Ayelet: ARTICLES

Articles about Ayelet


The recently concluded 24th Haifa International Film Festival marked the start of a new era in the Israeli film industry: The most hotly anticipated star, who arrived only at the conclusion of the festival, was not a foreigner but Tel Aviv-born actress Ayelet Zurer. Zurer, there to attend the local premiere of her film Fugitive Pieces, was introduced by the director Jeremy Podeswa, who said, "The nicest thing I have to do here tonight is to introduce not just your Ayelet Zurer, but the world's Ayelet Zurer."

But the audience didn't need Podeswa to point out that Zurer is leading a vanguard of Israeli actresses who are winning acclaim both for movies they make here and their work abroad. She spoke only briefly before the film, about a boy who survives the Holocaust in Greece and winds up a troubled young adult who falls in love with her character.

While her porcelain skin glowed, she looked tired. She had just flown in from Los Angeles, where she has a starring role in the most high-profile film any Israeli actress has had to date: playing opposite Tom Hanks in Angels and Demons, the sequel to the megahit The Da Vinci Code. The film, which is being directed by Ron Howard, is still shooting and is set to be released in May. Rumor has it that Zurer beat out a number of A-list actresses (including Naomi Watts) who were considered for the part of Vittoria Vetra, a young woman who meets Hanks's character, Robert Langdon, after her father is found dead and helps him uncover a terrorist plot.

The news that Zurer won the role may have surprised some in Hollywood, where she is not a household name. Not yet, at least. But even before this role, when Steven Spielberg cast her as Eric Bana's wife in Munich (2005), it confirmed Zurer's star status. She also appeared in the American thriller Vantage Point last winter, playing an exotic terrorist whose nationality is never specified, a film that also starred Dennis Quaid, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver.

Her next international role was in Paul Schrader's Adam Resurrected, which also had its local premiere at the Haifa Film Festival. In that, she plays Gina Grey, an icily efficient nurse who shows her more vulnerable side in her romance with the title character, a disturbed Holocaust survivor played by Jeff Goldblum, who gets her to pretend to be a dog in order to excite him. At a press conference, Schrader, the film's director, said of Zurer, "She's an actress whose abilities are so soft and warm, and the character is so hard. But she and Jeff were wonderful together." The film is set to be released internationally (as well as locally) this winter.

The demands of Hollywood filmmaking, which she tries to juggle with raising her young son, were clearly taking their toll on the slender actress at her brief Haifa appearance. Although many journalists were eager to speak to her about her work with Tom Hanks, she declined the requests and fled the festival as soon as the Fugitive Pieces screening started.


"I guess everything is a trade-off," she told the Jewish Journal earlier this year, when asked how she finds time to do it all. The 38-year-old Zurer, who speaks English with the faintest of accents, also said, "I would like a dual career in Israel and America, but it is not always easy to manage."

In 2003, she graduated from small supporting roles in Israeli films and won the Ophir (the Israeli Oscar), for her starring role in Savi Gavison's Nina's Tragedies. Zurer played the title role, a woman who has to remake her life after her husband's sudden death. Although Nina's Tragedies is a dramatic story, its comic overtones gave it a moving, offbeat quality, and suddenly Zurer was not simply another gifted actress, but one who could move effortlessly back and forth between comedy and tragedy, in a way that brought to mind Julia Roberts. While this was a serious film, even in fluff like Something Sweet, an amiable comedy the following year in which she played a baker who falls in love with her sister's fiancé, she showed that with her intelligent, angular beauty, she could hold the screen and make anything she played in worth watching.

Around the time that Munich, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, was playing around the world, Zurer captivated audiences in the television series B'tipul, the wildly popular drama about a psychiatrist and his patients, starring Assi Dayan. Zurer made an indelible impression as Na'ama, a seductive patient who initiates a romance with the doctor. The series, which won Zurer a Best Actress award from the Israeli Television Academy, was remade as a hit HBO series, In Treatment, which won several Emmys.

Actor returns to Tel Aviv

Israel’s female thespians have received somewhat kinder treatment in Hollywood over the years, and many will no doubt be looking on with interest later this month as one of their own gets a chance — her second, actually — to make an impression on American moviegoers.

Two years after her English-language debut in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” Tel Aviv-born actress Ayelet Zurer is returning to American movie theaters with another political thriller, this one set in the current moment and far removed from the conflicts portrayed by the controversial earlier film.

In “Vantage Point,” set for release February 22, the actress plays an uncertain but pivotal role in scenes told and retold by a variety of characters, each of whom has witnessed or been involved in an attempt on the life of the American president (played by Academy Award winner William Hurt).

Appearing opposite such A-listers as Sigourney Weaver, Dennis Quaid and 2007 Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Zurer is in both new and familiar territory as Veronica, a European paramedic who might be an undercover Secret Service agent — or perhaps one of the would-be assassins. “Her role is very clear in the end,” Zurer said in an interview with the Forward, “[but] if I describe my character, I’ll be giving a spoiler.”

