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photo by Raffael Dickreuter |
First of all, why don't you introduce yourself to those of us who don't
already know who you are?
Hi everyone! My name is Shelly Skandrani, I’m a classically trained
actress, I’ve worked in theater as well as on films and television for
over twenty years. I was born in Tel-Aviv Israel, and I grew up in London,
England, and I’ve traveled extensively, so I’m a strange and varied
mix of a few cultures, and I have a ton of great stories to tell!
How would you describe yourself as an actress, and some of your
techniques to bring your characters to life?
I’d say I’m quite a versatile actress, I like to play a wide range
of roles from all walks of life. I’m very interested in different
cultures, life styles and history, so I enjoy exploring many angles of the
human condition.
My techniques vary depending on the role. Some roles require more
internal work, I break down the script into units to help me figure out
its rhythm, I use substitutions when working on relationships with
different characters and I analyze what the character says and what the
character does, and the space created by the difference between the two. If the character is really extreme or very different from who I am, I
also enjoy dressing in their wardrobe, and using the props they would use.
There’s also a great movement technique called Laban Technique, which
really helps me with the body language and movement of characters that are
more distant from who I am naturally, it’s pretty incredible how body
language can change a character, both for the actor and for the viewer.
Any current
and future projects you'd like to share?
I actually have a really cool line-up of projects, I can’t reveal
them all yet but I’ll share the ones I can.
I just finished filming a pitch for the Women in Comedy competition for
HBO, which was directed by Natalie Marciano, who’s a comedy genius!
It’s exciting because there are so many new opportunities for women
today. The films will be viewed by Ada Chiaghana, the director of comedy programming, and Natalie has a few comedy TV shows which she wants to
introduce to Ada, and wants me to star in. I love HBO, so that would be an
incredible opportunity for me, and so much fun!
photo by Emad Asfoury |
I’ll also be starring in an Independent feature film called Phoning It In about Astrid, a super indecisive woman whose life is
in shambles because she’s too scared to make any choices. It’s a
really interesting take on modern society, where we have all the
possibilities and are overwhelmed with which direction to take, I think it
creates a lot of anxiety in people, decision-making is definitely a skill
to be learned.
What got you
into acting in the first place, and what can you tell us about your
education on the subject?
I started acting because it was fun!
I was nine when I started in the theater, I loved the stage, it made me
feel alive, I loved the adrenaline. I loved working as a team with interesting, exotic and wonderful
people, with adults who spoke with me as if I was their equal, as if my
opinion mattered, who allowed me to be who I am without any restrictions
or expectations. It felt like a family. I like to say that I ran away and
joined the circus. It was glorious! From ages nine to sixteen I took weekly acting classes at the
Old Bull
Theatre in London, I also performed in two productions every year, so I
spent about eight months of the year in rehearsals and performances. When I moved to Israel I did a one year foundation course at
Nissan
Nativ Acting School and then a three year, incredibly intensive, degree at
Beit Zvi Performing Arts Academy, where I graduated Summa Cum Laude. Then of course upon
arriving in Los Angeles I took weekly
classes, and comedy improv, to get acquainted with the local styles and
requirements.
It’s like being an athlete, you have to stay in shape.
According to my information,
your first movie was the critically acclaimed The Devil's Arithmetic
- so do talk about that one, your character in it, and how did you get the
role in the first place?
The Devil’s Arithmetic is a Showtime produced film made for
Hallmark and based on the book by Jane Yolen. Dustin Hoffman and Mimi
Rogers are producers on it. It tells the story of Hannah (Kirsten Dunst) who travels back in time
to the Holocaust and lives through the horrors her grandparents survived. She meets her cousin (Brittany Murphy) in 1942 and they go to
Leah’s wedding (played by myself) where the Nazi soldiers destroy the
wedding and gather the bride and groom and all the guests and take them to
concentration camps. In the camp, the film follows their despair as everything around them
falls apart. It’s an incredibly intense and sad film. My role was truly
challenging. I went from being a young and glowing bride, to being
physically forced into trucks, and then had my head shaved (for real) and
then I lost my husband, I lost my mind and then of course… the gas
chambers. It was a lot to handle at a young age, but it was an important film,
especially as I’m Jewish and had family friends who were survivors. I
knew it was an important and powerful story to tell.
