The Austrian-Australian rising star packed her analogue camera and took us with her to Berlin, attending the premiere of Silver and the Book of Dreams with her castmates and director Helena Hufnagel.
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Jana McKinnon
WORDS: Jasmine Perrier
styling: Fabiana Vardaro
MAKEUP AND HAIR: Leana Ardeleanu
SPECIAL THANKS: ZTA Management
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Jana McKinnon breaks the mold
Hi Jana! It is lovely to meet you.
Yeah, lovely to meet you. I hope that the connection is okay.
Are you in Vienna?
No, I’m actually on the road. I’m shooting like a road movie, so we’re in this very interesting trucker motel.
Where are you shooting?
All the way from Vienna to London. We are in Würzburg in Germany at the moment.
You are a bit of a nomad these days — to begin with, you were in Tallinn for the Black Nights Film Festival in November, where the first public screening of Silver and the Book of Dreams took place. How was it?
It was really cool. It was very quick, it was two days. So I arrived and had an hour at the hotel, and then left for the premiere. It wasn’t a huge cinema, but it was a really nice screening because the crowd was very young — a lot of young females especially. So it was nice to see the movie with the so-called target audience. It’s an amazing shared experience where you sometimes think, “Are they going to laugh here?” But then they don’t laugh in this specific scene where you thought they would, but they laugh somewhere else. It’s really interesting to see the feedback directly.
Then you had the premiere in Berlin on November 30th.
Yes! It was so much fun. I loved seeing my cast members again, it was a fantastic night celebrating the film.
How do you feel after such an event, especially after seeing the first audience reactions to your movie?
I feel very hopeful that the fanbase of the books will also enjoy the movie because the audience really appreciated the mix of action and fantasy, but also romance and drama. A lot of young fans of the book came to me at the premiere and told me that they loved it. That was an amazing feeling.
The international side of your career is very interesting — you get to shoot in different countries, speak different languages, you work in different markets…
I feel like I’m still at the very beginning of my career outside of Germany and Austria. I was able to shoot one project in Australia, my second home country, which was an amazing experience and really rewarding. And it was wonderful that it was screened at Berlinale because it was like a fusion of both my worlds. I’m extremely excited for what’s to come and I’m hoping that 2024 will bring some interesting opportunities. I feel very lucky that I speak English well enough to work in an international market.
You were raised between Austria and Australia and still split your time between both countries as an adult — how does it shape who you are?
I don’t know how I would be different if I had just grown up in Austria or just grown up in Australia. But I definitely would be a different person than now. I have very early memories from both worlds. Even though Australia is also a Western country, it’s still different to Austria. I did all of my school in Austria, so my education was very European in that sense. Growing up in Austria means being confronted and indulged in culture, art, museums, cinema, theater, dance, and all these things, so I’m really grateful for that. But then in Australia, I had a childhood that was very close to nature — I have family in different regions of Australia, but especially around the Northern Rivers and in North Queensland. Both are beautiful areas, like on the coast with rainforest and beautiful beaches, it’s like paradise. So I feel like that definitely shaped me as a person and as an actor because I got influences from both cultures. And I love both sides [laughs].
Both of your parents were street performers. How was the atmosphere in your household growing up?
They used to be [street performers] when they were younger. When I was a child, I went to a lot of street performance festivals where I would watch jugglers or people doing acrobatics, so I got exposed to some amazing performers. I wouldn’t say that that necessarily shaped [my interest in] acting or anything like that, but I learned the difference between a good and a bad street performance. I think what I got out of growing up like that was my parents were always very supportive of me going into the arts and doing film, but they never pushed me. And they provided me with books. I was a very avid reader when I was a child.
What was the moment you realized that you wanted to pursue acting?
I wouldn’t say that there was ever an exact moment.
It found you more than you found it.
