Gasparilla Film Fest welcomes Brittany Snow
The actor and Gaither High grad will be in Tampa on Sunday to receive a Rising Star Award.
By Joshua Gillin, Times Staff Writer
Published February 29, 2008
Brittany Snow is a lot of things.
A prom queen. A dance show staple. A white supremacist. A hooker with post-traumatic stress disorder.
But ask her, and she'll say the one thing she isn't is a big star - despite what the Gasparilla Film Festival says. The organizers of the event, which kicked off Wednesday in Tampa, are presenting her with the Rising Star Award at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Florida Aquarium.
"I'm very honored - I think even more than another award," the Gaither High School grad said in a recent phone interview. "You want the place you're from to be very proud of you."
And what's not to be proud of? Snow, who turns 22 on March 9, is starring in no fewer than four movies slated for release over the next year or so, including Prom Night, which shares the same name with the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis yarn, much to Snow's chagrin.
"The crazy thing is, it's not a remake; it just has the same name," she explained. "It's so crazy I have to explain that to everyone. It's more of a thriller than a horror movie."
So after a deranged teacher finishes stalking Snow and her friends following Prom Night's April 11 release, the actor will be reaping the rewards of Finding Amanda and Black Water Transit, in which she plays the aforementioned hooker.
"My character in BWT is very complex," she says. "She's very legitimately not stable - she lives in an alternate state."
The Tony Kaye-directed project (he of American History X fame) may debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in spring, although that's not yet confirmed. That doesn't mean Snow gets a break, though.
After the Gasparilla Film Festival she's off to Connecticut to shoot The Vicious Kind, about a woman dealing with the unhealthy fascination her boyfriend's brother feels for her when she goes to his home for Thanksgiving.
That shows she's getting into roles that are more like Nip/Tuck's neo-Nazi Ariel Alderman than American Dreams' Meg Pryor.
"I want to do movies that are really challenging and scary to me, things I can really keep learning from," she said. "I don't really settle on one dream."
Chasing those roles has been an uphill battle for her, though, fending off naysayers who derided her for, as she says, not being good enough or needing plastic surgery to get rid of a scar on her forehead - but she says she's all the better for it.
"I knew I had to listen to myself," she said of her ultimate success. "It's so within anyone's reach if they've really, really committed to it."
Joshua Gillin can be reached at jgillin@tampabay.com.
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The stars keep coming
Brittany Snow isn't the only hot young star coming to town for the Gasparilla Film Festival. Shane West (ER, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and A Walk to Remember) will take part in a panel discussion about his new film, What We Do Is Secret, a biopic of '70s L.A. punks the Germs, screening at Channelside at 9:20 p.m. Saturday. West and director Rodger Grossman will discuss the film after the screening. The Gasparilla Film Fest continues through Sunday at the Tampa Theatre, Channelside, the Florida Aquarium and the International Academy of Design and Technology. Ticket prices vary; a weekend pass is $35. For more information, including a complete lineup of films, parties and events, visit www.gasparillafilmfestival.com.