It is one of those great stories that seems right out of a storybook. A young woman in Kansas grows up with an impossible dream of being in the movies one day, and then one day she does it. For Tamara Feldman , it didn’t seem like a short wait, but in the bigger picture, for any movie star it has to be short. There’s a very small window where one can get discovered and landed in the industry, and it’s only open for a couple of years. It’s enormously unfair, and for women it’s even worse, but that’s how the industry still runs.

So, when a girl from Witchita hits the big-time, it’s a big deal. The Mexican-Native-American actress hit the ground running in the year 2000, at only 20 years old, which is the perfect time to be knocking on doors. They did open, at least, enough of them, to get her parts in shows like CSI, Monk, One Tree Hill, and Boston Legal . This is enough to get the attention of filmmakers, and has two new releases coming out, one this year, and one in the next. It’s not an easy business, but the 20-something on the verge of the next decade is showing that it’s possible to make people pay attention.

She may not be found lurking in Wichita, or visiting the local hotels Kansas is famous for, but the aura is here, and her story is one that does repeat through the ages. It will be interesting to see how Hollywood reckons with her as she starts to show that her intelligence is as bright as her smile, and that people want to see her do more work. In the meantime, her relationship with Bruce Willis sometimes eclipses her own merits, but that’s another pitfall that comes with the territory. When Hollywood notices, it’s handsome men also do, too, and if they do stay together, the age difference will get less and less as the years go by, at least in theory. Her talent can outshine any gossip anyway.

Kansas and Tamara is a post from: Cool Comment