Page 144 - Flaunt175-diana

both oscar weekend and a scorpio super moon are looming.
Two mythical orbs of intrigue and influence, no doubt stirring the conversational hot pot, and perhaps... primal urges. Indeed, here we are in late spring, and yet it feels a harvest of sorts is upon us—the garden yields. And we ask: what has joyously sprouted from humble seeds? What began with grandiosity and died on the vine? What shall flourish, what shall perish? Why the hell are the Oscars in April?
So much is in flux and flounder, but some things we can always count on, like the moon. No matter the swell of the tide, we know its origin story. Consider this: with a first name made famous by an esteemed Roman Goddess, backed by a luminous surname synonymous with a rare and precious metal, there is no doubt a mythic quality to young
actor Diana Silvers’ origin story—
simple truths met with unusual
odds. Being scouted as a model via
Instagram in 2015—contemporary
star-gazing—proved only the first
icy crystal in what has amassed as
something of a career snowball;
in the six years since, Silvers has
evolved from doe-eyed ingenue to
buzzed-about player with recog-
nized power and potential.
I catch up with Silvers on Zoom at the beginning of her mandated two week quarantine in Vancouver. She’s on location in Canada to shoot the second season of Netflix comedy series Space Force, reprising her role as Steve Carell’s rebellious daughter, Erin. Snacking on yogurt, in a casual t-shirt and loosely tied back hair, she’s the embodiment of chill.
To get the ball rolling, I ask her
to play a game with me: blurt out the first words that come to mind when she thinks back over each of her major roles so far.
She screws up her face. Then responds to each prompt quickly, with precise comic timing.
Glass: “Cheerleading Girl number 2, baby.” [laughs]
Booksmart: “Hope and Amy get it on in the bathroom.”
Ma: “Kung fu fighting with a soda-can tower.”
Ava: “Me and John Malkovich doing a combat fight scene.”
Add Space Force, and Silvers has worked with John Malkov- ich twice. Do they get on well?
“Yeah. He’s very cool.” After a beat, she continues with an impromptu paean to her complex co-star, who plays Dr. Adri- an Mallory, savant scientist. It’s even (perhaps subconsciously) space-themed. “John Malkovich is the most interesting man on planet earth,” she declares. “At least on planet Earth. Probably on other planets, he would also be the most interesting man on them, too. Probably in other galaxies and in parallel universes, he would still be the most interesting man. He’s truly a legend.” And Silvers should know. She’s been on set with a few legends already—Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, and Juliette Lewis among them. She has range from comedy to horror to drama to suspense, with her screen time and credit ranking rising with each role.
Accepted into the acting program at NYU’s Tisch School of Drama, Silvers later transferred her major to 20th Century History, with a minor in Film. It’s all given her a sound theoret- ical background, and a philosophical perspective. “Every film
that anyone’s ever done is like a home video, or a ‘time capsule’ of a particular moment,” she considers. “You make choices as an actor, and you learn and you grow from them, then you move on to the next thing. It’s so subjective about how you view your best work, and how someone else views your best work. You cut your hair and you think it looks amazing, but a week later you hate
it, even though you loved it before... You know what I mean? I really feel that there’s no such thing as ‘this was my best work, and I’ll never get better than that.’”
Silvers’ latest work in front of the camera is a lead role in Birds of Paradise, written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith (Buster’s Mal Heart, Hanna), forthcoming from Amazon Studios. Adapted from the young adult novel Bright Burning Stars by A.K.
Small, she’s Kate, an ambitious ballerina studying in an exclusive academy. Her rival for a position in the Paris Opera Ballet is Ma- rine, played by Kristine Froseth. The classical facades of Budapest, Hungary, stand in for the book’s setting of Nanterre, France.
Sarah Adina Smith, who worked closely with her two leads to help them engage with the dramatic task at hand, kindly took a moment away from her pre-pro- duction duties to speak to me about her nascent star. “Diana is smart, dedicated, and driven. She was absolutely perfect for the role of Kate. She’s a former competi- tive tennis player, so she brought an iron-willed, fighting spirit
to the character, which I really admire.”
Silvers is equally full of praise. “Sarah really moulded the characters according to Kristine and my strengths. At the same time, there also were a lot of things in that character which challenged my weaknesses in
a way that I can look back and say, ‘I guess they weren’t really weaknesses, they were just things I haven’t really paid attention to, or exercised.’ You know, certain parts of my... I don’t want to say ‘personality’ or ‘persona’... but
like: psyche.”
Birds of Paradise was a physical, as well as mental, trans-
formation, with intensive ballet training prior to shooting. No pain, no gain. “Doing a dance film when you are not a dancer is probably one of the hardest things you can ever do.” It was also a rapid-fire indoctrination into the disciplines of a rarified are- na. “The ballet world is prestigious, it is cut-throat. It is very... constrained, like the artform itself. It’s a very rigid form of art, but there is freedom within that rigidity.”
Jacqueline Bisset—European Cinema thoroughbred, for- mer Bond girl, and evolved ingenue herself—plays the exacting ballet mistress who wants to propel her acolytes onto greatness through suffering. She made quite the impression on Silvers. “Oh man, Jacqueline Bisset is sooo—not to be cliché—but that woman is so beautiful, like a true beauty. She has the most in- tense sparkling blue eyes.” Both Bisset’s on and off set demean- or was strict. “I had this suspicion that she was always partly in character, and that she was being extra tough on me the entire time, because Kate is this American girl who says she wants to be prima ballerina but has a hard time letting go, letting the dance ‘happen’ to her.” Silvers’ suspicions proved en pointe. “At the end of filming, she told me, ‘You’re really special’, and she
THIS IS
A NOD TO SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER. LIKE THE EGG FROM THE CHICKEN OR A LITTLE SPIRIT FRIEND FORMED BY GIFTED HANDS. THERE IS
A FULL MOON TONIGHT, SEEMING SMALL IN THE SKY, AND YET IT TURNS THE TIDES.
Patti Smith, @thisispattismith Instagram caption, April 26th 2021
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