The Square Life

Emily Tyndall once told her mother that she was bored, who replied, “creative people never get bored.” That was the last time Emily was bored--she has been too busy ever since.

Her creative energy has taken her to film and stage--you may recognize her as Trisha from the cult-classic Napoleon Dynamite. You know, the girl that it took Napoleon like three hours shading her upper lip to make the best drawing he’d ever done.

Yet Napoleon is now just a highlight of an ever-expanding resume-not by any stretch her entire body of work. Aside from acting, she is a musician, model, dancer, artist, does voice-over work, and photography. She works for Disney drawing concept art and builds 3-D models for their video games. Oh, and she wants to start writing children’s books. In an industry of stars constantly trying to cross-over to other avenues, Emily Tyndall is a Leonardo Da Vinci who can’t settle on just one channel for her talents.

In our interview I try to force her to choose just one. She says she can’t -- especially since there isn’t an island involved in my question. I introduce the hypothetical island, but she still refuses.

“I love to have variety,” Tyndall said. The only way she could put the rest “on hold” and concentrate on one area, she said, is if she started having lots of success in that area.

When Tyndall starts talking about her various plans and current projects, she does it with budding optimism; the attitude that if she does everything she can the opportunities will come. She has a strong desire to be successful, which isn’t unusual, but I get the sense that rest and relaxation aren’t just low on her list of priorities, they may not be on the list.

While the rest of us waste time being bored, she is completing her next projects and maintaining her web presence, which includes her web site, myspace, blog and making sure her imdb.com and Wikipedia profiles are up to date. The latest addition to Wikipedia was her work with the Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour Nintendo Wii video game. The game requires players to mimic Hannah’s diva dance-moves during a concert, and as part of the project, Tyndall did the motion capture for Hannah. Her work with the Hannah game links her to another pop-culture phenomena, though being behind the scenes with Hannah means she doesn’t get the same random recognition that comes from Napoleon.

Fans who have memorized the Napoleon screenplay are sometimes eager to share quotes with “Trisha” when they see Tyndall, who was credited in the movie as Emily Kennard and since changed her name after marrying husband Spencer Tyndall in 2004.

“People would come up to me all the time and quote random lines, and I wouldn’t realize what they were saying. Then I’d realize - oh, you’ve probably seen it more than me,” she said.

Since her acting debut in Napoleon, Tyndall appeared in Pirates of the Great Salt Lake in 2006 and a couple of films which are still in production: Forever Strong and Reflections in the Mud. She would love to do more acting, but wants to stay in Utah, where she grew up.

“I have so many great things going for me here,” she said.

At 18, after considering going to New York to perform on Broadway, she decided to attend Brigham Young University. At BYU she got to work on her talents without having to deal with industry pressures to compromise her morals.

“Anything in the performance industry is filled with moral decisions every day,” she said. “It is hard to have really high standards and do performing--it’s wearing on anyone.”

This is where I see her optimism come through again. Tyndall hopes that if she keeps on improving as a performer, the work will come to her no matter where she is.

In the meantime, she stays busy. She has to finish the three oil paintings she’s working on, two are still a blank canvas. She is working on that children’s book, even though she has been told to only pursue the illustrating aspect. She is modeling and acting locally when she gets the chance. She still takes dancing classes, looking to add more dances to a skill-set that already includes ballroom, ballet and Chinese modern. The more she does of course, the more often she has to edit her profile on Wikipedia.

I wish I had a page on Wikipedia, then I could edit it to say ridiculous things at my own discretion. Maybe that’s the difference between Emily and I. When she checks her Wikipedia, it’s to make sure that it is accurate. Yep, that’s probably the difference between us. Well, that and that she can draw, act, model, dance, paint, and sing.