Thank you for chatting with us today! 2021 is finally here – what do you hope this year has in store for you?
I am setting the intentions that this year brings much fortune to my boldness, happiness to my tenacity, grace to my work ethic, fulfillment and love to my creativity, ease to my finances, and peace to my heart.
We love your story and that you are so open. Will you share a little more about how you arrived where you are today?
Thank you! it’s been a journey and certainly not all roses. I have learned along the way that life will not always be easy but it hardly ever stays the same. Trust and allow the pieces to come together. I grew up the youngest of six children in New Jersey and my parents are still married after 60 years. When I was eight years old, I won the “Little Miss Union” talent contest, and my journey into entertainment began. At 12, I was acting and dancing around the country and started to train professionally in New York City. My senior year of High School, I won the Rising Star Award for Best Actress in New Jersey, given by the world-renowned PaperMill Playhouse for my role as Princess Winifred in the musical “Once Upon A Mattress”. It was a sweet victory against my biggest rival, Anne Hathaway, who was nominated for the same role the same year. It was in that moment that I chose to fully pursue acting as a career. My first big gig was Law and Order: SVU, a standard if you’re an NYC actor, balanced with a few Mike’s Hard Lemonade commercials. After maximizing the opportunities in NY, I got the courage to drive across the country to Los Angeles, chasing my dreams and leaving the comfort of my big family behind.
Those first few weeks in LA were rough. I crashed in a Days Inn Motel and remembered eating a stale TV dinner while watching Halle Berry make history as the first African American woman to win an Oscar. I literally knew nothing about LA, so I signed up for a dance class in hopes to make some new friends. One night after class, a woman asked me to be in a new show she was working on that needed top of the line dancers. She gave me absolutely no information about what I was walking into. What it turned out to be was the original PussyCat Dolls, a burlesque review at The Roxy in Hollywood. We performed to sold out celebrity audiences and it starred Carmen Electra, Christina Applegate, Gwen Stefani, Charlize Theron, Christina Aguilera, Brittany Murphy, Dita Von Teese, and me! I was one of the 12 original girls to do all the burlesque and Fosse style choreography that included hunky sailor boys. It was my first job in LA and I was immediately thrust into the world of celebrities. At 21, it was not only incredible fun but an amazing experience. I had continued auditioning during this time and landed a role in the indie film, “Descendant” starring Katherine Heigl and Jeremy London where I would meet my business partner and now ex-husband.
After the Pussycat Dolls shows, I began my foray into producing. I produced the documentary, “Dying For Meth” that followed a young girl who survived an explosion while cooking meth in a van, burning over sixty percent of her body. For three years, we followed her and her family’s addiction while watching her struggle to care for her five years old son and thirteen year old sister. We received the Prism Award in Beverly Hills for outstanding work in documentary and public service. This led me to star and produce in my first narrative feature “IOWA,” a Tribeca Film Festival Official Selection. My first day on set, I found out I was pregnant with my son, Golden, and only twenty-two months later had my daughter, Ivy. It was, and still is the greatest achievement of my life getting to be their mother.
After “IOWA” dominated independent cinemas in NY, LA, and Chicago, we received a call from Jeff Cuban, owner of Landmark Theaters chain. He suggested that with the success of “IOWA” and it’s edgy, gory, and very intense subject matter, that we make a horror film. We began producing the slasher/horror film, “The Orphan Killer” that I starred in, creating a cult following of over 500,000 fans on Facebook. It became an instant cult classic with over 3 million illegal downloads of the film worldwide. We even sold the mask of “The Orphan Killer” in Sears and Walmart! I was a homeschooling mom by day and a gory blood covered slasher queen by night.
“The Orphan Killer” had us traveling to Europe, Spain and Italy to premiere at festivals to sold out audiences. The crowds would stomp, scream and chant at the screen as if they were attending a heavy metal rock show! When we returned, to get in shape, I began boxing at Glendale Fighting Club. It was there that I trained alongside Ronda Rousey, who would years later enter the UFC. We became fast friends as the only females in an Armenian male gym. During this time, I started working on the sequel “Bound X Blood: The Orphan Killer 2”. Submerged in the world of MMA and boxing, we were determined to include that as a part of the sequel securing Ronda and “The Four Horsewomen” as supporting actors along with many other well-known wrestlers and UFC fighters. During filming however, my marriage of 17 years began to fall apart. It was the beginning of a tumultuous roller coaster ride of divorce, incarceration, and nearly fatal car accident.
