Next week, I’ll be directing a new short film

Directing

Last month I mentioned that I will be shooting a French scene I wrote. Well, this scene has now turned into a short story that we will be filming on 7th January. I will be acting alongside French actor Alex Kengne (that’s him in the picture), and I am supported by 1st AD Andrea Ratti, as well as the talented cinematographer Clem Nachbauer and composer Oleta Haffner. I will announce the full crew once… it’s done! Don’t want to jinx anything.

I’ve had a lot of free time over this break, not travelling anywhere, and have been finding inspiration in old and new films over the past ten days. Indeed, my story contains flashbacks and objects that change over time. I do hope my audience leans in.

As I have a very low budget, I am lucky to be using a friend’s sitting room to shoot, and have made sure I didn’t write in anything that I couldn’t source easily! During Der Gugelhupf, a prop fell in the mud. This time, important props were bought twice. Fingers crossed!

Acting

Looking back over this year in acting, it was about more stage and less screen, with my favourite role being Carol in “Orpheus Descending”. The short film I acted in was “Tiny Kernel of Dark Joy” by Andrea Ratti which you can watch here. Do you also think it is quite meditative and calm?

2020 starts, after my French short, with a screen workshop as well as a short dystopian film called “The Truth”, shooting in February. I am also moving house which is no small thing.

To my readers, a wonderful and happy new year 2020, a lucky number!

Toodles.

New agent and another year older

As November comes to a close, I am preparing to celebrate American Thanksgiving with my family and also… my birthday! More importantly, as the end of the decade also nears, this is a time to look back at the past ten years and think about what we are truly grateful for. Did you know that 2020 is my tenth year in London?

This year I was back on the stage

As I mentioned last month, 2019 was a year of performing monologues. A few weeks ago, I performed solo in “One from the Heart”. I so enjoyed my character and how the play I was in made the audience question themselves. A magical moment was when in rehearsal, two days before the show, I went through the text once more, letting it all hang out. This led to a new understanding of certain lines and opened up my movement. That’s what they mean by the beauty of rehearsal time.

Speaking of monologues, some of you may remember that I played Carol Cutrere in Orpheus Descending last Spring. I finally put one of her speeches on tape, which you can watch on the left.

French scene

I will be shooting a French scene that I wrote in early January alongside Axel Kengne which I am very excited about. The crew is just forming now.

New agent

Following the Monologue Slam, I met with Michael Moor from RD Casting who is now representing me as an actress. Expect new images and promotional material soon. Let’s go!

Thank you for reading!

What’s been happening in October

Monologue Slam London

Back in September, I auditioned for the Monologue Slam, which is a showcase organised by the Triforce Network. They are an amazing group that has been growing every year (I’m going to one of their filmmaking workshops in two weeks), and I was delighted to be picked for the one-minute slot alongside some truly talented performers of all ages. I also reconnected with Georgie Grier, who I attended an “Intro to acting” workshop at the Actors Centre in 2012! Fun fact, one of our teachers was Vicky Jones (director of Fleabag).

The evening was nerve racking, mostly because I only had one minute – you can rehearse all you want, it’s all about what happens in that short slot. I performed a monologue from the play Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, can’t quite remember how it went, but I do know I had a fun night and connected with interesting people.

New performance

It looks like 2019 is a year of monologues, following “Don’t Judge Me By My Accent” and the Monologue Slam. From November 14 to 16, I will be performing a comedic monologue written by Ken Jaworowski (New York Times editor and critic) involving me, a bathtub and a lottery ticket. I just had my first rehearsal with director James Wren yesterday, and now have to buckle down and learn my lines. You can find tickets here: https://www.unrestrictedview.co.uk/one-from-the-heart/. The evening will involve multiple monologues.

Preparing a French short film

Following my work on the German short film “Der Gugelhupf” (still waiting for a few answers from festivals, and will publish it in 2020. If you’d like to see it, please contact me), I’m now writing and rewriting a script in French. My aim for the moment is to film one of its scenes for my French showreel, stay tuned!

London Film Festival

LFF is a great London event to connect with filmmakers and watch lots of quality films from all over the world. My highlight this year was Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (read my review here), a layered and completely unique picture about friendship and love.

What happened in August

It’s September 1st! This means three more weeks of official summer, a wave of exciting movies coming to my local cinema, and hopefully some new exciting acting work.  

It’s been a good month of August to be honest, in fact it was the kind of month, acting wise, that I’d like to experience all the time.  

It started with two corporate jobs booked through my agent and a German voiceover job from a recurring client on the themes of harassment at work and being a good team member.