Though her occasional evasiveness can make her sound like a Hollywood veteran, Zurer is in fact a 38-year-old newcomer to Los Angeles. The actress moved to the United States two years ago, shortly after entering a period she thought would become a professional hiatus.

She describes her participation in “Munich” as “sort of a miracle,” recalling that she was invited to audition for the film in 2005, not long after the arrival of her son, who would later celebrate his first birthday in L.A.

“I had this notion that a woman who has a kid can’t do acting,” Zurer said, “but the year my son was born was probably the most fertile of my career.”

Indeed, 2005 was a big year for Zurer. In addition to the Spielberg movie, in which she played the wife of a morally conflicted Mossad agent, she starred on “Betipul” (“In Treatment”), a nightly Israeli TV drama that became a ratings phenomenon and eventually earned Zurer her homeland’s version of an Emmy.

Widely considered the best program ever produced for Israeli television, the series became perhaps the country’s most famous export last month when an English-language adaptation — starring a look-alike in the role originated by Zurer — made its debut on HBO.

The actress won’t divulge exactly what she thinks of the American version — “No, I don’t think I’ll tell you that,” she said with a laugh — but she admits to watching the drama’s first two episodes, which she describes as “very good” but perhaps not as “edgy” as the original.

The recipient of an Ophir, Israel’s equivalent of an Academy Award, Zurer also has a knack for comedy, a talent belied by her striking looks and mostly dramatic film work. An Israeli military veteran who took acting classes a decade ago in New York, Zurer was a perpetual pleasure in “Gomrot Holchot,” a naughty if never raunchy TV sketch comedy centered on three women in Tel Aviv. (The show’s title translates loosely to “Coming and Going,” double entendre included.)

The actress has two more films scheduled for American release this year: “Fugitive Pieces,” the opening feature at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and “Adam Resurrected,” a Holocaust drama with Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.

Though she’s now based in L.A., Zurer says she and her family return to Israel as often as they can, and that she may go back for work later this year. (“There’s a dialogue about something, but it’s really too soon to say,” she said.)

She can’t be as selective, she acknowledges, about the roles she takes on this side of the Atlantic, but she sees the situation as an advantage at this stage in her career. “I’m not in a position to be looking for something specific,” she said, “and thank God, because I’d like to be as flexible as possible.”

With an accent light enough to make her sound exotic but not identifiably Israeli, she’s unlikely to encounter the typecasting faced by her compatriots in Hollywood.

She offers another minor evasion when asked if she would like to work with anyone in particular: She is suddenly concerned about word length and other matters of journalism.

“You don’t have enough space,” she said, again with a laugh.

Zurer may yet have her chance to work with many of those figures, and for a moment or two, it’s almost possible to hear her smile lingering on the other end of the phone.

Impressive achievement for Ayelet Zurer: The American Entertainment Weekly magazine included the Israeli film star, who works in Los Angeles, in a list focusing on actors whose career is expected to take off in 2009.

The magazine cited Zurer's achievements in Hollywood so far as its reasons for picking her – "Munich", "Vantage Point", and particularly her new project "Angels & Demons", the sequel to The Da Vinci Code", in which she stars alongside Tom Hanks.

Zurer responded to the flattering selection by saying, "Isn't that cool?"

Ayelet is now perhaps the most prominent Israeli actress of her generation, winning the 2003 Israeli Oscar for her performance in “Nina’s Tragedies” and playing the role of a sexy but troubled character in the wildly popular Israeli TV series, “Be’Tipul,” now adapted for HBO as “In Treatment.” In 2005, Zurer made her Hollywood debut as the lively wife of a tortured Mossad agent in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.” She has since portrayed an alluring assassin in the high-grossing “Vantage Point” and a sadomasochistic nurse in love with Jeff Goldblum in Paul Schrader’s “Adam Resurrected,” which is still on the festival circuit. When Ron Howard cast her in the coveted “Angels & Demons,” it was reportedly over high-profile actresses including Naomi Watts.

Although “The Da Vinci Code” received relatively poor reviews — it grossed more than $750 million worldwide — the sequel is practically guaranteed to kick Zurer’s American career up several notches. Asked about becoming the first Israeli actress to achieve such visibility, she reacts more like the Israeli girl next door than someone who can pick up a phone to call Spielberg or Howard for advice, blushing and pretending to hide her face beneath her shirt collar.

“It’s funny, because I’ve never had a publicist before,” she said over lunch. If she has managed to avoid Hollywood’s stereotyping of Middle Eastern actors as terrorists, it is not because she tried to avoid such parts. “I did play a terrorist in ‘Vantage Point,’ but she was Spanish, not Israeli,” Zurer said. “And I did make a conscious decision to try for very diverse roles, which I think has helped.”

