Sir Michael Caine: You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.
Actor Ana Roza Cimperman has an award-winning film and an appearance upfront and personal in an Ariana Grande commercial already in her resume, but she refers back to people like Michael Caine when it comes to how fully committed she becomes to a project, always asking more of herself, as Caine himself suggests.
Indeed, the in-demand actor, whose upcoming films include thrillers like Ascending and OJDIP a Slovenian horror, talks of devouring books by acting legends Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Ivana Chubbuck and Larry Moss: “Michael Caine's book on acting and the other books, each is valuable in a different way. The parts that affected me most might be something that I heard before, but those books just came at the right time and explained it in a way that just resonated with me.”
More specifically, she talks of Caine’s book, Acting in Film: An Actor's Take on Movie Making, saying “his obvious love of acting is inspiring,” while he offers you advice “on what to do and what not to when acting in film.” As for his thoughts of giving “more” she personally offers, “When I book a part I become hyper-focused, and do intense research and analysis on the character, always asking for more of myself. But once I feel I own that, I am good at letting it go and just experimenting with the material so it comes alive.”
Indeed, Cimperman has studied various acting techniques including “method” acting as well as the techniques at the Stella Adler company giving her a well-rounded background.
She talks about why certain modern actors appeal to her, explaining, “I had the privilege of observing Oscar winner Viola Davis on set during a very emotional performance. Her focus was incredible, it still gives me goosebumps when I think about it. I also love watching Mark Ruffalo because he has such a range—he is good at action, drama and comedy.”
In fact, that’s one of Cimperman’s strengths, her versatility, and her ability to do…comedy. She admits that in the past, doing dramas was easier for her to perform—dramas like Nympho’s Diary, Eight and a Half Circles and A Door, in which she plays a girl who has hallucinations about her dead mother. She recalls, “At first, I was avoiding comedy because I didn't understand how it worked, but I decided to work on it, I spent months rehearsing comedic scenes, I read books about comedy, did improvisation.”
As a result, she joined the powerhouse Groundlings improv company confessing it was challenging for her to improvise at first, learning to “just commit to the scene and my character with enthusiasm. The experience and training helped me to act faster on my feet which proved super valuable when shooting films.”
For example, she appeared in the “Psycho Therapy” episode of the internet series, The Man Van, and she’s just laugh-out-loud hilarious. She explains, “I played a Russian psychotherapist with some unconventional methods in this web series. It was a fun shoot, I was able to use my Slovenian accent, made it even heavier, and played it in a dead-pan way, which helped the scene be funnier.”
More importantly, she now enjoys comedy along with drama, adding, “I think I realize how powerful it is to have the ability to entertain people and make them laugh. It reminds me of my first acting experience back in school when I was doing a Slovenian play. I loved the rush of adrenaline when I got on stage, people's laughter after a funny line. Or even better, laughter because someone did that in a funny way, which was not even in the script. All that motivated me and brought me here.”
More importantly, Cimperman’s ability to think/act and give more led to a bigger part in another project. She booked a gig on a TV commercial featuring superstar singer Ariana Grande, where she was going to be one of the enthusiastic fans. Cimperman explains what happened: “I realized on set that a song of hers I knew would be used in the TV commercial. And although it was never instructed to me, I felt I would benefit from knowing the lyrics to the song. So, I spent the next two hours playing the song over and over again trying to remember the lyrics. I guess it worked because I could sing along with her as a fan in her audience and I ended up with a bigger part because of it.”
So, she’s open to TV shows and TV advertisements and all sorts of genres in film, including doing Shakespeare. But one of her best genres is beyond reality: “I've always been a fan of Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan too, as their imagination is just incredible. My favorite genre is science fiction, I am always inspired after watching a movie that presents a new reality to me and does it so well that when the movie ends you feel like staying in that world longer. I've had that experience with Dune recently directed by Denis Villeneuve, it made me buy the book the next day.” She also ambitiously adds, “I’d love to be part of and/or a filmmaker on a science fiction Black Mirror type of project and film it in our Slovenian language since I don't know of any Slovenian science fiction feature films.”
But no matter the platform or genre, Cimpeman says the story is key, and the actor, along with writer, director, cinematographer and editor, each plays a vital role in the overall storytelling process: “As actors we have to bring our own vision to the project. Scripts are often simple, a lot is left unsaid and unexplained. It's up to us actors to interpret what the writer was trying to say and then add to it in a way that respects the material, but also offers something that is not already on the page. I am always curious to see how far I can go with a character, and then I can always bring it back if the director has a different vision.”
As for what’s upcoming, she’s filming a 16th century historical/period tv show next year, and a mystery horror-thriller being filmed in Los Angeles. Moreover, one producer has suggested Ana Roza Cimperman has “real star power,” and she is looking forward to things in the industry going back to normal, and one day hopefully working with the big name directors she admires.
Drop in on Ana Roza Cimperman’s Website, Instagram and IMDb pages. And, check out some performance clips like Nympho’s Diary, Eight and a Half Circles, and The Man Van.
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