ANYA KEELIE Actress with a Mission
Photo by @hdfacreative @hdfaphotography
We caught up with the talented, actress/director, Anya Keelie.
amazing acting coach, Cheryl Powell, who encouraged me to follow that path and never give up.
When did you first get involved in acting? Acting came naturally to me at a very young age. As a child in the 90’s, I was obsessed with Disney movies.I would spend my days watching them over and over again. One of my dearest memories is watching The Lion King so much that I memorized every single word. Then, I would go and reenact the entire movie in front of a mirror. I was also drawn to improvising situations or conversations and playing them back to myself. I didn’t know back then that I was, in fact, acting. It was not until I joined the Theater Club in Sophia-Antipolis University, Nice, France, and started acting classes that I realized I was meant to be an actress.
I’m sure you have met a lot of celebrities along the way. Would you share 1 or 2 of your favorite stories with us? Surprisingly, my favorite celebrity story did not happen in the Film Industry. Back in 2014, I used to work for an airline when, one day, we greeted Chris Hemsworth for his flight from Boston to LA. He asked to be boarded last to avoid fan gathering and a possible delay on the flight. After boarding all the passengers, I took the employee radio and announced “We’re all set, just waiting for his ‘Thorness’ to show up”. Little did I know, my co-worker was right next to Chris at that moment, with the radio volume up. When he showed up at the gate, he looked at me straight in the eyes and said “His Thorness has arrived” before laughing out loud. I was so embarrassed I couldn’t say a word. At the end, I really appreciated his sense of humor and how down to earth he was.
What or Who inspired you to pursue a career as an actor? Ironically, what inspired me to pursue my career as an actress was not being able to act. Growing up in a household where both parents are successful physicians, I put pressure on myself to pursue a “serious” career, just like them. I always kept that passion to myself until I started acting classes. I switched from a scientific curriculum to linguistics and continued acting. When I moved to the US in 2013, I met an
What has been your ideal character, so far? And why? As a woman in the film industry, my ideal character would be a woman who is strong, confident, smart, intimidating without having to go through an emotional trauma first, especially one caused by a male character.
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