Zurer’s delicate hands gracefully work the air as she describes working with Jeff Goldblum, “an eccentric, hard-working, flirtatious creature;” she recalls Schrader as a “poetic soul” who loaned her his iPod so she could get to know him in a nonverbal way; Hanks as a “wonderful partner who gives an actor space,” and who is a “great listener” on set and off. When Zurer once told him a story while preparing to shoot a scene, he listened so intently that he put his shoes on the wrong feet.

It is remarkable that Zurer pursued acting in the first place, given the intense stage fright she experienced as a teenager. “Even when I was doing ‘The Vagina Monologues’ at Habima [theater] for three years, I would still get really nervous before stepping onstage,” she said. “I could have totally thrown up, that’s how bad it could get, with my heart beating, hands sweating, like the prey before the predator.”

In college, Zurer assumed she would become an illustrator until she spent a month modeling in Japan one summer. During that time, she hung out with a British model who had experienced drug addiction and boyfriend troubles; when she returned to Israel, she was cast as an abused model in a school production of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.” “Only then did it occur to me how deeply you can go in portraying a character, and how your real-life experiences can be reflected in the theater,” she said.

Zurer studied acting in New York for three years before returning to Israel, where she married in 2003 and gave birth to her son, Liad. “I thought I was just going to be a mother and that my career was pretty much over, but I was content,” she said. She only reluctantly accepted the “Be’Tipul” role, and was even more reluctant when the call came to audition for a filmmaker the casting director described only as “a famous director from America.” “I didn’t have a fax machine to receive the lines, and I was only sleeping four hours a night because of the baby,” she recalled. But she immediately changed her mind when she learned the director was Spielberg.

“Munich” — which depicted Mossad assassins in moral crises — was perhaps even more controversial than “The Da Vinci Code”: “The film was really a peace offering, and I thought it was 15 years ahead of its time,” Zurer said. “It’s an existential piece about human nature, but the media focused on politics because of current events.”

Zurer says the main difference between acting in films here and in Israel is the budget; the costlier American films often allow for more equipment and takes per scene. One day while filming “Angels & Demons,” Zurer was startled to discover that there were four cameras rather than two, but Howard proved understanding and made sure to enlighten the actress about technical issues.

In Israel, less money also means the focus is on intimate stories and family dramas, rather than effects — which translates into more roles for women of every age.

In Hollywood, Zurer acknowledges, youth and beauty are valued, and attending to her own appearance requires more work. She’s taking Pilates to stay in shape and passes up ordering a hamburger and fries for soup and a seaweed salad. But she doesn’t intend to go overboard.

“I see myself primarily as a character actress, although I would love to get other kinds of roles,” she said. Zurer now considers Los Angeles her home and intends to pursue Hollywood projects full time, including a screenplay she is adapting from a novel, which Howard has agreed to read. “You never know how you’re going to get that really big, juicy part,” she explained. “You don’t know how it will come your way.”

Interview by Paul Fischer

QUESTION: This is a huge film for you. And I'm wondering how nervous you were being part of a film that has so many expectations.

AYELET ZURER: I was truly, honestly, never occupied with the idea of expectations. I think it belongs to the business people, in that sense. I was just so thrilled to work with Ron and Tom, and to have a great part in a movie with them. And that specific part, that I never - you know, I was never worried. And usually, I'm not picking things that way, anyway. So, you know, when I really got the job, I was just happy that I was going to go into this room of investigation science, and all the themes that the movie has. And we have great discussions over the rehearsal period, which we had for about two weeks with the writer of the screenplay. And just sitting at a table with these people were such a great time for me, that I really never found myself asking those questions. But it was overwhelming, in some ways.


QUESTION: What was your audition process like for this?

AYELET ZURER: Oh, well, I met Ron once really briefly. Like, for five, ten minutes. Which was lovely and nice. But I - you know, I couldn't tell where it was going. And then suddenly he called and said, "Hey, can you come and read with Tom?" And they offered me a certain time of the day, which I had to be prepared for. And I met them at a little theatre in Santa Monica. And t place was very tiny, and there were a few people sitting in the audience. Which, you usually see when you read for a director. But this time I couldn't see them, because it was on a stage, and we did have lights on. You know, theatre lights. And so you can't see beyond the darkness, which is lovely. And I met with Tom, who was funny the first moment I saw him, and gracious, and tried to make me feel like I'm welcomed, and that it is a hideous process for him, too. I think he even said that that way. And then they went and said, "Are you ready?" And I said, "Yes." And they said, "Okay. Action." And the cameras were rolling. And I just had such a good time with him. It was really, really easy. And when it was done, I sort of felt like, "Hmmm. Gosh, it could have gone - you know, I could have done that for hours now." And thank God, they felt the same way.


