Hoover native Savannah Lathem racks up more awards in Hollywood

Savannah Lathem may have whetted her appetite for acting as a young girl in Hoover, but she continues to develop her talent and rack up awards in Hollywood.

Lathem, who years ago attended South Shades Crest Elementary School and still has family in the Birmingham area, is now 18 and in February won best lead actress in a feature film from the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.

She was honored for playing a 14-year-old girl in a movie called “The Guest House,” a suspense thriller which tells the story of a man who separates from his wife and rents a guest house from a wealthy landlord who turns out to be psychotic.

Lathem’s character, Sam, is the daughter of the renter and is upset with her dad for separating from her mom. She and her dad get to know his new landlord, but they’re in for some surprises.

“I’m very young and naïve, and I don’t know he’s a psychotic killer,” Lathem said. “I trust him, and my character gets in a lot of trouble because I’m so naïve.”

It was a challenging role but a fun movie on which to work, Lathem said. “I got to do a stabbing scene,” she said. “I had a stunt double teach me how to properly stab someone.”

The movie includes a dramatic fight scene that involves an RV rolling downhill, and Lathem’s character is forced to use the knife to stab the landlord to keep him from killing her dad, she said.

The editor for the “The Guest House,” Eric Won, won the best editing award at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. The movie also was nominated for best picture, along with “Black Mass” (which stars Johnny Depp), “Iscariot,” “Hickey,” “Love Meet Hope” and “Trumbo,” which won the best picture category.

Lathem said she had a wonderful experience working on the set with actors such as Tom Altar (who plays her dad), Tim Robinson (who plays the landlord), Lisa Roumain (who plays her mom), Eileen Davidson (a psychologist) and Daniel Baldwin (her dad’s boss).

This is just the latest of numerous awards and nominations for Lathem since she moved out to California to act in 2007.

At age 15 in May 2013, Lathem won a Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film for her role in a movie called “California Solo.” The Young Artist Awards are similar to the Oscars for young actors.

Lathem was nominated for a Young Artist Award two other times. In 2010, she was nominated for best guest star performance by a young actress in a TV series for her role as the “young Rachel” on the 2009 season finale of the hit TV show “Lost.” Her second nomination came in 2012, when she was nominated for best young lead actress in a short film for her role in a film called “Vanilla Promises.”

Lathem in 2013 won an award from the L.A. Webfest for outstanding lead role in a reality/documentary web series for her role as “Judge Savannah” in a show called “Kids Justice,” which she said is a lot like a kid-version of “Judge Judy.”

She also has had guest roles on episodes of “Criminal Minds,” “Castle,” “Private Practice” and the Disney Channel’s “I Didn’t Do It.” She recently was nominated for a Young Entertainer Award for her guest starring role in an episode of TNT’s “Major Crimes” show.

Lathem in 2013 made IMDb’s list of “30 young actors to watch out for in 2013” and played the lead role in a short film called “The Cub,” which was picked for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

She was in an Xbox 360 commercial with Selena Gomez, and her other film credits include “Money Ball” and “The Stepfather” and voice-over jobs in “Ramona and Beezus,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.” She recently appeared in two episodes of the “Guidance” series, which appears on YouTube and Verizon’s Go90 app.

“I’m very happy, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for my future,” Lathem said. “I just feel really blessed to have worked with really great people. I’ve learned a lot acting-wise … It’s been a great experience.”

Lathem considers Meryl Streep and Sally Field as role models and hopes to one day win an Oscar.

Lathem got her start at age 9 when a talent agency held a cattle call at the Riverchase Galleria and she was selected out of 1,200 kids to go to California for a commercial. Then she auditioned for “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?” and made the top 10 out of 3,000 9-year-old girls.

Her parents, Don and Gina Lathem, hired an entertainment attorney, who assured them the talent agency that had an interest in their daughter was credible and one of the top agencies in Hollywood. So they decided to let her follow her dream.

Lathem and her mother moved to California and split time between there and Alabama, while her father at first stayed in Hoover to run a real estate investment and property management business. Her father has since joined them in California and travels back and forth to Birmingham to help with the family business, which is managed by their oldest son.

Gina Lathem said they don’t regret taking the leap and moving to California to help Savannah find her way.

“She’s had such great opportunities,” her mother said. “She has come really close to landing major roles in film and TV. She loves it. She’s very passionate about her career and acting.”

It’s important to follow your passions, Gina Lathem said.

“If it’s something you truly love, I think it will work itself out,” she said. “We’re very happy with what’s happened so far.”