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SubscribeWe were lucky to catch up with René Zara recently and have shared our conversation below.
René, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Thanks so much for having me. I recently made my Off-Off Broadway debut in October, starring as Lady Augusta Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s rollicking comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest” directed by Janani Sreenivasan playing at Under St. Mark’s Theater in New York City.
It’s been a trying year from a career perspective, given that screen actors were on strike for 118 days–with a tentative deal made only just recently. But since I’m not one to sit still when it comes to exercising my craft, I looked for other ways to keep acting while we actors hit the picket lines. Luckily, I was blessed to have a serendipitous opportunity fall in my lap. Just as the actors voted to go on strike I knew there were a few avenues I would need to consider to keep working. One was voice-over and the other was theatre. And almost immediately after putting that into the universe, I was offered a chance to audition for “…Earnest.”
Among a throng of wildly eccentric characters featured in Oscar Wilde’s classic, the most formidable is Lady Bracknell, who rules over the plot, imposing her Victorian upper-class beliefs on the young lovers in the play, standing solely in the way of their happiness. Although Bracknell is typically cast in film and stage adaptations as an ornery dowager, our director Janani wanted to go in a different direction, reimagining this archetypal character as more “Napoleon with a parasol.”
What’s more, I was thrilled to be cast in this uniquely diverse production along with actors from a variety of backgrounds and identities. I treasured being able to interpret this role through my own experiences as the daughter of an Asian mother and as someone who has lived with a dual cultural identity. That type of opportunity to bring my own truth to a role is truly unique.
Even my audition is something I will treasure fondly. I recall there being a slight emphasis on the authenticity of the British accent. I’ve always been fairly confident of my command of the accent, as I’d been honing it since I was a child watching “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” So, I didn’t want the focus to be on whether or not I could do the accent, just on whether or not I could play the character. Minutes before my Zoom audition with Janani, I made the eleventh-hour decision to show up in the accent. Like most auditions over Zoom, I simply expected to log in, read my scene, and log off. But Janani threw me a curveball and asked to have a bit of a chat before we got to reading the scenes. I had a mild, internal panic, knowing that I was now going to have to follow through with the accent. So, I convinced her I was from Reading, Berkshire [UK] instead of Reading, Massachusetts. I swear that is the only little white lie I told her. Everything else was spot on verifiable! You’ll have to confer with Janani on whether or not she believed me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started out as a stage actor from a very young age, appearing in productions of “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” “Noises Off,” “Peter Pan,” “Nunsense!” and “Ruthless! The Musical.” But in 2017, I started screen acting, winning my first leading role in the award-winning short “Namaste” (written and directed by Christine Altan). After appearing in a plethora of independent projects, commercials and industrials, I launched my production company, Tiny Frog Productions, and produced two films. The first being the Jane Austen-inspired short “Mrs. Osbourne,” which I also wrote, appeared in, and composed the score. The second is “Solitary: Notes from Isolation,” my directing debut, currently in post-production (set for 2024 release), about life during the COVID-19 lockdown. Since joining SAG-AFTRA, I have also appeared in Max’s “Gossip Girl,” and wrapped a feature film directed by critically-acclaimed filmmakers The Kinnane Brothers.
I’m also a lifelong musician, being a film score composer, vocalist, and songwriter, and member of my Boston-based band, Bed By Nine. In 2010, I had the opportunity to work with Grammy-award-winning musician Imogen Heap, culminating in a performance alongside her at London’s Royal Albert Hall. My choral arrangement of Imogen’s hit song “Hide and Seek” is featured in the West End, Broadway, and touring productions of the Olivier and Tony award-winning play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
When you work in theatre, you’re automatically corralled with people who have the same end-goal as you. You share an ideal, you become a family. Screen acting is far more isolating than that. You constantly meet people who are at different levels of their career. So, it is more difficult to find your tribe. Fortunately, only just a couple years into my screen career, I found Actor Playbook, a studio based in Rhode Island, founded by Jami Tennille (“Manchester by the Sea”). She provided this spectacular community of actors, who were fairly new in their careers on camera. She nested all of us into this artistic cocoon to share our experiences and grow together. We were able to celebrate each other’s wins, comfort each other through our losses, and collectively navigate the baffling current of this industry. From there, I was able to join an accountability group, where we continue that growth and support each other through the highs and lows. I couldn’t stress enough to actors just starting out the importance of finding a group of contemporaries to grow with.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I feel like my whole life has been a series of pivots. I started out in the corporate world, working as a commercial artist, which—as those in that field can attest—is punishing to one’s confidence. It was a profession I did not enjoy and every day was a slog. One day, I just decided I had enough and chose a different path. I took up doing industrial voice over work—though the majority of my clients were still corporate, I was doing something more performative, which is clearly where my strengths were. This path then led me to acting on camera; I never looked back.
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