Yes, pretty much [laughs]. When I was about five, a friend of my mum studied directing at the film university in Vienna, the Film Academy. She needed a child for her short film, so she asked my mum if I could do that. They probably gave me sweets and stuff like that, and I loved it [laughs]. After that, there were a few film students that did short films with me while I was growing up, but I saw it as a hobby. And then when I was 14, I was cast in a feature film for the cinema. I met with the director and I asked him when we were going to shoot this film in the summer, because I said, “Oh, I have my summer holidays and I want to do a job to earn some money.” And he said, “You realize you will get paid for this.” I was gobsmacked. I think that was the first moment that I realized that this was an actual job. And when I was 18, I went through a phase where I was a little bit lost after finishing school. I didn’t really want to do film, so I decided to take a step back and see what would happen then. I did loads of different things like I worked at a cafe, I worked as a casting assistant… But I think I missed the collaboration because that’s what I love about making movies. That’s how I made a decision to be an actor.
When did that change of perspective start happening?
I think when I was 19. I realized that I didn’t want to do a nine to five job and that I wanted this creative collaboration with people. And it was around the time that I got cast for a movie called Wach by Kim Frank. It was my first German movie that I ever did. There is a moment I remember now — we were preparing for this film and my accent work wasn’t getting where it needed to be. I had to speak in a German accent in this movie and it’s very different to an Austrian accent. Because I was used to being a child actor, I didn’t know how to take responsibility for my acting work fully because I always got a lot of help from directors or child coaches. Kim sat me down and he basically kicked my ass and told me, “If you don’t take responsibility for your work and for your character and for this film, we won’t be able to shoot it.” It was a real shock to me. It was strong but it was what I needed. I think it taught me a lot about work ethic and how serious I take my preparation now. I think a lot of it stems from this one conversation. It was painful in the moment, but I’m so incredibly grateful for it.
Do you act now for the same reasons as when you used to do it as a kid or even as a teenager?
I think my reason to choose acting changes all the time. There is something different that attracts me to every project that I take on or every role that I’m offered. There is always something that needs to tickle me or terrify me.
You have taken on roles requiring you to challenge yourself emotionally and dive deeply into the mindset of your characters. Would you say that a part of finding yourself has been through the roles you have chosen?
I can only speak for myself, but every character that I play teaches me something and it’s always something different. It might be something very subtle that maybe you only realize a year later. I feel like as a human, I’ve learned a lot of resilience from putting myself into these characters’ shoes and going through these really emotionally intense or emotionally dark places in some films. This has made me very resilient to change and to whatever life throws at me.
Are you naturally more drawn to dramatic roles and darker materials, or does it just fall into your lap?
I would say it’s a mix of both. I come from Austrian arthouse cinema, which is often very intense and very dark. That’s what I grew up doing as an actor from a young age. I’ve been offered more of these projects since then, and I also find projects more interesting if there’s a real depth to them. And I love working with directors that have a strong vision for the film. But I would also love to do some more comedy. I feel like Silver is the first movie where there was more possibility of being comedic in certain situations or more light-hearted, upbeat, and funny. It’s what I loved about Liv, my character. She is quite funny and has quite a sharp wit.
When Silver came about, was it a direction or role that you were looking to do at that stage of your career?
I don’t really actively look for things. I’m very much a person who goes with the flow. I do like imagining myself in certain things, but I’m very relaxed about it most of the time. Silver came along at a time where I had done something really dark and emotional before that, Bad Behaviour, the Australian show that I did. I read the script and I just thought, “Wow, this is something completely different.” And I love doing something completely new every time. So that’s what interested me and the fact that I was able to delve into a little bit of comedy, see myself if I could actually be funny on-screen because I didn’t know that before the film. It was terrifying, but I felt like I had to do it. And also the stunt work.
I read that it was the first time that you were able to do stunts of this magnitude.
