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 There is a pivotal scene in Blayne Weaver’s new romantic comedy Weather Girl in which the younger brother of the title character—a thirty-something who just lost her boyfriend, her apartment and her job—yells that it’s time for her to grow up and get a “real” job. The character stands in shock for a moment, almost dumbfounded that anyone would suggest such a thing, but the actress behind her, Tricia O’Kelley, knows that it is such a struggle that makes the success so much more worthwhile when it finally comes.
“Did I question if I was doing the right thing? Sure,” she admitted, recalling the time she, too, was waitressing to pay the bills while holding out hope for a bigger dream. “But I really believe you have to follow your gut. I always said that if one day I woke up and I thought it was no longer worth it, then I’d move on. Thankfully, I never got to that [place].”
When the Weather Girl script landed on her desk, O’Kelley was already costarring on CBS’ “The New Adventures of Old Christine” with her real-life BFF Alex Kapp Horner.
“I got about four pages in, and I was loving this,” O’Kelley recalled. “I said that if I still loved it on page 90, [I] had to make it!”
 O’Kelley always loved Weaver’s writing and knew she wanted to help him get Weather Girl made at any cost—literally.
“He tried to talk me out of it,” she laughed.
Though there can be quite a bit of debt associated with independent films, O’Kelley never wavered and never had a second thought about pulling double-duty and stepping into the producer role. The actress, who graduated with a degree in Film and Television Production from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has always wanted to just tell great stories, and never lets anything stand in her way.
“It’s most rewarding when [you get a group of people together] who really want to do the project,” she stated. “That’s true independent filmmaking. It isn’t about, ‘Oh, the money’s good, so yeah, I guess I’ll take [the role].’ You have to really believe in the project and all of the people involved.”
It just seemed a natural progression, then, for her to take on the added behind-the-scenes responsibility if she wanted to see Weather Girl get its proper due. And O’Kelley managed to pull it together—though admittedly learning as she went along and by bringing her friends (like Kapp Horner) and past costars along with her.
 “Honestly, that was one of the most refreshing things,” O’Kelley said. “To go out to these people and have them love the script and believe in it as much as I did.”
Though the dressing rooms were pretty much closets, there was often no heat and top-billed actors like Blair Underwood, Enrico Colantoni (“Just Shoot Me!,” “Veronica Mars”) and Mark Harmon (“Chicago Hope,” “Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service”) were working for a mere fraction of what they normally did, one by one they all signed onto O’Kelley’s “little film that could.” It is a true testament to the importance and influence of O’Kelley herself that so many people would do whatever they could because they believed in her.
Weather Girl opens in limited release at the Laemmle Sunset 5 on Fri., July 10.
For more information, visit the film's official Web site.
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