Permit me to introduce you to Cabrina Collesides, a resident of the Hudson Valley in New York. She is perhaps best known for her film, Fight Valley. Cabrina is fresh off the film, Wing Girl, in which she plays “Edge”, a member of an all-female military aerial performance team. The team gets called to duty and must prove themselves during a dangerous combat mission over North Korea. Later this year, Worthless will be released. The film has a timely anti-bullying message. Cabrina shares scenes with actress Tara Reid from the American Pie movies. Recently, Cabrina and I had a brief chat about her career including her most well-known and upcoming projects.

RH: Cabrina, I’m so glad it worked out to talk with you tonight.

CC: Me too, Ruth. Thank you for taking the time.

I didn’t think I was familiar with any of your works, but then I saw that you were in Fight Valley, and though I haven’t seen it, I went to the Artemis Film Festival a couple years ago down in LA, and we got to see an extended trailer for it. So I am familiar with at least one of your works.

That’s so cool! I remember them saying something about the trailer being at the festival, come to think of it.

Fight Valley

Miesha Tate was the star of that, correct?

Yes, that’s right.

She actually graduated from a high school around here, and I have even been a substitute teacher at that high school. So Fight Valley is one I definitely would like to see, but have not had the chance to as of yet.

That is so awesome. Miesha is such a nice person too. She and I both had so much fun on that set.

Cabrina, what’s your story? How did you become an actress?

I think I always liked reenacting movies with my cousin when I was a kid. But growing up, I was really big on sports. So I did sports in high school. After high school, I decided I wanted to try and see how I liked acting. But it’s a lot harder to actually try acting. You have to get cast in the movie, and it’s not always easy to get a role in a movie or a TV show. But luckily, when I was around nineteen, I got my first part. And I just fell in love with it. It was fun being different from who I really am. Sometimes life is way too hectic, and there are times you don’t like what’s going on in your life at certain points. But if you can dig into a different character, then you get to portray that person. You don’t have to deal with whatever is going on in your life for a whole month. It’s nice to pretend to be someone else. I really like that aspect of the art of acting.

Before you made the choice to pursue an acting career, were you thinking of pursuing a career other than acting?

I went to college for softball. I was really good in softball and loved playing it. While in college, I took my first writing class, and I fell in love with writing. I took acting in college too. And I decided I liked both writing and acting.

It’s interesting how many actors start off pursuing sports and then for a variety of reasons, they find acting. So you’re in good company with your sports background. {pause} So what was your first acting role?

My first role was on a short film, and it was comedy. I like to say that I’m funny, even though I’m not really funny. {laughs} But this role was really fun because most of it was improv. And when I watched it back, I was like, “Oh, I am funny.” Then I sent it to my cousin, and she said, “No, you’re not really that funny.” {laughs} But I had so much fun to the point that I knew this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be an actor.

Well, if you have natural comedic timing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re funny off the camera, so it may very well be that is what you’re responding to.

Let’s say I’m naturally sarcastic, which comes off funny a lot of times.

That makes sense. And it doesn’t mean you have to be the life of the party.

No, but when I’m in front of a camera and I have the opportunity to be someone else, it’s always great. That’s kind of when I come alive, I’d say.

Wing Girl

You’ve worked on a lot of independent features and shorts over the course of your career. Have you done more mainstream stuff?

I would say Wing Girls had a pretty good budget. It’s the newest film on my resume. It’s about fighter jets and six girls that are really aerial stunt performers. They get called in for a job that’s not in line with their real job.

Toni Ann Gisondi, Cabrina Collesides, Marisa Pangaro, Susannah Jane, and Brandi Mosko in Wing Girl

They are not combat aviators, but we kind of get thrown into the mix of things and we really have to step it up.  It challenges our beliefs about war. That was a bigger budget, and we got to be on an actual ship. And this ship was really, really big, so we had all these signs posted everywhere because we all got lost. We would get lost constantly! Even to go to the bathroom, we would get lost, and we would call each other, “Now which way do we go?” It was definitely a blast. The director actually gave us helmets because some of the doors are so low. He gave me this helmet, and I said, “Yeah, I’m not gonna hit any ceilings or walls. I’m five-one.”

So as far as movies with bigger budgets, I would say that Worthless, Wing Girl, and Fight Valley are the films with bigger budgets. While the other ones had smaller budgets, I see them as an opportunity to test the waters and see what I could do. I think any time you’re on set, it’s a chance to learn and gain experience.

Since most of your work has been independent, what do you like about doing these indie works?

I think there’s a lot of good characters, and just because they’re independent does not mean they don’t have a good story. I think that some of the best stories are from independent films if they’re done right. When I get a good character, I don’t want to just let it go. I want to bring that character to life, and it makes no difference if it’s an independent project or not.

The great thing about indie films is that on these sets, you tend to have a smaller crew than you get on something bigger like Wing Girl. But regardless of whether it’s a small or big budget, it’s always a good experience. Either way you look at it, you’re acting. You’re portraying a character and you’re learning.

I’m a big proponent of independent films. I think they are great opportunities, especially for young people like you, to play characters that you might not get to play in the mainstream market. 