QUESTION: How different a character is this to the character in the book? I mean, what sorts of changes were there?

AYELET ZURER: Well, I think in the book, because your imagination can cope with description such as the short pants, and the masculine legs, and the great skin, and at the same time, the brain that can - I think there's a point where she's mentioned to exceed Einstein's theory, at one point in the beginning. So, you see, she's really like a superwoman to me. You know, beautiful and smart, and like a superhero kind of creature. The character. And so when it was translated into the movie, Ron really wanted somebody real, so the audience would feel for them. Because it is such a story-driven movie, that the characters should be as real as possible. And so our job was to try to see what had to be dropped. And the first thing was the shorts. [LAUGHTER] Thank God, because I would feel really bad.


QUESTION: Why?

AYELET ZURER: I think when you actually see things, you don't imagine them like you do when you read the book. They don't quite work very well. So I kind of felt like, "Nobody's going to buy it, anyway." If they haven't read the book.


QUESTION: I understand Tom was quoted in an interview recently as saying that originally, there were plans to make you two a couple at some point. You know, to bring in a bit of romance, and to turn your relationship into a bit of a love story. Was that something that you thought was going to be the case? Or was that -

AYELET ZURER: Well, I read the script already without it. With just a bit of a flirt, you know. But not, like, a complete romance. Because I think one of the things that they had to drop was that, because of shortening of the story, really. And you had to, in adaptation. So - yeah.


QUESTION: Do you regret not having had a love scene with Tom Hanks?

AYELET ZURER: [LAUGHTER] It's so funny, that - if I regret? I hope I'll have another movie with him, and maybe then. Then, in that case, it's going to be that case in the next movie.


QUESTION: Obviously this film does comment on aspects of the Catholic Church. And I'm just wondering, as an Israeli, and presumably as an Israeli Jew, did you find it a bit of a dichotomy between your own personal beliefs and the beliefs that were being espoused by this story?

AYELET ZURER: It is almost like asking for me - forgive me if it sounds rude - if an actor plays a murderer, if there's a dichotomy. You know, I'm an actress. My job is to deliver the roles that I'm getting. And if I feel that I can, I will deliver them. And in this particular situation, that was the case. I have - it has nothing to do with my belief, my personal belief. My religion, if there is one, and how I grew up. Plus, on top of that, Victoria, to me, as I was working on it, comes from a world of science. So she really has no religion. And no faith, to be even more precise. Which is the difference between me and her, really.


QUESTION: Do you think the film really does have a point of view? Or do you think that it's a lot more neutral than people assume?

AYELET ZURER: Well, I think it's not neutral, but it doesn't tell you what to think. It sort of raises the question, and leave it out there. Even in the last scene, you can see faith and science together.


QUESTION: Let me ask you about shooting on location. I mean, obviously this movie is filmed both on location and in studio sets. How was it for you working on location in Rome? And do you think that adds to your own performance?

AYELET ZURER: Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. You know what? 100 percent yes, because when you work on set, in Rome, the people, the art, the food, the crazy traffic around you, the fact that there are hundreds of tourists and people watching, and just the excitement of being there, is so thrilling and full of energy, that it sort of adds to the story. And the story is the story of people chasing a very important thing, while time is clicking. So it kind of supports it. Yeah.


QUESTION: What do you think is the appeal of these stories, which are not special effects-driven movies, which are not action movies, per say, even though there's action in it. What do you think is the appeal of these works as movies?

AYELET ZURER: What's the appeal? I think they're more than just action movies. They're - they have really good story. They have history. They have art. And great ideas hidden underneath the appearance. And so, people tend to want to see more, I think, intelligent movies, in that case. And plus, I think something that Dan Brown does, and I think it is something that I've heard someone else saying about his stories, is because they are so well-researched, and he really uses symbols and myths and ideas that resonate deeply inside of us somehow. Because he uses history, then we kind of tend to sort of believe that it's all true. [LAUGHTER] And it's fiction. And that's kind of making it fun.


QUESTION: What is a movie like this - the size of a movie like this - do to your career? I mean, does it open more doors for you that may otherwise have not been open as a result of doing a film like this?

AYELET ZURER: I don't know. It's too soon to say for me, really. I don't know.


QUESTION: Why did you want to be an actor? And how did that come about for you, growing up?

AYELET ZURER: Well, it happened to me because it always came about - came to me. I never really appreciated very much, because I was thinking, you know, that it's kind of fun, but there's nothing to it. I never really made a decision, until I actually had one role which I found to be really profound, because it was influenced by an acquainted friend, who I spent a lot of time before, working on that role. And her personality slipped in, and she was a very interesting character. And then when I portrayed that specific character, it was a play named The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. I think it's a German playwright, Fassbinder. And I did that play, and then I kind of had that strange feeling of forgetting myself, as I was doing it. And I thought, "Oh my gosh. It's actually"-you know, the bug actually started there. Because I realized how deep it actually is, and how much fun, in a more profound way, it is to kind of forget yourself, and portray somebody else. And then I really wanted it, badly. And then I moved to New York, and studied a little bit more, and came back and - you know. My career kind of started, for me, was starting there=, although I already did theatre and TV.


