Frey steals the day

By Gary M. Kramer
PGN Contributor
© 2008 Gary M. Kramer and Philadelphia Gay News

Philadelphia native Julia Frey makes her feature-film debut in “Between Something and Nothing” as Jennifer, a fashion design student and social outsider who befriends Joe at RISD. The 20-something actor may be familiar to local audiences from “Comedy Sportz,” where she has been performing improv on various Saturday nights for the past six years. The film gives her the chance to stretch her acting talents in a drama. However, given that Jennifer gets staples caught in her butt when she creates a funky dress for 2-D class, she serves as the film’s comic relief.

Frey, who is straight, grew up in Center City and went to Central High School before attending Bard College. She relates to Jennifer, “not in terms of experience,” the actor explained, “but her cadence, her labeling people. I got her. I could hear her in my head.”

Although she shares her character’s ability to draw — “I grew up with a paintbrush,” Frey said, noting that her father dabbled in art — the actor collaborated with Verow on Jennifer’s big sketch of a Vodka tonic in the film.

“It was really hard to draw,” she recalled with an enthusiastic laugh.

”He drew it one way, and [the ice] melted a little bit, and I am drawing it the other way.”

Similarly, while Frey enjoys a bellini cocktail, she is hardly the alcoholic who competes with Joe to see who can pick up the most men in a bar. She admits being “terrible” at that game when pressed. Yet Frey understood that getting drinks was one of Jennifer’s skills. So is shoplifting. One of her best scenes has her heisting a case of vodka and lecturing Joe on possessing nerve and (self)confidence. She is a terrific foil in the film, and Frey displays an excellent rapport with her co-star Swain.

Whereas Jennifer has a vulnerable side that Frey identifies with, the character also exhibits an invincible quality. If the filmmaker likened her character to a Sally Bowles party-girl, the actor thought Jennifer was in the vein of Rayanne from “My So-Called Life.” (Such are each generation’s cultural touchstones).

“I see her as ‘diagnosed’ bipolar; she’s leading a double life with very high highs and very low lows,” Frey explained, suggesting that her character lives on a sine-curve wave, and Joe is the one constant. “She has a love for Joe that is just past platonic,” she said, adding, “Where Jennifer is an adult trying to be a teen, Joe is a teen becoming an adult.”

The actor connects with Jennifer being 18 and defining — perhaps even reinventing — herself. With her scene-stealing turn in “Between Something and Nothing,” Frey is coming of age as an actor, making the transition from stage to screen.