ROUGH ONLINE Session With ''WELCOME TO CURIOSITY'' Actress LARA HELLER

There is a new Thriller out there: Welcome To Curiosity. The movie, produced and directed by Ben Pickering, has the rhythm and the fun of a TV series, a charming Photography and an incredible array of actors; amongst them Lara Heller, who we are going to discover and get to know in the following interview. Lara is definitely a multifaceted artist and gifted with a magnetic face, she is fluent in English, Farsi, German and French, and her multicultural origins are inscribed in both, her language skills and her unapologetic beauty. But before all that Lara is a terrific and promising actress who we are going to to see a lot off.


ROUGH ONLINE:  Lara, first of all I would like to talk a little bit about your background. How close are you to your roots?
 
LARA HELLER:  I'm very close to my roots yet lucky to have grown up in many different countries. This has exposed me to a diverse set of influences. On one hand, I feel British as that's where I was born. I also attended both law school and drama school in London. However, when I was five, my family moved to a tiny mountain village in the Eifel (Germany). After that, we moved to Luxembourg and then Switzerland. As a result, I grew up surrounded by animals, nature and many different languages! My father is German, and that side of my family were all about a strong work ethic and that's really helped me in life. My mother and grandfather also always spoke in Farsi to me. My grandfather lived with us. I learned from his life experienced and also learned how important it is to take care of family. I think these experiences opened me up artistically. Also, without them, I don’t think I would have learned to speak French, German and Farsi.

''Welcome to Curiosity' 'is a Thriller, and looking at your filmography you seem to like movies with a lot of action; also your role was firstly written for a man, am I wrong?

LARA HELLER:  I enjoy action and these types of roles seem to come to me. Yes, the role of Duffy was initially written as a male character. I auditioned for the team for a female role and they were also open enough to see me read for this role. She's an ass kicking, shady gang member and I was very excited to have the opportunity to play her. The gender switch proved for an interesting character and emotional arc. There's this refreshing genderless lens to Duffy. Her ambiguous ambitions were exciting for me. Likewise, I'm sure it would be a thrill for a guy to switch the gender of a character from a woman to a man. The emotional arc would have interesting colors to it.

ROUGH ONLINE: How did you prepare for this role?

LARA HELLER:  Physically, I prepared for the stunts and action sequences by doing cross fit and circuits. I have quite an athletic background which helps. Namely, I represented Germany and Luxembourg in figure skating. On set, we were trained on how to use firearms safely and correctly. I really enjoy learning these kinds of skills, and want to learn more as it's the attention to details that makes the whole thing come to life. Since this film I have spent time in the US training with firearms for this reason.

ROUGH ONLINE:  Now, there are actors and directors who think that acting is mainly a matter of voice and words, whilst others see acting as something very much related to body and movements, which one of these two “schools” do you feel closer to?

 LARA HELLER:  It's both-the voice and body work together in unison. It's very fun and freeing to study accents and dialects. My childhood memories are filled with different languages and I've seen how that changes people's whole demeanour. There's just this different energy speaking say French compared to German. At drama school they said our voice is like an instrument. That really makes sense to me now. Body language automatically changes with the costume we're given too. In Welcome To Curiosity we wore jumpsuits and had guns for the fight sequences. That immediately altered our movement. So to answer your question, both voice and body language play huge roles in building up a character.

Tell me about your background in screen fighting, how did it start?
I was a figure skater growing up. The circuits and strength buildings exercises helped build our stamina for when we got on ice and worked on our jumps and spins. That training helps me today with on screen fighting, which is a form of choreography too. Two recent films involved horse riding and archery. I love horses so this was particularly exciting for me.

ROUGH ONLINE:  Of course it seems that your ability to handle “action” and fighting turned out to be of great help in Welcome to Curiosity, you don’t seem to require body doubles…

LARA HELLER:  We were lucky in that none of the actors in the heist segment used body doubles. We all did our own stunts and were keen to do them! We had a strong team that meant we felt safe and it was another opportunity to try out new skills. There's a sequence involving Krav Maga and that taught me a lot.

ROUGH ONLINE:  You seem to be a perfect candidate for TV series as you keep together action and grace which are two qualities often required for hooking the spectator’s attention on TV-series, and actually Welcome to curiosity has a lot of TV series elements (action, fun, very cool photography), would you like to embrace that path in your career?

LARA HELLER:  There is so much incredible stuff out there both on the big screen and small screen. It's an amazing time to be in the industry; new books being adapted, futuristic dystopian stories, scripts exploring cultures we have not nearly seen enough of. The amount of quality content being created is exciting. And yes I'd love to work on a TV show! The slow but potentially deeper character progression would be amazing.

And now, tell me and just me, what is your unmentionable dream as an actress?
OK, between you and me of course. My dream is to make a contribution to the industry over many years. There is always more to learn and as many ways to express and create. So I just want to keep building my knowledge. I love working and learning from directors, actors, writers and producers. This whole industry fascinates me-both the artistic and business side.

I'm grateful that I've found something I love and if I can continue this right into my old age-well I'll be a very happy old lady!

''Welcome To Curiosity'' can be purchased on the following platform iTunes, Amazon, Google Play & Xbox. And if you're in the US ''Welcome To Curiosity'' hits  theaters later this month via AMC.

Follow Lara Heller on her instagram @LARAHELLER