Interview #45 Chelsea Jurkiewicz #actress

Next up on The Mighty Dragon is the supremely gifted actress Chelsea Jurkiewicz. As you can see from her impressive listings on IMDb, this multi-talented actress has more exciting projects in the pipeline. I am very proud to share her journey from stage to screen and beyond here on the blog.

I have a feeling in the future when Chelsea is collecting her Academy Award, that I’ll say “WOW she was on my blog!” Thanks for the opportunity Chelsea, all the best with your career.

• 

You can see Chelsea currently in Abigail Haunting out now on Amazon Prime.

Vikki: What were your first steps into the acting world?

Chelsea: I started acting on stage when I was eleven. I played the role of Kelsi in a children’s theatre musical called “Wonderful Witches of Oz”, and loved it so much. I thought it was the biggest deal in the world. I just loved being that little girl in that little play. After that, I started getting leads in children’s theatre, and then moving onto more professional shows when I was about 14. The next year, I thought I was ready to try film acting, so I began doing extra work and auditioning a lot. One thing led to another, I guess!

Vikki: You have films coming out this year, Abigail Haunting, The Crumbs and Lumeria. Can you tell us more about these movies, if not, tell us how you prepare for your characters. 

Chelsea: “Abigail Haunting” is out now on Amazon Prime, so please watch it! I play a girl named Katie, who returns to her childhood home to find out that it may be haunted. Besides a horror film, it’s also a twisted family drama. It’s really great. People are calling it my “breakthrough role”, so that’s exciting! “The Crumbs” will be out in the summer. I play a strange girl named Victoria Crumb, who is the daughter of some very weird and dysfunctional parents. They all run a bread-and-breakfast together in the woods, and perhaps do wicked things to their guests who don’t have a reservation! “Lumeria” is a short film that’s in festivals right now. It’s a period piece set in the early 1900’s. I play a young girl named Claire who is institutionalized in a mental asylum for believing she is a princess in a magical kingdom. It’s a very special film to me, because I have a rare mental disorder called Psychasthenia, and I’m also related to royalty in Scotland. So if I lived in that time period, I literally would have been Claire!

Vikki: I see on IMDb that you are related to Scottish royalty. Has this spurned any aspirations for Scottish drama/film?

Chelsea: That’s a cool question – I’ve never been asked that before that I remember! I would absolutely love to do that. Especially if it was a period piece, like “Mary Queen of Scots”. I would pretty much die of excitement if I was cast in a movie like that.

Vikki: You started on stage as a child, do you still tread the boards or is this something you will return to?

Chelsea: I’m not even sure what “tread the boards” means, but I’m sure I should know! Anyway, I think I most likely will return to the stage at some point, but probably in straight plays, not musicals. I still love singing and dancing, but I don’t think stage musicals are my element anymore. I feel like I’ve outgrown it or something. But I love stages and microphones too much to let it go completely. I think it sounds fun to act in a dramatic straight play with a lot of dialog. I’ve never actually done that before!

Vikki: We share a love of horror, what are your favourite films, and why? 

Chelsea: Yeah, horror is a great genre because I think it’s the most dramatic. I love things that are dramatic. I like to freak people out. I think one of the best horror movies is “The Conjuring”, because it’s super juicy without a lot of profanity. And it’s about ghosts. Ghosts are pretty cool. Also “The Witch” because it’s a period piece, and I love A24. And “Hereditary” because it’s weird and Toni Collette’s in it. (And it’s A24.) And I’ll pick one more horror film…”Crimson Peak”. It’s a stunning film with fabulous actors. If we’re talking about movies in general of any genre, my all-time favorite movie is “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. And I also LOVE “Finding Neverland”.

Vikki: Which actors inspire you?

Chelsea: So many. Kate Winslet. Toni Collette. Jessica Chastain. James McAvoy. Emily Blunt. Rami Malek. Eddie Redmayne. Margot Robbie. Vera Farmiga.

Vikki: Social media – a useful tool for an actress or a gateway for trolls?

Chelsea: Both.

Vikki: How hard are accents for actors to master? Specifically for actors from another country.  I was blown away by Robert Downey Jnr’s Welsh accent in Dolittle and wondered how you approach this.

Chelsea: For me, I can usually pick up accents fairly quickly, but it takes a lot of time to perfect them. To get the basics of an accent, I watch videos of people who talk that way, and sometimes I write things down about it. Then it’s just practice. The accent that I’m the strongest at is the standard RP British accent. People have actually thought that I’m from the UK because they’ve seen me play British roles. That’s a huge compliment! When I was a child actor on stage, I did a lot of British plays. That’s why I’m able to do it so well. I’ve known that accent for a long time. When I was in “A Christmas Carol”, we did 6 shows a week, so I felt like I was always being British. It got to the point that when I talked in my regular American accent, it felt like I was putting on an accent!

Vikki: What advice would you give anyone following in your footsteps.

Chelsea: I’d tell them to keep believing in themselves, and never give up on their dreams! You can do anything you set your mind to!

Vikki: Apart from your three films out this year, what else do you have coming up?

Chelsea: Well, I also have another movie coming out this year called “The 13th Cross”. It’s a drama/thriller about domestic violence. I play a teenage runaway, and it’s really a great film. I can’t wait for people to see it. Also, I have two nominations in the “Best Lead Actress” category at the Utah Film Awards this year! Besides that, I’m just excited to have some more great adventures with my friends…that’s kind of what life is about, right?

Resouces:

• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6922643/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseaamberjurkiewicz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chelseajurkiewiczactress/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChelseaJActress