10/17/2025
It is pretty cliche when an interviewer or student asks “what made you get into film?” And you try to be clever..but the answer has always been the same for me. Seared into my psyche that now, as I when I see them, I reflect on being that 4 old girl mesmerized by the awe I felt upon the images I can clearly still visualize as if they were yesterday:
1) Flash Gordon sticking his hand into the wood beast’s stump in Arboria
2) C-3PO in the initial sequence of Star Wars complaining
3) and being at the friends of my parents’ son’s room and seeing the KISS poster of the four solo albums in black light. I couldn’t stop staring at Ace Frehley. Their stage presence,music, and makeup was otherworldly and somehow, I wanted to be a part of it.
As I got older, I realized how much I had in common with Ace…he didn’t give a F**K…and he was always laughing and having a good time. And hoping others around him have a good time as well. That hadalways been me. I value ABOVE ALL having a good time and others around me to do so too. I finally got (in the days before Internet) the infamous 1979 Tom Synder interview and it was the Holy Grail on that bootlegged grainy VHS tape…and I felt Ace and I were kindred souls. I was proud of my jankie homemade Ace costume in ‘95 for Halloween. As if I had personally summoned the rock gods with my sheer will…Ace was a guest on MTV Unplugged and news of their reunion shortly followed. This was 30 years ago almost to the day. And I find out today, someone who inspired me to a point that I am pained to even try and articulate into words to make the reader understand, is gone at 74. I was devastated at Bowie,Prince, and all of the Gen X icons who’ve imprinted an amalgamation of my identity onto my career and daily state of being…but Ace. I feel as if I myself have died. Won’t be like when Lennon was shot, a few guitar greats will play homage covers but no one could ever know how an awkward shy gangly girl mustered up the courage to be an extroverted clown because of Ace and as an adult, to not give a F to the Gene’s of the world and do what I do not because of trending, profit, or popularity..but like Ace, out of pure joy.
