ISABEL DORNHEIM TALKS MONSTER ON A PLANE

Behind the Coastline

You are reading an independently published interview-series published and carefully curated by Swedish pop-culture journalist Daniel John. Ever since its start in 2015, the core curiosity remains the same, surfing the creative currents of music, film, fashion and everything else on the pop-radar, catching the waves of culture as creative

Culture Coast TalksDaniel John

‘Monster on a Plane’ is fairly obvious with its premise, putting the audience at 30,000 feet for some tongue in cheek-horror fun, as an oddly cute monster escapes the cargo hold. How do you look back on your experience of making this monster-on-a-plane-film?

The making of 'Monster on a Plane' has been a wonderful experience for me on so many levels. Working with Ezra Tsegaye was just fantastic, he is such a talented and professional director, with seemingly unlimited patience towards his whole team, and believe me, sometimes things became quite busy and hectic but Ezra always kept his cool! Also, the team was so lovely to work with, as everybody was quite excited to participate in this project and also this was my first horror movie, so I enjoyed the whole process, from learning about the special effects, to acting with an actual built monster in front of me, it's not a digitally produced model, was just so much fun.

How did you approach playing Melanie?

I approached playing Melanie by trying to search for reasons for her actions, and her behavior as a typical spoiled rich and superficial trendy girl, living in a material and manipulative world, which was challenging. I gave her a backstory to somehow understand where her actions are coming from, and try to create some authenticity to her egocentrically and dominating character. Of course, there was also another more sincere side of her where she had a crush on the teacher, but at the end her ways to fix things with money got the better side of her again. Still, I think there is another side to her that people don't see, a hurt, vulnerable person who tries to protect herself with this barrier of fake self-confidence, but if someone really depended on her, she would always try to help out as much as she can.

This is a German production but entirely filmed in English to be able to travel around the world and reach an international audience. Not at all unlike yourself, who seemingly have lived in a lot of different places?

Yes, I was born in Venezuela to a German mother and a Argentine father and I grew up in Mexico City, where I had my first contact with an acting environment. After finishing high school, I moved to London to start a professional acting career, and later on to my current residence in Berlin, where I am completing a bachelor of arts in screen acting and I am starting to work in many interesting and fun film productions that are taking me all over Europe. Also I do act in these three languages, German, English and Spanish.

When did the interest and passion for acting start for you?

My interest and passion for acting started as early as I have memory, starting by recording my own written little plots, and beginning with more formal acting classes at age nine. After making many short films with MetFilm at the London Garden Studios, I started making my first movie and TV series productions as soon as I got to Berlin over two years ago.

Did you always see acting as a career, or was there a point where you can see it shifted from just being fun and to something more serious?

I knew from early on that I wanted to make acting my career and never considered any other option. What I did not know at the beginning, is if I would get the support from my parents, family and friends, to pursue this dream of mine. Now I know, that I have more support than I could have ever asked for, which gives me so much happiness and confidence to make a real and successful career out of this!

As you continue to pilot your career forward, what intrigues you about exploring new characters?

I am intrigued about true and authentic characters. As a matter of fact, the deeper the character, whatever genre it might be from, the more motivation I feel to explore and live a particular role. I try to find the essence of the human being and behavior, whenever and wherever I can, that is my inspiration!

Is it ever possible to be completely in control when you are working as an actor. I would guess it’s probably best to expect some occasional turbulence. And perhaps a delayed flight or two?

Rather than being in control, I believe in acting on my impulses and instincts because that is where the magic can actually start to happen! If I am stuck in a safe and predictable comfort zone, my environment will not inspire me. In other words, the occasional turbulences of my profession, the rejection we feel so many times but also the joy and satisfaction when we get a great role, is actually what keeps me going and makes it more interesting and it makes it a challenge that I want to assume. In my particular case I have made sure there is no "plan B", either I make it as an actor or I make it as an actor!

Are there any other upcoming roles we can look forward to seeing you in next?

There are some nice roles coming up. You will see me as the powerful, upper-class girl Caro Bilfinger in the ZDF crime TV series 'München Mord' quite soon, and also some other great projects in the pipeline, a special guest role in an RTL+ TV series 'Unter Uns', and I'm thrilled to participate in the lead role of a new feature film mystery thriller directed by Kristina Schippling and Ezra Tsegaye.