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Nataša Babič
1.5k Plays1 year ago
Nataša Babič is a New York actress, originally from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Natasa studied musical theater at the Performing Arts Studios Vienna. She continued her studies in New York at The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Upon completion, she joined the HB Acting Studios and studied with Austin Pendleton in his advanced scene study class.
Nataša performed Off and Off Off Broadway for many years. Her first Off Broadway role was Sandra/Sissy a split personality character in Anne L. Thompson Scretching’s "The Sanctuary" at the American Theater Of Actors. One of her favorite roles was the impressionist painter Mary Cassatt in The Independents. The play opened Off Broadway at the Jerry Orbach Theater in 2019 and extended it's run twice. Nataša’s latest performance Off Broadway was Tammany Hall at the SoHo Playhouse. This immersive theater production was directed by Alexander Wright and Darren Lee Cole. Nataša has also developed her film and TV career. Amongst others she played a lead role in a horror movie Dark Tarot, a supporting role in an indie feature Life is Too Short and a thriller Gunpoint.
Nataša joined the Hallmark Movie Channel family in their new production The Dancing Detective, A Deadly Tango. She is playing a lead supporting role of Mary Aston. The movie premiered on Hallmark in June 2023.
Nataša is looking forward to what the future might bring and is a determined optimist on this ever changing path of life.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Valente. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
Introduction of Guest, Natasha Babic
00:00:17
Speaker
This is Ken Volante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast, and I'm very excited to have Natasha Babic on the program all the way at this moment from Slovenia, which is kind of exciting. So Natasha, hello and welcome to the podcast. Hello, hello. Thank you for having me.
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, I, um, uh, listeners, we were chatting because sometimes, uh, you figure out, like, uh, how we connected and, uh, so, so listeners, I've had, uh, Matthew Kyle Levine, uh, director on, uh, a couple of times and, uh, I first saw Natasha and, uh, a very, uh, incredible feature called, uh, Daddy's Wallet and, um, became acquainted through, through your work with, uh, IMDb and,
00:01:10
Speaker
So you're in a Hallmark movie, which I'm like a sucker for. I'm kind of a sucker for. I admitted it at different times, like admitted it in the sense because sometimes the things I'm interested in people like, oh, there's that too. But yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excited, excited to see
Natasha's Acting Journey
00:01:27
Speaker
that. But so tell us tell us about tell us about acting and reaching us here from Slovenia and your work in New York.
00:01:39
Speaker
Um, I love that we have this connection through daddy's wallet with Matthew Kyla lean, cause I just, I really enjoyed working with him. That was, I think the little short that we did was right. It was the first thing after COVID. I mean, it was still kind of people weren't, we're just started working on things, you know?
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah. And that was we were all so happy to be doing something, you know, I think that just proved on screen as well that everybody was just so ready to be creative and do something together with other people in the same space. So I love that connection. Yes, I lived in New York for many years, 15 years, kind of
00:02:28
Speaker
Um, crazy number when you say it out loud. And now I'm back in Slovenia. Um, act, well, question.
Transformative Experience at Strasberg
00:02:39
Speaker
I came to New York. I was supposed to stay there for three months and do a workshop in, um, Lee Strasberg theater and Institute. Yeah. Um, and I was, I'm just going for three months. I just finished, I studied musical theater in Vienna. I actually lived in Vienna.
00:02:58
Speaker
And then I was like, you know, I'll just go for three months. I like, I was auditioning and I was like, you know, if I get this job, then I'm going to go to Germany to do this production. But if I don't get it, I'm going to go to New York for three months. Because I actually, to be honest, like musical wasn't really my thing. I just loved acting, but I felt like I needed something to shift to allow me to do that. I don't know if I like, I was, you know,
00:03:24
Speaker
like the circumstances to be right. So that's how I came to New York for three months and then stayed 15 years. And went to Strasburg, which was, I think, one of the best two years of my life. I mean, of course, we were all super young and
00:03:44
Speaker
green to New York, you know? Well, what is that? Not to not to interrupt your in your flow and what you're talking about there. And I'm saying this completely from from the from the outside. That experience, from what I know from the outside is transformational. Like, I know you can't put it in a nutshell, but what was that experience like for somebody from the outside to understand going through that program? I it was just really
00:04:14
Speaker
inspirational and creative and it was out of the forms that I was taught before because I came from dance kind of stumbled into musical from that and I felt like and also living in New York and just sorry living in Vienna before um there's a structure everything's kind of was structured also in my education and the way I was you know
00:04:40
Speaker
And I felt like New York allowed me to let loose and also the Strasbourg, like the approach is very much to allow things to happen to you and then to create basically this moment, you know, to create the moments where then the story happens, the storytelling, to create, you know, the surroundings for the storytelling to happen.
