Exclusive interview: Gelareh Abbasi

In an exclusive interview with iFilm, Iranian actress Gelareh Abbasi talks about her acting career.

Below is a rough translation of selected parts from the interview conducted by iFilm in Persian:

iFilm: You were introduced to the public with the television series ‘Madness of Love’ and gained popularity. How did you choose your roles after ‘Madness of Love’?

Abbasi: This is exactly right. I became known with ‘Madness of Love’ but before that I had performed in works like ‘Bread and Basil’ and ‘The Children Are Watching’. However, ‘Madness of Love’ was a turning point in my career and I tried to maintain my status and choose my future roles more carefully.

iFilm: After ‘Madness of Love’, you portrayed a number of kind characters but thing changed when you performed in ‘Madineh’.

Abbasi: It is completely true. I worked with Saeed Nematollah in ‘Madness of Love’ and he asked me to be a part of ‘Madineh’ and he risked and gave me a character which was neither good nor evil. The series was very well welcomed for its professional cast and crew and therefore my performance became famous.

iFilm:  You played in two series in 2015; ‘Kimiya’ you portrayed Farzaneh and in Shahrzad you portrayed Akram. These two charaters, despite both being villain characters, are very different. Farzaneh has a more psychological aspect to her while Akram is mysterious.

Abbasi: About the character of Farzaneh I must say that the producers wanted to keep her character in suspense to make her more interesting. Farzaneh is not completely a villain; she is both good and evil. In fact, Farzaneh was wounded and claimed justice even if it meant harming herself.

iFilm: You performance in Farzaneh’s self-injuring scene was highly praised and the audiences accepted it. In that scene, Farzaneh shouts, breaks and finally cuts herself; explain a little about it.

Abbasi: Farzaneh has a psychotic character and the viewers slowly learn about her past and sometimes sympathize with her. Her character was well-developed and therefore that scene was readily accepted by the viewers. Farzaneh laughs at one moment and then cries a few seconds later or shouts and yells. As a result of this unstable personality, that scene became a success.

iFilm: Performing in what type of character is more appealing to you?

Abbasi: An actor must experience every type of character and I like evil characters and I think that all actors would like to portray good and evil characters. Many people asked me why I accepted to play a villain and they told me that my face is not suitable for evil characters but there is no absolute good or evil and we illustrate the characters of people with different ways of life and to distinguish one’s face as good or evil is wrong.

*Interview conducted by: Hanieh Khavari

**For more about Gelareh Abbasi click here.

HY/HY