HELEN Eastman-Hollien’s childhood bedroom was plastered with posters of 1980s American TV stars like Scott Baio and teen idols like Leif Garrett, and her mind was full of Hollywood dreams.
Fast-forward decades later, and Eastman-Hollien is the executive producer at Little Minx, a woman-owned production company involved in blockbuster film projects like Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Newsday chatted with her in a Zoom interview, which she was able to squeeze into her very busy schedule by ignoring all but one of “a million phone calls.” In the interview, she charted her path from the land of the Hummingbird to La La Land.
“Ever since I was little, I told my parents that I wanted to be in Hollywood. But I was a kid,” she said, tilting her head back for a hearty laugh. While this was her dream, she did nothing about it in TT because she did not think there was an avenue to make it a reality.
She grew up in Bayshore, in northwest Trinidad, and attended Maria Regina Grade School and St Joseph’s Convent. She left the high school at Form 3 “because (she) used to fete too much,” and her parents sent her to boarding school in New York.
After graduating from high school in 1985, she went to Drew University in New Jersey and graduated in 1989.
“From there I said, ‘I did what Mom and Dad wanted me to do, which was go to college. And I had my major in political science and history. I thought, ‘Oh, I will be a lawyer.’ “But my heart was always in film.”
While working at a “regular job” in New York, she had a friend who was dating an actor who was filming the 1990 Spike Lee movie Mo’ Better Blues. “And I went on set there and that was when I was like, ‘I have to do this.’”
Asked what she found so enchanting about the filmmaking process, Eastman-Hollien replied that on a set, many people come together and are in synch to put the film together. “And people don’t know that. They see (films), but they have no idea about the (number) of people involved and the creativity (involved).”
[caption id="attachment_1074238" align="alignnone" width="600"] Executive producer Helen Eastman-Hollien, second from right in front row, on set of the talk show, The Shop, with NBA superstar LeBron James (back row, centre) -[/caption]
She said filmmaking always fascinated her. “I just think it’s a beautiful form of entertainment. It’s moving. You feel something whenever you watch something, even if it’s bad or good or whatever. You feel something. Any emotion. You’re pissed off, or you’re happy, or you cry. And that part of it always fascinated me. That no matter what it is, you will leave with an emotion.”
Eastman-Hollien was also “enamoured” with movie stars and how they can do what they do. “You are on a film set and 75-80 people walking around and you have to do a love scene. It’s amazing to me, an amazing talent when you see it for real, and you understand why they make as much money as they do.”
She started in the film industry in 1989 as a production assistant (PA) and worked in that role for two years. She explai
