Andreja Pejic – The Other Me

By starrymag | February 14, 2022

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Q) I’m excited to talk about your new movie The Other Me produced by iconic film director, David Lynch. I watched it last night and was glued to my screen until the final credits. You did a fantastic job. For the fans, it’s a story about an artist named Irakli, suffering from a rare eye disease. As he goes blind, he sees people’s true motives, all the while slowly revealing his true self the deeper, he falls into his connection with your character, Nino. How was this surreal drama described to you?

A) Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, it’s pretty neat acting. So, it’s my third movie now! It’s all been fantastic. It’s kind of a crazy story, and it took time to sort of figure out what was going on. Do you know what I mean? What was so interesting about it…And it took quite a bit of time, and I had few meetings with the director, and it just took time to get it out of him because he was quite mysterious about it. I didn’t think he wanted to sort of give it away because he didn’t want to interfere with our process, but I really wanted to know what was at the heart of it. And it…and it’s still, there are still things that are left unsaid but there is this strong connection between Irakli (Jim Sturgess) and Nino and that sort of anchors the movie, I think.

Q) Nino is layered-like an onion who needs peeling back. At the start, she doesn’t even have a first name unless it’s “Nobody” but her importance to Irakli unfolds beautifully. As a fairly new actress, how did you exist in, and explore that state of vagueness; that nothing while also being something…

A) Exactly, you hit the nail on the head…

Q) Talk a bit about your process for that.

A) You hit it on the nail because I was like, “Is she a real human being, or is she just in his head? Or a part of him?” And in the end, without getting too much into it, that’s what it was. It’s like the other me and the other half of him. We shared the same memories but approaching it was challenging because it was like, do they mean that? How much do I ground her and how much do I go into this kind of ethereal, remote thing? So, it was like finding that balance and playing with that. I really wanted to play her in the beginning, so that the audience was like, “What us going on?” and then by the end, hopefully, reach a conclusion where we were the same person. And that says a lot about gender and humanity.

Q) When you read the script what was it about you know that made you want to sign on to the project?

A) I thought it was warm. I thought it had something unique about it – a first time director in Giga [Agladze] and David Lynch was attached to it. But then I read the script and I thought there’s something really sweet here. In a world where it’s just like guns and violence and the glorification of the police and not the most beautiful things in the world, and I thought there’s just something really sweet about this and I want to find out more about it. And then we kind of reached this idea where she is the divine feminine, and that being at its core was just appealing.

Q) When watching, I also wondered if she was real or maybe too good to be real.

A) Yeah, and so I hope more people sort of understand when they watch that because everything between him and her is the sort of surreal element of the movie. And then there is a kind of a real-life element too, like in his relationships with his wife and so I think that’s also what could potentially confuse other people.

Q) But maybe not for people who are familiar with the universe of David Lynch, they kind of know they’re going on a of rollercoaster and should suspend what’s left of their disbelief.

A) [Laughing] Yeah, exactly.

Q) We have to talk about that first meeting between Nino and Irakli. He’s lost when he finds Nino and instantly smitten with her. There’s an explicable connection between the two of you. Did you do a chemistry read with Jim Sturgess during the casting process, or was everything done by send-in tape?

A) Oh, God no. They knew about my work as a model – the director. And so they thought I’d be good for it. I don’t think I did…I probably sent in an audition tape, but the director just thought I was the right person for the role, and Jim was actually on a movie just before this one and he’d flown in straight from a movie to this movie. He had no time to prepare and they were already filming when I came in but I was working on it; I had time to prepare it since it was one of my first movies, and I really wanted to work on it with my coach in the UK who I’ve been taking lessons with, Giles Foreman, and we were trying to mine the script and have conversations with the director to create her, Nino, and the director was a little bit like, “Oh, what are you scared of if you believe you can do this?” That is because I thought I was coming in from modeling and acting is very different. They wanted me to just be natural and not to stress; not to ruin it by stressing about it, but I did stress about it. I was really trying to build this character, and once I did one or two scenes they were like, “Oh my God! You really built character!” And part of that was having that connection with him, Jim, and it just kind of…I don’t know, I guess it just happened. I don’t know, it was like a spark that was there, and he’s a very lovely actor and a very lovely person, so we could just be friends and chat and he had no ego and stuff like that, and that’s so important for that connection to exist.

Q) Chemistry between actors is such a hard thing to define or put a finger on, right? It’s just there, or it’s not there, and sometimes even the people who have it can’t even see it, but everybody else can. It was certainly there between Jim and yourself. It was sparky!

A) [laughs] Yes, I guess it is hard to predict chemistry in that way, but it’s such an important thing for the story because it’s like the first time he sees her in the woods, Giga was like, “This is it! This is the moment!” Because if she is a part of him then there has to be such a closeness – an immediate kind of connection.

