in a way, if you’re not careful, since there’s such adrenaline surrounding all the high-reward/high-risks involved. No matter how much you get knocked down or think the game is finally over, you may also end up inevitably scoring some new bonus level, or you just keep getting that extra ball, and so you keep giving it another go, no matter how many lives you’ve think you’ve lost.
Corruption and abuse of power is rampant between the creatives and the movers and shakers in Hollywood. Being ripped off by people you trust is not a simple matter of being naive, it can happen to literally anyone. Investors may lie, your romantic partner may lie, distributors may lie, your boss may have a document that says you’re getting paid $15,000 per episode, but you’re actually paid $625 a week, barely enough to survive. That’s the number one kind of challenge I’ve encountered in this town —financial and psychological abuse, although there’s all kinds, obviously.
I have been happy, however, seeing the beginnings of change in the right direction. I was thrilled at the Me, Too and Times Up movements. Both men and woman and children of every ethnicity are vulnerable to unwanted abuse of power. I hope that the more abuse is exposed in the entertainment industry, the more strength in numbers that come from speaking out, that the more creativity, and diversity, can thrive in a safer, protected environment.
Creative people, without a doubt, need a loyal support system surrounding them. They need that fortress or an “entourage.” They are the quarterbacks of the industry, cradling their ball of talent, and they have to have good offensive lines protecting their blind spots in this game.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I currently work in Hollywood and live as an artist, writer, producer, and director. I have several award-winning screenplays for both television and features. One is a horror called “Cult Fan,” about a teen runaway obsessed with a cult TV show who gets tortured in a Hollywood Hills mansion, and another is about a comedy about a dysfunctional family reunion during their hometown celebration called “Tingvold Days.”
No matter what happens, I just have this feeling I’m going to spend the rest of my days working hard, making art, directing features, producing TV shows, and writing lots of books. I’d love to lead yoga retreats and help people heal from toxic environments that damaged them. I am passionate about making visual art and expressing myself through linocut prints and black-and-white landscape photography that I make and sell online. It’s available on Society 6 and RedBubble and I plan on having an art show in downtown Los Angeles sometime in 2022. Currently, I have an award-winning short film called Boudoir. It is now streaming as part of their featured horror short films of the HollyShorts Film Festival and it’s available at Bitpix.com. It’s an eerie thriller about a mysterious client begins posing for an agoraphobic photographer and has to battle to stay alive. I hope you’ll check it out!
Human trafficking is an issue that is very important to me, so in 2018 I helped put on a fundraising fashion show to raise awareness. It was a magical night modeling Chicago fashion designers in downtown Los Angeles. Keaton Simons was the musical performer. It was also breathtaking to see, I’m very proud of my part in making that happen.
I’m also passionate about yoga therapy and currently working on my instruction certification. Right now, I just want to do my job, do yoga, tell stories, create art, make things happen, and share healing energy on my path to becoming a yogi, an artist and compassionate human being.
I’m also launching several informal YouTube channels. One is called Hollywood G, where I will discuss Hollywood news, topics, and relevance to society, in the same manner as Dominck Dunne did with his columns in Vanity Fair magazine.
The other channel will be completed different and devoted to my yoga practice and yogi lifestyle, but that will not launch until later in 2002. Stay tuned for that!
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I learned a lot from my art teachers in college, and from my LA Film School teachers, in hindsight. My favorite publicist in the world, AJ Adelman. My yogi teachers Rene Quenell, Hannah and Katya. My education has been enriched from every job I’ve ever had, every client I’ve had, every gifted person I’ve encountered or observed. I’m also encouraged by my talented family members. I have these cousins I once babysat, and now they have their own TV shows and albums. My cousin Dan Erickson created a television show called “Severance” with Patricia Arquette, Ben Stiller and Christopher Walken and it just wrapped filming season 1 and will air on Apple TV. I literally cannot wait to see it because Dan has always had a gift for coming up with alternate realities. And our mutual cousin Patrick Ellis just released his second album on a Japanese label called Flau and has a following in Japan. https://flau.bandcamp.com/albu
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.ginaleeronhovde.com
- Instagram: @ginaleeronhovdeartist
- Twitter: @ginaleeronhovde
- Youtube: https://bit.ly/3chFjuU
- Other: https://imdb.to/3Dnofzw
Image Credits
Sienna Benton, Albert Ortega, Getty Images, RedBubble
