„I feel like a very happy child
on an immense, rich, playground“

Interview with Judith State, acting prize winner 2022

[ 1. ] „R.M.N.“ by Cristian Mungiu was shot 2021 over 3 months in winter 2021 during pandemic times. The cast wasn’t told the whole story in advance, so you had the chance to shoot chronologically. Can you tell us a bit about this special working method of director and screenwriter Mungiu and what attracted you to this kind
of „adventurous“ way of working?

[ STATE ] — I immediately embraced the method, first of all because I’ve never had the chance to work in this way before, and I’m always more than eager to experience through new means, and then because I intuitively foresaw the benefits of working with such method: it was “forcing” me into a continuous state of presence and freshness. I was many times in an open field of surprise which is a really nice
thing and it rarely happens in the case of an in-depth read and rehearsed script.

[ 2. ] Your performance in this movie was praised as very „authentic“, while
at the same time the movie itself plays with various layers of the so-called
„reality“ and the multiple ways of perceiving things in everyday life.
The ending is open to various conclusions. How would you as an actor
define „being true“ to a story, respectively: to your figure in a film? 

[ STATE ] — I think that it can only happen by being true to yourself. It’s an ongoing practice that I’m trying to live by in my everyday life, many times questioning and checking whether my thoughts, words and actions align and I guess this is being automatically transferred in film (or whatever else I do), as I’m not trying to go away from myself into finding one character or another, but rather coming closer and closer to myself. I always remember what Cristi Puiu once said: that there is no such thing as a character, but only yourself, trying to say your own story using the directors’ words. I do believe that, and in many instances, if we allow it, we can liberate ourselves under the protection of the script.

[ 3. ] Did you discover anything new about yourself while playing „Csilla“ in R.M.N.?

[ STATE ] — Not so much a discovery but rather a reminder that – just like the characters in the film – I many times tend to cling to my truths and beliefs and
I’m willing to travel lengths in order to protect them. And after the film I was left
with this thought, as an echo that lingers, that even in the moments of most
certainty I have to create some space for the idea that I might be wrong.

[ 4. ] Being a trained ballet dancer and choreographer, who fell into movies not
by plan: What attracted you to acting and the „medium film“ specifically – given
that you have different possibilities of working with your body in the two fields?

[ STATE ] — Whenever I’m in the “medium film” – as you put it – I feel like a
very happy child on an immense, rich, playground. I feel free most of the time –
through the casting process, the readings of the script, the rehearsals, the
shooting, and even though there is undoubtedly a lot of hard work, it all
comes to me with some sort of easiness.

By „free“ I mean that the voice in my mind is being silenced, and the many
self-witnesses are being put to sleep I guess. In dance for instance, they
are hyper-present, over-active, and rarely beneficial. So it’s a constant
surprise for me and a dilemma, how do I get to feel so… light while I’m in
the film world, and how I bashed myself constantly in a lifetime of dance.

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