Amy Seimetz

Sundance Films: Upstream Color, Pit Stop

Age? “31”

Where are you from? “I’m from Florida so nothing really shocks me. You can’t be judgmental coming from Florida.”

Big Break? “I’m currently working on a TV show with Christopher Guest for HBO.”

This isn’t your first time at the festival.What’s your take on it? “Look, the goal of films is that you want a large audience to watch them. Otherwise, we would have drawn pictures in the sand and let the tides take them away. So the best part about Sundance is that everyone there pays attention. Plus all the free stuff, which is surreal coming from poor people—my family can barely qualify for Medicaid, but publicists are pushing ten free pairs of designer jeans on me!”

Describe the characters you play in your two films. “In Upstream Color, I’ve gone through something traumatic. That’s where the movie starts—and all I’m allowed to say. My other film is Pit Stop; I’m a small-town girl trying to accept my husband’s sexual preference after he comes out of the closet.”

What’s the buzz? “The former is Shane Carruth, who directed Primer, a time travel movie that won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2004—then he disappeared. He’s this elusive filmmaker who has created a new language of cinema. The latter is Yen Tan, a graphic designer who’s done posters for tons of movies. Pit Stop isn’t just about being gay; it’s about what ‘till death do us part’ really means today. You’re in a short as well!

What about before you became a Sundance sensation? “When I was living in San Francisco, I sewed costumes for people who went to Burning Man. I made so much money off faux-fur outfits.”

What do you think of Robert Redford? “You mean aside from being the sexiest man alive?”