Actress Johnny Sequoyah on making a name for herself – interview

Certain names have gone down in Hollywood history as much for their aura as the people who inherited them in the first place. Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and Cary Grant are all so legendary now that you likely don’t realise none of them were born with those names to begin with. Some young stars, however, don’t need help from a movie studio to come up with names that seem destined for cinematic greatness.

Funnily enough, the Boise, Idaho-born, now Los Angeles-based Sequoyah has inherited a legacy that goes well beyond name. As the daughter of independent filmmakers Russell Friedenberg and Heather Rae, who directed the award-winning 2005 documentary Trudell, you could say she was more or less born to be in movies. “I was always so enamoured by [film], but my parents didn’t really want me to do it,” she admits. “They had their own fears because they know how difficult the industry is.”

Though Sequoyah may have inherited her parents’ activist values and passion for making movies, the magnetic presence that comes across on screen in films like the newly released horror flick Primate, in which she co-stars alongside Academy Award-winning actor Troy Kotsur, is entirely her own. The actress is no stranger to nepotism allegations, but emphasises how the only advantage she believes she’s received is having emotionally supportive parents with experience.

“I basically grew up on their sets because they couldn’t even afford full-time babysitting or anything like that,” says Sequoyah, who started acting when she was just six years old. “I would just come with them and sit in my little harness on my mom … The nepotism I got was honestly just having artistic parents that understand what it’s like to go through painful things because of your art. It’s understanding how to not take things personally even when it’s something that feels so personal.”

In a society that often prizes the alluring nature of youth more than the wisdom earned with age, it’s quite obvious from speaking with Sequoyah that she’s lucky to have both. “I’ve had the real privilege of becoming friends with people I’ve worked with,” she says, thanking actors like Jamie Chung and Kyle MacLachlan specifically for inspiring her to keep persevering as a young actress. “That’s especially rare to say as a child actor, too, because a lot of older adults can dismiss children on set and whatnot. I was probably annoying to be fair,” she laughs. “But I really have a lot of gratitude for actors who took me seriously.”

Having dealt with professional heartbreak and being recast for roles early on in her career – Sequoyah was replaced by actress Rachel Hilson for a role in the Hulu television series Love, Victor – she knows moving past setbacks is part and parcel of survival in Hollywood. In many ways, it’s only proven her true passion for the craft. “It’s very easy for this industry to perpetually make you feel behind in a way,” she laments. “Especially because I started young, [the adage] ‘comparison is the thief of joy’ is very true and I’ve had higher expectations for myself than anyone else ever did, which only led me to disappoint myself if I didn’t achieve these unrealistic goals.”