Q. Can are you briefly introduce yourself and tell us a bit about background?
A. My name is Andreea Lazar, I was born and raised in the beautiful city of Bucharest, Romania, which is often regarded as the “Paris of Eastern Europe”. Truly a magnificent city, but full of grey and as a child I sought and found color in the arts and in the crazy world of film. Flash forward into adulthood and I’m still that crazy child seeking for color through film. A few facts about me : my favorite movie of all times is “In the mood for love” by Wong Kar Wai, I love wearing green and my family has the cutest cat in the world named Pumpkin.
Q. What inspired you to pursue a career in acting?
A. Growing up being the fourth generation of performance artists in my family, I always felt like I did not have much of a choice really. I was expressing desires to perform from a young age and my parents were very happy to notice that kind of enthusiasm coming from me. I was enrolled in dance, theatre and singing classes when I was four years old.
I remember I really wanted to be a ballerina for a while but when I was offered a scholarship to study in Vienna that my parents declined, I never returned to ballet. I was always the drama kid and sort of the class clown so I was inclined to being in the limelight as much as possible- and when my mom told me there is a vocational high school where I can study drama, I knew it was what I needed to do. That is the moment where I believe I started my career as a professional actress.
Q. Which role has been the most challenging for you and why?
A. The most challenging role I had so far was actually my latest one, where I played a mystical forrest creature that lures men to their death. So fun, I know. It was definitely the role that pushed me very close to my limits because of the actions I had to perform. Being a mystical creature, the director wanted to incorporate as many natural elements as possible, so I had scenes where I had to jump and swim in cold water at night, perform monologues very close to a fire that would eventually slightly burn me or stand by the edge of a lake and also in mud with insects crawling on me. I surprisingly enjoyed each and every scene because I felt I became braver with every moment.
Q. How do you prepare for a role?
A. I have come across a variant of methods and approaches from my training in UCLA, drama high school and several workshops I have been a part of over the years and this experience has certainly helped to shape what works best for me. What I have come to discover is that I am a visual person so what helps me most is playing with images.
After I read a script I immediately start to develop an idea of who the character is by asking myself a series of questions based on the text such as… what do they look like? how do they talk? what do they wear? And so on and forth and from there, all I do is transpose all those questions into actual pictures. I create a mood board usually depicting the interior conflict of the character and I start writing their backstory, I intertwine this process with some script analysis and break down each scene- which always feels to me like unlocking the Da Vinci code of that characters psyche. and finally, I put all elements together and explore the walk, the talk and the intentions of the character. On top of that, I choose a song that I feel represents the vibe of the character or what they’re going through emotionally and I listen to it on repeat for hours, while I day dream memories that the character would have.
I like to have an extensive prep work for every character I do in order to feel very confident on set. I never over rehearse either- I prefer to be present and in the moment.
Q. Can you share a memorable moment from the set of your latest project?
A. We were shooting a lake scene at midnight, in which my scene partner and I are supposed to swim to each other, exchange a prop, and swim the other way around, sort of like performing a dance in the water. The first time we tried shooting the scene was the first time I jumped in the water. I never swam in a lake before, but I was aware that depth is not gradual like in a sea or an ocean- the water could be very deep from the start. And indeed the water was deep, I was nowhere near touching the bottom with my feet. And on top of everything, within the first two seconds of me being in the water, I got tangled in very long water lilies, panicked thinking it was a big fish or something and screamed for help to get out of the water. I was shocked to say the least and my reaction scared the director too who told me that I didn’t have to do anything I was not comfortable with and on my call, they could pack up all equipment and call it a day. I would have regretted not getting the scene done more than having something happening to me while filming, so I asked for a second try. Luckily for me, one of our crew mates jumped in the water with me and held my hand for as long as I needed to. Because of him I was able to film the scene and we were all so thankful he was there.
Q. Who are some of your acting influences or role models?
A. My favorite actress of all times is Cate Blanchett. Alongside her in my top favorite actresses reign Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o and Julia Roberts. When it comes to actors, I do recognize the icons that Al Pacino, DeNiro and Daniel Day Lewis are, but my favorite actor is Christian Bale.
Q. How do you handle criticism and reviews of your performances?
A. I tend to take criticism quite well I would say, but that is really dependable on whether the criticism comes from a good place or rather a negative one. I am hard on myself so if I get a piece of advice or criticism, I usually go straight away to working on it. I am definitely my biggest critic, that’s why I find watching my performances quite torturous, so I rely heavily on the feedback of my director, coach and my boyfriend.
Q. What types of roles are you most drawn to?
A. I am not sure I can say I am mostly drawn to a specific type of role. I get very excited when I get a character that is the furthest thing from me, where they have a profession I never played before or encounter situations I never been in. I love all film genres and would love to do get the opportunity to be part of projects encompassing them all.
However, if there’s a role I would die to get is a Bond girl.
Q. How do you balance your personal life with the demands of your acting career?
A. At this point, balancing my personal life, responsibilities and the demands of my acting career can be quite exhausting. Finding time to practice, work on horning the craft can be difficult, but I always try to push myself to do it because of the guilt I would feel allowing a day to pass by without doing anything artistic. Despite all that, I am very enthusiastic about the new chapter in my career as I recently signed with a great agent and manager that I feel very good about.
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring actors?
A. I would say go for it all in, even if it doesn’t feel like it’s the perfect time, because there’s never going to be a perfect time.
Q. What upcoming projects am I excited about?
A. At the moment, I am really excited about building my new portfolio and creating a solid network! I am not looking forward to any project as I just finished one, but the life of an actor is so fast that I am not worried I’ll be obsessing over a new character soon.