00:05:09
Speaker
So I felt like I really learned what my craft actually is when I was there. I was like, okay, yes, this is what I know how to do. This is what I'm doing. And this feels right, you know? So that I feel like was my validation of something that I was looking for, but didn't know how to yet to express. Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker
I had seen your work with daddy's wallet, but I had seen your clips as well because I'm fascinated by
Impact of COVID on Acting
00:05:54
Speaker
acting. Part of the reason I asked you on is because
00:06:00
Speaker
you're an excellent actor and it's noticeable. And I want to tell you just, you know, it's probably useful for, you know, like weird inflections of like how the audience respond. Cause there's like a kind of like intimacy of like maybe seeing you on Instagram and then maybe kind of like knowing some of your background and then seeing you in the scene, which is so different, which is still this kind of like,
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, in different places. Yeah, right. And I want to just mention that because even at my age and stuff, it's like, oh my gosh, that. But not only that, I just wanted to say that in senior scenes, it's like, oh, this is around a scene. And what you said was really interesting about starting, say, with Daddy's Wallet and how everybody was waiting
00:06:51
Speaker
to, you know, have the ability to perform. What was that palpably like after such, you know, what was a long layoff for folks? I mean, you mentioned some components of it, but what was like, what were people like? What were people like? You're like, we're doing a scene. Yeah, we were just really happy and emotional.
00:07:18
Speaker
And thank God, I don't know if you remember, but my scenes were emotional. So me being emotional already on top of that just helped. I was just happy because it's acting as an art form, it's playing. So you meet other people. And if you're a musician or a painter,
00:07:46
Speaker
your, you know, your creativity or your expression, you can be by yourself, you know, of course, you need an audience and everything, and you want people to see your work, but acting just itself like you can't do it by yourself, you need other people. So I feel like, like,
00:08:05
Speaker
the, you know, COVID was particularly hard on that for the acting community because we were like, we, I mean, we were, thank God for Zoom, so we could do like some plays over Zoom, but that's just not the same as being in the same room and actually feeding of each other's energies, you know? Yeah. Well, just to wrap it up with that answer, I thought I was just really happy to be there.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah well I'm excited to to also chat generally about about art and um you know just from uh from uh your being from Slovenia and um also mentioning um
00:08:49
Speaker
Vienna as well. I'm thinking like art and like what might be some of your experience with this but um, so I'd ask you um, what is art and invite you as far as any of your What you've been in contact with environmentally in New York, of course, but like how that might inform but the question what is art?
Art as a Basic Human Expression
00:09:11
Speaker
What is art? I believe that art is one of
00:09:19
Speaker
the most basic expressions of humans, like, you know, babies dance or wiggle to music before they know how to talk. Or they even draw before they really know how to express themselves yet or know how to do, I don't know, go to the bathroom or whatever, you know? Like, so it is really basic. And then, you know, we grow up and we do all sorts of things, but, and then we sometimes wonders like,
00:09:49
Speaker
As an artist, when things get hard, you wonder, why am I doing it? But yet it feels as something very innate and natural and basic. And I would love it the rest of the whole society would see it like that and give more support to the artists because I do feel that it's one of the most basic human's expressions.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I was wondering about that too. Now I've had the impression is the shows worldwide and I talked to artists and one of the things as far as social policy, I really noticed is that maybe in some other countries.