QUESTION: Do you still live in New York? Or do you back home?

AYELET ZURER: I go back home to visit, but I live somewhere else, yeah.


QUESTION: And what else are you working on at the moment? Or, what else have you finished that you're excited about?

AYELET ZURER: I have - that's the movie I've finished, that I'm excited about. I'm working on my own script.


QUESTION: Oh, really?

AYELET ZURER: I have been for a while, yeah.


QUESTION: What kind of script are you writing?

AYELET ZURER: I optioned rights for a book, and I've been developing it. And as I was working on Angels and Demons and talking a lot to Tom, I discovered how he had created Forrest Gump and later on, Castaway. And then I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh, he really - he took it - he took about four to six years on each of the projects." And I thought to myself, "That's really what I want to do. I want to become that"-you know, I was just influenced by that. I said, "This is what I want to be. I want to be doing what I'm doing, but I really wanted to create more." And so since I had those rights for a while, and I didn't do anything with them, I started writing. And it's kind of coming together really nicely.


QUESTION: What kind of a genre is it? Can you tell me what sort of -

AYELET ZURER: It's a drama. A very tiny movie. I would assume not more than $2-4 million, if I get really lucky.


QUESTION: Well, you've got to start somewhere.

AYELET ZURER: I know. I know.


QUESTION: Maybe some of the profits of Angels and Demons can go towards your budget.

AYELET ZURER: Yeah. Let me tell you, they will be the first people that I'll turn to. [LAUGHTER]

Angels and Demons

Includes topics on:

*How did she get involved in the project (Fugitive Pieces)
*Did filming in Greece add to the allure of the project
*I ask how is the environment in Israel for making movies
*How was the set while filming
*I ask if she was surprised by the success of Vantage Point
*She has a lot of other movies coming up and we talk about them – *Adam Resurrected, Longshot (Lightbulb)
*I ask if she wants to work in both America and Israel
*We talk about what it’s like to promote her movies
*Rehearsal process talk

VIDEO:

http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/7764/tcid/1

Israeli beauty Ayelet Zurer is thankful for opportunities knocking at her door.

ACCORDING to the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), Ayelet Zurer is sometimes referred to as the ice princess back at her homeland, Israel, due to the roles she has portrayed there. It is a title that is a disservice to the actress really, for in person, Zurer exudes warmth and an easy-going personality.

These qualities first become evident as she waits alongside journalists in the corridors of ninth floor of The Peninsula Tokyo while an interview room is being vacated and readied.

Later, in proximity, it’s hard not to miss the laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, and how they deepen whenever she expresses delight, especially when recalling her experiences working on Angels & Demons in Rome and collaborating with the likes of Ron Howard, Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor.

Like the movie she’s currently starring in, Zurer is a picture of contrasts at this interview.

She has paired a leather jacket and boots with a dainty blouse and girly handbag. Her hair is immaculately groomed, yet it reveals some greying. And her beautiful face is slightly marred by a noticeable pimple on her chin!

So when Angels & Demons director Ron Howard says that it was Zurer’s earthiness and intelligence that won her the lead female role in the film, you get what he’s talking about immediately.

Intentionally or not, the actress who turns 40 in June reminds us that we are real because of our imperfections.

Similarly, when it came to portraying her character in Angels & Demons, Zurer couldn’t see the movie version of scientist Vittoria Vetra as author Dan Brown had envisioned her – a beautiful, sexy, athletic and brilliant scientist who wears shorts and a perfect tan while trying to stop a bomb that’s threatening to go off in 24 hours within the Vatican City.

Zurer says: “She’s so excellent and smart that she’s almost like a superhero. We didn’t want that at all.”

This, however, didn’t translate to Vittoria being stereotyped as a nerd who hides her femininity and sexuality.

“I wanted to portray a woman who doesn’t need to pretend to be something else just because she’s in a male-dominated world,” Zurer explains.

Born in Tel Aviv, Zurer is an acclaimed actress in Israel who developed her acting skills at the New Actors Workshop School in New York; she has won two awards and been nominated four times in the Israel Film/Television Academy Awards for her work that began in 1991.

The world first saw her when she was cast in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film, Munich, in which she played Eric Bana’s character’s wife, Daphna. After that, offers kept pouring in. Three years ago, she moved to California with her husband Gilad Londovski and her son Liad, to participate in more films including Vantage Point, Fugitive Pieces and Adam Resurrected. Nonetheless, it was her work in Betipul (an acclaimed TV series in Israel which has been adapted by HBO and titled In Treatment) that first got casting director, Jane Jenkins, interested in Zurer for the role of Vittoria.

