We recently connected with Paulina Ophelia and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Paulina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

My passion for a creative career was deeply influenced by my upbringing. Both of my parents are in creative fields—my dad is a journalist, and my mom is a graphic designer with a passion for film. From a young age, my mom introduced me to classic films like “Gone with the Wind,” even though watching a four-hour movie was quite a challenge at six years old. Tennessee Williams is like a God in our household, with a “A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” movie poster prominently displayed in our living room, right across from an “Al Pacino in Scarface” poster.

Every weekend, my mom would watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers videos on YouTube and insisted that my dad and I join her. To this day, she makes my dad dance with her every Friday night. Growing up in such a creatively vibrant environment, it felt natural for me to pursue a career in the arts. I started writing stories at an early age. And not your typical fairytale stories where the girl gets the guy. My stories were about trauma, sickness and suffering. Maybe a little too intense for a 1o year old girl – I’ll admit that.
I knew I wanted to make people feel something—to make them cry, laugh, get angry, and shake their heads in disbelief.
Elizabeth Taylor had that effect on me when I was little, and I aspired to evoke the same emotions in others.

Paulina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Munich, Germany, I started rehearsing my Oscar speech early on in our bathroom. I secretly always fantasized about America and the American dream, even though it seemed out of reach for someone like me from Germany. How would I go about it? Once I completed school, I applied to an exchange program to become somewhat part of an American family.

In 2021, I left home to become an Au Pair in Pennsylvania. While being an Au Pair was fun, it wasn’t nearly as fulfilling as I had imagined. After a year, I found myself stuck. Returning to Germany wasn’t an option; everything at home was the same, but I wasn’t the same person anymore. It was then that I took an online Method acting class, and my instructor encouraged me to apply to the prestigious The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. I did, not thinking much of it. At the time I was very unhappy with my life and the choices I had made so it came as a sweet surprise when just a few days later, I got my acceptance letter from Strasberg. I remember calling my mom, and the first thing she said was, “OMG! How are we going to finance this?” But since then, she has turned her whole life around to make my dream come true. In 2023, I started my studies at the Strasberg Institute in New York.
The school changed my entire life. It was an incredibly difficult year and the juggle between going to school and surviving in this city was intense and ended up having a toll on my physical health. But the reality is, I would choose fainting on the MTA or receiving a false stroke diagnosis while pursuing my passion over a more stable life in Germany any day, no matter how crazy that may sound to some.
I was fortunate enough to study with amazing teachers, including Geoffrey Horne, George Loros, and Lola Cohen. The combination of their teachings was life-changing. Lola provided the necessary tools and exercises, Geoffrey helped manage the pain that surfaced during the exercises, and George taught me not to overthink it all.
All of these teachers had a huge impact on my life, and I am eternally grateful to them. I found myself in the company of brilliance including an Academy Award Winning screenplay writer who was a fellow classmate. He was the one who gave me a much-needed pep talk once I completed my studies and found myself panicking.
In February of 2024, I started my OPT, which allows me to work in my field. I made my New York theatre debut in the satirical show “A Sketch Of New York,” and since then, I’ve been involved in a few short films, including one that required me to travel to Philadelphia. I was excited to take that opportunity because of my connection to the city.
Right now, I’m working on my first screenplay, and while it’s been a pain in the butt process, there’s nothing more fulfilling than getting my ideas down on paper.
In just a few weeks, I will be heading to Edinburgh, Scotland, with the production company Alchemation who just had their opening for “Oh Mary” on Broadway. The company is participating at the Fringe Festival. Having this opportunity is wonderful, and I am very excited for what’s to come.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

There are rules in life that simply don’t apply to acting. As kids, we get told to “sit up straight,” “don’t play with your food,” “don’t say that,” “be good.” The world teaches us to think before we act, which is wonderful but extremely unhelpful when it comes to acting. As actors, we want to do the exact opposite—we want to follow our impulses. In fact, we have to. As a kid, I was a rule follower and did what I was told. Like many of us, I am an overthinker. Therefore, following my impulses on stage was and still is a tremendous challenge. I am used to overthinking every little detail. Trusting my choices and not judging them in acting was difficult for me.
I was taught to filter my thoughts before I speak, which is wrong—at least on stage. Don’t misunderstand me, in life we don’t always want to follow our impulses. There are consequences for our actions.
And of course, we can’t act on every thought that comes on the stage either. If you have the impulse to slap your co-star, you might want to rethink that. Or else get fired.
But generally speaking, following your impulses on stage is good and another reason why acting is fun.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Absolutely! My goal is to tell stories whether through acting, writing, or directing, aiming to recreate the emotional impact I felt while watching extraordinary films from directors like Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and some influential French filmmakers. I’m inspired to incorporate elements from their masterpieces into my own work, learning from their unique styles and storytelling techniques. I know this may sound like a cliché, but I also hope to shine a light on minorities and underrepresented voices in my storytelling. There are subjects we as a society are still afraid to touch and I would like to be able to change that through my craft.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @paulina_ophelia_
• Facebook: Paulina Ophelia Sophie

Image Credits

Black and white from short film “Noises” by Andrew Yang

Theatre pics: A Sketch of New York