Interview with LA-Based Australian Actress Nerida Bronwen

When Nerida Bronwen was 4 and in kindergarten, she was cast in the lead role of the kindy play ‘Snow White and the seven dwarves’, as Doc. No. “I’m just kidding, I was Snow White. I remember being so invested in being Snow White, completely unabashedly, uninhibitedly committed to the part. It was wonderful, that feeling of entirely immersing yourself in a role, of course as a 4-year-old, I was just playing next-level make-believe, but I liked it, and planned at that moment to do it forever. Of course, according to my parents, it started when I was in the womb, so as cliché as it sounds, I have always felt that I was born to be an actress. There are very few things in life I have that much certainty about.”, says Nerida

As for here and now, I’m sure I’ll fill in the gaps a little later in the interview, but 7 months ago, I’ve finally made the long intended move to Los Angeles.

With David Bianchi after he interviewed me on my performance at the Monologue Slam in Los Angeles 2017 @TriForceEvents #mslamla pic.twitter.com/purKxezpQh

— Nerida Bronwen (@neridabronwen) March 8, 2018

indieactivity: Did you study acting?
Nerida Bronwen: Yes. And I still am, and I probably always will be. You never stop learning as an actor, and the more prepared you can be or the more you know how to prepare the stronger and deeper your performances will be.

After High school (and years of after school drama classes) I was accepted into Wesley Institute (now called Exclesia) to do a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Performance Drama, and worked with some incredible coaches in all the key areas of theatre acting; movement, acting, and voice, such as Katherine Poulsen, Fiona Gentle, Jo Kenny, and Steve Matthews. I’m constantly thankful to my younger self (someone who wanted to predominantly work in film) that I chose to do a Theatre degree.

It was an incredibly unbiased and thorough education in Acting, and I wouldn’t be the actor I am today without it. It presented the multiple ideologies and techniques of acting (and movement and voice) without favoring any, rather just educating us best on the many different approaches there are so that we may choose what worked for us and be best prepared for our hopefully long careers as actors.

The Dramatic Reel 2020 of Nerida Bronwen

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indieactivity: Do you take courses to improve your craft?
Nerida Bronwen: Since graduating from college, I have continued to train and practice. I worked with Rob Carne (now an Excelsia professor) for years in Acting and Improvisation. I’ve studied acting, scene study, and specific techniques, such as the Chubbuck technique, with Anthony Wong (going on 5 years) and Chris Holder at Ivana Chubbuck Studio in Los Angeles.

I’ve continued classes, predominantly in American Dialect with my long-time Australian Agent, and coach, Suzie Steen (whose American). I did improvisation at the Second City in Hollywood. I was honored to work with the late Elizabeth Kemp two years in a row in her Character Dream workshop in Sydney. I did Acting for Camera/cold reading and Self Tests with Actors Advantage Studio in LA, and the Self Test Intensive with Michael Booth in Sydney.

I continually work on Voice and American Dialect in private sessions with Rowena Balos and recently with dialect coach Rob Hahn, both in LA. At the end of last year, I completed the Masterclass with the great Larry Moss here in LA. I’d been wanting to work with Larry Moss for many, many years, and plan to do it again at every possible opportunity.

I most recently began working with Sharon Chatten at her LA studio. I’ve also had private coaching from certain coaches in preparation for auditions. I worked with a great coach named Gary Marks prior to an Audition last year, and well…I got the gig!

All of my coaches have helped to guide me, push me, nurture me, and inspire me, and I am grateful to every one of them for all the ‘penny drops’ and the care they’ve taken with me.

#betweentakes Shooting ‘Check, Please’ late last year. pic.twitter.com/2wx58v23LT

— Nerida Bronwen (@neridabronwen) March 8, 2018

indieactivity: What acting technique do you use?
Nerida: I said earlier, my degree gave me a sound understanding of the major players in the teaching of acting. Many of the techniques we work with today are mostly derivatives of Stanislavski’s ‘System’ of acting, perhaps with specific findings and focus, such as that of Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and Uta Hagen, all of whom have influenced me through study and practice with the coaches that continue to teach their methodologies.

