Yesterday I made a pilgrimage to Austin from Fort Worth, Texas and one of the reasons I did so was to visit a local book store there called Book People. I went to attend Heather Donahue's signing of her new book entitled 'Grow Girl.'
I am one of many who can remember sitting in a movie theatre in 1999 and watching crude video flash across the screen during the pseudo documentary that was 'The Blair Witch Project.' All of America took notice at the adventure of three people lost in the woods as they went exploring a myth and stumbled onto something more evil than they could have imagined.
There was that 'real' element that was marketed to help bait the hook of the film. Some people thought what they were seeing had actually taken place. This trick, as well as the nicely done job by all involved with the film definitely helped the box office numbers. (Per boxofficemojo.com, the life time gross of the film sits at $140,539,099 currently.)
But as what transpires sometimes with the fickle finger of Hollywood, Ms. Donahue's post 'Witch' career turned out to be a bit lackluster.
She'd worked pretty steadily from then in some smaller projects and nice roles, until she stopped acting after 2008's 'The Morgue.' But there weren't any more blockbusters, and 'Witch' seemed like lightning in a bottle of a single sort.
So what did she do after she decided to walk away from acting?
She became a pot farmer.
In a move that moved her from horror starlet to having more in common with Cheech and Chong, Ms. Donahue moved to a medical marijuana commune called Nuggettown, and started growing medical weed.
Being not only a fan of her horror and Hollywood work, but incredibly intrigued by this story, I made the trip down to Austin to see her.
She was very nice to speak to and interact with, and the small crowd of people who sat and listened to her give readings from her new book had intelligent questions when she solicited them.
Overall, I think that she presented herself as confident, (In my opinion she did come across as a bit bitter about the Hollywood experience. I base this from the passages she read to us from the book,) but hearing her talk about going from actress to being a pot farmer was very interesting.
Not only do I look forward to reading the book itself in its entireity, but I will be posting a review of it when I do.
During the question and answer exchanges Ms. Donahue had with the crowd during her book reading, she did say that she is not a pot farmer any longer. She said she stepped away from that life when she chose to write about it, and did say from here she has had offers to write other books.
I do give her kudos for this. I listened intently to the passenges she read. The girl can write! I look forward to her future endeavors.
Comments