Meet Anita Rosenberg | Cosmic Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anita Rosenberg and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anita, what’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make?
In the late 1980s, I was one of the few female directors in Hollywood with cult classic “chick flicks” Assault of the Killer Bimbos, and Modern Girls. After achieving my goal of directing, I worked hard to stir up more projects. Unhappily, it seemed the doors for directing were shut almost everywhere in Hollywood for women auteurs trying to realize their vision. I started hearing about other female directors moving away from the movie business for lack of work. It was difficult to confront the prospect of abandoning such an exciting career, one that I’d set my heart on. But after
fourteen years kicking around the studios, pitching non-stop to a battery of male producers, not even a glam four-hour lunch that I had one afternoon at the Warner Bros. commissary with George Clooney was enough to hold me in a career that seemed to be blocked. Quite by accident, however, I found something else at which I became much more successful.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I grew up in the Jewish suburbs of Cincinnati during the 1960s and early ’70s. Every Halloween, I dressed up as a beatnik wearing black capri pants
and a beret—so I knew early on I was destined for a career in the arts. In
high school, I started welding rusted farm machinery into massive metal
sculptures, decades before Jennifer Beals made it hip in the movie Flashdance.
My supportive parents suggested safety goggles and art school.
At the San Francisco Art Institute, from 1976 to 1979, when I wasn’t
sparking up the welding torch, I was shooting kitschy films under the tutelage
of my teacher George Kuchar (Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof, Hold Me While I’m
Naked).
A New York City experience is a rite of passage for every serious artist, so
I applied to New York University Graduate Film School and surprised myself
by being accepted. NYU at that time was the hot place for up-and-coming
filmmakers, following in the footsteps of successful alumni such as director
Martin Scorsese. I was one of the few females in the program, crashing what
was an intensely competitive boys’ club. My thesis film, Bachelorette Pad, was a
romance comic book come-to-life with stop-motion animated Barbie dolls. It starred
underground film star Patti Astor and included cartoonish sets by graffiti artist,
Zephyr (my then boyfriend), with Fab 5 Freddy as the disco king.
My dream was to direct a Hollywood feature film by the age of thirty and
after film school, I did just that, directing the cult classic chick flick Assault of
the Killer Bimbos at the age of twenty-nine.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
From my window looking out over Hollywood Boulevard, I can see three of the most famous landmarks in the world: the Hollywood sign perched high
up in the distant hills, the Capitol Records Tower, a music industry office
building in the shape of a stack of records, and the coral-pink terrazzo stars
of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the sidewalk down below memorializing
the famous (and some not so famous anymore) performers of stage, screen,
TV, music, and radio. It’s a magical vantage point. You might say that all the
stars align here, at the iconic corner of Hollywood and Vine, including my
own since 1982.

The dark din of Musso & Frank Grill, Hollywood’s oldest restaurant (founded
1919) is where I often meet with friends to catch
up on our creative projects and trade the latest entertainment industry tattle.
On weeknights, we slide into the worn red leather booths, where the likes
of Bukowski, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and other legendary writers have dined
and boozed in decades past. Sidling up to the age-worn mahogany bar, we order
the giant shrimp cocktail, or lamb chops sizzling right off the grill in front
of us, plus a dirty martini or a large glass of Pinot Noir from any
of the red-jacketed career waiters, whose familiar faces have diminished over
the years (RIP: Manny, Sergio, and Ruben). Ghosts of Raymond Chandler,
Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Bogie waft past as if part of Musso &
Frank’s staff, are also serving up portions of Hollywood nostalgia that feed the
imagination, and help kindle creative inspiration.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I decided to write my new book, How to Be the Star of Your Life: Lessons From Hollywood & Beyond, as a way of taking stock of what I’ve learned over the years, and paying tribute to some of the many people in the entertainment industry who have taught me so much about what it means to work hard and to succeed at what they do. By embracing the entrepreneurial spirit and determination of the entertainment world’s professionals, I was ready for anything life might throw my way. I was able to follow up my film production career with new career challenges; launching a million-dollar home decor collection out of my garage and later establishing the flourishing spiritual consulting practice that is my current profession.

Six years in the making, my new book of captivating conversations with movie industry insiders about what it takes to be the star of your life, will inspire and empower you to go beyond where you think you are capable of going –to be the star of your life.

Website: www.AnitaRosenberg.com

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Other: Can you please add the link info to the names above