- How did you get involved in acting?
When I was 5 I remember watching the Lord of The Rings for the first time and as soon as it finished I just said to myself ‘’I want to do what those guys on the TV are doing’’. I started going to acting classes with a theater company in my hometown in Bulgaria when I was 12. When I was 15 I auditioned for ‘’Guildhall School of Music and Drama’’ in London and I got accepted into their Junior Program and I moved to London to continue studying. Through every change of scenery in this journey I just keep falling more and more in love with acting.
- How different is it to act in a movie and to act in a theater play? And which one do you prefer?
The biggest difference between acting in a movie or in a theater play, is that when it comes to theater, everything is dialed up to 11. Emotions, you need to stay on your voice at all times otherwise the audience won’t hear you and that’s the death of an actor. Whereas in film everything is brought down, it is more controlled and reserved. You don’t have the freedom of moving too much or expressing yourself more physically because you will get out of the shot. I love doing both, because of how different they are and because I need to use different skill sets depending on which one I am doing.
- What are your weak points when it comes to acting? How do you try to improve them?
I started off with theater acting and did it for 6 years, so I was used to staying on voice, then I switched to film acting and I got used to toning down my voice and emotions etc. for the sake of ‘’realism’’, so now I am not as forward and on my voice as I used to be and that is definitely one of my weak points. I try to improve that with voice warm-ups every day when I wake up, different exercises for my resonators (chest etc.)
- What are your strong points as an actor?
One of my strongest points I think as an actor is how generous and giving I am with my energy. When I go on stage or when I am doing something in film I also leave everything on the stage and in my performance. I experience everything that I am doing or feeling as my character for the first time with the audience. Every time I go on stage I always make new discoveries for my character or for the scene that I am doing that I haven’t noticed in the previous times that I have been on the stage.
- What have you learned from the directors that you have worked with throughout your career?
What I have learned is that it is crucial for the directors to love and have a real passion for the project that they are doing and also let the actors have the freedom of making choices for their characters that are supported by the script but at the same time that the director might not have seen. Overall I think it’s important for everyone involved in a project but especially the directors that the film most probably won’t be exactly how they imagined it but that gives it the opportunity to be even better than they imagined it.
- What makes a good scene partner?
What makes a good partner is someone that has made strong choices for their character, is unapologetic about those choices and it is always a plus if they are easy to bounce off of. Good chemistry is also really helpful because then it doesn’t feel like you are doing a job but instead you are having fun with a friend and getting paid for it.
- What are some of the difficulties of the acting business?
A big difficulty I think is that when you are unknown, the hardest thing is actually getting into the casting room and just having the chance to show the casting directors why I am the one they should hire.
- What’s challenging about bringing a script to life?
: One of the biggest and most fun challenges for me when bringing a script to life is seeing what’s not written on the script, the subtext, the discoveries that you can make that not even the written himself knew they were there when he/she was writing the script. Just dissecting the script in little bits and pieces finding everything you can and then putting it back together.
- What do you do when you’re not doing theater/film?
When I’m not doing Film or Theater I like doing extreme sports. I snowboard, para-glide, rock climb and hike. Sometimes watch movies and TV shows, I also love eating fast food!
- If someone is going to make your life into a movie, who would play you?
Definitely Cillian Murphy. I love that guy, the choices he makes with his characters and how dedicated he is to those choices is just inspiring.
