When The Reporter last left off with Vacaville actress Juliana Folk in May, she was working on an independent film, “Cottonwood,” co-starring with country musician Buck Ford of Fairfield in a love story about a city girl, a real estate agent, who meets a likable, downhome boy at a diner, with some of the scenes shot in Vacaville.
The film is unfinished, in part because Ford’s wife recently had a baby and the script is being revised, with no release date in sight for the time being, Folk added during a telephone interview Monday.
But she was excited to convey her latest news, her landing a small role in the CBS crime drama, “NCIS: Hawai’i,” playing the role of Cara, the girlfriend of one of the female investigators, Kate Whistler. It aired Monday night at 10 p.m.
A clip searchable on YouTube, just a couple minutes long, shows Folk coming to the door of Whistler’s Honolulu apartment, thinking a pizza delivery person was knocking, only to find out it was another female investigator/girlfriend who believed she was Whistler’s one and only. Nope. And at the end of the episode, there is, of course, a teary fallout between the two other women.
Which leaves Folk, 33 and the mother of one, with the possibility that her character may have some currency as the series continues.
Besides the network TV role, brief or ongoing as it may turn out, she also has a national commercial for HomeLight, a San Francisco-based real estate referral agency that uses the Internet as a marketing tool. (The commercials and some film clips can be seen at her website, www.julianafolk.com.)
For someone who realized as a young girl that she wanted to act, Folk, who grew up in Southern California, is driven to make the most of her skills and talent while continuing to juggle other projects, too.
She co-wrote and will act in a 20-minute short film that, if all goes as planned, will begin filming in Napa in March. And she also is writing a Christmas film, which includes a part for her, and hopes to get it made by year’s end, with financing still an unknown, however. And she continues to audition for other film roles.
But this breakthrough into network TV means something to her at this stage in her career, of course, and, reflecting on this resume-building part on the “NCIS” series, said the episode, called “The Game,” could mean “a great deal, especially because my character in the show is connected to one of the series regulars.”
From there, the show’s writers could develop a story line, meaning more guest-starring roles could be in the offing.
Folk noted that she has worked in the Bay Area for nearly a decade, but, with the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, “Everything shut down.”
But the industry’s pause “gave me an opportunity to branch out,” she said, adding, “I took the opportunity to get representation in Los Angeles.”
She praised the producers of the “NCIS” series, calling their treatment of her “first-class,” adding that network TV “is always a step that actors hope to make.”
Yet her goal is to make “an art film, art films that go to festivals,” but circling back to the CBS series, Folk said it means “you’re somewhat validated.”
“Once that happens, you get into other casting offices and they take you more serious as an actor,” she said. “Once they see you on TV, they start to take your career a little more seriously. I’m kind of hoping of booking more TV and more films. I hope that will be the next step in my career.”
Folk, who has studied with the William Esper and Baron Brown studios in New York City and Los Angeles, respectively, said the roles she seeks are “deeper than what you see on the page” of a script.
“Basically, I want to play strong, dynamic female characters that are complex and a little bit gritty,” she said. “I love comedies, but drama and action and roles that require me to get little more physical — that’s what I want to do. I want to do roles that are a little bit stronger physically, a female in a man’s world.”
OK, then, a role she would aspire to?
“I’d want to play Charlize Theron” in the “Mad Max” film series, said Folk, who also studied advanced on-camera acting with former Solano Community College instructor George Maguire at Nancy Hayes Casting in San Francisco. “I’d love to be the next ‘G.I. Jane’ (a 1997 film featuring Demi Moore) or “Laura Croft’ (a film series starring Angelina Jolie). That would be an amazing role. I’m a very strong individual. I work out and teach yoga locally.”
Amid the ongoing pandemic, acting in a film, on TV or in a commercial has changed in the last two years of the COVID era.
“It’s a little bit isolating,” said Folk. “The film world is such a collaborative space. I love being on the set. It’s like summer camp. Everyone is hanging out.”
But these days, she noted, on set everyone “is wearing masks or a face shield and getting tested and getting hair and makeup done in your own trailer.”
During the making of the “NCIS: Hawai’i” episode, Folk said she was in an apartment in Honolulu with few crew members.
“When you’re not filming, you’re off by yourself, sitting in a chair,” said said, recalling, “But back in October, you were able to interact. Now, when you’re done with your scene, you go back to your trailer. These days, they’re trying to keep everyone safe, with smaller crews. It isn’t great when you’re a collaborative person.”
In a previous interview, she said her roots were in “a very creative family.”
Her father, Jimi Bertucci, was a musician in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s and still lives in Highland, a small suburb near Redlands. An uncle, Gary Graham, still acts in TV shows in Los Angeles and has had roles in “Alien Nation,” “JAG,” “Star Trek,” and in the 1989 film “Robot Jox.” She remembered visiting Graham on the set of “Alien Nation” as a young girl and “loved it.”
Being around her father and uncle made her realize a career in show business “never seemed unattainable.”
“I didn’t know it was a viable career option until I was 8 or 9,” she recalled.
Folk has acted as a young child, in high school and community college productions, but started acting professionally in 2015 in the Bay Area.
By any stretch, her career is moving forward, and, in five years, she sees herself, she said. “continuing to do films predominantly, bigger-budget films.”
“I’d love to stay in Northern California,” said Folk, who is married to Jeremy Folk, whose family owns a Vacaville business. “I know the times are changing. I’d love to stay close to family. I do a lot of writing. In five years, I hope to develop my own projects.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com