Hence, Zurer – along with eight other actresses – were invited to audition for the part. And as Howard says: “She just won the role.”

Zurer remembers the first time she met Howard, and prior to that preparing herself for the meeting by reading the book and any science-related issues she could get her hands on, including watching science-related videos on youtube.com, so she’d have a wide knowledge on the issue ... in case the topic came up.

She recollects with a laugh: “When I came to talk to him, we talked about other things and ended up never talking about anything that meant anything.”

That meeting led to another, this time with Hanks.

“It was fantastic,” describes Zurer of the second audition. “Ron came and hugged me; he’s very warm you know, which immediately made me feel at ease. And Tom made a couple of jokes, which again made me feel comfortable ... And they chose a little theatre to do the audition, which is very different from a room with cameras close to you while people who are determining your future watch you closely.

“For this, there were lights on stage so I couldn’t see who was sitting in the audience. Although I knew they were there, I was able to forget they were there and ‘play’ with Tom.”

They made her wait for three more weeks before giving her a phone call to say she’s in, which she said got her jumping up and down with joy.

Zurer was made part of the team from the get go – she was given a free range on the accent and even got to participate in the discussions of the character’s development with writer David Koepp during rehearsals.

“Every aspect was fun, there was a lot of laughter and hard work at the same time. And Tom became a good friend; because when you work closely with someone you get to know them and I discovered a very intelligent, funny, charismatic and honest man.

“I kept bugging him with questions. In Rome, we spent a few days in the car – now in the movie it is literally 20 seconds, when it was actually two or three days in the car – and I asked him all the questions you can ask about Tom Hanks, about his career from the beginning to the end.”

Hanks returns the favour by acknowledging that Zurer is “a great treasure to make the movie with ... she’s open about everything, she doesn’t lie.”

And laughing, he even reveals that “if you have done something stupid she finds a way to tell you just how stupid you are ... in a good way, I mean in a wonderful way.”

Apart from the movie at hand, Zurer is tight-lipped. While filming, she admits that she had been trying to obtain the rights to a book she wanted to develop into a script, but she chooses not to elaborate on the subject. And when asked if she does anything else, she hesitantly reveals that she once did illustrations for a book (Be’Edolina by Gabi Nitzen), before closing the subject.

Even though she’s truly ecstatic about having participated in this summer movie, she also confesses she doesn’t have a clear-cut plan when and if her profile goes up after this movie.

“I was asked that question by my friends and I kept saying I don’t know. I don’t think you can make plans. I only hope to have more opportunities at work, more choices. But exactly how my life goes ...,” she trails off, with a shrug.

“It’s funny because I was expecting my career to go forward a little before becoming a mom, but it was the opposite. When my son was born, I got Munich and In Treatment the same year.

“That opened the door and I moved to the States with other opportunities. It was an exciting time; a time of change, which is always demanding on the private life. At the same time, it’s like a dream come true to be able to work with all these excellent and talented people.”



Article by MUMTAJ BEGUM

Successful Israeli actress talks about being 41 in an industry obsessed with youth, her 'wild life' during her 20s and working with Tom Hanks


While there are numerous other Israeli beauties representing the country overseas, none of them even approaches Ayelet Zurer's league. After 15 years of playing the beautiful girl and breaking our hearts in various local productions, the actress decided it was finally time to tackle Hollywood and moved to Los Angeles with her family.
She arrived at the City of Angels at an age when most typical Hollywood actresses stop getting the beautiful woman roles and instead move on to the "mother" roles. But she made it nonetheless.

"I didn't sleep with any director, never picked up the phone to ask for work, nothing happened that doesn't happen to any other random actress," she says.

"Each person does what's right for them. When I was young I came across situations like this. I remember a party I went to in LA with a girl and the way she introduced me, virtually sold me, that I was so disgusted with myself and her and everything, that I ran away. There are people who know how to do it and not feel bad."

Eighteen months after her most prominent role alongside Tom Hanks in "Angels and Demons," what's next for the successful Israeli beauty?

"There are various stages in one's career. It's not that I'm waiting for a big studio movie. The movie I did since then and the one I'm working on now are of a totally different scale, but they are leading parts. Right now there are discussions on something of a pretty major scale, but there's nothing to say until things actually happen."

When Zurer walks into the Tel Aviv restaurant we're meeting in, the two young hostesses don't recognize her. Five years ago this wouldn't have happened. Recently turning 41, Zurer remains undaunted by her supposedly problematic age in an industry obsessed with youth.
It is possible you reached Hollywood too late?