00:10:37
Speaker
more of an active talk about art grants and public support for the arts. It's a very different conversation within the marketplace in the U.S. I'm just saying that one of the things I enjoy sometimes
00:10:55
Speaker
is is just hearing like differently how culturally the arts may be supported. I that's something that you're talking about and me being back in Slovenia, I just I'm so amazed that like, for example, actors, you know, there's all these theaters across the country, and then you have a job for life if you're in a theater, or there's artists support that you apply for and you have insurance.
00:11:22
Speaker
You know, you have to prove, of course, that you're not just anybody can get it, you have to prove that you have a certain body of work, but then you have life insurance and you're supported, you know, and you feel like, you know, you can take time to do what you actually know how to do. But also something that I thought about before when you were talking about the importance of art, and we're talking about
00:11:51
Speaker
the pandemic before. And I thought it was so interesting during like the pandemic, like when people had different conversations of like, Oh, what is really important? And what is not important? And people were like, Oh, well, you know, art, we don't really need it. We need healthcare and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, what were you doing during the pandemic? I was watching different shows and I'm like, sorry, you did what?
00:12:15
Speaker
So what is that? Oh yeah, but I don't really need to watch TV. I could also just read things. So, so, oh, you were reading. So, you know, that means there's a writer on the other side. And it's interesting how people don't realize that how much of people's everyday lives is filled with art. Like you don't need to go to a museum. You can just drive in a car and listen to your radio or I don't know, you know, like,
00:12:45
Speaker
there's moments in everyone's daily life that is filled with art without them even maybe realizing you know yeah yeah well i think i went and i think that's a really great discussion i mean i felt at the time sometimes it's easier right for the
00:13:04
Speaker
Um, physical material needs, you know, of the body, right? Like around pandemic or times of scare, but there's this other component that I believe like in general, we're still like an infancy of understanding of like what it is to need nourishment. Uh, and I'm pointing to my head to need nourishment and to need.
00:13:28
Speaker
Basic food and water for the your brain for late and for the soul, you know for the soul. Yeah exactly for body mind and spirit Yeah, so I mean I that's I thought it just really brought that to the to the four but yeah I mean they became more important and that's the question I had related we started to get into it here is the I I asked now is you know
Art in Times of Social Tension
00:13:55
Speaker
Art has a particular role historically. One of the things I wonder is that 2023 here we're talking late summer, Oregon to Slovenia. And is art more important now? Is it always doing what it's supposed to be doing? It's just the times are the times right now.
00:14:24
Speaker
You know, it's interesting. I think it's always important. I do think it is very important now because I think this is global, not just personal, that we all feel that the times are, there's electric, you know, there's stuff going on and there's been stuff going on for a while, you know, around us, you know.
00:14:50
Speaker
And I feel whenever there's those ages where there's a lot going on socially, we have a pandemic, we have war going on, there's tension, you know? I feel that there's always kind of a ground or a space opens up where we need to make sense of what is going on or at least express ourselves and say, hey, I'm feeling like this.
00:15:20
Speaker
Who else is feeling like this? And I feel this is definitely the time and space that we're in right now. And I do feel or hope as well that it is an invitation for more art and more conversation to happen. And yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
As hard as it is, I'm always an optimist. Perhaps it is also a fertile ground for something to grow from. Yeah. I got a different one. The art of acting and, you know, being on the moving screen, you can be seen by a lot of different folks.
Misconceptions About Acting
00:16:12
Speaker
you as an actor, what, what's one big thing that, that, that, that, that folks kind of get wrong about or misunderstand about the acting performance from the actor's perspective. I mean, it's kind of,
00:16:38
Speaker
I'm just going to be really honest. It's kind of interesting because when I'm working on a role or when I was shooting the Hallmark movie or whatever it was, I never think about this being on the big screen and all these people seeing it. I just have this love for a need to express and tell stories.
00:17:08
Speaker
so interested in who these people are and and and and I feel that sometimes people see it from outside you know because I feel like a lot of actors are actually shy in a way not that I'm particularly shy I feel like um what is what is the word introverted extrovert or something yeah um and and
00:17:35
Speaker
And then don't necessarily have this need to be seen by all these people or have that attention, but that there's just the look for the work that is there and that wants to be shown. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:53
Speaker
It, um, I find, I find interesting. I mean, I, I watch, uh, I watch a lot of film and, you know, I get to interview some, some actors and directors and, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's a, it's a, an area in industry that's right for, you know, the perceptions of what people, you know, perceive it to be. Sorry to cut you off, but just when you said that you interviewed a lot of actors, I just had this like label come up of this recent thing that I heard.