If I had to put myself on a line between Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler (who we know tended to respect each other yet disagree), I’d probably be somewhere in the middle. I very much work with techniques, such as Lee Strasberg, (having worked with Elizabeth Kemp, and The Chubbuck Technique) that require the use of my own life, experiences, relationships, my loss, my pain, my joy, my love, etc, recalled often through sense memory and used to understand/feel the characters’ circumstances. Yet I’m blessed with a very visceral imagination that serves me very well, and something I incorporate into all of my work. The value in finding the given circumstances in the writing or text is invaluable, and where I tend to always begin. Then I bring in the layers of work and discovery.

Much of my study of Acting, from my degree to working with Larry Moss, Elizabeth Kemp, and Anthony Brandon Wong, and now Sharon Chatten, constantly reiterates to me the importance of Vocal and Physical work. Rowena Balos is an expert at teaching the marriage of Voice to Acting, rather than seeing them as two separate practices. And the same should be for the body and movement. In college, we studied Laban, Linklater, and Alexander techniques also to better understand our voices and bodies and their capabilities. I strongly believe that Improvisation is the most necessary tool also, and one that I play with a lot.

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indieactivity: What acting books do you read?
Nerida: The book I go to the most these days would definitely be Larry Moss’ “The Intent to Live” I often have that book with me when approaching any character, or scene.

But I have a bookshelf full of “Acting Books”, Voice Books, and Plays. I think plays are just as beneficial and important to read like books on the craft. Keep reading plays (modern AND classic). To name a few: Ivana Chubbuck’s ‘The power of the Actor’, ‘True and False’ By David Mamet, ‘Beyond Stanislavsky’ By Bella Merlin, ‘Sanford Meisner On Acting’ by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell, and Rowena Balos’ ‘The Color of Sound’ both; ‘Your Inner Voice’ and ‘Standard American Accent for Australian Actors’. I haven’t necessarily read them all in full but go to them often for a chapter, a page, or an exercise.

indieactivity: How do you keep fit as an actor?
Nerida: Outside of my own training, classes, and practice; I watch content. I read plays. I try to go see them too. I watch series and films. I read articles on current events and opinions. I have opinions. I have conversations with people; friends, family, complete strangers about everything and anything. I ask for advice and help and discuss my dilemmas often. I listen to a lot of music, good, bad, old, and new (As I do this interview I’m listening to a modern and classical piano playlist!). I consistently strive to be moved and inspired. I like watching or experiencing things that make me laugh hysterically, cry sobbingly or make me super angry. I let myself feel everything, and react to most things instinctually and in a childlike way. Yes, my dearests say I’m dramatic (to say the least) but I’m constantly wanting to expand and grow my emotional repertoire. I want to be moved.

As far as physically; I run. A lot. Most days if I can. Especially in pretty places with views or at sunset. I love doing fun runs, swimming (even in winter), I do yoga and weight workouts. I just did a February Plank challenge, and March is a squat Challenge and April is my month off from drinking any alcohol!

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indieactivity: How do you prepare for a role?
Nerida: I go to work. I start by pulling apart my script for all the given circumstances. I find my objectives, my intentions/actions, obstacles, my substitutions, inner monologues, etc. I ask many questions about my character. I read all there is to read, and research anything I don’t understand. I work to get the lines down so I can get out of my head and be free to start discovering and connecting myself. I’m an actor who likes to play/discover in my (or my character’s) inner child every chance I get and be uninhibited and instinctual. I rehearse a much as I can, individually, or with coaches, or the director, or fellow actors, depending. I go to dialect coaching if doing an accent. I look at the physicality of my character. I go back to my books, I keep going back to the text…

indieactivity: How do you create a character in a script into a real person?
Nerida: I believe the characters in scripts are people. The writer cared about this person or felt he or she needed to be created, or their story told. Most, if not all characters, are representations or collaborations of real people, some are real people, and have a sense of humor, a quirk, faults, opinions, style, understanding, desires, etc. As the actor, it’s my job to also care about that character and not to judge them.