I had done little stunts before, like falling or things like that, but this was very extensive with wire work — like dropping from the ceiling in a harness and shooting in front of a green screen and wind machines, underwater shooting, and all of that. So they put me in a stunt school for three days before the shoot with an amazing stunt coordinator, Eimear O’Grady, one of the only female stunt coordinators in all of Ireland, where we were shooting. And it was amazing to work with her. I learned so much on this project about stunts and would love to do more of that in the future. The underwater scenes were very challenging, but I enjoyed them so much that I actually got my diving license afterwards because I thought, “I want to continue doing this.” I found a new passion for myself. It has already changed my life in that way. I’ve been diving a lot since then.
You filmed in London and Dublin, both in German and English, and worked with an international cast. To you, does English work feel different from acting in German?
In a way yes… but also no. I feel like as people in real life, we always adapt. We adapt our language, our humor, and our personality to whoever we’re speaking to and in which country we are. So in that sense, it does make a difference. But from a performance side, I think it’s similar for me because I am a native English speaker, so it’s closer to home. For example, the actor who plays Grayson, Théo [Augier Bonaventure], he’s French and Greek, so English is not his native language. I have a lot of respect for that. But I believe that every accent and every language always changes your performance in some way. Even between myself speaking in my own Austrian accent and a German accent, I can feel there’s a difference.
What are you most excited for people to see with Silver? Does the global reach add anything to the excitement that you have with this film?
Hopefully people will enjoy how we all worked together so well. We all got along really well, so I hope that people can see and relate to that. I feel like the friendship group is a really special one and you want to be a part of the gang in a way. That was something I had a lot of fun with at the shoot as well. And it’s just a very cool topic because every single person dreams, and we can all relate to certain aspects of dreaming and how it makes you feel. It’s full of so many things. I can say there’s a lot of action and there’s a lot happening with the real world and the struggles of the character, like falling in love, moving to a new city, and getting along with your parent. But there’s also this dream world where so many crazy things happen and it becomes existential at some point that they have to lift the curse that occurred through them doing this ritual to access the dreams. So it’s full-on. I think it’s an adventure for people to watch at home and it maybe also provides a little bit of escapism that we all need right now.
It’s a magical feeling when you watch a movie and have the opportunity to escape for an hour and a half. But then at the end of it, it’s tough when you have to get back to your life.
Yeah and that’s also what happens to the characters. They’re like in this dream world and they have to deal with the real world when they wake back up. So maybe that’s a similar experience when you watch the film.
During filming, was there one scene or one moment for you that felt rewarding once it was over?
There is a really moving moment in the film where my character’s biggest wish comes true. Her father dies in an accident and she blames herself for this accident, so her biggest dream is just to see her father one more time and to tell him that she’s sorry and that she loves him. To me, this is a very special moment because I think when dealing with grief, a lot of people can share that feeling of wanting to see that person one more time. I prepared a lot for this moment and it was very close to my heart. And the actor who played my dad in the movie was amazing. Even though we only had one day of shooting together, we formed a real connection and he was very supportive. So it was a very rewarding scene. I think that’s also a topic of the movie, seeing a person in the thick of grief and unable to find real joy in life, even though it’s a death that has occurred years before. Behind all the plot with the excitement of this new dream world, to me, this was always a story about how to process or how to live with grief.
You’re part of this next dynamic generation of talent. What effect would you like your work to have on others?
I’m very passionate about reading scripts from a feminist perspective, and I’m very careful about what kind of roles I choose and what kind of stories they tell about women. I don’t believe that every movie has to be political, but I watch out for the stories of girls and women that I want to see in the world. I feel like the awareness of what kind of female stories to tell is definitely changing and I try to make a difference myself by choosing characters that are everything. A woman can be messy, imperfect, strong, vulnerable, weak, funny, and powerful.
You said that you tend to go with the flow, but if you could manifest something for 2024, what would it be?
I would love to work with an amazing filmmaker, a director that I really admire. I would also love to start making my own films, short films, and be more disciplined with my own creative work and my writing. That’s what I’m wishing for myself for 2024.
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