Thursday, March 28, 2024

Her life in pictures

Toledo has produced its fair share of film stars, including Jamie Farr and Katie Holmes. Local cinephiles can now add Tiffany C. Adams to that list. Rather than hedging her bets on blockbusters, however, Adams is casting her lot  with independent films.

In a conversation with The City Paper, Adams admits that the movie bug bit her at a young age. She recalls “being as young as three or four and being so excited when the Oscars came on. I would sit there glued to my mother's television for the entire three hours—what child has an attention span that long?” That abnormally attentive child has grown into a powerful actress. Adams, whose hero is Sigourney Weaver (especially her work in the movie Alien) is well on her way to being an actress who can be both dramatic and tough. She's acted in several dramas, but her most recent film, 20 Ft. Below: the Darkness Descending, is a thriller starring Danny Trejo of Machete fame.

Toledo Connection

Adams, a Toledoan through and through, graduated from Bowsher High School, where she sang in the school choir, and played in the orchestra, but took no part in drama productions—she was already playing to larger audiences. “I spent most of my free time at the Toledo Repertoire theatre,” Adams said. Among other roles, she played Tiger Lilly a Rep production of Peter Pan. Adams made some of her best industry connections during this time. “I was fortunate enough to meet some casting directors at a talent competition in Dallas[contacted Adams to confirm name of expo],” she said. “I competed against 500-600 women. The way categories were judged, each category received an award and there was a large award for excellence across the board—I won that award.” After high school, Adams took acting and film production classes at The University of Toledo while studying optics “to appease my mother.”

The appeasing didn't last long. “One day I just said 'listen Ma, I want to pursue my career,' and I moved to Los Angeles.” Within a year, Adams was cast in her first feature, The Year That Trembled, a drama about the Kent State Massacre. That's right, Adams' first movie  was filmed in Ohio.

From Guild Strike to Independent

Her career hit a snag when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike in 2000—two years before The Year That Trembled was released commercially. That was when Adams turned to the independent film circuit to fuel her aspirations. Her next full-length feature, 2006's M.O.G., was a full-on independent comedy (one that still has a small, but loyal fanbase).

“Indie films are more of a labor of love,” Adams said of working on indie sets. “Everyone on set wants to be there. People are there working for as little as $100 a day, but they believe in the project, it has a message they are trying to get across. It's like a little family.”

Adam's greatest strength is her versatility as an actress. Her role in 20 Ft. Below, for example, was originally written for an older actress. “The role that I was cast for originally called for a woman that was 65 or 70,” she said. “My agent took a chance and submitted me because she read a description of the character's personality and said 'you can play this.' When I read for it, I remember messing up a little, but after I walked out, an hour or two later, my agent called me and said I was cast. I was one of the last actresses to audition, and they changed the role to fit me.”

Interested readers can see Adams in 20 Ft. Below, as it’s currently available on DVD. Adams will work on the press cycle for that film until the summer, and then continue searching for  more and bigger roles. Who knows, maybe the next starring woman of Hollywood will call Toledo her first home.

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