> Starred as Violet Mazurski on HBO's True Blood and in the films After and The Europa Report.
> Played recurring roles on Sneaky Pete as Bryan Cranston's love interest, Justified, House, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and co-starred in Crazy, Stupid, Love and Be Kind Rewind.
> Starred alongside George Clooney in a 2006 Nespresso commercial.
> Appeared in print ads for brands such as Armani Exchange, Calvin Klein, Urban Decay, and Kenneth Cole, and was featured on the cover of the German ELLE magazine.
> A passionate animal-lover and cinephile.
I was born in Poland and moved to the U.S. when I was 11. My parents had received visas and were working as housecleaners in Orange County. I became a Green Card holder, and when I turned 18, I was an American citizen.
It’s different now, less people want to come to America because the opportunity isn’t what it used to be. America used to be the land of promise. If you were a hard worker, there were a lot more opportunities to live a good life. Now people want to stay in Europe.
You’re expected to forget your dreams when you’re an immigrant in America. You’re supposed to become a doctor. So becoming a performer because a faraway, secret dream of mine.
I hated modeling because I was super insecure. I would go to castings and see all of these stunning girls lined up. I didn’t think I was as pretty as them, so I started dressing up in a tutu skirt, a ripped-up shirt, and combat boots. I looked crazy. My approach was, “I will make you remember me.” I had personality.
In these castings, you get rejected right there and then, over and over again. It skews your perception. You have to be so strong to not take it personally.
I’ve learned to tell myself, “Okay, you’re not seeing yourself the right way today. What you’re seeing is not real. Whatever is happening inside of you is telling you that this is reality, but it’s actually not.” I’ve learned to disassociate the negative voices.
A good director, to me, does not speak in abstract ideas. If a director says, “Go bigger,” or, “Go smaller,” what does that mean? Let’s talk about what’s happening in the scene. Let’s break it down to gain a greater understanding. It’s more organic, less artificial.
To give your best performance, you have to let your guard down and trust the director’s vision. And the director has to hold a space for you without judgement or criticism, so you can explore. Judgement or criticism shuts down talent.
Good rehearsal is having discussions about your vision, breaking down dialogue, and exploring the subtext. It’s not being given line readings, being told to, “Say the line like this...” That leads to a false performance.
When you open up and go deep with people, you realize that you’re not alone, that you’re probably not the only one facing the issues you’re confronting. To go through these difficulties is to be human - it’s all part of our shared experience. By not opening up, by not sharing, it’s easy to start to feel isolated, like you alone are faced with your burdens.
In much of Italy, the pace of life is much slower. Having come from New York City, initially it made me mental. “Hurry, I don’t have time!” But then you realize it’s just a different way of life. And it’s nicer to sit, to be, to enjoy. To talk, to discuss, to learn. We do less and less of that nowadays. We don’t have time for each other anymore. Instead, we work obsessively.
When you’re angry and shut down, people react to you negatively. You put yourself in your own bubble. But have you ever allowed yourself to be truly open to the world? To smile and say hello when you walk by someone? To ask a stranger how they’re doing? When you’re open and loving and kind, the world responds to you differently.
Sometimes we don’t immediately realize the impact we have on people. People have come up to me and said, “I remember you smiled at me, and when you smiled at me, you made me feel so welcome.” You can change someone’s day, someone’s moment if you are open to it. You just have to get out of your own way.
Often, when we go through struggles, we feel like we’re being wronged, like the world is against us. But that’s just our perception, because the world itself is actually indifferent. We may not always have control over the things that happen to us, but we do have the power to control how we feel about it.
No one can actually do anything to you, unless they punch you in the fucking face.
We teach people how we want to be treated. That’s really hard to understand. If you let someone shit all over you again and again, then eventually you’re enabling that behavior and you become complicit. But if you stand up for yourself, if you don’t allow people to treat you that way, then people learn not to do it. And if they do it again, then you should remove them from your life.
When you’re in depression to the point of feeling suicidal, hope is gone. When hope is gone, that’s it, what do you live for? What’s the purpose? It’s hopeless. Then you’re faced with some scary existential shit. What do you do? Who are you? Are you enough for yourself? To say to yourself, “I am enough for me,” that’s everything. I still struggle with that. You have to learn how to love yourself.
When you embrace yourself fully, you can show up and be of service to the world in a whole different way. We all have a ripple effect that we don’t even realize.
I’ve explored psychedelics. They’ve enabled me to look at the world in a different way and feel connected to something greater. They shifted my perspective. One thing I realized is how all these things that we put so much meaning onto, they’re not solid. True security isn’t attainable. Everything can be taken away at any moment. So my attachment to anything is kind of ridiculous. It’s nice, but if I’m not whole with myself, if I don’t love me, then I have nothing.
We are all way more in control of our lives than we think we are.