The journey to getting the role is quite interesting. I was told by my
acting teacher about a lead role in a film called The Lovers based
on a novel by an Israeli author called A. B. Yehoshua. It was a great book
and I went through a bunch of auditions and eventually I got the part! It
was to be shot in Israel and Italy. So my dad called the top children’s
agency in London at the time, Sylvia Young, and told them ”My daughter
is the lead in a film, she needs an agent”… it worked! A week later Sylvia calls me in to her office, she welcomes me with a
sad face. “I’ve got some good news and some bad news” she says,
don’t we all know THAT phrase? LOL. The bad news was that they
couldn’t get me a work visa for Italy and I lost the lead role. The good
news was she got me an audition for The Devil’s Arithmetic! Any other kid would have been really depressed, and it would have
affected their audition, but back then, I took things really lightly - so I
said “Ok I’ll just do that film instead then” LOL!! Sylvia chuckled, she thought I was being cute. But hey, I got the part!
Looking back, Sylvia must have thought my dad and I were aliens, we
were so clueless, but somehow we made it happen!
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photo
by Ilan Basor |
Other past films of yours you'd
like to talk about, and how do you think you've grown as an actress?
I was in a cute comedic film called The Marriage Agreement back in
Israel, which was directed by the legendary filmmaker Menahem Golan (The
Delta Force, The Finest Hour, Journey to the Center of the
Earth).
It’s a comedy about a couple that after 20 years of marriage, rediscover
their love for each other while searching for their marriage agreement,
which they need for their daughter’s wedding ceremony.
I played the supporting role of Haviva, a young woman that the husband
to be and the father of the bride, meet at the beach with her friend. We
are the “forbidden fruit” who then hang around with them and
eventually take them to a party and distract them from their mission by
dancing and being fun and vibrant, not knowing that they were both spoken
for! It was a really great role! I was doing a lot of theater at the time, and it was all really heavy
dramas and tragedies, my friends were convinced I could never be in a
comedy, ever, I completely proved them wrong!
I was just in a film called 9 Ways To Hell and it’s a horror
anthology film based on Dante’s Inferno, and his nine levels hell. I am
the lead of the segment based around the “Fraud” level. It’s funny
because I cannot watch horror films! I get nightmares, I’m such a wimp!
But acting in one was really fun and liberating. I don’t know if I’ll
be able to go to the red carpet screening though LOL - i might just have
to sneak out or cover my eyes!
I think I’ve changed a lot as a person in my nine years in Los
Angeles, I’ve grown, matured and become more confident as a woman and so
that’s definitely affected my work and choices as an actress. I think when I was younger I saw my role as an actress differently, I
was there to serve the production, I did what I was told, I worked hard on
creating a character but I felt that it was someone else’s vision. And
I’d pretty much take any role offered to me as long as it wasn’t
offensive or against my value system.
Today, well I still do what I’m told on set for sure LOL, but I am
more selective about the projects I take and I am more active in searching
out specific filmmakers and projects that align with my life’s purpose.
In fact my life’s purpose in general is much clearer to me, and it’s
not to be a “movie star” but rather to use my tools and strengths as
an actress to reach out to the viewers, to empower, to uncover life’s
truths, to inspire change. I love female driven stories, or historical pieces that highlight how beautiful mankind can be when we
practice kindness and understanding. I feel like today I’m a bigger piece of the puzzle, I’m more
involved in the story as a whole. Ironically enough, now that I’m more
centered around my own truth, more and bigger opportunities have been
coming my way. I feel like I’m walking in my own path rather than
chasing somebody else’s, and it feels great!
photo by Emad Asfoury |
Besides
making movies you've also done your fair share of theatre work - so what
can you tell us about that aspect of your career? And how does performing
on stage compare to acting in front of a camera, and which do you prefer,
actually?
I believe that theater is an actor's medium, you do weeks or even
months of rehearsals, everybody is involved, the director, costume
department, musicians, set designers, we all piece it together. BUT once
that audience is in the room, once those curtains go up, it’s ALL up to
the actors! There’s no cutting, no retakes, no adjustments, you just
throw yourself into the moment and you either capture the audience, or you
don’t. It’s incredibly scary, but it’s also wonderfully
invigorating! You get to feel the audiences energy, it’s such a powerful feeling,
similar to that of a rockstar I imagine.