00:18:23
Speaker
Um, just to make more sense of what I was trying to say, I think that, um, there was an interview with like Jack Nicholson was doing some movie. I forgot which one. Oh, I forgot. And, and the director said to him, you know, when, cause when the camera's on you, you're really trying to do your best performance, but when the camera's on the other person and you're just, you know, not, it's not, um, your take.
00:18:50
Speaker
A lot of actors don't, like some actors don't do a hundred percent. They just like tone it down a little bit or not. Really. I always just do everything because I'm always just trying to make it better. Um, but, but, um, Jack, uh, Nicholson just kept doing it full out, you know, and the director, so sorry, I forgot for the sake of the story. I should have looked it up. I forgot who the director was, but the director said to him,
00:19:16
Speaker
You know, Chuck, you don't need to do it full out all the time, you know? And he said, oh, you forget, you know, something you don't know. I just love it so much. And especially if you're a screen actor, you're really lucky and you're in your busy period, you don't get to do it so often because also then the movie takes a year to be edited and blah, blah, blah. So that short amount of time that you have,
00:19:45
Speaker
You just really want to savor it, you know? Yeah. And I think a lot of people, also I think young actors or people that want to be in the industry, they like that, you know, people think, oh, it's about the glitz and the glamour or, oh, people want to get famous. They want to get recognized. But what is the most important thing is your love for the work, because otherwise you will never continue doing it.
00:20:14
Speaker
because it's just too hard to keep doing it, you know? And I feel like from my own experiences, I've been at it for a while, that, yeah, just hold on to the love. Yeah, that's, it's a really discreet and important point because I would even, you know, I would, I would even say as a creator, I
00:20:40
Speaker
I want to deal with that dynamic all the time. My day job, I work in the labor movement, and my perspective is that it has to be results-oriented, for good reason. So there's a relationship with the work that way.
00:21:05
Speaker
One of the things I find in creating and I mean, when it comes to creativity, I write and I paint and largely I do the podcast, but I find when I'm doing the podcast, I have to check my head because my head has a lot of programming to be like,
00:21:25
Speaker
barrel through and knowing that my art, my space and the this of creating is just unto itself, like a constant reminder of not necessarily tied to amount of downloads or this or that. And that's a real tough, like in an, maybe not industry, but when every, when there's a way of looking at things, that's always like, what is it churning? What is it doing? The result orientated.
00:21:56
Speaker
The whole society is result orientated. And you pointing out that piece of being like going back to it is something that I regularly do. And you find yourself doing just be like in the performance, in the doing. Exactly. Because even like I do the same thing. My mind is result orientated. Oh, this thing should be like this, or this should be like this, or this is. And that's usually when the work is not good.
00:22:25
Speaker
But like when you can just even if it's split seconds or however long it lasts that you can be like now just be in the process allow yourself to be there in the process and Surprising things happen, you know and good things happen Natasha because I can't ask anybody else right off the bat Slovenian film and Why now
Upcoming Slovenian Film Project
00:22:54
Speaker
I'm a bit of a film buff, so I just have to ask these type of questions. So I've watched a lot of Czech film, a lot of Japanese film. You talked about some of the support of the arts that has been nice that you've seen within being back in Slovenia.
