Charlotte Hemmings’ earliest memories revolve around film and TV: running around sets; Sunday lunches with actor and pop culture personality Mr. T; and even acting in a Super Bowl commercial as a 2-year-old. She is the daughter of celebrated British actor, director, and producer David Hemmings—known for his roles in “Blow-Up” and directing work for “Magnum P.I.” and “Airwolf,” among many others—so one could say, acting is in her genes. But when it came to finding her own way in film and television, as well as the creative arts, Charlotte forged her own path.
“Once you get a taste for the film industry and the pace of it, like with travel, it is really hard to turn away from it,” Hemmings says. “My dad found that to be the case, too.”
A visual artist and an up-and-coming actress, Hemmings has been in 17 films and countless commercials, as well as the YouTube TV series “Beauty and the Billionaire: Bali.” She is also starring in the upcoming serial-killer thriller, “The Edge of Normal,” alongside Chloë Grace Moretz and Rupert Friend, and directed by Carlota Pereda. This film is currently in production. But her road to being on camera was a bit unconventional.
Finding Her Footing
After spending seven years in Los Angeles as a young girl, Hemmings ended up in the Wood River Valley by a bit of happenstance.
“My parents were chasing the film industry,” she explains. “In the late 80s, it was moving up to Canada. In a series of unfortunate but actually fortunate events, we ended up in Ketchum. It was right before Christmas, and I was almost 7… I graduated from Wood River High School 12 years later.”
On the set of “Beauty and the Billionaire, Bali” Photo courtesy Charlotte Hemmings
After graduating, Hemmings beelined it to Los Angeles with hopes of catching a big break, diving in headfirst. “I had the bright lights, silver screen, get-me-to-L.A., I-am-going-to-be-an-actress dreams,” she recalls. “I drove down there in my little Toyota stick shift truck, and, man, I was humbled quickly. I got some great auditions out of the starting gate but just didn’t have that real world experience. I was really sheltered coming from our little, small town. The rejection was too much; the hustle was too much.”
So, Hemmings opted to get her film industry fix behind the camera lens and began working as a production assistant for award-winning commercial director Joe Pykta.
A little bit of chance shot her career forward, but this time in the world of fine art. Painting had always been a part of Hemmings’ life, but it was not something she saw herself pursuing for a career. However, when she gifted a film gaffer a portrait of his recently deceased dog, Pykta saw it and said, “What are you doing here?”
Fast forward: Hemmings attends Otis College of Art and Design.
“I really tabled acting,” Hemmings says. “I thought, ‘That’s not for me, I guess my trajectory is art.’ I finished art school and as soon as I graduated, I moved back to
Ketchum and thought I was done with L.A.”
She planted roots and cut her teeth in the graphic design world, working for this magazine, art galleries, and then Smith Optics, where her husband Chatham Baker also worked. When the company relocated to Portland, Oregon, they made the move, too. Life eventually led them to Park City, Utah, where they are currently raising their daughter, Blue.
But Hemmings continued to feel the creative instinct tug at her.
“There was nothing really happening in Utah for acting,” she says. “I was being a mom. I had a young child, that was all I was focusing on. Then in 2020, I read Glennon Doyles’s book ‘Untamed.’ It changed the trajectory of my life, and I thought, ‘What am I doing with this one wild and precious life?’ None of my itches are being scratched. I lost myself in the slog of life.
“I closed the cover of that book, and two weeks later I got my headshots redone and two weeks later, I signed with an agent … and shortly after that, I got my first national commercial.”
Hemmings’ Second Act
“Once I was on the path, things fell into place,” she says. “Finally, when I paid attention, I realized this is where I am meant to be.”
Hemmings found a niche in the comedic world doing national commercials for companies like Chirp and ReMax, while her film work tends to lean toward more serious roles and horror films.
“I get the best of both worlds,” she says. “I have been in three horror movies in the last year, I never thought I would do that. … One of my dad’s first breaks was a horror movie, and being in a horror movie feels like I am doing him a lot of justice.”
When Hemmings caught up with Sun Valley Magazine for this interview this fall, she was heading to a red-carpet premiere that evening. “I wish my dad could be there with me tonight,” she says.
Hemmings’ father unexpectedly passed away in 2003. She navigated the film world without his guidance, but she feels proud to follow in his footsteps.
“While he has influenced me hugely and put the bug in me, I am having to do it without him,” she says. “I know he is watching over me and is so proud.”
Hemmings pursues her creative passions in tandem. While acting has taken center stage in her life, painting, however, has become more than something she does on the side. “Painting took a backburner in 2020 when I dedicated myself to acting,” Hemmings says. “I did little paintings for friends and commissions here and there, but it wasn’t much.”
Then, when her brother, Edward, who owns Hemmings Gallery with wife Glin Varco, saw a piece Charlotte had created for a friend in Salt Lake City, he asked if she could pursue a bigger body of work to showcase at the gallery.
“It feels really cool, and there is even more pressure with my brother as the gallery owner,” Hemmings says.
The show, which opens December 26, will feature 20 large-scale mixed-media-on-panel paintings with a Western Americana and rodeo theme.
“I am drawn to animals and abstractions,” she says. “Elk and mountain goats, and the mythology of the American West through images of the rodeo. The backgrounds are incredibly painterly and then it has more of a graphic image of the rodeo, as well, with barrel races and bucking broncos and rodeo queens.”
The collection is a celebration and exploration of her upbringing in Idaho and her connection to her heritage in the West. The show is also bringing her back to her Wood River Valley roots.
Hemmings has called many places home over the years. Sun Valley, however, continues to be the “end game,” she says. “It’s funny because the last six months have really brought me home in this crazy creative way—it has been so incredible to share my new trajectory with my hometown.”
Whether it’s a gallery launch, a theater production at the Argyros Performing Arts Center (once the home of nexStage Theatre that her dad founded), or hitting the red carpet, Hemmings credits Sun Valley and the spirit of the West with helping her find her own way.