Having earned a Best Actress Award for short movie, Mental Hellth, actor Ana Roza revels in “one-shot” projects

“Mental Hellth was similar to Silent, which I previously filmed, as both films are just one long sequence without any cuts. I find one-shot films fascinating, that's why I like doing them, because as an actor you can’t make any mistakes or you have to stop and start again. But if the mistake is small, I usually prefer to keep going because I know some of the most interesting moments in acting can happen when you think there is nothing left to lose because the take won't be used anyway.”—actor Ana Roza

Ana Roza feels that “one-shot” movies, or ones that are made to look like that from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller, Rope, to Sam Mendes’ war epic, 1917, have a way to enhance realism by letting the audience in on the action with none or few cuts, fashioning a sense of being present with the characters.

And, actor Ana Roza is on a roll in this genre having been awarded Best Actress for Mental Hellth at the Crown Point Film Festival in Chicago, and also being nominated for Best Actress at a festival in India. Additionally, this Fall, Mental Hellth will be shown at the ''Terrassa Film Festival'' in Spain this November which focuses on one-shot movies.

Indeed, she mentions the impact of the miniseries, Adolescence, on Netflix, which was filmed in a one-shot take to create tension and a sense of immediacy for the show's storyline. Ana Roza says:

“I was really excited for the Terrassa Film Festival entry, especially because there were some accomplished people on the jury. The competition to get in this year was especially tough. Because of the popularity of the Netflix show Adolescence, which was filmed that way with each episode being one long take, there were more entries because it seems a lot of filmmakers were inspired by it.”

Stella Adler’s technique founded on actor’s ability to imagine a character’s world

Along the way in her career, Ana Roza has studied various acting techniques like the Stella Adler and “Method” techniques, but believing that “each technique has its own advantages, and it’s best for actors to try multiple teachers and techniques.”

As a result, she used her experience in these various techniques to handle some of the challenges of how to perform in a one-shot project, explaining:

“I think my broad theatre training helped me. But, I was just nervous about remembering the blocking because I got on the set an hour before shooting started, so there wasn't much time for getting familiar with the space. And in both films—Mental Hellth and Silent—the space is supposed to be my character's own apartment so it was crucial that I moved around as if I knew it well. In Mental Hellth, my character starts having a panic attack, but it still wouldn't have been very cinematic if I kept bumping into door frames while moving in between rooms.”

When looking in the mirror, Ana Roza feels she’s good at making bold choices and building an interesting inner life for her characters. And then also being present as the character and experiencing fully what they are going through in that moment.

Moreover, these abilities have helped Ana Roza earn two additional awards in Sweden for Best Actress in a Short Film (Lulea Film festival and also the Stockholm City Film Festival) for her performance in Soulmates, which she describes this way:

“Soulmates is a short film, set during the pandemic, about two people having an online date to get to know each other and they are interrupted by the guy's girlfriend who is also played by me. The film is a dark comedy and is trying to ask the question, in a cheeky way, whether we subconsciously always end up picking the same kind of partner, not seeing the pattern and wondering why we remain unhappy or unfulfilled.”

An insightful question, indeed.

The difference between Vertical and Traditional performing

With the growth of vertical micro dramas in Hollywood, Ana Roza has acted in some episodes, explaining:

“If you like your entertainment this way—fast-paced, high energy, with big reactions and direct dialogue—then verticals are for you. I think verticals are right now not so much about inner life or the quiet moments. It's good for comedy in my opinion. The framing of the actor in the vertical format is also interesting because you can usually see the actor's whole upper body, so body language is very important and the background doesn't matter that much. But I still love watching regular format movies and TV shows because it's usually made for people who are watching it at home on a TV screen or in a movie theater. Consequently, audiences are completely focused on the storytelling and the acting can be a lot more subtle which I find a lot more compelling to watch.”

What is the “dream” gig?

Slovenian-born Ana Roza’s versatility has also seen her performing Shakespeare, working with mega performer Ariana Grande on a TV commercial, and performing in the award-winning psycho-drama Eight and a Half Circles, which was mentored by iconic filmmaker David Lynch. Indeed, Stojan Jaklič, producer of film-festival appearing movie, Silent, has suggested Ana Roza has “real star power.”

Then she’s preparing for the feature, Second Act, next year, explaining: “I’m playing an actress whose day job is a primary school teacher so I am trying to figure out what my character's normal work day would be like, I think that job is a huge part of who she is. She has to keep the children safe, educate them and also be entertaining so that they pay attention. She also has dreams of becoming a Broadway star so that is when you have to figure out the balance between the two, how these things define who she is.”

And, what directors would she like to collaborate with?

“I would love to work with director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049 and Dune) to see how he thinks and how he constructs a movie. I also would like to collaborate with Luca Guadagnino, Emerald Fennell and Greta Gerwig, as they all have such a specific style and the actors in their films deliver amazing performances.”

And, after all, the performance is what it’s about, or as Shakespeare once wrote, “The play’s the thing.”

Drop in on Ana Roza’s Website, Instagram and IMDb pages.