00:23:17
Speaker
What about Slovenian film? Tell us about that. Slovenian film? I'm actually shooting next week a Slovenian film. This wasn't me just to try to sneak in and find out what you're up to. I want to know. I want you to riff on Slovenian film for a bit. So Slovenian film, it's
00:23:38
Speaker
So here's the thing about Slovenia. We're very small. There's only two millions of us. So hence you only have a public of 2 million people that speak this language and watch your movies, TV shows and so forth. So there's not a lot of financial support in that spectrum that's needed to do, you know, um, even though nevertheless, there's very good, um,
00:24:09
Speaker
great stuff happening like I think let alone this year there's like so many different projects especially because a lot of projects have been like you know put on hold because of the pandemic that this year there's just so much coming to fruition and I feel people are really being creative and it's growing. I must say like a couple of years back there was
00:24:35
Speaker
so many less things happening are shooting in Slovenia and now it's starting to pick up. And TV is starting to pick up. We would always only have foreign shows that we would watch and now we have our own shows that are great. But it's slow. It's a slow process. And me, I haven't lived here in Slovenia for so many years because I
00:25:03
Speaker
I'm not gonna count now, but it's been a long time. I feel like I'm a little bit of an outsider, because the space is so small, everyone knows each other and works with people that they know. So I feel like I'm slowly trying to get into the scene here. So I'm happy for everything that happens, but it's been fun.
00:25:30
Speaker
And what I'm actually working on, we're starting to shoot this coming week. It's Second World War Story, which is particularly interesting in Slovenia because Slovenia was like a little tiny melting pot from all sorts of sides that were battling on our ground.
00:25:55
Speaker
let alone Slovenians being confused as to where they belong and how they can form their own independency. So it's, it's an interesting story. And, um, yeah, I'm very excited about it. I'm very excited about it. I don't know if you, do you want me to talk about it a little bit about the story? I really do. Yeah. So the story, it's actually a true story. Um, it's a true story of, uh,
00:26:24
Speaker
and a son, that they had a shop, this was a local shop in the outskirts of the Vienna, where, you know, the people from town and the people from maybe a little bit outside of town would come in. And since this was the beginning of the Italian occupation of Slovenia, the Italians will come in, but then also the Partisans, which were like undercover at that point, the people that were fighting to firstly and to be independent would come in.
00:26:53
Speaker
So it was a melting pot. And I, as much as I can, am trying to keep it as a mutual ground, but eventually it's not mutual anymore, and the work does come in. And the true story of this family is that the father, so the husband of my character was sent, I think, to some northern front, so he was away.
00:27:22
Speaker
And eventually they were told that it would be better if they left because they were accused to collaborate with the Italians or perhaps being too friendly with the Italians. Whereas, you know, just having a store and what can you say, you're not selling to certain people. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't work that way. But nevertheless, the true story is that they eventually fled Slovenia
00:27:54
Speaker
and migrated to America. Yeah. And lost contact, because of course there was no cell phones or internet back then, lost contact completely with the husband father who was on the, I think the Russian front or somewhere far away. And then 10 years later,
00:28:17
Speaker
he went to, or even 15 years later, he found them in United States. Oh, wow. They found each other after 15 years. Oh my goodness. And lived, you know, then all of them moved and since they were quite successful, you know, they had this successful business back in Louisiana, they actually had a very good life and managed to have quite a good life then in US. So it's a true story, which I always loved.
00:28:48
Speaker
So yeah, it's a short movie, but I feel there's so much there that I'm hoping that maybe. Yeah. I love the story. It's one of those things as the host I mentioned from time to time, like I got to roll into the story a bit. Wait a second. There's another question, another thing to do on this show.
00:29:14
Speaker
Yeah, thanks. Yeah, it's fun. It's I'm really looking forward to it. But yeah, talking about cinema in Slovenia, I feel there's a lot of talent. And and but it's a very small space. So it's I think, but you know, every space has limitations. And it's it's hard to put things
00:29:44
Speaker
up on its feet. I think wherever you are, you have different kind of issues that you're confronted with to make things work and to create art and to make it happen. Yeah, there's no exact on the great art.
00:30:02
Speaker
you know, there's no map from it when you look at it overall. I mean, I think it's one of the wonderful things, but also one of the frustrations is like, you can easily bump into great art, never expected to find it here. And you're like, look over here, you know, like that type of thing. And films, films are very much like that when you see a small film and you're like, oh my gosh, you know, and you get excited about it. But that's part of the,
00:30:29
Speaker
promotion and excitement around art. I got a big question. I get a drop on the something rather than nothing question.
Philosophy on Life's Opportunities
00:30:38
Speaker
Right. Because yeah, I didn't know if you if you want to have an aggressive go at that one. But the general question is and it can be related to artists. Why is there something rather than nothing at all?
