Characters I Would Kill To Play

           It’s curious that there are certain roles that I feel immediately connected to, characters that I would kill to play! That was one of the questions that an acting teacher asked me once “If you had to choose one female character to play, which one would it be?” There are some roles that come up in my mind immediately. The dreamy, vulnerable, sensitive, passionate, divided, simple housewife Francesca Johnson in Bridges of Madison County played brilliantly, as always, by Meryl Streep. Maybe I am a bit young for such a role, but, we never know, considering that even Meryl Streep, in her 40s at the time, was considered by the producers too old to play it as well. 

               Another role that fascinates me is Marianne from Scenes from a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman played by Liv Ullmann. Bergman’s writing is a kind of a bible; when I am reading it, I just think how can someone put into words so clearly and poetically the deepest feelings and thoughts of the humankind? Many psychologists cannot get to this much precision. When you’re reading a play or watching a film, somehow you remember that you’re reading a play or watching a film, because dialogues can be manipulated sometimes, but when we are reading Bergman it’s scary how truthful everything is. It’s true that people don’t usually have such long monologues but you just let those characters talk and you keep reading, because everything is just so honest and eerily truthful that you feel and think like “Ok, this is exactly what I would love to say sometimes, but words don’t come out as perfectly”.

               On Ree Dolly from Winter’s Bone which was Jennifer’s Lawrence big break has something I can identify from parts of my own background. Maybe because like her, I grew up in a place like that, with chickens, dogs, surrounded by forests where I use walk, cycle, entertain myself somehow, or going with my grandma to the meadow, watching her life as a farmer, collecting the food she was gonna have for dinner. I never hunted but when I saw the squirrel scene in the movie I remembered helping my mum doing the same but with chickens and rabbits. Ree is a fighter, a down to earth, willed, simple, beautifully unglamorous girl who raises her siblings and takes care of her mum while trying to find her missing Dad, a situation who puts her and her family in trouble. 

                 Erin Brockovich played by Julia Roberts is a very attractive leading role considering that she plays a strong woman who goes against all the odds, to fight for justice. Misjudged by her wardrobe, provocative, tight and short, she always stands for herself and finally gets the respect of everyone around her. 

                 Annie Hall! This seems to be probably the lightest one but for me, everything about Annie Hall is remarkable; the way she dresses, her shyness, the way she smiles, her very unstable moods, her artistic life, always trying to find herself, her confidence and her inner voice. 

               In order to cope with the death of her husband and daughter, Julie, played by Juliette Binoche in Tree colors: Blue, dissociates herself from her past, all her memories, family, friends, ending up living alone and anonymously. Loneliness and a new white page, a new beginning is what she most wishes for, but life is confronting her with her past. What a challenging character, fully developed and multi layered!