Yes, that is true. I love all these wonderful characters I’ve gotten to play.

Fight Valley

Going back to Fight Valley, what role did you play in that film?

I played Jamie. The movie is about an underground fight club. What I would say about Jamie is that she doesn’t fight unless she has to fight. For example, if her best friends get in a brawl, then she has to help them out. But she is more the one who talks it through. She doesn’t necessarily believe in fighting too much. But when push comes to shove, she does stand up for her friends. She will get into it with them when she must, but she is more the level-headed one.

I know that movie had a limited release, but it’s now available to stream online on practically every streaming service. So if people want to look it up and watch it, they can.

That is correct. And I think it turned out really well.

What do you think is the strength of this film? Why will viewers like it?

It’s very entertaining, but the ending is not what you would expect, and I like that. Without giving away too much, you think it’s a revenge story, but in the end, you discover that it may not be what you thought it was. You have to watch all the way to the end to discover this shift in direction.

You talked about Wing Girl some. Do you know about when and where that film might be released?

At this point, there is talk that it might go the festival route, but I know there are a lot of distribution companies already trying to get it. And that’s a really good feeling. Don’t quote me on it, but I think I may have heard it might be available around September of this year. It would be great for it to be released around then, but it all depends on so much that I have no control of. I do know they want to put it in some of the bigger film festivals like Toronto International and some of the other well-known, bigger festivals. I got to see a clip of it where we were in the sky, and the sky work is brilliant. It is so good.

Wing Girl

 As a side note, I happened to look up one of the actors in the film, and I recognized her! She was in one of my all-time favorite movies when I was growing up.

You must mean Annie!

Yes! I was a fanatic about that movie when I was growing up. I don’t know how many times I saw it. So I recognized the name Toni Ann Gisondi right away because she played Molly.

Yeah, we actually got the original Annie and the original Molly.

Oh my goodness! Yes, I wanted to see this movie, but now I want to see it even more! {pause} So tell me about Worthless, if you can.

That movie was with Tara Reid, and she wanted to be a part of it. She has actually gotten a lot of body shaming over the years. In fact, she gets bullied a lot; she’s very misunderstood. Coming on set, she was always polite to me and to the other actors as well. I really had a blast working with her.

I have actually seen her in the original Shaknado and a Christmas movie that she did this past holiday season that was a romantic comedy called A Royal Christmas Ball.

Really? I’ll have to look that one up. I would love to see her in something like that.

Worthless

So what can you tell me about Worthless?

I think people are really going to like Tara in this movie. It has a great message. I think we all have very high hopes for this film. I also like the message it sends. Parents know things are bad in schools, but they don’t know how bad it is. Our job, as the actors in this movie, was to really show the parents what it’s like.

Unfortunately, I am a bully in this film, so I’m not very pleasant.

Well, somebody has to be.

Yeah! It’s really important to be able to show why people bully and why it’s so bad. When I was in eighth grade, I got bullied by these groups of “preps.” Of all people, the preps had to bully me! I was so big on sports, but I had these girls flipping their hair at me and throwing grass on my face and yelling, “Spider! Spider!” It was horrible at recess time. They bullied me constantly, and this group made it a point to always be together and never one-on-one with them. There was always this group surrounding me. It was such a terrible experience. But afterwards, I started making fun of this one girl in my class. And it almost made me feel better. So I understand bullying. By the end of that year, thank God, I came to my senses! I thought, “I know how much it hurt for these girls to bully me, so I can imagine how she feels.” So I apologized to her, and we’re actually still good friends to this day.

That’s awesome. 

Worthless

So if this movie can help people understand how bad it is and help parents see what’s truly going on, then it’s going to be a fantastic film.

Do you have any idea whether Worthless is going to be in film festivals?

While I don’t know for sure, my best estimate is that it will be in a bunch of festivals. And I think our film will get noticed more because so many people know Tara Reid from American Pie and elsewhere.

Now I know you mentioned writing. Is that something that is kind of on the backburner because of all your current projects?

I’m still writing when I can. Obviously, it’s hard when I have so many other projects going on. I would really like to dig in and do a lot more writing, but I don’t want to take away from acting. Acting is my number one thing, but of course, I won’t be acting every single day.

So what are you working on now?

Well, I’m writing a novel. I’ve taken a script-writing class, and I have a lot of ideas in my head, but I haven’t really started writing any scripts. I’m already focused on this novel; it’s one of my passions.

Can you tell us a little bit about this novel of yours?

Well, it has a little bit of romance, of course, because I love romance. But it’s got zombies in it too. {laughs} Yeah, for my first book, I decided to write about dead people. I really like that kind of world. I like writing about futuristic worlds and zombies are a big part of that.

Well, best of wishes with that, Cabrina. And we definitely look forward to seeing you in all your upcoming roles.

Yes, it is, Ruth. And thanks for being my first interview. I really appreciate it.

I would invite everyone to follow Cabrina on her journey by investigating all her links below and following her where applicable. While some may underestimate her and even consider her an ingenue based on her relatively short list of credits, I have a feeling her best days may be yet to come as long as she can maintain her integrity in all areas of her life and career.

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