00:30:56
Speaker
Definitely something rather than nothing. I mean, in any, I feel in any aspect, whether if it's art or life, you know, if we're going from a creative way, I, there's every experience that you're going to go on, there's something going to come out of it. If it's just experience, you learn something, you learn something with every new project that you're on with
00:31:24
Speaker
conversations that you have with things that don't work, especially those things, you know, you learn. So there's always something to be had, you know, and so is in life, you know, what are you going to stay at home? No, if you want to have a full life, if you want to have experiences, go out and live it, you know. So I would very much say something rather than nothing.
00:31:52
Speaker
And also I feel in acting, if we're looking from that, I sometimes wish, I can remember when I was younger and I was starting out as an actor in New York, and you'd have different people telling you, I had some teachers like, oh, you can't just do everything. You should be selective. You should do this. You should do that. And you have some people that say that, oh, you should not say yes to everything. And now looking back, I was like, no.
00:32:21
Speaker
you should, especially if you're new at something, you should go out and just do everything and learn and learn. Because you don't know, I guess, right? Because you never know. And also, you never know what, of course, if you don't feel like, you know, trust your gut instinct, if something's real, don't do it. But on the other hand, do it because you never know
00:32:47
Speaker
where the connection is going to lead you to you never know what you're going to learn. You never know who the right people will be until you meet them that you want to collaborate later on, you know, or whenever the time is right. And I just generally in life, I feel that
00:33:06
Speaker
Yeah, don't shy away from it. Definitely go out and live it. Yeah, no, I definitely something rather than nothing. I appreciate that. Hey, um.
Influence of Dance and Yoga on Acting
00:33:20
Speaker
Just another curious arts question is for you obviously trained in acting and such Other type of training and you being around the arts. Is there any contact with other training that you've had? In acting that you know that that helps you with with acting rather there's formal acting training Yes, I feel that you know
00:33:50
Speaker
all kinds. I mean, I used to be a dancer, so it's kind of interesting. I actually still, though, I love the camera. I feel much more comfortable and at home on stage because I feel like I can move.
00:34:05
Speaker
Because on camera, I sometimes would look at my takes and be like, why am I moving so much? It's like my dancer's side. It's like, stay still to tell the story. But I always want to express myself with the body, which is also a good thing because that means that you're in the body. You're not quite there.
00:34:30
Speaker
But I'm also a yoga teacher, so meditation and those practices really help just to stay present, if whatever kind of life that you have, it doesn't mean to be art, whatever it is. But particularly in art, I think it's because, especially with acting, you're expressing the moments, you know, you're always,
00:34:59
Speaker
it's happening right there. It's not something that is going to happen later. It's happening right there. So having practices that help you stay grounded and stay present and stay here and not be in the five minutes after or before, but now I think any kind of practices like that are really, really helpful for, for, for acting and probably other art forms as well.
