Life & Work with Sarah Zanotti

Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.

I’m originally from Denver, CO. I was super into sports as a kid, but I also started doing regional musical theater and singing in our church choir around the age of 9.  My mom felt like I had a gift for singing, which is funny because she’s tone-deaf (sorry mom, I love you… but you ARE tone-deaf)… So, I don’t know where this sneaking suspicion came from, but she was right. I was good at singing and I really loved it. My mom started helping me get involved in things where I could sing and not just be overly aggressive on a soccer field or at a swim meet. I started feeling really cool when missing school became a thing because I was being paid to be on stage. This led to singing the national anthem for Colorado’s MLB team and Denver University sports teams and recording my own music once I got to high school. I always loved acting too, but singing and songwriting was the dream early on. I ended up going to Berklee College of Music and graduating with a degree in Songwriting. Along with that degree, I also walked away from Berklee with debilitating stage fright. I moved to Nashville and tried forcing myself to do songwriting rounds, but the fear of performing wouldn’t go away. So, what did I do? I moved to LA! A super logical solution to feeling lost and desperate to prove myself. I learned some tough lessons in LA. I ended up trusting the wrong people with my heart and with my career and found myself in a lawsuit. I ended up moving back to Nashville with a broken spirit and zero aspirations. I just wanted to feel safe again. Nashville was medicine. I moved in with a friend, taught barre classes, and learned how to breathe again. After a few years of working through what I had experienced on the west coast, I found my way to The 4th Wall Acting Studio and it felt like I had finally found what I had been searching for. Acting made me feel alive again. I ended up meeting Kd Amond through the acting community two years ago. In the two years since we met, we’ve created a production company called AZ if Productions, we’ve written 9 feature screenplays, we’ve made three of those scripts into feature films (Kd directs and I act), we’ve sold one of those three movies, we’ve developed a TV series and filmed a pilot that is currently being shopped to networks, and we employ two imaginary assistants who don’t do sh*t. Shout out, Pat and Carol.

Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?

It hasn’t always been a smooth road. Going back to what I said above, LA kicked my butt. There have been so many seasons of confusion, self-doubt, and asking God what my purpose is. Y’all, I changed my name briefly and put out a country EP when I was 22. I can safely say that EP was terrible and I’m not even trying to be self-deprecating. The amount of times I’ve tried to reason and barter with God is comical. But I am so grateful for the road I’ve taken up to this point, and I will open my arms to any less than smooth moments in the future because they make me feel like a whole human being. I think of it in terms of a movie…would I want to watch a movie about someone whose life is perfect and who is never challenged or stretched? No! Messiness is interesting. Nuance is beautiful. When things don’t go “right,” I think it builds a type of warrior endurance inside and increases my capacity to hold more grace, empathy, compassion, and understanding. I find value in ALL of the twists and turns and all of the feelings that come along with them. Things have gone pretty smoothly ever since I met Kd, but we definitely have our challenges. However, failure isn’t as scary when you’re standing next to someone else. She holds the vision when I feel defeated and vice versa. Kd and I take “no” as a light suggestion, not a finality. Delusional? Maybe. Psychopathic? For sure.

We’d love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?

I am an actress and a screenwriter and co-owner of AZ if Productions. So far, we have made genre-bending independent films that have elements of psychological horror and themes that explore mental illness, morality, and the monster that exists inside all of us. I have a true passion for exposing the “darkest” sides of the human experience and bringing them to the light. What makes a person the way they are? What makes a villain a villain? These are the types of questions that excite me. We recently sold our movie FAYE. It will be available this year in North America, the UK, Australia, and The Netherlands. FAYE is the first American feature film to star only one actress. It’s just me on screen for 86 minutes. Narcissistic? Maybe. Cool as sh*t? For sure. We are currently in negotiations for selling our first feature film RATTLED and we are beginning the editing process on a feature we just wrapped production on in January called THE UNRAVELING. Our script LEG won the Nashville Film Festival’s screenwriting competition in 2021 and we will be going into production on that by the end of the year. I am proud of all of these projects. It’s hard to choose one. My favorite script would probably be LEG, but they all feel like my children. I think what sets me apart from others is my unwavering loyalty to telling stories that feel like the truth. I love diving into the mind of a different human being (even if it is a fictional human being) and writing and acting out their truth. And I refuse to compromise. I don’t care if I have to lock myself in a room for hours on end to conjure up the type of feelings I think are necessary for my character, I’ll do it. I’ll be the weirdo on set. I just want to make something that I’m proud of and I’ll commit to whatever process will get me there. I also have a weird ability to look like a completely different person from project to project. A simple hair color change or slight weight fluctuation can completely alter my appearance. I’ve looked like 4 different human beings this year. It still freaks my mom out. She always says “Sarie, I never know who I’m picking up at the airport!”

What was your favorite childhood memory?

I don’t know if one particular memory comes to mind, but I’m sure it took place at the neighborhood pool. I was such a pool rat. I would get up in the morning, ride my bike down the street to the pool and just stay there all day long. I would post up by the lifeguard office where the landline phone was and call my friends one by one and tell them to come to the pool. It felt like I was running a business. I knew all of their numbers by heart because this was the late 90s and also, I was a badass. I was on my neighborhood swim team and I loved every minute of it. Swim meets, practices, the baked potatoes at the concession stands…it was a dream. At the end of every summer, our coaches would throw a banquet for the team and after the trophies were handed out and all of the drunk parents were asked to leave, the kids all set up tents in the grass behind the pool and had a massive neighborhood slumber party. I always smile when I think about those times. They truly were the best. Oh yeah! My county also had this thing called Greenwood Village Days where they essentially set up a theme park/fair in the middle of town. There were little rollercoasters and tents set up where you could make molds of your hand and stuff. Every year I had to make a mold of my hand and make paper like they did in the “olden days” …it was super important to me. One year I had my face painted up like a lion and proceeded to have zero dating prospects for the next 10 years of my life. I was only 6…but people don’t forget things like that. I’m pretty positive there’s a correlation here.