Arts Talk With The Johnson Brothers

Arts Talk With The Johnson Brothers


# 135 Wendy Crouse

May 11, 2014

Wendy grew up in Northern California and at 8 years old, began riding horses with dreams of becoming an Olympic rider for the USA Equestrian Team.  At 13, her family moved to South Florida. When she joined up with a new riding instructor Wendy was told how she would make an excellent horse trainer with her love and understanding of horses and how they think. She joined the local Children's Theater of Miami Beach and landed a role of Cinderella in her first play. Her senior year of High School, She auditioned for The Performing and Visual Arts Center of Miami and was accepted for the Theater Department taking her place among the elite young actors and actresses of South Florida. Winning multiple awards through Thespian State Conferences and Drama Competitions including Best Actress, Wendy was offered a full scholarship in Theater to any Florida University she wished to go. She also had begun to Train horses on the side professionally. Graduating at 17 years old, she decided to continue training horses and not pursue her acting career. She traveled around the country helping Horses solve their "People Problems". She finally arrived in Texas where she opened a private horse training facility and people were quickly calling her ,"Wendy the Whisperer" . 25 years later, Wendy read an ad for an open casting call for the Coen Brothers movie "True Grit (2010)".Out of over 7000 applicants was cast for an extra role as a Town Lady. While on set, she realized how much she had missed the film scene. The day after being on the set of "True Grit" Wendy grabbed her film camera and along with her life partner and best friend Eddy Fitzgerald, decided to make their first Documentary about the mentally ill that roam the streets of Austin, Texas. The film was immediately entered into The Trail Dance Film Festival where "Urban Crazy" made the top 5 in it's category for Feature Documentaries and Final Selection.