In terms of auditions, I attended two short film auditions at Met Film School and one commercial casting – my second ever, and the first time I felt right for the part.

Finally, I lent my French voice to a short animated film set in a war-torn country in the 17th century. This is a project by Rising Dawn Pictures which, once finished, will serve as a pitch to produce a live-action version of the film. Due to its theme, it requires specific locations, costumes and sets. I think it’s a smart move to create an animated version first and not jump into production on the wrong budget. The process on this project was a very positive one: I enjoyed working with director Fredrik Gustafsson who also has experience in theatre directing, and loved the script. My character Séraphine is in charge of defending her farm, and the stakes in her life as well as her anxieties were very fun to play opposite fellow actor Johnny Neal, playing Marius. Talented actor and mover Luis Amalia is also in this! One of my aims right now is to steer towards more French work, and this is a good start.

With regards to Dear Mum, a film I co-produced and acted in in October 2018, it is fully finished. With a beautiful musical score by Oleta Haffner, a voiceover track I contributed, and great final touches by Donovan Swart and editor Felix Dembinski, it is off to festivals! We’ve so far been selected by Rome Independent Prisma Awards, Direct Monthly Online Festival and Florence Film Awards for the film, its cinematography and score. I am quite proud of this film and what our director Donovan Swart achieved with his script, and look forward to sharing its journey with you.

I would like to end with my latest director crush, Joanna Hogg. Her film “The Souvenir” came out a few days ago, so I’ve been exploring her filmography, starting with “Unrelated” and “Archipelago” (next is “Exhibition” and finally “The Souvenir”). What I love about her movies are how they centre on tight family circles and the terrific pain that bounces off the walls of the temporary homes her characters find themselves in. I say bounce – I’m actually picturing more of a slow snake hovering in the air until an argument explodes off screen. The long takes and very few close ups are also enjoyable, and I wonder how much she leaves to improvisation.

Thank you for reading, and toodloo!

Comments on last show and published film

Performance

Following the other week’s cabaret event “Don’t Judge Me By My Accent”, I wanted to go back to the process of preparing my part of the show, and what I discovered on the night.

In May, Beatrice Mori, a talented actress, singer and producer, asked me if I wanted to perform a monologue at her event. She first mentioned a German accent, which I don’t quite feel comfortable in at the moment. After growing up in France, I feel that my oral muscles are able to speak naturally in English with a French accent, so I suggested that instead. I then started looking for French actresses who also act in English for inspiration and a script. Cotillard came to mind, as well as Gainsbourg, but I chose Julie Delpy and remembered the final voiceover in her film “2 Days in Paris” where she describes her relationships with men and deep love for her boyfriend Jack.

I had a month to prepare, so I took my time to learn the speech inside and out, but until the day of the show, I didn’t really know how I would interpret it. It’s funny, sad, provocative. There were things I could relate to, but others I couldn’t. Moreover, presenting a monologue out of context on a cabaret night is not like an audition, it needs to entertain the audience and tell a story from start to finish, right? I broke the text down multiple times, going through the intentions, thought changes and the overall arc. Beatrice told me that she once felt completely lost just hours before performing a piece, and this reminded me that sometimes things need time to click.

And that’s what happened. I arrived at the venue early, where a few of the performers had the chance to rehearse in front of each other. I walked on stage, started talking, and then realised where the speech was going. I found the humour, the rhythm, and noticed that even though the piece is not that funny, I brought my own humour to it. It was the first time I was speaking this text in a big room, and it made all the difference.

The atmosphere and the audience that evening were magical, and we all had a great time, it felt like a collaboration although we had all more or less just met that afternoon. During the show, Beatrice spoke about the origins of this show that embraces all accents and encourages us to be ourselves, to use what makes us unique instead of trying to fit into a box.

You hear this a lot: embrace what makes you unique, don’t try to fit in but communicate in your own voice. After close to a decade away from France, my French is shifting, so is my English, which I’ve inherited from my American mother – not to mention my German which is underused at the moment. But that’s who I am! To quote my friend Margot, I’m a “Euro-merican”, and the movies and plays that move me are those that have characters who don’t just identify as being from one culture. Inside ourselves, we are a rainbow (quoting Maya Rudolph here), and if we work hard enough and keep pushing, I believe the industry will become interested in that rainbow.

Film

On another note, an exciting and dark short thriller/horror shot in 2016 called “Echoes of the Passed” is out on YouTube! This was my third short film with filmmaker Scott Lyus. I loved the experience of acting in this, as I feel I made friends, got to have fun with my three co-stars, and had my first experience with night shoots. Working with Scott is a true pleasure and on this film, it was a real collaboration.