Film is very different, film is a director’s medium. Firstly there’s hardly any rehearsals usually, and you have to do the
same scene over and over from different angles, so you can afford to make
a mistake, because there’s no live audience. With film, however, it can
feel more real because the sets are bigger and you’re surrounded by this
alternate reality. It’s also challenging in it’s own right because you
have to be able to perform the second the director says action, and
sometimes they can film the hardest scenes first thing on the first day,
where as usually in theater the harder, more emotional, scenes are at the
end of the play so you’re usually in character for over an hour straight
before you need to break down and cry.
They’re both amazing, I can’t say that I prefer one over another, I
definitely think that the actor feels more powerful on a stage but in film
you get to travel, work with more people, do more roles. They’re both
amazing experiences. I recommend both aspects to actors and to viewers!
Having lived, studied and worked in Israel,
England and the USA, how do these three countries compare, on both a
private and a professional level?
In England the art of acting is highly respected, actors study for
years, they read and learn the classics and are called thespians. You
don’t call yourself a thespian without having a degree in it first and
we take ourselves very seriously. This has its advantages but also
its drawbacks. It made me very dedicated to perfecting my craft and I
really learned about self discipline, but on the other hand I was scared
to take risks or try characters that were very different from who I am in
real life.
In Israel people in general are more open and bold and so I was
surrounded by people who tried new things and weren’t afraid to fail, my
acting coaches would always push me out of my comfort zone, to much
resistance might I say, but I learned to loosen up, and become more
versatile.
Los Angeles is a totally different kettle of fish. Los Angeles in
ginormous! It takes years just to learn how to navigate through the
industry, there are literally millions of people here that are in the film
industry and it takes time to feel like you have a grasp on it. Here I had to learn how to brand myself, because you have to find a way
of standing out in a crowd. I definitely learnt about tenacity and
perseverance here as well! I think the American idea that “everything is possible” still
astounds me, way too often. I hear my American friends say, let’s try
doing this and I’m like “wait, how do you know it’ll work? What if
we fail?”
I think British culture is way more stiff and Israel is way to
stressful financially, to take the business risks that Americans take. And
without risk there’s no reward! I’m constantly trying to push myself
and to learn from my friends to take risks more in my stride.
Actresses (and indeed
actors) who inspire you?
Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand, Emily Blunt, Viola Davis,
Susan Sarandon, Helen Mirren, Octavia Spencer, wow there’s so many…
and Emma Stone, I can’t stop looking at her, she’s so quirky and
fragile, and yet very powerful - I love it. I love strong women who can show that a woman’s sensitivity, and
vulnerability is her strength, not her weakness! For too long the feminine
characteristics in women have been seen as negative attributes, but women
are connected to the Earth and it’s our sensitive nature that allows us
to plug into our intuition and our power.
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Actors would be, well the late Robin Williams was a huge comfort and
inspiration to millions, myself included, I cried the day he left us. Brad Pitt and Will Smith have really grown into deep and complex
character creators. Edward Norton, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Day
Lewis, Anthony Hopkins and I’m really enjoying Dwayne Johnson’s work
in recent years.
Your favourite movies?
Oh Man! Your questions are hard! LOL! There’s so many great ones!
Ouch… I know I’ll look back at this interview and be like “how did I
forget that film??” OK, let’s see…
Suffragette, The Matrix, Three Billboards in Ebbing Missouri, The Post,
Hidden Figures, The Little Mermaid (original Disney 1989), The Shawshank
Redemption, The Help, Rudderless, Interstellar, Amelie,
Cinema Paradiso,
Grease, Independence Day, Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers, Hero, Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Slumdog Millionaire, Happy Gilmore,
Life is Beautiful, Lion, Fight Club,…
I mean, there are so many good ones!
...
and of course, films you really deplore? In general I’m
not too keen on films that portray women solely as sexual objects, not to
make an artistic comment, but simply so that they can sell the film. I
think it’s cheap. Get a better script, rely on the story, not the naked
chick.
Your website,
Facebook, whatever else?
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0803840/
Website: http://shellyskandrani.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shelly.skandrani/
Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Hmmm… I love traveling! So if anyone wants to cast me in a film that
travels I’m definitely on board! When I was traveling in India I was cast in a film called
Shaitan
in Mumbai, it was fantastic to learn about the Indian culture by working
with locals and being integrated more fully. The Devil’s Arithmetic was shot in Lithuania and most of the crew and
smaller acting roles were local and it was great to see Vilnius through
their eyes. Africa is on my list! I’ve never been, so if anyone wants to shoot a
movie out there, let me know, I’ll get the vaccinations and I’m ready
to go! :)
Thanks for
the interview!
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