Mandahla Rose: "For the Love of Jessee"

Featured Australian/American Actress Mandahla Rose sensitively portrays the role of Sage in the dramatically passionate inspiring movie, “For The Love of Jessee” written and directed by David McAbee with executive producer Curta Schlarbaum. The film also stars iconic actress Adrienne Barbeau, Randy Wayne, Manu Intiraymi, Tony Denman and Bre Blair.

“For The Love of Jessee” is about joy, loss and letting go. After losing the love of his life during childbirth, Dr. Luke Matthew (played by Randy Wayne), hires Sage as a nanny following her own loss. Together they learn how to heal.

I spoke with Mandahla Rose regarding the film and her career. She is currently appearing in a web series called BIFL on the YouTube channel OML which is an LGBTQ comedy with lots of drama. She has also been seen in the film “All About E.”. Mandahla has a lot to say and a great way of saying it…..

I thought you as Sage was such a great character.

Thank you. Sage was such a beautiful role to bring to life. I’ve obviously never had a baby or lost a baby, but I remember thinking that I had to make sure I hit the nail on the head with it because I didn’t want to take that experience away from other mothers who have had that experience. So, it was very important to me to make sure that that came across.

Well you hit the nail in the head. How did you prepare for a role like that?

I think at the time I thought about little James Morrison and what it would be like to carry an entire life for nine months and be single like Sage was. I would imagine what it would be like to sing to him, and to just be alone with that growing belly…. I just thought what it would be like if I were pregnant and if I were to bring a baby to full-term. What would it be like to plan an entire life with this tiny little thing? What would it be like to have that completely torn from you?

How similar is Sage personality wise to Mandahla?

Sage has had very abusive relationships. I have not had abusive relationships like that, but my stepfather was incredibly abusive. I feel that Sage’s insecurities were bigger than mine. We are very different in our upbringing. ” I have thought a lot about this in regards to my characters and the thing that I find in myself and my characters, we are all on the same plane of our lives and they do cross over each other. Like parallel universes. So of course there has to be similarities between my characters and myself.” So of course there has to be similarities between my characters. Sage is a lot more meek than I am I think. She’s still a bad-ass… I mean all the clothes that she wears, they are my clothes. I don’t know if McAbee told you but when we got the script Sage was actually American with blonde hair blue eyes. After he met me, he ended up changing sage to be from Adelaide, which is my hometown in Australia. It was quite the compliment that this entire character was altered for me. That was very cool.

Do you direct at all?

Not at all. I haven’t had the opportunity to. I think that once you take the stage as a director it feels like it would be a lot of pressure. I haven’t yet directed, and am not planning to anytime soon.I really enjoy acting. It is a way for me to be able to tell stories and be other people. I come from a pretty rough background. I was a foster kid, and my first foster family was a little tough. Their 14-year-old boy was abusive towards me sexually. In ways like that Sage and I are very similar. But I’ve always wanted to be an actor. Ever since I knew what an actor was, I wanted to be one. It was such a great way to get out of my own life at that time and now it’s just like it’s less of that because now I feel better and stronger about myself. Now with acting it is just more fun to play different characters. It’s fun to bring something else to life. In a way it’s kind of therapeutic and cathartic. I am also an artist, a painter, and I do a lot of ink work.

So how did you get to come across the world and end up in LA?

I remember in eighth grade I said I was going to be a movie star in LA. I was fortunate enough to have the leading role in a movie which you can actually see on Hulu currently called “All About E.” I play the character of E. That film got into a film festival in San Francisco and then also in LA. That was in 2015 and I came down for the festival. “I ended up meeting a director who saw me in the film and decided to write a webseries starring yours truly (which is now a feature film soon to be released ‘Forever Not Maybe’). It was through this connection that I was approved an O1 Visa in the US and I moved to LA March 2016.”

If you could be off at any role in life what kind of role would you choose?

“I really love dark things. Horror. I’ve been wanting to explore that a little more. I’d love to play a prolific serial killer and I have always wanted to play a villain. David McAbee has also written “Hyena” which is the next film that we’re going to make. I’ll be bringing bringing to life, Hyena, this kickass bad ass, take no bs, mechanic who drives an El Camino. I love playing really strong leads to show that women are just as capable as men are, because we are. And “Hyena” is definitely of that calibre.”

What is your biggest triumph and your biggest challenge during this film?

The biggest triumph would be showing what losing a baby could be like. That felt like a triumph to me because I remember going into it so scared that I would not do a good job, that I would not be the representation of mothers out there who have been through this experience. That was a very heavy burden on my shoulders. When I got the affirmation that I would make women proud of that was definitely a triumph. The hardest part was, there was a scene between Sage and her ex-boyfriend Alan that got a little bit rough. The challenge in that was it was late at night, the last scene of the evening. It was an overnight shift and it was like 5 AM before we got two days off. Already being super tired, and we had already done the dinner dress up scene… The most challenging part of that is that it ended up being very triggering. It triggered a lot of my personal things and that was tough. Having to be like I’m OK and safe…it was very interesting. The gentleman who played the part of Alan was perfect, but the terror you see in my eyes was real. I disappeared for a couple of days after that actually. But that was the hardest part having to deal with that kind of trigger halfway through a shoot.

Watch the “For The Love Of Jessee” Trailer here: