Maria Breese is an actress and producer who has produced several released and up-and-coming theatrical releases with her production company, 3:33 Creative.
She is known for producing films, “Untogether,” starring: Jamie Dornan, Billy Crystal, and Jemimah Kirke, “Electric Love,” starring: Mia Serafino and Zachary Mooren, and “The Swing Of Things,” starring: Luke Wilson, Chord Overstreet, and Olivia Culpo, amongst others, gaining her great relationships with companies such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon.
Along with her experience in production, Maria has previously worked in casting with the likes of Lora Kennedy, the head of Feature Casting at Warner Bros., Gary Zuckerbrod Casting, and Geoffrey Soffer Casting.
Maria can also be seen co-starring and starring in TV shows such as Fox’s, “New Girl,” Showtimes, “Shameless,” Vice’s, “All Wrong,” and Hulu’s “Dark Web.”
indieactivity: Please give a personal and concise autobiography of yourself?
Maria Breese (MB): I started acting, dancing, and singing at a very young age. My mother was a director and chair of Performing Arts at American University until I reached college, and I would regularly perform in her plays and musicals.
I started taking dance at the age of 3 and eventually became a competitive dancer throughout middle and high school. Performing Arts flowed easily, and I went on to perform in several stage performances during high school and college. I attended BADA in Oxford, England, in 2010 and eventually graduated from college in 2011 with my BA in Musical Theatre/Minor in dance.
I began acting for film in college during one of my courses in production and really loved it. I decided after college that I’d move to Los Angeles and pursue it full time and never looked back. I currently study acting with famed casting director Matthew Barry.
What acting technique do you use?
Maria Breese (MB): I’ve studied many different techniques over the years, but currently, I’m a big fan of Stanislavski, emotional recall, and method acting. I think that if you can really feel what your character is feeling, it portrays the most natural performance. I’d like to note that it’s very important that you use these methods with care, as it’s easy to get stuck in that cycle and get lost, so really trying to understand where that memory stems from and healing from it on a personal level is very important for your mental health!
You are an experienced actor; how much work: creative, energy, or focus do you put into your scenes?
Maria Breese (MB): Like any job, it’s important to give all of your energy, time, and focus to your craft. Taking the time to read, memorize, strategize and understand your characters’ intentions really helps you dive into the psyche of each character. Crafting their background, likes, dislikes, relationships to other characters only furthers the creative aspects and where you can go on set.
Let’s take a project (name the project) you did; how did you prepare for such a role: the cast, the physicality, the terrain, the climate, weather, and the demands of the project?
Maria Breese (MB): In the new movie, “Teachers Watching,” I play the role of Izzy Fletcher, a mom, and wife who has recently lost her mother to cancer. As a mother and wife myself, those aspects were easy for me to relate to.
However, I have a very deep friendship with my mother, who is still living. So I had to really picture how I’d feel if or when I inevitably lose her and how I’d react to that loss. In conclusion, then transpose that into what I know about Izzy and who she is as a person. Izzy is a visual artist and sculptor and deals with things very deeply and independently. She tends to go to the dark side and seclude herself, which was very different from how I, Maria, treat loss.
I had to dive into the script and memorize the lines without emotion or feeling and then take what I’ve learned about Izzy and her current situation and apply that to the words on the page.
How do you create the character from a script into a person?
Maria Breese (MB): Briefly touching on that in the last question, it was really beneficial to have the writers of “Teachers Watching” on set with me during filming to dive into Izzy and what her intentions are behind the actions.
It was important that I keep the integrity of who she is as a person while emoting exactly what was on the page. Since Izzy has some very traumatic things happen to her during the movie’s journey, it was important to me that I showcased her starting point and her growth as an individual throughout the film.
Explain a creative choice you took on the set of a recent production?
Maria Breese (MB): I think all the choices we make on set are creative choices 🙂
What do you like most about directors and his/her collaboration with his/her team?
MB: I think every single member of the production team has something unique and important to add to the process. However, the director’s role is unique in that they really get to collaborate with the actor. In addition, take the actor’s work and mold it into the storyline to make it all come together.
What is next for you?
MB: I am slated to shoot a new movie for Hallmark at the end of this month! Merry (early) Christmas!
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