Wasilla grad cashing in on big screen dreams

WASILLA — As an actress, writer, director and producer, 2011 Wasilla High graduate Rachel Newell is experiencing every aspect of Hollywood living.

Formerly known as Rachel Clark, Newell is now married and living in Los Angeles, thousands of miles from her hometown. The 6-foot-tall thespian splits her time between performing stand-up comedy routines, preparing for auditions, hosting film festivals, modeling and producing short works with her husband, Mitch, and their new company, Ritch Productions.

In many ways, she’s living the dream of countless creative people around the world. But in the process of pursuing that dream, she almost lost it.

The beginning

Newell said she grew up in a very religious home (“a really insulated environment,” she said), with little to no exposure to mainstream TV or pop music.

“I kind of just grew up reading the Bible and using my imagination,” she said by phone on Tuesday.

Newell’s family occasionally watched old episodes of “The Lawrence Welk Show,” she said, but it wasn’t until she saw re-runs of “I Love Lucy” starring Lucille Ball that she became inspired.

“She was always my hero,” Newell said of the comedy legend.

As a 13-year-old at Wasilla Lake Christian School, Newell was cast in her first play: “The Hobbit,” in which she played Thorin the Dwarf. She called the experience of being onstage was "liberating."

Newell had fallen in love with acting, and in December 2006 she graced the stage as Imogene in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at Valley Performing Arts.

In developing her character for the show, Newell was given the freedom to inject her own life experiences into her onstage portrayal, and found much in common with the lower-income, under-socialized Imogene. As she sat silently onstage, alone in a room with the representation of a baby Jesus, Newell knew she had found her calling.

“It felt like I wasn’t acting anymore, and that’s the feeling I’ve been trying to replicate ever since,” she said.

Newell put off acting for a couple years as she focused on her education (and swimming) at Wasilla High, but returned to the theater as a junior. She quit the swim team, started a dramatic improvisation troupe with the help of teacher Dewayne Joehnk, and became co-president of the school’s thespian society. She also wrote for the Frontiersman’s Schools page.

Despite her initial misgivings about fitting in, she had become a success story.

Into the deep

After she graduated high school in 2011, Newell moved to Los Angeles to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship. There she lived through what she called her “most transformative two years … up to that point.”

But a potentially deadly seed had been planted in her mind during that time.

Newell picked up modeling shortly after moving to L.A., when it was suggested to her as a way to raise money to fund her career. She said she enjoyed the work and was told she did it well — but that she’d do it better if she were thinner, or not so tall, her photographers said.

Knowing she couldn’t change her height, Newell agreed that she could stand to lose some weight. For the sake of being healthier, she told herself, she began to diet and exercise more frequently.

But when she dropped to a size 4 in 2014 — she had been a size 14 after graduating high school — it still wasn’t enough. She lost 80 pounds in one year, and fellow models were still calling her “thick.”

“In Hollywood, everybody’s beautiful, and when you’re surrounded by this all the time, it’s really easy to feel inferior,” Newell said.

While in the grip of bulimia and a negative self-image, she was offered her first opportunity to do stand-up comedy — the closest she had been to her dream of living off of laughter. It was a disaster.

“I didn’t have any humor in my life. I didn’t know how to be funny,” she said.

Light in the darkness

In the depth of Newell’s darkness, she fell in love with Mitch. They had attended the same college together, but only reconnected when a friend hosted a birthday party for her. He was the first person she told about her eating disorder, and the first (other than her mother) to tell her she was beautiful — before she was a size 4.

“That kind of blew my mind,” Newell said.

Mitch quickly became her “accountability partner,” she said, taking her texts and calls in her darkest moments. It was humiliating, she said, to tell a person she wanted to impress of her failings. But in the end, it brought her out of her shame.

“He did not give up on me,” Newell said.

Nor did her mother, Olga Fontaine, who offered “amazing support” from afar, she said.

Rachel and Mitch married in July of 2015. Since then, Newell has put on enough weight to look and feel healthy again, and has made a name for herself performing as her alter ego, the Russian comedian “Ivanna Greencard.” With shows almost every other night now, time for personal projects can be tight, she said, but she and her husband have successfully created their first film: a music video called “Mashed Potatoes” for Wasilla grad Julia Cannon, who released an EP called “My Name is Julia” on Nov. 7, 2015.

Newell is also featured in a short film called “The UFO Diary,” a historical, sci-fi work about two female soldiers who perceive alien activity at Fort MacArthur during World War II. Though filming for “UFO Diary” began in 2013 — it was Newell’s first project out of college — the film is complete and set to be presented at a festival sometime this year. Newell said the ultimate goal is for the film to be developed into a full-length feature.

With the direction the industry is going, movies with strong female leads may be in ever-increasing demand, Newell said.

“I think the climate is changing,” she said. “(Women) won’t be as much ornamental as they will be dynamic members of the creative community — which they have been forever.”

Needless to say, the world isn’t likely to see Newell in a chick flick any time soon.

“I can’t relate to the sexy damsel in distress that has to be rescued by Ryan Gosling,” she said. “I don't want to play Megan Fox. I’d rather play her dorky cousin who crashes her wedding and eats all her food.”

To stay up-to-date on Rachel Newell’s projects, visit racheljnewell.com or facebook.com/rachelisfunny.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Newell's character in "The Hobbit."

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.