You could say Anna Hindman is a renaissance woman, or a jack of all trades, and with her impressive resume including teaching, singing, and acting, you wouldn’t be wrong. The Connecticut native started acting at age six and has never looked back.
I recently chatted with Anna about her new single, Dislove, and her first feature film, American Siege.
Check out the interview below!
Gabrielle Bisaccia: I wanted to start by talking about your TikTok. You have over 100k followers and your content is fresh and hilarious! I love how you comically tackle LGBTQ+ issues that are totally relatable. What prompted you to get involved in making content on TikTok?
Anna Hindman: When the pandemic started, I heard everyone talking about TikTok and I thought it was just for teenagers. But once I downloaded it, I found that there was this huge lesbian community which I had never in my life found anywhere on social media. I was so excited seeing that there was such a demand for specifically lesbian content. It was really inspiring. I actually met my current wife on TikTok! I also have friends who I see regularly who I met on TikTok just because of that community. It was easy to fall into that content because there’s a lot of very specific things that lesbians can relate to that not necessarily everyone else will get. It’s nice to have that niche of comedy and relatability!
GB: You grew up in Connecticut and are currently residing in South Carolina, which I assume is a big change. What would you say in the biggest difference between the two states? What shocked you the most?
AH: I have moved around so much! Right now, I’m sitting on a camping chair in our living room because we are moving yet again! My wife is in the army so we are going to be outside of Nashville next. While living in South Carolina at the moment, I miss the food of New England so much! There were all these local restaurants that I experienced up in New England like great pizza, but down here it’s different food that I’m not used to. There’s a lot of seafood here but it’s more fried seafood, whereas up in New England there were a lot of sushi restaurants and lobster, stuff like that. In Nashville specifically, people are so nice! I was just shocked by how open to collaboration the artists in Nashville are. I could go to a bar by myself to see live music and just go up and introduce myself to people and they’d ask if I wanted to do a co-write. It’s just so welcoming and collaborative, and that is such a different vibe than I’ve experienced in New England, which is a little bit more reserved.
GB: I read you’re heavily involved in LGBTQ+ charities which is so vital and very admirable. What are some of the charities you’re currently involved with?
AH: I support The Trevor Project. I’m also a teacher so I deal a lot with youth. Knowing that there is an outlet for them if they are struggling or if they’re feeling suicidal, or something in relation to figuring out their sexuality, is important. The Trevor Project is a fantastic resource for youth who are really going through those questioning moments. They also have a lot of resources on their website for mental health, articles about sexual orientation and gender identity. I think giving today’s youth a place to do that research on their own in a place where they feel safe is so important. I also support GLAAD. They did a campaign recently, Books Not Bans, which I supported on my Instagram. Some school libraries banned LGBTQ+ books, which I can’t believe because now kids don’t have access to these affirming books. As an LGBTQ+ educator, I really feel strongly about supporting youth because I’ve seen it firsthand.
GB: I have to ask, how do you possibly find the time to teach with everything you’re involved in? Also, what grade and subject do you teach?
AH: I started substitute teaching in January of 2020. Then the pandemic hit and the one specific school I had been substituting at asked if I would consider working full time. They had this incredible social-emotional learning class that I really connected with. I went through the process of grad school and got my certifications and was teaching for them and just continued teaching in South Carolina. I don’t really know how I find the time, but I’ve really enjoyed taking that time to have this experience and to make these connections with the kids! I teach middle school science.
GB: You recently starred in American Siege opposite Bruce Willis, which hits theaters and VOD on January 7th. What can you tell us about your character, Grace Baker?
AH: Grace Baker is a very strong-willed person. She doesn’t take nonsense from anybody. She doesn’t care what people think and she’s going to get whatever she wants at any cost. She’s looking for answers about her sister’s disappearance that happened 10 years ago. The love for her sister drives her and she’s not going to let anybody get in the way of her finding out what happened.
GB: How did you get involved in this project?
AH: I sent in a self-tape for this project after hearing that they needed a main actress. It was very last-minute casting. Originally the producers passed on me because I didn’t have enough experience, which I understood because this would have been my first feature film role. A few days later I got a phone call from the director asking how soon I could be in Georgia. That’s also when I found out it was a Bruce Willis movie, which was a shock! I called my mom and told her, and she thought it was a scam!
GB: How did you prepare for the role?
AH: Because it was such short notice, I didn’t have too much time to prepare for it. I studied the script like crazy. I love to make mood boards and playlists for characters, so I made this playlist with all badass music that got me pumped up every morning on the way to set. I had to have an accent, so I listened to a lot of the people around me because a lot of the crew were from that town, Fitzgerald, Georgia. My wife is in the military, and knowing that my character was ex-military, I talked with her about different types of guns. We also had a fantastic crew on set teaching us about guns and fight scenes. I really tried to use all my time on set to dive into this character.
GB: You recently released your first single, Dislove, on Spotify. Congratulations! The lyrics felt very personal and deep, even cathartic. What inspired this single?
AH: That was written in January 2020, and it was one of my first co-writes in Nashville with a writer named Kit Nolan. You get very personal in co-writes and even though I didn’t really know him, I was telling him about a toxic relationship that I had been in. She had recently reached out and it was really conflicting for me because this is someone who had hurt me so badly, but at the same time, all I wanted was for us to be fine. I would have given anything to just forget about all the bad things that had happened and just have her by my side again. We were sort of exploring that parallel of being really hurt by someone and experiencing that toxicity, but not being able to move past it. Dislove is about ‘you did all these things to me, but I don’t think I can unlove or dislove you’.
GB: Were you able to get closure from the song and move forward with a clean slate?
AH: It’s funny that you say that because I don’t know that I’ve ever expressed that out loud. But I definitely think that writing that song and being able to put it out into the world really helped me to just express those feelings and be done with them. I do feel like it was cathartic!
GB: In your pictures, you’re sporting a very beautiful fine-line styled tattoo. Does this tattoo have a meaning? Do you have any others?
AH: It does! The flowers on my arm are the state flowers of every state that I’ve lived in. I moved around a lot, so I have New York, Connecticut, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and California. I don’t have South Carolina yet! I have a few others, but as an actor I’ve been conflicted in getting tattoos, so I’ve always gotten very small ones that are sort of hidden. I have one on my neck that I got when I was 16 and my dad came with me. I also have a star on my rib, a little tiny mountain range on my back, and flowers on my chest.
GB: You’ve accomplished so much this year alone. What’s next for you?
AH: I have a script that I’m developing because I really enjoy creating stories as well. The script is called Daughter. It’s sort of a mystery/thriller where the main character finds out a secret about her late father and has to come to terms with that. I’m hoping to bring it to life in the next year or two!