indieactivity: How do you stay fresh on a production set?
Nerida: Trust the work I’ve done, breathe, listen and get out of my head. I like to improvise the ‘in-between’ takes with my scene partner if they’re willing. And it’s important to respectfully and politely ask for what you need from the cast, crew, and the director. Also, the biggest thing, I aim to give the same level of performance even when the camera isn’t on me, and I expect the same from my fellow actors.

indieactivity: Describe a memorable character you played?
Nerida: The most memorable character I’ve played recently wasn’t in production or film, it was in Larry Moss’ Masterclass. John Patrick Shanley is definitely one of my most favorite writers of both plays and film, and I had the privilege of working on ‘Danny and the Deep Blue Sea’ as Roberta.

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The play is an Apache Dance, so the beautifully intense relationship between Danny and Roberta was amazing to explore. The literal and metaphorical kisses turned to slaps as they navigate their vulnerability and longing for love and understanding, against their inner turmoil, anger, danger, and violence. Exploring her brutality, guilt, masculinity, and femininity was exhausting, hard, wonderful, painful (in a good way), and beautiful. I worked very hard and it felt good. I lived and breathed Roberta. I worked on the Bronx Dialect with Rob Hahn. Larry is good friends with John Patrick Shanley and one of the most rewarding experiences, was being told by Larry; “I felt the love you had for John’s play, and John would have felt it too”

indieactivity: What do you want most from a director?
Nerida: Trust.

indieactivity: What directors do you long to work with?
Nerida: Quentin Tarantino, Alejandro González Iñàrritu, Greta Gerwig, and Ridley Scott to name a few.

indieactivity: What actors do you long to work with and why?
Nerida: Oh goodness, there are so many, and it changes every day. It’ll probably be different tomorrow, but let’s say in this moment:

Natalie Portman, for her playful, natural, and childlike energy, and her intelligent approach. William H Macy for his versatility and experience, and because like me, he thinks he was a dog in a past life. Saoirse Ronan, because she is so incredibly confident yet vulnerable and I hugely admire her abilities. Danai Gurira, her fierce power, her strength, and her beautiful vulnerability, she’s also a playwright as well as an Actor. Neil Patrick Harris, for his improvisational, comedy, and physical theatre skills, it’d be so fun! Ohh and Ryan Reynolds cos…you know…I’m only human.

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indieactivity: What advice would you give to actors?
Nerida: “The audience doesn’t come to see you, they come to see themselves” – Larry Moss.

Acting is not for the faint-hearted. If you want to truly do your character’s justice, you need to be willing to go to the depths of your soul to achieve this and to bare your soul. For me, I want to tell stories that hopefully educate. That may make people feel sad or uncomfortable, but deem them changed from new knowledge. Stories that comfort, and that people can relate to, even if it’s shared pain. I want them to laugh, cry, and be challenged. “Actors have to be willing to pay a price, an emotional price” – Bryan Cranston.

Having said all this, my advice would be to nurture and tend to yourself, to recover if you’re playing such roles. Spend time in yourself too. Do things that make you happy and bring joy outside of playing a role.

indieactivity: Briefly write about your career?
Nerida: I have been blessed to work predominantly in film and television, however, I always find myself back in the theatre. I’ve worked on 20 odd Short films. Lowering Awareness, and Famous, were both Award-winning. I’ve had many roles, from Guest to Lead on crime series Deadly Women and Dark Minds. I’ve worked on a number of Web Series such as Wingman and most recently the much-anticipated 600 Bottles of Wine.

The latter will be available shortly and I’ll have a link on my website. We just got accepted into LA Webfest for the series, which I’ll be attending in April. I performed in plays such as The House of Bernarda Alba, Waiting for Godot, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and I even reprised my role as Snow White in a play for kids Snow white and those Short Guys.

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I’ve worked on many commercials and campaigns back in Australia also. I was Blessed to be on the sets of larger productions such as BBC’s Banished and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Whilst I have done many things to be proud of and explored many strong, and fascinating women both in work and training, I also feel I haven’t even scratched the surface of what is coming for me in my future as an actress. I can’t wait for more.

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