How moving from California to Kiwiland turned Jen Van Epps into an in-demand actress

How moving from California to Kiwiland turned Jen Van Epps into an in-demand actress

-  Florene Hartigan

Actress Jen Van Epps spent years in Hollywood struggling to make her dreams of movie stardom a reality.

But it wasn't until she moved halfway across the world, to Auckland, that the 42-year-old finally got her chance - and now she's a US box-office hit, appearing opposite Girls star Allison Williams in the Kiwishot horror movie M3gan.

After growing up in California, Jen moved to Aotearoa with her husband and daughter in 2018, at an emotional and career low point. "Acting had taken a backseat," recalls the One Lane Bridge, Cowboy Bebop and Power Rangers star. "I felt strangely unmotivated, even though acting was what I really wanted to do. I know now a lot of that was actually fear and self-loathing.

In M3gan with Allison and Brian.

"My anxiety got so bad, I started having panic attacks and night terrors. Going to auditions, I was terrified. It was like I had marbles in my mouth. I couldn't calm down."

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, it was the final straw for Jen and her family. "Given Trump attitude towards women and people of colour, it was pretty eye-opening when he won," she recalls. "Then there was a spate of mass shootings. We felt like, 'What is happening?"

A friend of Jen's husband, a fellow doctor, had moved to New Zealand a few years previously and offered to help find him a job if the family was considering a move.