We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Theoni Bekiari a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Theoni thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
Being an actress has definitely brought me my fair share of misunderstandings. From my university years I remember a student from another major asking me “So what are your classes like? Do you guys do faces all day?” But I almost expected things like that from people that are not familiar with acting. What really surprised me, was when I was mischaracterized in a professional set for simply doing my job! I was on a professional set portraying a really fun character, let’s call her Bella. So one of the things about Bella was that she was supposed to have different partners throughout the film.
At this point I want to say that the actual production, the director and almost all of my scene partners were very professional, respectful and easy to work with! I left this project loving the experience, since it was also one of my first films, and I would definitely work with the production and director again!
The problems I started facing was when one of my scene partners thought I was flirting with them? During the scene we had to dance together, lock eyes etc, and throughout the shooting I felt that they were uncomfortable. When the camera said action they were trying to avoid my eyes and did not want to act flirty at all. So I felt bad and wanted to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. Something that usually is a given in a professional setting. I tried to have some small talk between takes, I mentioned my partner who was also present and in the film, I tried to talk about our characters and their relationship in the film. Anything to show that my intentions were purely professional. The mention of my partner seemed to ease them a bit, but every time the director called action, the same avoidance would happen from them. I tried to continue doing my job, but feeling you make someone else uncomfortable makes you naturally want to stop. Something that made me feel that I had to sacrifice my performance, that was my actual job that I was there to do. Thankfully the Director intervened and helped us with the scene.
After that scene, there was a party scene where my character, Bella, was supposed to kiss two different characters. Thankfully both scene partners were easy and amazing to work with! The problem came from other actors and members of the crew, that started to treat me, the actress Theoni, as if I was the character, Bella. They started making inappropriate jokes about Theoni’s morals, some wanted to exchange numbers and things like that. I tried to make it clear that there is a distinction between me the person and Bella the character, but there was much disbelief about that. I also want to mention here, that Bella the character also had done nothing wrong. She was supposed to be a single woman that was living her life as she wanted. But to connect her imaginary character and actions with the actress that was portraying her, is still a crazy concept to me!
The most unbelievable part was when me and my partner were leaving and one of the day players approached us. He started commenting on “the party events” as if they were real things that happened and when I explained the role of an actor again and introduced my partner, that person was in disbelief, started asking my partner how they felt and even suggested that we are not actually a couple and we are trying to make fun of them.
Needless to say that I received a couple of inappropriate dm’s on my instagram in the following days..
As funny as it may seem to me all this time later, it did startle me at the time. Not only that this happened in a professional set where I would expect people to be familiar with the concept of acting, but also that being a woman with multiple partners would bring such a response. Yet, the people around saw the character Bella, and me portraying her, in a certain light because of it. And labeled us as “easy” or other things. I guess to them portraying Bella was me being her, and they could not understand that me and her are two different beings. I felt shamed for being a woman and an actress, but after thinking these feelings that were created from this, I decided to not allow people to shame me or my gender for doing our job, or in the case of the character Bella, having fun.
The good part is that I haven’t had an experience like that on set since then! And I can remember it as something outrageously funny when I think back on it. But if I was younger at the time, or alone without a partner to support me, and a good circle of friends, it might have scared me away from acting, and it probably would have made me even question myself!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. Since I was little, I felt a connection with everything around me. I felt like all beings, nature and everything around us is connected to a degree. Searching these connections I was led to the theater! Theater to me is the study of our world! We try to understand, mold, portray real things from around us, or concepts that come from within! I studied Drama in Greece, and in studying the theater of the world, and especially Ancient Greece, I learned about many tries and struggles of people through the centuries to express and understand the world around us and the people and beings in it! For me that is a big part of Acting. I am really interested to understand and keep understanding!
Traveling to Los Angeles to continue my acting studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I was able to see and experience things different from what I previously had. One Ocean away, I completed my studies at the Academy and now, while I always continue studying, I started to apply all the things I have learned so far.
I am an actress, and when building a character to portray that is one of the most important things for me. To understand them. And through understanding them and portraying them, I get to connect with all the people that see themselves, part of themselves or a loved person of theirs in that character! One of the things I want to leave behind with my work, is that when someone sees my characters, I want them to feel that I portrayed them with love.
Everyone deserves love, and that is why my motto in life would be that love is the answer. Difficult to give some times, but we can always try I think.
I am really excited for the work I have started getting, and all the opportunities to portray different characters yet to come! I hope people will want to come on that journey with me and that they will enjoy my approach to acting and characters I get to portray and understand!
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Being from Greece and performing both in Greek and English, I wish I knew about different accents and dialects and about the classes one can take to be able to act in more than one of them! When I came to the US to study, that was the moment I really understood that my accent is something that, to a degree, will characterize me and the roles I will receive! Now, there is nothing wrong with anyone’s accent or the way one speaks! In acting schools, they teach something called IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The IPA is an alphabet that contains symbols that represent all the sounds that people use to speak. And with that, you can use these symbols to represent the sounds of a word and pronounce it differently. That way, you can “mimic” any accent or dialect in the world! That is the tool that helps actors in movies to portray characters from different places. For example an American actor playing a British or Russian character. And that is the tool with which, me, a Greek actress can portray an American or British, or other character as well!
Now working primarily in the US, I would have liked to know about that tool earlier, so I have more time to learn and apply it, and thus have more job opportunities here as well!
I still get cast with my everyday speaking voice of course, and I do have an advantage for Greek speaking roles, but as an actress I want to have as wide variety of roles that I can apply for as I can!
So to anyone that is starting, or at any point in their career, know that there is that tool as well! I have been working with my accent coach for about 3 years, and it makes any audition so much easier!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Ouf resilience.. I am tired of being resilient these past years! I am kidding mostly, but that has also some truth into it! I came to study in the US in January 2020. Yes, THAT year. So a lot of my studies here were remotely. The moment I came here to study acting physically, the world closed down. As many others, I felt that what I had worked towards was being taken from me! But the only thing I could do was work forward, and so I did! I studied online and learned more than I thought I would! I learned important things for today’s acting industry, like how to do self tapes, how to edit my own material, how to work in front of a green screen, etc. All this knowledge that I wouldn’t have gotten if classes were in person for example!
Another thing I learned when I came to the US, as mentioned above, was that I had an accent. Having an accent, especially as an actor, can and did feel limiting at the start. But with enough years since I was first introduced to the idea of it, I can see all the good that it brought to me!
Because I have a Greek accent, I was “forced” to learn IPA to try to also “master” a General American accent. But what I did not see then was that me having an accent that is not the most common where I live, forced me to learn more about accents than someone whose accent is “the norm”. Many of my colleagues have no or little experience with IPA, making it difficult for them to morph into characters with different accents than their own! But I have worked so much on it that I feel fairly confident to undertake the role of someone with a different accent than me, because I know the tools and how to do the work to get me there!
These short stories of resilience, and many more that are more private to me, have taught me one thing. If you have to go through something, as bad as it seems at the time, it probably has a secret opportunity in it! And all we can do is try to find it and come out better from it and because of it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm11918540?ref_=nm_nv_usr_profile
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoni.bekiari/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoni.bekiari/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD23I_Bj27bECu_gtb5XrHA
Image Credits
Roshan Mathews