00:35:27
Speaker
I, um, I appreciate you mentioned that part of me with the yoga as well. I mean, I, uh, um, at a recent loss of a, of, of a friend of mine and, um, the, uh, yoga session I had recently was just pivotal in an unexpected way of helping, um,
00:35:55
Speaker
And I'll just tell you about it because part of this whole show is healing the arts and healing and such. But, um, you know, I try to get to yoga as much as I can. And one of the biggest things that I know that happens that is so helpful for me is that my body gets contorted into weird, different shapes and directions and movement. And within yoga, when I am
00:36:22
Speaker
moving my body in a way that's just repositioning it and also paying attention to my breath I can feel my body like reconstituting in a different way and some discomfort within that but it's a real profound thing and it was particularly helpful for me this week and another thing I just wanted to mention too just like on your points as well with mindfulness
00:36:48
Speaker
I've recently gone really deep into it the last few days with the idea was this with the loss of my friend and with grief was that I know and have believed for a long time that there is a a path or an answer or a way to deal with suffering or imbalance or pain and
00:37:13
Speaker
And it's right in those two areas that you said. So I wanted to pause when we're talking about art and yoga teaching. It's never for me in my head just an appendage. It's an embodiment of how you interact with the world. So thank you for that. And I've been using it intensely recently, which is why I wanted to mention those few things. Yeah. I'm happy you found your way to it. I think it's such a
00:37:43
Speaker
It's a gift and yes, to know ourselves, right? To know why we're here, how we are here so that we can serve others and we can serve the community and be part of it in a greater way.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah, and movement to the word movement for me. And when you were talking about, oh, yes, your scenes and such. And yeah, no movement is just like I feel our our body sometimes it's as. Smells better than the mind. Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's it's
00:38:30
Speaker
It knows what's right for you, how you feel, where you're at, and also that gut feeling if something is wrong or right or wrong before you register and think about it. Yeah, so that's why I feel sorry to go back to your question before regarding
00:38:58
Speaker
Movement practices are very important I feel for I mean especially in acting so you you embody because you have to physically embody other people and also you have so to embody other people you have to feel yourself first your body, you know, yeah, like because I feel like the interest the interesting part of the acting is that
00:39:21
Speaker
You are the instrument. It's not outside of you. It's not this guitar that you can play beside, but it is this. You're the vessel. You are the vessel, so you have to know it well to make it do and become things that you want it to become, which is a great thing as well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate the conversation. And one of the things, even about movement, whether it's dance and all those other things, I think I've learned more through the show. And there's a piece where I've thought more deeply about it now than in the past. I think I was like, you know, I'm
00:40:04
Speaker
51 male of a generation. It isn't like I grew up at a time where like, move young man and feel yourself, you know, like, yeah, you were trying to feel less, you know, don't feel that way. Right, right. So I find it, um, I find, um, those pieces of my learning that involve movement as expression or breathing or like getting beyond or getting through,
00:40:31
Speaker
I'm very fascinated into those because I think there's been, at least I feel for myself, a deprivation at times of that type of release. So thank you for the conversation and encouragement and the ability to put on some James Brown music or something to get some of that out.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah. Natasha, you have to tell us, have to tell the listeners all the different ways in which to define your work, to define you or just, you know, tell... Define me. Yeah. For sure. Well, I have a website, which is n-a-t-a-s-a-b-a-b-i-c.com.
Connecting with Natasha Online
00:41:24
Speaker
So my first and my last name.
00:41:26
Speaker
And then you can also find me on Instagram, which is my first and my last name, N-A-T-A-S-A-B-A-B-I-C-N-Y-C. Yeah. I'm sticking to change that, because I'm not in New York at the moment, but I'm just going to leave it. But you're still kind of off. I've lived once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker. You're still kind of. Exactly. I've lived such important years of my life in New York, so it's always there. It'll always be there with me.
00:41:56
Speaker
Um, yes. And those are, I would say are the two most important channels. Uh, you can also watch the dancing detective, a deadly tango on Hallmark. Uh, it's, you have to look it up when it's streaming next. It was just streaming this week. So I don't know when it's coming up. I think, I think I just missed it. I was plunking around. Yeah, but it's, it's, it's on a regular, it's around and we're definitely hoping
00:42:25
Speaker
for the dancing detective number two, maybe, perhaps. Yeah. That would be great. We didn't talk about it. I wanted to tell you, I'll just quickly touch upon it. You don't have to, hold up, hold up here. When it comes to this movie and to the Hallmark, it is the amount of time for you to express what you wish to express, not quickly. Okay, great. So tell us what we need to know. Yes.
Filming Experience in Malta
00:42:53
Speaker
It is,
00:42:54
Speaker
a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful experience. Well, first of all, I'll just tell it from my personal experience creating this. It was such a like intense experience. I was cast on Friday and I flew out on Sunday and was on set on Monday. And then we were just going for it.
00:43:20
Speaker
Um, but it was such a thrill. We were in Malta. So it's all shot in Malta. There's this gorgeous locations. I fell in love with Malta and the Maltese people and just everything that has to do with the, it's such a beautiful country. It's an Island, but it's gorgeous. And I didn't know that. Um, and, and the Maltese, they talk like just their, their, their accent. It's just, and they're such a, like,
00:43:47
Speaker
warm and open people. That whole experience was one of those like gifts, you know, sometimes you get those gifts. It was a little stressful at the beginning because I was just like, oh my God, we have to I have to create a character in two days, but you know, something's going to happen. Yeah. So sometimes, you know, I wish to go back and reshoot things, but you always wish to do that.
