Michelle Zerafa wins TV Award

The Malta Television Awards have now become an annual event that all local TV enthusiasts look forward to at the end of each year. For obvious reasons the most eager are the players themselves; producers, presenters, directors, actors, composers, graphic artists etc.

A few lemonheadders have had their nominations over the past few years, and we actually had a winner a couple of years ago – Michelle Zerafa.

This year there were a handful of lemonheadders nominated for various categories… Lawrence Buontempo, Neville Refalo, Michelle Zerafa as actors; Daniel Chircop and Chrysander Agius as producers.

Michelle Zerafa did Lemonhead proud once more by grabbing the award for the second time. We caught up with her and asked her a few questions.

THE INTERVIEW

Hi Michelle. Well done for winning the award once again. This is the second time for you, how did you feel on the night when your name was read out loud?

Flabbergasted…. oh God!!!! Its MEEEEEEE !!!!!!!! AGAIN!!!!!

Tell us something about the character you portrayed and how you studied the profile?

Hmm… quite a complex character….Sarah is Gulia's former school friend; she falls in love with Gulia. They both follow different paths but Sara's uncontrollable passion draws her to this situation (i.e. Gulia's troubled marriage). Sara plays witty games to keep Gulia away from her husband and her main aim is to build a relationship with her. Sarah feels guilty and defeated at the very end, when Gulia attempts suicide; her husband Mark is the one who accompanies the latter on her death bed.

I started out building up my profile by discussing the character with director Charles Stroud who emphasized the important factors which he wanted to be portrayed to the audience and it was then when I started to write Sara's life story, from her birth to her adulthood. The characters life history helped me ‘be' the character. Psychological research on homosexual love helped me build the interior feelings of the character. I also worked on certain mannerisms and figured them out in order to keep them constantly in my interpretation.

All the above helped me ‘be' the character especially in difficult scenes. In fact some scenes were emotionally very tiring…like anger outbursts, the passionate looks, sighs and touching… heq…its not easy to love a woman when you are not homosexual…. and especially the last scene in the last episode…the pain, guilt, anger & despair when Sara recounts the discovery of Gulia's body.

After the shoots where you satisfied enough with your interpretation to be confident in winning the award again?

It is in my nature that whenever I do something I do it whole heartedly or else I don't do it at all. So when I was offered the opportunity to play Sarah I followed my nature; go for it, do your very best, most importantly enjoy it! The general public's feedback was very positive and, let's says that I was confident in the work that I've done. But then it all depends on the judges, so you never know…plus that all the other actresses who were nominated were very good and some of them were much more experienced then me I might say…

As a lemonheadder do you find yourself to prepare yourself differently from other players?

Yes… sometimes…

How does it help you to mix the ‘lemonhead' style you are accustomed to, to the other styles of various actors coming from different and various backgrounds?

I always follow this style…i.e. ask for the director's opinion, then follow the above pattern and constantly ask for feedback from the director to see if I am on the right track. It is so important to work hand in hand with the other actors whatever their style. For example in Tghanniqa, Claire Aguis Ordway & I (since most of the scenes were with her) worked hand in hand, both of us were prepared on set and we really enjoyed it since we clicked.

Bryan Muscat always insists that he never really teaches his students anything, but just help ones talent to be guided in the right direction. Do you believe this, or do you think there's a lot of teaching involved as well?

I do believe that Bryan led me in the right direction, whilst he taught me first of all, the right attitude towards acting and the right attitude as an actor. Amongst other things, Bryan taught me the importance to observe oneself and others in order to develop into a versatile actor and therefore manage to play different characters which are different from your real self. I found this technique highly useful, especially when I have the opportunity to interpret different characters especially challenging ones. Luckily enough I do get casted to interpret challenging characters and Bryan 's words and feedback always come to mind. His way of teaching helped feel more confident as well, he always gave me his full feedback, rather then telling me; ‘yes! That's fine!' he pointed out were I should improve. I always considered his feedback as vital, and the attitude, to analyse and accept the director's feedback was sort of moulded in me as an actor…..Thanks Bryan!

I'm sure that Bryan and all the other lemonheadders are quite proud that one of them has managed to grab this award twice. Do you encourage the others to go for it next time round?

Of course everyone can have the opportunity to win awards, why not?! What one should keep in mind is that it's a plus to win an award and it's a great satisfaction that you feel that your work is appreciated and honoured. BUT the most important thing is that you do your very best and do it whole- heartedly… the rest is extra but definitely a nice boost J Cheers