Fresh off our photoshoot, Lisa Vicari sits down with us to talk about Django, her most memorable moments on the international set, and finding herself through her craft.
PHOTOS: Olivia Ghalioungui
TALENT: Lisa Vicari
VIDEOGRAPHY: Alexandra Mavros
STYLING: June Nakamoto at Shotview
MAKEUP: Aurelia Liansberg at Wise & Talented using Laura Mercier
HAIR: Tomoko Ohama at Wise & Talented using Oribe
LOCATION: Kimpton St Honoré Paris
WORDS, Polaroids & PRODUCTION: Jasmine Perrier at Studio J•T•P
SPECIAL THANKS: Epilogue Agency, Canal+ & Sky Studios & POLAROID
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Lisa Vicari leaves the door open
.As a confident child with big dreams, Lisa Vicari had a burning desire to act. “I was really lucky because my parents are not from the industry at all. Suddenly, I wanted to be an actress, and they were like, ‘We don’t know how to help you.’” Born and raised in Munich, she would go to a local film studio with her mom and “just watch people,” then attempt to recreate scenes from her favorite movies in her garden. She grew up watching German films — currently recommending All Quiet on the Western Front, Corsage, and Run, Lola, Run — but she admits Harry Potter was a major reference. “Hermione was my idol, and I would do scenes from the third movie, the Prisoner of Azkaban, where she is wearing this pink jacket and I had one like her.”
Having first entered the world of acting at the age of 11, she started with short films for the film university in Munich. “It took a while until I was able to do it, but when it happened, I was so happy.” Although she recalls spending a part of her childhood working and being on camera, she credits her parents for keeping her feet on the ground. “I still had a really good childhood. They protected me a lot, but they also supported me in my dream. I don’t think I would have been here now without their support.” As she feels more stable and secure with herself today, she realizes the importance of standing up for herself. “I’d empower myself to do that more when I was younger because I was a big people pleaser,” she says. “But at the same time, it’s something you have to learn through experience.” Now at 26, the Berlin-based actress is a household name in Germany and making her mark abroad. “It’s never getting boring, which is amazing. So, I still have that feeling inside of me from when I was a child and I wanted to be an actress so bad. I think it’s a good sign.”
When Dark premiered on Netflix in 2017, the sci-fi mystery-drama series co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese quickly became one of Netflix’s biggest European hits, catapulting the actress behind Martha Nielsen into the spotlight internationally. But she tries not to think about stardom. “If I see how many people follow me on Instagram, it’s something that I can’t really process because one million, it’s too many people,” she laughs. That experience, she says, put her “in a very good position,” and was a career milestone in many ways. “Through that show, I got to work with so many great people and because we had to be disciplined, I learned how to work, what kind of actress I want to be, and what kind of work partner I want to be on set. I feel more like an adult now than I did one or two years ago.”
“How people received Dark was very international, but the work on set felt like it was a German production,” she adds. Consequently, Lisa hoped to perform her next project entirely in English, a language that she speaks seamlessly at this point. “I think I really learned it after school through series, watching YouTube, and listening to podcasts,” she explains. Then, the opportunity to get cast in Django happened. “Maybe in a way I manifested it, but it’s something I couldn’t plan, so I was very pleased that it was the next step.” In the reimagining of the 1960’s spaghetti western directed by Francesca Comencini, she plays Sarah, Django’s long-lost daughter, appearing alongside Nicholas Pinnock, Noomi Rapace, and Matthias Schoenaerts in the titular role. “I loved working with all these actors from all of Europe, it was a special experience,” she says. “I always wanted to do something in a different time period. Western is even more specific because it’s this genre with guns, horses, and costumes. The production was amazing.” On this occasion, the actress shows off a different look which helped her get into character. “Even when I auditioned, they already knew they wanted her to have short hair. I think they had a really precise idea [of Sarah] and I don’t know why, but she came to me very vividly.”
One character trait that Lisa admires about Sarah is her strong-mindedness. “Playing a character like her was inspiring because she is like an alien in her world and has a strong urge for her ideals. Female characters were a bit one-dimensional in most of the westerns, especially the old ones, so I think it’s nice to watch it now as a woman and see yourself represented in a complex character.” When preparing for the role, “to be a believable character in the Wild West,” Lisa trained her accent and put together a Pinterest board that had all the sources of inspiration that made her feel connected to Sarah. “It was a mixture of paintings from women in the early stages of the US, like strong women who were holding guns, midwives, and paintings of landscapes.”
Determined to deliver an authentic performance, Lisa picked up some skills in the process. “It’s nice to learn a new skill when you’re an adult,” she says. “We had to learn how to use these big old guns. It felt sometimes a bit like playing with my brother in the garden, pretending we are cowboys, but with special effects,” she laughs. Another accomplishment from Django is horse riding. “I probably wouldn’t have started it by myself, so I was so happy to learn how you can connect with horses and how sensitive they are.” Reflecting on a rewarding sequence that she had to do, she recalls a night shoot that appears in the second episode. “It was in this very old volcano crater where the town is built. There is a heartbreaking scene where the horse is on the ground, dying, and I’m approaching it. The horse was alive, fortunately, but the focus on that day on set was so high, we had to be really quiet, and it felt really magical. I love when the crew comes together and everyone wants to achieve that one goal.”
“I have a good feeling about this year,” she says unpretentiously. “You can prepare yourself for opportunities, but in the end, it’s going to happen if it should happen.” As she remains open to whatever the future holds, she cites Joachim Trier, Ruben Östlund, Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, and Sofia Coppola as filmmakers she would like to work with. “I hope that I continue to work with people who have visions and want to do something extraordinary. The great thing about acting is that it could go anywhere and I want to experience as much as I can through that.” At the end of the interview, I ask her what she will first do back home. “I will probably cook something because the process is very therapeutic for me, and call my mom — the good things,” she replies with her contagious positive energy.
Watch Django on Canal+ & SKY
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