00:44:14
Speaker
But it was such a great experience, and we worked with Will Kemp and Lacey on this production, and they were just such a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous people to work with. And I was talking to Lacey when we wrapped up, and she was saying that truly this production was so heartwarming. I feel like everybody was just gathered, and it was the right chemistry.
00:44:44
Speaker
And the people were nice. Everything was, you know, there's always, you're always like, oh, we're going to make it work. Of course, there's always time pressure. There's always, but it was just general, like one of the best experiences I had. So, yes. I'm really excited to hear about all that. The story is cute, you know, Hallmark movies. The story is cute. It's, it's, it's the dancing detective and there are
00:45:14
Speaker
solving murder together. I like that. I like that. They're dancing. I like that conceit. And I like that. It's a little not your usual hallmark, you know, story. Yeah. So so yeah, so we were just dancing around in Malta, which was yeah, we had so much fun.
00:45:36
Speaker
I have a, I got for a gift, I believe, from my daughter, a Hallmark movie hero t-shirt, which I probably should have worn for this interview, but that could show up in the summer and around the holiday times.
00:45:54
Speaker
But that's fantastic to hear about that experience. Wow, even just from Friday to Monday, it's a thrill of a story to hear about. It was one of those. I love when I hear sometimes movie stars saying, yes, I was preparing for this for a year to find my character.
00:46:20
Speaker
I feel so lucky. Yeah, that's cute. That's a cute idea. Did you struggle? That's a cute idea, you know. Well, sometimes you have time. I like to work under pressure because I'm also like, you know, living, like being a New Yorker and there's always time limitations to everything, you know, and I'm like working in theater, like you only get two weeks and then you have opening night.
00:46:47
Speaker
which for like European actors it's unheard of because they get like at least a month of, you know, rehearsals. And then also working in indie scene, which I did mostly in New York, it's always like, you don't have the funds to play or like you just, we're doing this, we have two weeks, we're shooting a feature and we're just gonna all make it work, you know? So I do love working under pressure because I feel it makes everyone step up, you know?
00:47:17
Speaker
And I don't know, I just, maybe because I'm like laid back as a person, I need a little pressure to not, to show up 100%, you know? But I do wish I would have a little more than two days. Two weeks, would it be ideal? Yeah, that's wild. And I think it's one of those things too, because sometimes when any of us have something to do,
00:47:45
Speaker
I think at the end like sometimes there's something to accomplish and there's a time and there's just a lot of other details that I would wrap my head around that can fall off too so like sometimes it's useful just to be all right shit doesn't seem possible but everybody else is working what seems to be impossible so
00:48:07
Speaker
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's impossible, but it's happening. So we're just going to make it happen. It's still happening. It's still on the piece of paper up there that I saw. So yeah, it was a little bit one of those experiences where I was just like, wow, this is crazy. But it's happening, you know. I love it. I love it. Natasha, I got to tell you,
00:48:30
Speaker
I love talking about movies and art and it's been a real pleasure to meet with you and chat with you and actually to hear about some of the experience within your work.
00:48:48
Speaker
that they're just behind the scenes as well. It's fascinating. And so everybody make sure you check out Natasha's work. And best of luck. Wherever, you know, you are a New Yorker and you're Slovenian, like, but best of luck where you're doing your work and really happy to have you on the
00:49:15
Speaker
on the podcast and the folks, Matthew, Kyle, Avine, a couple of episodes, we'll have those in the short show notes and the feature that he's while I was in, but thanks so much for coming out to the show. Thank you for having me. It's been so, so, so much fun to talk about.
00:49:35
Speaker
Just everything and nothing with you. Definitely something with nothing. At the end finger we've covered it all. I at least put words to say we've covered it all. Yeah, we did cover it quite a bit. Thanks Natasha. Thank you. This is something rather than nothing.
00:50:05
Speaker
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00:50:26
Speaker
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00:50:54
Speaker
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