Pickerington native Lindsay Hollister a Hollywood success

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If you’ve seen Nip/Tuck, Scrubs or the 2008 action-comedy-adventure film Get Smart starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, you’ve seen her face.

She was born in Columbus, moved to Pickerington when she was in second grade and graduated from Pickerington High School – now Pickerington High School Central – in 1995.

Her name is Lindsay Hollister, and after graduating from Pickerington High School and thereafter Miami University, she took the plunge into the entertainment industry and moved out to Los Angeles.

Hollister, now 39, found her passion for acting during high school, thanks to retired North theater department director Margaret Lawson.

“(Lawson) was sort of a legend there, and had this amazing theater program,” says Hollister. “I fell in love with it, and she put me in the fall show. I never looked back from that point.”

Hollister is grateful to Miami, from which she obtained a degree in theater performance, for giving her a well-rounded education and business acumen, which is vital to her now.

She and her husband, Matthew Heffner, co-own the Pie Hole, a coffee and pie shop with four locations now and two more planned. Heffner started the company with his mother, Hollister and a family friend five years ago.

“That’s sort of my other life: our business,” says Hollister. “It’s been really, really strange.”

When she first moved to L.A. in 1999, Hollister says she was overexcited and, perhaps, naive about the industry. She found herself in a guest star role in Boston Public, a FOX drama that ran from 2000-2005.

For the role as Christine Banks, she was submitted for an Emmy consideration for outstanding guest star. The role opened many doors for Hollister, and she was cast in other guest star appearances on such shows as ER, Popular and Days of Our Lives.

In summer 2001, Hollister turned down a three-year contract with Days of Our Lives, not wanting to be tied down. She says it ended up being her biggest career regret as, mere months later, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought the industry to a standstill.

“Everything changed after 9/11,” says Hollister. “A lot of people don’t think a lot about how that affected the industry. You didn’t see a lot of movie stars doing television until after that point.”

Seven years later, Hollister found herself waltzing alongside Steve Carell in Get Smart. In the scene, Carell’s Maxwell Smart invites Hollister’s character to dance in competition with Anne Hathaway’s Agent 99. Hollister, a plus-sized actress, is laughed at by the audience until Carell’s character sweeps her off her feet – literally.

Being a plus-sized actor has brought an element of struggle to Hollister’s acting career, as the industry is not known for its inclusivity when it comes to size.

“I had gastric bypass in 2011 because … I was being told, ‘You’re too fat to play the fat role,’” says Hollister. “I did it for my career first and health second, and I’m very honest about that. I’m always going to be big for Hollywood, because I’m 5’9”.”

However, Hollister says the attitude surrounding plus-sized female actors has changed dramatically since she began acting thanks to big-name plus-sized actors, noting the success of the likes of Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson.

“Melissa McCarthy is one of the most bankable celebrities right now, and she gets no credit for it at all,” says Hollister. “I went to audition for This is Us, and now they’re like, ‘You’re too small.’ I’m like, how is this happening?”

Finding that balance has always been a focus of Hollister’s, and the same was true when she accepted the starring role in a film by infamous German director Uwe Boll. The film, titled Blubberella – which Hollister called “horrible” in a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly – showcased Hollister as a fat superhero, fighting against Nazis.

“He was going to do it with or without me,” says Hollister. “At least I was in on the joke. If I’m in on the joke, I wrote the jokes, we’re good. I felt more empowered because of that.”

The film sits at an abysmal 12 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but Hollister doesn’t regret taking a chance on it.

“That’s the weird tale of it; I don’t regret it at all. I think you have to go where the work is,” says Hollister. “You take a heavier woman and make her a superhero. I thought it could be really empowering.”

Now, Hollister is focused on the expansion of the Pie Hole as well as working behind the camera. She wrote a horror-comedy film about kids in a fat camp that is now being packaged by the major United Talent Agency. Hollister realized that writing allowed her to feel as if she had found her voice, she says. The film follows the themes of bullying and size acceptance.

“That’s been an ongoing theme in my career, and I’m fine with it,” says Hollister. “Kids are killing themselves. … I think they need to know there are successful people out there that were bullied, and are still bullied, and that you’re not alone.”

Hollister’s future remains bright. Between the Pie Hole, writing, producing and acting, she’s keeping busy and is still finding success.

“It’s a really exciting time right now,” says Hollister. “I feel like I’m at the rebirth of my career. You have to reinvent your career every 10 years, keep creating and working at it."

Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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