REID ALL ABOUT IT: ‘I STILL WANT THAT OSCAR! THAT'S EVERY ACTOR'S DREAM'

TARA REID TELLS OK!’S OLIVER GRADY HOW SHE BOUNCED BACK FROM NEAR CAREER OBLIVION TO ENJOY A SECOND WAVE OF SUCCESS

- OLIVER GRADY

If anyone knows what it’s like to ride the roller coaster of fame, it’s Tara Reid. In the 90s, she was tipped as the next big thing, thanks to her breakout roles in 1998 indie favourite The Big Lebowski and, the following year, raunchy teen sensation American Pie. But just when her promising career looked set to catapult her into the Hollywood A-list, it all went spectacularly haywire. A string of ill-advised roles and a car crash personal life saw her hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Soon she became more famous for her boozy party hopping, doomed romances and questionable plastic surgery than her on-screen skills.

Before long she was appearing in reality shows to pay the bills, including a stint on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011. She seemed destined to become another cautionary Hollywood tale.

But then a little TV movie franchise called Sharknado came along and everything changed. The camp, sci-fi disaster series might not have been a critical success but it became a cult phenomenon that saw Tara go from a punchline to the one having the last laugh.

The 44-year-old former pin-up has since capitalised on this by putting on her producer hat. Tara now has a whopping 10 movies in pre-production, five awaiting release and is even rumoured to be in talks to play Tiger King’s Carole Baskin in a future film.

A true comeback kid, Tara fills OK! in on how she grew up, got her act together and never gave up…

Tara, it sounds you’re having something of a career renaissance. Does it feel like that?