"There's no such thing as too late. There are different roles for different ages, assuming an actress has something to offer. There aren't many Helen Mirrens and Meryl Streep,s and it takes a lot of talent to get to that level. I hope I have it. That's the model I aspire to if I'm lucky enough. It’s all about luck."

The first time Zurer realized her age limitations in Hollywood was an "in your face" kind of situation. It happened when she auditioned for the part of a 20-year-old girl.

"The male lead was 23 so it was obvious it would be difficult putting me opposite him in a scene requiring sexual tension. I got very far in the auditions but they indeed ended up taking a 20-year-old girl for the part. And between us, rightly so. In my head, I already know what's right and what’s wrong, but I can't not go when they offer me to."

Surely Hollywood has presented you with ways to look 20-years-old

"The day I get there and decide it's serving me and good for me, I'll get plastic surgery done. Plastic surgery is not a bad thing. Today it's like not taking an epidural or arguing about photoshop. But I don’t think I look that bad. I'm an actress. In this sense, my profession is less complex than that of a model. True, they're into beauty in Hollywood and it is age-related, but you can't put a girl with hot lips and no wrinkles and say: That's the mother of a 14-year-old."

So, you'd change your look for Hollywood

"You want me to say that Hollywood sucks, that it's all about plastic surgery and bad people, but there's no such thing as 'Hollywood.' There's a film industry and a certain city called Los Angeles. Apart from Los Angeles, the industry is spread all over the world. I made a big movie, two small movies, it's not that I'm Sharon Stone."

Zurer indeed is no Sharon Stone yet, who for her 50th birthday graced the cover of Paris Match magazine virtually completely naked. Until six years ago she would mainly hang out in Tel Aviv, but then she got her big break with Steven Spielberg's "Munich" and her luck changed.

"'Nina's Tragedies' reached a little shop in England where a casting director watched it and sent it to the people casting 'Munich.' It's all fate. I'm a person with faith and I can't address this any other way. There's a fate that takes you where you need to go, but you need to work hard for it."

Have you ever had a supernatural experience?

"Countless, but it's like talking to me about sex. From a very young age I would fall off the bed and wake up on the floor because of dreams. I have a memory from the age of four in which I felt God. In a movie I worked on in Michigan there was a scene where I visit a guy who lost his family. I imagined I was walking on a pier with a purple scarf and asked one from the wardrobe person. At the end of the shoot the screen writer told me: 'I wrote that script five years before my son was killed and on the last day I saw him he was wearing a purple scarf.' To me it's everything, it’s the cosmic order that if you're open to reaches you at the end."

Speaking about near-death experiences and doing crazy things in her 20s I ask Zurer what stupid things she did at a younger age.

"The age of 20 was all about stupid things. I did crazy things, but never lost it. I was, you know, a little crazy. I once broke up with my boyfriend in London and went to an Indian guy's apartment who I didn't know and who told me he saw my aura and gave me a massage."

An Indian massage does not involve clothes

"No, it was with clothes but they slowly take them off, until I realized I was out of my mind. Apparently he did see my aura because he told me I would become very famous. He started touching but I ran away from there."

Did you ever try drugs?

"Yes, when I was in New York."

Cocaine, Ecstasy?

"All sorts. Yeah, in clubs. It was interesting. Just that kind of time. It was part of my self-search. On the other hand it also provided me with a biography, an ability to take on characters, to see people in dodgy situations. I was around people who were doing that. I don’t touch drugs ever since. I have friends who do but I don't. Anything I did in life was out of curiosity. Ultimately, I take care of myself or am being taken care of. There's a sane part in my brain that tells me 'stop'."

So you’re ultimately a good girl?

"I'm a little more complex than that."

What was the worst job you had during that "wild" period?

"Walking dogs in the middle of the winter in New York. Picking up the poop when it smeared and soaked into the white snow at 7 am. Or walking Madonna's photographer's dog. I just remember he tried to bite me in the elevator a couple of times. It’s as close I ever got to Madonna."

Have you ever fallen in love with anyone on set?

"I always fall in love. Not really, but something of the sort happens. You become attached to people and when it's over it takes a month to get over and then it's over. I don’t mind flirting. When I'm with people who are pleasant and it’s normal and natural then I vacillate between that and a type of autism. I played alongside Jeff Goldblum in 'Adam Resurrected.' You don’t get flirtier than him."

You had a scene where you played a dog in heat. How did you prepare?

"In the scene I'm barking and there a cameraman and a lighting guy around me. All men. I tried not to make it too sexy, more barking from a lost person who's willing to be a dog to get love. It's translated into sex, but there's something very dark underneath."


The big break
Zurer's big break came when she got a chance to play the part of the wife of a conflicted Mossad agent in Spielberg's "Munich." Immediately after the film she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and son and tried to make a name for herself in the American movie business.

