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In addition, I was surrounded by incredibly strong, lively, talented, and charismatic Ukrainian women: my babtsia [grandmother] Nadia Spas, my mama Luba Farmiga . . . dance camp counselors I admired . . . and especially my mentor, dancer- choreographer Pani Roma Prima Bohachevska. They were all my role models. These women instilled in me values, ethics, a love for my heritage, discipline, and a love of art. It is no surprise that I ultimately chose a creative path. But I also suspect Laura Ingalls Wilder had something to do with it as well. My relationship to movies may have started with “Little House on the Prairie” . . . or maybe it was Olivia Hussey in Franco Zeferelli's Romeo and Juliet . . . or maybe even Krissy from “Three's Company.” The moment it actually occurred to me to pursue acting as a career is fuzzy. There wasn't any one moment. Roughly, it happened around about the time I was a senior in high school . . . and guidance counselors pester you about what you intend to study in college. Somewhere between starting to fail physics, quitting soccer practice, and attending dress rehearsals for the lead role in my first musical (a high-school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), I remember announcing to my mother, "I’m going to be an actress." It was a humble delivery of the line, no pomp and circumstance inflicted, and I was careful to make it sound as sensible as possible. Mama looked at me quizzically as if I'd spoken in tongues and sighed, "Oooooooooooh Veeeeeera." I’m not sure what she meant by this, but I am sure that she was careful not to let that exhalation of breath verge on discouragement. I don’t even know if she took me seriously; she had heard me proclaim on different occasions, "I'm going to be an optometrist" and "I've decided to become a music therapist." How difficult has the path been? What type of obstacles have you encountered? How did you overcome them? I received a Bachelor of Fine arts degree from Syracuse University where I studied Theatre and minored in French. During the final semester of my senior year, the theatre department at the School of Visual and Performing Arts set up a showcase. . . . You and a scene partner have an entire ten minutes to present a skit to various NYC industry people . . . jaded, scowling casting agents, and commercial and legit agents. In ten minutes you display your newly acquired $ 100,000’s worth of acting education and fit into those 600 seconds as much range of human emotion as you are capable of tapping into without coming across as a loony. The statistics are grim. Usually one student gets an agent. One kid out of those 30 eager beavers auditioning, out of the 100 eager beavers of the graduating class who don’t even get the opportunity, excluding the 50 not-so- eager beavers who at some point after freshman year quit or were "asked to leave." Long story short, I was the kid! Fresh out of college, I was auditioning for off- off- off -off -off- off- off- off-Broadway plays in NYC and working clerical temp jobs to make ends meet. Project by project, each "off' would drop away and before long, I had the respect of good casting agents who placed me in my first television series. This was my first time confronting the ominous black metallic monster known as "the camera." Switching from a proscenium stage to a soundstage was a bit awkward for me and I had to adjust. I look back on early episodes of “Roar” [Vera’s first TV series], and I have to giggle. I see the discomfort. . . I see the fear. I see someone who wasn’t quite sure she wanted to continue pursuing acting. I could easily conceal my insecurities and fears in the fears and insecurities of my character. I was playing an escaped battered Roman slave and my timidity served me well. The fear in my belly was a fear of fame, of giving interviews . . . of seeing myself on the cover of TV Guide . . . It all scared me. It was almost enough for me to throw in the towel and try my hand at goat herding in New Zealand. It was the continual support of my family and the cheer and optimism of fellow actors and directors that kept me treading. . . Was any specific person responsible for your “break?” Roundabout this time, I met an individual who, I would say, single-handedly has had the biggest impact on my career: my manager Jon Rubinstein. Throughout the years it has been his belief in my talent, his perseverance, his megaphone to the industry, his dedication to my potential, his unceasing reassurance and optimism that have kept me focused, grounded, and positive. There was a long period in my 20s, when it seemed it was Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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