Displaying “Star Power,” Actor Ana Roza Cimperman Shows Versatility in Drama & Comedy, Movies & TV
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“Ana Roza Cimperman has real star power. She’s able to make even the quiet moments interesting and fill them with meaning. It was a pleasure to be on set with her as she loves a challenge and adapts to new circumstances very fast.” — Stojan Jaklič, producer of film-festival appearing movie, Silent
Admiring the modern work of Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis (Fences) and Oscar nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Dune), actor Ana Roza Cimperman is living up to her producer’s praise of her having “star power.”
Indeed, in Jaklič’s movie, Slovenian-born Cimperman pulls off an engrossing one-take shot that showcases her wide range of skills. The flexible actor, who can do everything from drama and comedy to improv, proudly talks of her Silent experience: “Silent is a very personal project done in collaboration with some very talented filmmakers from Slovenia. The filming process was very vulnerable. There is a continuous 7-minute shot in the film that follows my character, a young woman consumed with anxiety, as her mental state deteriorates minute by minute. While filming, I imagined that’s how I might have become if I hadn’t gotten the chance to follow my passion. So, the project is very close to my heart and I am hoping it inspires people who watch it.”
Cimperman, who has done Shakespeare, worked with mega performer Ariana Grande on a TV commercial and on the award-winning psycho-drama Eight and a Half Circles, outlines some of her strengths, which include her versatility and also going with her gut. She talks of working on this psycho-drama: “This film was mentored by iconic filmmaker David Lynch. I played a character who appears in dreams, and the structure was non-linear, so that was happily challenging to analyze. It was almost overwhelming, so in the end, I just decided to go with my instincts, and I learned something invaluable, that simple is sometimes better.”
Most importantly, some of Cimperman’s diverse training has involved intense work at the famous Stella Adler Academy — Adler’s technique is founded on an actor’s ability to imagine a character’s world, and the Academy’s former students have included acting giants like Marlon Brando, Mark Ruffalo, Robert De Niro, and Salma Hayek. Cimperman suggests that the reason people loved Brando is that he uplifted the characters he played. She offers, “Brando is one of the all-time greats, and I enjoy watching his movies, especially the early ones like On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Remarking on Adler’s tip that an actor shouldn’t be boring, Cimperman adds, “I feel ‘don’t be boring’ means that you should always try to search for the deeper meaning, the idea behind the script. If you discover such an idea, your character suddenly has more urgency, and a simple scene stops being simple and becomes something more. I also interpret that phrase as to mean don’t be boring to yourself — so, whenever I give myself the permission to explore and search for a deeper meaning to what I am saying I am definitely enjoying the process more.”
Furthermore, Cimperman has also studied “method” acting and suggests, “I think each technique has its own advantages, and it’s best for actors to try multiple teachers and techniques and use what resonates with them and helps them grow.”
Additionally, her training has also included performing with The Groundlings, the famous improv company, where she says, “The Groundlings’ training definitely helped me go with the flow, and proved to be super valuable later while shooting films.” For example, her ability to act quickly on her feet helped her in a role as a call girl in a film, as she further explains, “I wore a red wig for my performance as a call girl. But during filming they asked me if I would want to take on another, much bigger part in the same movie playing a very religious character — it was an anthology film, so it wasn’t noticeable that I played two roles. But that required some fast memorization and some quick character work.”
Indeed, Cimperman, who believes that the story is key, had to dig deep for her role in Nympho’s Diary, where her character gets bitten on the neck by a stranger and slowly starts turning into a monster: “I had to act with a bunch of prosthetics applied to my face so that was difficult at first. I had to push myself farther and really use my body for the performance so it came through how much emotional pain my character was in.”
So, where did this intense desire and ambition all start for someone, who actually went to law school first, before she threw herself fully into acting: “Acting stayed deep in my soul, after I fell in love with Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz, growing up. I always loved to play characters and goof around, but I thought every child was like that. Later I realized that I was more affected by movies and TV shows than most people around me. I used movies to educate, motivate, and inspire me. I took movies really seriously, it wasn’t just entertainment. So, it was as a teenager that I started realizing that I will not be fulfilled unless I pursue acting.”
Now, Cimperman has done dramatic works like A Door along with Silent, Nympho’s Diary, and Eight and Half Circles, and she’s explored comedy in projects like The Man Van. Her upcoming films include thrillers like Ascending a thriller-mystery film and OJDIP a Slovenian horror-thriller film. And, she looks forward to one day working with her favorite directors like Denis Villeneuve (Dune), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird and Little Women), and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster).
Drop in on Ana Roza Cimperman’s Website, Instagram and IMDb pages. And, check out some performance clips like Nympho’s Diary, Eight and a Half Circles, and The Man Van.