Starting out with "Fugitive Pieces" and "Vantage Point" alongside Sigourney Weaver and Dennis Quaid she went on to do "Adam Ressurected" based on a Yoram Kaniuk novel and also did the low-profile film "Lightbulb."

Over the years she rejected a part in the hit show "Lost" and nearly got cast in the third season of the US version of "In Therapy" but was left out due to accent issues.
And then she struck gold with "Angels and Demons" - a $150 million Hollywood blockbuster production alongside one of the most revered and successful actors in the world, one Tom Hanks.

"He's gorgeous. Uncommonly intelligent. If you need good advice, he's the person," she says.


What's the best advice he's given you?

"I told him there was something I was very interested in and that I'd like to contact a certain director. He told me not to call him under any circumstance because if it was for me, it will find me."

And did it?


"Not yet, so far, but it's still a good tip."


If there's anything Zurer shies away from it's the expectation she become Israel's PR representative in Hollywood.

"I am very careful with that. I'm not Israel's ambassador. I voice my opinions and say what I think behind the scenes but I won’t give an interview about it. Listen, I think there should be a Palestinian state and I'm left-wing, that's the truth."


If the foreign minister called you up and said: 'There are problems with the Turkish flotilla, I need you for PR'

You're kidding me. That's exactly the problem of Israeli PR. You need people who actually explain but they don't exist. They're not out there appearing in the world. There's no one. Israel doesn’t have a Hasbara ministry and the fact that I'm famous doesn’t mean I have to do that work."


Currently on a brief visit in Israel she uses the opportunity to shoot a fashion campaign for the Goldbary brand, earning her NIS 500,000 a year. For "Angels and Demons," however she got a little over $500,000.
Are you making good money in the States?

"Enough to live comfortably. In Israel you can't earn solid money. If you're a theatre actor who gets booked than maybe you can maintain a nice quality of life, and if you get into a film or a commercial or TV here and there then you're settled. What happened there (In "Angeles and Demons") was that I got offered a role, they wanted me, we negotiated, we didn’t get what we wanted, we thought we could put our foot down and we failed."

Most Israelis in Hollywood don't even get to the negotiation stage

"If the door didn’t open for me I don't think I would have had the balls to do it. Aki Avni was very brave. He went for it. I landed a couple of meetings with agents who were interested in me, chose one and we gave it a three-month try."

Aki Avni said that having tasted success in Hollywood you wouldn’t be able to go back to acting in Israel


"After you act with someone like Tom Hanks it's hard to imagine going back to Habima. Not that Habima doesn't have fantastic actors, it's just not the same place. But it's important for me to stress that every coin has two sides. I go to America - I lose something. I go back to Israel - I lose something else."

Did you ever think that all of this may not be right for you?


All the time. Moments of desperation revolve around the thought whether I'm really willing to pay the price I pay. Is it really worth being away from my friends, my child's education in another place. I can maybe continue succeeding, but if the roles stop becoming interesting for me I'll come back. Right now I'm having too much fun and really loving my profession. I have a lot more to give and as far as I'm concerned I haven't touched the tip of the iceberg."










Article Courtesy of:
Ynet News
Raz Shechnik and Nevo Ziv Published: 07.19.10, 10:36 / Israel Culture

Just my opinion on this latest Ayelet article posted 28/7/10

Ayelet along with Cate Blanchett are without question my two favorite actors. Ayelet even toping Cate not as successful but as for raw talent, I think Ayelet best Cate. But one thing Ayelet can learn from Cate is to avoid providing too many details on one's mistakes and past personal history. Cate Blanchett is a master at this and this is why when watching one of her performances, it's the character she is portraying that I see. Not the actress that has shared too much of her personal life therefore any personal baggage does not supersedes any of her performances.

When I saw this latest article, as a fan I immediately became excited. Ayelet has finished shooting a movie "A year in Mooring." The movie is in post production and scheduled for a 2011 release. While this movie's subject/plotline doesn't exactly excite me, Ayelet being in it, I certainly will see it. But did we get any additional news on this film or the film she is currently working on, that the title isn't even confirmed? With this film, I read the short bio and this one looks like it is going to be an exciting thriller. But did Ayelet expound on these projects? I don't even now enough about this film to start a thread on it. What do we get from from this article? Information on her past and thankfully brief drug experiemental exploits. Give me a freaking break.

Why is it that some not all but some people think as soon as they get famous, they need to share their personal information?
For example Oprah Winfrey, a truly amazing, intelligent and talented lady. Why in the heck did she think that she needed to share with the entire world, the problems she experienced with her father? If you need to discuss it, then talk to a counselor, not the prying eyes of the world.
Also, Angelina Jolie whose acting talents are minimal at best, her personal life completely overshadow any performance she has given in my book.
This article did nothing but completely disppoint me, Ayelet you are better than this, let your acting do the talking. Share with the world what made you famous, your acting.