Q) The relationship between the two was a beautiful thing to watch unfold but some of the scenes are difficult to watch, especially for victims of hate crimes and discrimination. Iraqis abusive father and the transphobic attacks from the school boys were heartbreakingly real. As a Trans woman and actress, why was it important for you to tell this story and for the viewers to take that journey with you, even in those uncomfortable moments?

A) Well, it’s like we need more movies that come from real life and this is a dramatic situation with what we go through growing up; what minorities go through, what poor people go through. There is so much drama and food for creativity and I always wanted to contribute to that-in telling the truth, exposing the truth, and showing people the reality of it. And, hopefully, that builds empathy because art has that power – to expose what might be a specific experience and make it more universal. To allow people to connect from all different types of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses to connect to her struggles. That was part of my life as well, so I had to a lot to draw from.

Q) Representation does help people to grow when they have a view they can relate to or fall in love with; especially when it’s a character in story they’ve enjoyed.

A) Exactly. To humanize it and to add emotion to it. And I think that the movie, those scenes like you said, are quite harrowing, but the little boy was such a pleasure to work with. I felt like he was so sweet and vulnerable, he was amazing. I think that at the end of the day, it was a lot about how we don’t often see a trans character being loved in that way. That was a big part of it as well.

Q) The film looks stunning; like a painting Irakli obsessively consumes before he goes blind. The black and white balloon scene stood out to me most. What went into filming that scene?

A) That is like a dream. She appears in his dream and it’s kind of like she’s a surreal within the surreal. The director wanted me to always be in very light clothing and colors, but for that scene he wanted it darker and that’s a bit more of a symbolic of the scene where you have her showing him the suffering of the people. That’s also to do with Georgian culture and history and the suffering of it all; there’s such a part of Eastern European history in there and I think trying to make him feel that he’s not the only one in life who’s struggled. Life is a struggle; you’re carrying bags and bags of weight uphill. That’s a big part of life, and I tried to maintain the dreaminess of her in that scene and it was sort of the pinnacle of the dreaminess of the film. I felt like my lines were the strongest in that and so it just really felt right. I was really connecting to what I was saying. We filmed it out in the fields of Georgia, and it was beautiful – that beautiful nature, we just sort of went for it. My assistant went to the trailer because she thought there might be snakes and stuff. But then also, Jim, who was a little bit shorter than me – well, actually, we are the same height but they wanted him a little taller, so they gave him a little box to stand on whenever we had scenes and we had to be close together. [laughs] I felt that kind of added to the drama of it all. At least it made me feel more powerful. [laughs]

Q) It must have been a dream to work on a David Lynch project. He’s a legend, and along with director Giga Agladze, who managed to imbue that Lynchian mood seamlessly your craft must’ve grown from that experience? I mean when it comes to aesthetics David is a genius.

A) I thought it was a little bit sweeter than your average David Lynch film. Still keeping within the surreal but a little bit lighter and sweeter. I think he’s incredibly talented director, I mean he visually inspired a whole generation of filmmakers and directors. I loved Mulholland Drive. It was one of my favorite movies growing up, and Giga was trying to keep within that family. I didn’t get a chance to meet David, but he did watch the movie and it sort of blew him away. He really loved it and he was proud to support it in the end. I’m just grateful that I got to be close to such a visionary director in my third movie. These are the kinds of movies I love, too. If I’m interested in writing or maybe directing one day, these are the kinds of movies that I would want to make because it’s like…I love Andre Chekov and anything that’s sort of like a poem or when they don’t follow a logical storyline but are always beautiful to look at.

Q) For those who take the time to explore The Other Me, what do you hope viewers take away from watching the film?

A) I hope that they realize that we are all closer to each other; that we’re all human, and that men and women share things much closer to each other than they may think. I hope that they fall in love with Nino and that they open their hearts and minds too differences and people who grew up differently from them.

Q) What’s next for you, Andreja? Are you working on any other projects the fans can lookout for?

A) So, I have a movie coming out called Dali Land. It’s about Salvador Dali’s life. That was shot this year and directed by Mary Harron, so hopefully they’re trying to get it into festivals and release it soon. Sir Ben Kingsley is playing Salvador Dali.

Q) Did you guys have an anteater on set?

A) [laughing] A what?

Q) An anteater! There is a famous photo of Salvador Dali walking an anteater on a leash through the busy London streets.

A) [laughing] He was truly insane. No, we didn’t have an anteater on set, but I was reading his life’s biography and it was quite insane. [laughs] He would do speeches with a turtle on his head! This movie, it’s sort of the end of his life and I can’t say too much about it, but I play his muse, and it’s my biggest role so far. So, hopefully all goes well.

Q) Model, actress, Trans icon, and now fans all over the world, what would you like to say to people out there who look up to you and follow your work?

A) I’d like to say, if you have something that you need to express and you feel it’s truthful, don’t let it die. Express it and don’t listen to all the cynical and pessimistic people because there’s so many in the world. Just go for it. We need more truth in this world, and we need more honesty and more beauty. Keep fighting for a beautiful world.