‘Westworld’ Season 4 on HBO: How ballet dancer Angela Sarafyan ventured into the world of acting
HBO's most loved and iconic sci-fi drama series ‘Westworld’ made its comeback on screens on June 26. We all love watching the adrenaline-filled storyline of human bots in an amusement theme park set within a dystopian reality. The characters have gone through a lot of emotional undertones and changing relationship arcs, filled with fights to survive in that world. The show has paved its way into the hearts of fans globally. The series has been adapted from an iconic 1973 film of the same name and has been created and conceptualized by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
Angela Sarafyan essays the role of Clementine Pennyfeather in the series. From season one till now, Sarafyan’s character Clementine, who initially is an android prostitute working under the supervision and watchful eye of the park’s main head Maeve (Thandiwe Newton), goes through an entire emotional journey. Certain events change her naivety and innocence completely which could be an angle that we may witness in the current season of the Emmy award-winning series ‘Westworld’.
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Angela's love for music
In an old interview with Coveteur in May 2019, opening up about how she had been a ballet dancer and pianist before venturing into the world of acting, Angela said, “It’s a funny thing, I was always drawn to different kinds of art forms. I grew up on stage. I always knew I wanted to be in movies. I loved being transformed into another person and to be in a different world. I originally studied classical music. I felt like the world was black-and-white and music brought it color. Music was one form of expression for me, which was through playing the piano. Another form was through ballet, through the body. With acting, I thought it encompassed all of that you could dance, you could sing.”
Angela's first steps into showbiz
Spilling beans on her first ever experience of working in the industry for a Celine Dion song that never got released, Angela shared, “It’s really funny, actually. My first gig was a Céline Dion music video that was sort of like a short film, directed by Paul Hunter. It was for a song that never came out. We shot at Universal, and it had this storyline where a girl had a really bad boyfriend and was rebelling against her mother. I had a scene where I had to kiss the guy in the car. I had never, ever touched lips with someone! My first kiss was on camera. That was my first gig, and it was my first audition.”
Love for ballet and piano
In an old interview with Nylon in October 2016, talking about how she performed ballet and piano since her childhood before her acting career began, Angela added, “I was a really, really weird kid. I loved stories like I preferred them to reality. I think most kids like to live in their imagination, but that went on for a while. I liked to tell stories in front of my fourth-grade class. I’d get emotional and cry and there’d be this huge drama, and then I’d go sit down and feel great!”
Angela also said that her ballet training was useful while portraying the character of Clementine in ‘Westworld’. She added, “I did use a lot of ballet in Clementine, actually. I find that it serves her. I had an interesting encounter with Anthony Hopkins, where we were talking about different methods of acting, and he noticed that I was very fluid. I told him eventually what I was doing, and he could see that. Ballet definitely had a big part in it, and it’s [important] in a lot of the roles that I play. It helped especially with Clementine because she was a character that didn’t speak but expressed a lot with her body through her movements. If you can tell a story without speaking, then you’ve done your job.”
Furthermore, speaking up about the moment that she decided to become an actor and pursue a career in acting, Angela added, "It’s a natural passion. I think people are so fascinating, how we all function and talk and move a different way."
Major role
In 2000, Angela bagged her first big role on the CBS drama titled 'Judging Amy'. Since then, she’s been in more than 50 films and television shows, including 'Law & Order', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'The Immigrant', and 'TheTwilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2', among others.