At the time, the only focus I had was survival in a now single mother world and starting my life over. I was in therapy for my PTSD and healing the years of physical, mental, psychological, and verbal abuse I went through in my marriage. It was in therapy that getting back to my roots became so important. My therapist asked me “besides having your children when were you your happiest?” Well, that was a good question. I am naturally a very happy and positive person, but I struggled to remember when I had last felt happy and free. My answer was: when I was 18 years old, doing shows, taking extensive acting, singing, & dancing classes, and had just won the Rising Star Award! My therapist suggested going back to acting class. Through my acting class, I had met a huge community of like-minded people whom I’ve created long-lasting friendships and many great projects with, including three short films and a feature. After that I began to piece my life back together, and starred in rock legend Glenn Danzig’s music video for “Last Ride” and his directorial debut feature, “Verotika”. Everything was right in my world again and then it stopped at an extreme halt with the tragic accidental death of my only brother, Walter in 2017.
Wally, as we affectionately called him, was fifty-four years old and a father of four when he died. He worked his whole life at the Sunoco gas station in Short Hills, NJ that he would eventually own. He was an avid softball player and bar fly and simply put, everyone loved my brother. Over 1,000 people attended his wake, some complete strangers who he had helped during his life that came to offer their condolences and praise what an amazing man and friend he was to so many. I was angry and depressed and upset that this world took him away from us with no notice or reason. His death has had the biggest impact on my life. Since we were kids, my mother would always say, “family is first and most important”. My five siblings are my best friends and we lost a son, husband, father, brother, and friend. During this time, as I struggled to get back to my own reality, I was working odd jobs to support my life and my two children on my own and continued getting producing jobs.
For many years, I wanted to start my own production company so my projects could have a banner and team of people behind them. I thought long and hard about what the name would be and in one moment it hit me like a rocket, a childhood name we called my late beloved brother, “WallyBird”. Walter was tall and lanky, with a giant smile and an infectious laugh. To honor my brother’s life that was cut too short, WallyBird Productions was born. Since 2018, WallyBird Productions has been committed to diversity and equality and we have been able to do that in front and behind the camera on every project. To date we have produced a two act play, four short films, a web series pilot,a televison pilot, and an award-winning documentary. We are currently working on two features, two short films, a guitar education series, several music videos, and two documentaries.
What is the most challenging thing you have overcome being a woman in the industry?
There are always different challenges to each project but I think one that I have dealt with a few times is having men think it’s ok to not treat me like the boss. The whole idea for my company about giving people opportunities, especially women, is not to slight men in any way and I am fortunate to have worked with a bevy of really wonderful men. It’s not the exclusion of men, but the inclusion of women at the table and it needs to happen more. To be in the same rooms and given the same fairness and opportunities, is important.
What is your definition of success?
Success means to me that things are flowing easily and I am able to choose when I work or when I don’t. It means that I am able to help others and create projects that can make a difference. It means I have done everything I can to follow through with something and make it the best possible outcome I am able to. Success for me is the byproduct of the work. I go into a project thinking of all the places it could be seen and do my very best to achieve that. When it happens, I feel that I have succeeded in that goal. I never really think you’re done though. Everything is a season in life and for all the wonderful success I have had, I want to do more and make more of a difference in more people’s lives through cinema and beyond.
Do you make New Year resolutions? If so, would you share one of yours with us?
I don’t make resolutions, more like goals I want to accomplish this year. I think about all the things that I want to do personally and professionally and then write out a list and pin it to my desk to not only have it in front of me to manifest but to also remind me why I am working so hard all the time. My biggest goal this year is to direct my first feature film and it’s in the first stages of pre-production as we speak!
We would love to keep in touch and follow you. Tell us where we can catch up with you and connect?
Diane Foster Instagram x Facebook x IMDb x Twitter
WallyBird Productions Instagram x Official site
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