| This interview originally appeared on Casting Connection on July 2002.
Actors on Acting
By Leon Acord
A five-part series exploring the techniques and experiences of local San Francisco actors.
Jean Mazzei
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| Photo: Lisa Keating |
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Already busy and accomplished with theatre, indie films, voice-over work and industrials, actress Jean Mazzei now enjoys a blossoming jazz-singing career, appearing regularly at night spots all over Northern California.
But wait, there’s more! She writes, paints, and is now putting together a rock band! One look at her website (www.jeanmazzei.com) proves what a dizzying, whirling dervish this woman is!
We worked together on Paulo Guimaraes’ award-winning short film about dominance and submission. I played a “full-time slave” in this fictional documentary, and it was the toughest challenge I had faced to that time. But Jean’s support and spot-on advice during shooting was inspiring, and helped me give one of my best film performances.
So naturally, my very first question to her was:
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Leon Acord: Why don’t you teach?
Jean Mazzei: It’s a time issue for me. I love teaching. But it would be like getting another project started. There’s the self-promotion, and getting the word out. Bottom line, I just don’t have the time anymore.
LA: You act, sing, write and paint. Are you hyperactive, or is this a strategy?
JM: (Laughs) I have longed for a strategy my whole life. My blessing and my curse is that I’ve always been multi-faceted. My life has been about finding a balance between all the things that I love. I was I double major in music and dance in college. I loved them both equally. So I decided, whatever hit first is what I would do. I got a job at a dance company. Had I gotten job with an opera company or something, my life would be totally different now. At Bay Area Theatre Sports, they have this game called “What Comes Next.” And my life is an example of what comes next.
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LA: Do you have a strong improv background?
JM: A fair amount, more movement-improvisation. Improv is a way of life. It gives you basic rules, like “say yes to everything.”
LA: How do you approach a new role?
JM: I try to come in as pure as possible, and not layer a lot of things in my proverbial backpack so I can go in as naked as possible. The more “justifications” I have more making a choice, it doesn’t work. All I am doing in that moment is preparing myself for the director questioning me. “Why are you doing it that way?” It’s like any art piece, if you have to justify it, it doesn’t work. And of course, what does work is so subjective.
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| Jean Mazzei |
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LA: Are you more technical, or instinctive?
JM: I’m both, actually. In my earlier days, I was criticized for being technical, and I always would love because I had no training! But I’d been in the business for a while, and I understood it on a basic level. So I would just lie!
LA: What part of character-type are you dying to play?
JM: I’m dying to lay edgy roles like a drug addict, a person who’s insane, or a lesbian. Those are places that I’d love to just dive into. I would love to do something nude. To be nude on stage, you’d have to be so in the moment.
LA: What’s easier for you, a character closer to yourself, or removed?
JM: There are characters within my arsenal that I can do without even a script. For example, the neurotic mother! I don’t have to prep for those roles; I walk in and do it. And I don’t believe in over-preparation either. Prep to the point of being comfortable, but if you know what you’re doing, don’t sweat it. Admit when you know what you’re doing. For example, it’s very easy for me to go to wit, sarcasm. It’s more difficult to go with a slower tempo in a character.
LA: How do you know you’ve reached something true, and to stop?
JM: You never really stop, because every performance is going to be different. I would say I would stop, in the technical sense of the word, before I go on stage. You have to say, “I know it,” and go on with what you have in that moment.
LA: What’s kept you from LA
JM: I go through phases. Part of it is, I’m married. But honestly, I’ve been so career-driven my whole life, if I really wanted to go, I would. The first thing that kept me from going was fear. In the last fear years, my music thing has really taken off. Also, I have a network of people I know here.
LA: What’s been your best experience as an actor in the Bay Area?
JM: This little production of Company that I did at MCC, one of the first productions I did here. The director was just completely uninvolved. I would much rather work with a director who lets you do your own thing, and gets out of your way. This person just totally trusted anything I would do. I went on stage every night knowing I was going to kick major ass, because from the beginning of the rehearsal process, there was this vibe that I could do no wrong. And so I couldn’t. It was liberating.
LA: Do you have trouble watching yourself on screen?
JM: I don’t have trouble; I like watching myself. I was a dancer for years. Of course, I’m my own worst critic, but I’ve learned to not beat myself up. See what works, as well as what doesn’t. When I was working on singing, I would tape myself, so I could hear what worked and what didn’t. You can’t really tell when you’re in it. I would find I would just let it go in, and I would self-correct, without analyzing. So, yeah, it’s helpful to me to watch myself, because every time I do, it just goes in there.
LA: Did you have a realization, a light-bulb moment, that this was what you’re here to do?
JM: I’ve just known since I was a little girl. I knew I wanted to dance, to act, to sing. I also wanted to be a psychiatrist! I also wanted to teach. A billion things I wanted to do as a kid. I wanted to be rich and famous. These little dreams you have. As far as the performance stuff goes, it was a series of what was available to me where I was. There was a voice teacher in our town, and I got to go into voice lessons. It was classical, and I didn’t really have a desire to sing classically. I did it because it was there, and that was the best teacher I could get. I did seek out a college with dance in it because that was one thing I wasn’t able to do when I was growing up.
LA: When will you be able to say, “I’m a successful artist”?
JM: I am totally able to say that now.
LA: I’ve been waiting for someone to say that! Tell me why!
JM: I love my artistic life now because I’m driving the bus. I know why I’m in the business, and I’m going to keep doing it regardless of whether I have that house in Beverly Hills or not. I’ve learned what’s important to me, and what makes me tick as an artist. Acting is a part of that, but it’s not the whole picture.
LA: You’re so healthy!
JM: And I’ve worked my ass off to get this way! And it’s been a hard road. I’m not saying I’ve always been this way. I’ve totally stressed out about how I look, about having the right agent, about my image, my this, my that. But it never got me anywhere. A couple of years ago, I had a wake-up call. I had a mammogram, and they thought they found something. For the two weeks between my mammogram and biopsy, I thought, “Boy, I could have cancer.” And I really looked at myself and I said, “What am I doing? What’s bringing me joy? What do I hate?” For the most part, I look at life like that now, because what are we waiting for? I don’t care how young you are, it could hit anybody at anytime. Also, I thought if I keep living my life like, “Oh, I hate what I’m doing, this is painful for me,” I could get cancer! I wrote this song called “I Want to be Bad.” And the first line kind of sums it up: “I’m through with being nice. Where’d it ever get me?” I’m supposed to be myself. I don’t have to be nice.
LA: Does that come with being a woman in the arts since most women are raised to be nice and not cause trouble?
JM: Not having been raised a man, I don’t really have anything to compare it to so I don’t know!
LA: What’s the first piece of advice you’d give an actor who’s just starting out?
JM: I hate that piece of advice that if you want to do anything else in the world, stop and do that – because that’s so not true. Know why you’re knowing it, what’s in it for you. Because the chance of getting it from somewhere else – it’s really nice when it happens – but those moments of getting it from outside are few and far between. You have to have you own sense of why you’re in it.
Leon Acord has appeared in over 20 films and 15 plays. He plays “Quentin Crisp” in the play Carved in Stone, making its world debut at the Eureka Theatre in SF. Leon may be contacted via email at Leon@LeonAcord.com.
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UPDATE: As if she weren't busy enough, Jean has now added "rock performer" to her list of accomplishments, touring the country with her group Flying Venus. She's recorded and released three CDs, and a fourth CD of jazz standards. For more info, check www.jeanmazzei.com.
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