Near the Aegean Sea With Melia Kreiling
Melia Kreiling, the Greek-American actress who you can catch in the new Fox series Filthy Rich (launching on 9/21), takes us on a walk through the stunning Greek Island of Syros and talks about the importance of supporting the arts, lessons that she has learned this year and what she’s most proud of in her new show.
Melia was virtually photographed on location in Syros, Greece by Alison Engstrom
It was such a treat to travel to Greece if only for a few hours! Were you raised in Greece or America and where do you call home now?
I was born in Geneva, Switzerland, because that is where my parents were based at the time. It goes back and forth a lot, but basically my parents split up and I stayed with my mom, who returned to Athens, Greece. I’d visit my dad wherever he went; he lived in different parts of the world like Finland, Austria and Spain. He eventually moved back to the States because he had been gone for like 20 years at that point. I’d visit him in Chicago and Florida before he passed away. It was his dream that I would eventually make my way back to the States. I went to an international school in Athens so I annoyingly speak better English than I do Greek (laughs). I moved to the States six years ago.
For those of us who are chomping at the bit to travel, what are some Greek islands worth adding to the bucket list?
I usually recommend Hydra; it’s about an hour and a half outside of Athens. It’s where so many foreigners made their permanent homes there, like Leonard Cohen, they fell in love with it. There are no cars—it’s just donkeys, your feet and water taxis, that’s it. There are no roads. It’s an unbelievable little place—it’s just paradise.
I have also heard amazing things about Folegandros too.
It’s stunning. I went there last year. See, I am still discovering Greece because we have thousands of islands here and I have only been to like five of them.
Now to talk about your career. Can you recall the moment that you knew you wanted to perform?
It wasn’t exactly a moment for me. It was because of a very complicated family structure, I found a lot of who I am through the performing arts. I do recall when I got the acting bug because I was resisting it for a long time. Everyone kept saying, you need to get into acting, stop the dancing you need to go into acting. I went to drama school in London and that didn’t do it for me either until the very last semester because I had this incredible teacher. He asked me, how do you feel when you are in a scene? I got scared and I said, I don’t know, I feel kind of normal. He smiled and he said, perfect, you are going to end up working. I remember in that moment I got this sense that maybe there was something out there for me in this. Something clicked inside of me and got me excited.
What do you think was initially holding you back?
I didn’t understand acting; I didn’t understand where the work was. I hadn’t unlocked what the actual work was for actors. From the outside looking in, it just looked like a bunch of people playing dress up. I came from a contemporary dance background, where you are sweating and sacrificing a lot in your life to do it. I didn’t get it until I did and then I was like, holy crap, this is actually really hard if you do it right. Acting is a lot of work to make it look like zero work. You can study and practice it forever and never have learned everything. That’s really exciting when you realize that there is constant potential and that way, you'll never get bored.
How did you get those wheels in motion and make it a reality?
As soon as I graduated drama school, I got my first agent, who I am still with in the UK. My agent sent my show reel to a casting director and they cast me in a show called The Borgias on Showtime starring Jeremy Irons. It was a quick in and out I had two lines to say, I said, wow this is it, I made it (laughs). It was incredibly exciting and scary. It’s how I knew that I was really going to go for this. I ended doing more episodes and I had a character with name.
Have you had many harder moments or doubt along the way?
I never had any moments of doubt and questioned if this was for me. I’ve had plenty of moments where I am realizing the toll of living far from my family and moving around all of the time. It’s hard to start friendships because they are cut in the middle because you have to leave. I think that part will always be a challenge for me just because I miss people a lot. The people who I am closest to aren’t necessarily in the industry or in LA. Of course, I have had a lot of ups and downs, like I am on audition 135 and I still haven’t booked anything, especially at the beginning. Maybe I have a dysfunctional personality (laughs) but it never got me down to the point of, I am quitting. Also weirdly, I enjoy auditions. I don’t mean I go in there and think that was the most fun I ever had, but sometimes it is. In real like, it’s not like your friends say, please give us a scene (laughs). I have a lot of musician friends and I constantly want to ask them to play something. No one asks me to do a monologue from Shakespeare (laughs).
Back to what you werE saying, Personally speaking, I feel like this pandemic has made me question everything like, why do I live so far away from family. Have you felt that way?
Yes, 100%. The first three months of the quarantine, it was brutal. I was obsessively thinking just that: what am I doing? What’s important? I can’t get to my parents, this is insane. Anything could happen to them and I am here on the other side of the world pursuing a dream but nothing is happening. It wasn’t like I was working. It was driving me crazy and I had so much guilt. I think 2020 has done that for a lot of people to varying degrees. I think it’s important when that happens because sometimes we get comfortable. A lot of my friends have finally been able to confront their own truths about where they actually want to be, instead of where they feel they should be. Several are living in New York, Paris or London and say, actually where I really want to live is back home or somewhere more quiet or closer to nature. This time period has given people permission to admit their own truths. Even though it has happened in the worst way possible and caused a lot suffering and lost lives. We only get one round at this thing called life.
I think it’s interesting. At the beginning of 2020, it was all about bringing your life into focus and seeing clearly but the irony of this is that I think it actually has. You have had to sit with yourself, even if you do not want to.
I had three of my roughest weeks during the quarantine where I realized that the reason I was having such a hard time, despite the fact that I was incredibly lucky to have food, a roof over my head and still able to pay rent, and yet, I was really struggling to remain grateful. It was a hard slap in the face because I realized that I didn’t like myself at that time; and I wasn’t doing things that were making me feel like a decent human being. I had become comfortable, complacent and lazy just kind of rolling with the punches instead of being who I was before I moved to LA. Having to confront that maybe you don’t like yourself, which is why it is so hard to be by yourself. It’s like, how do you change that? How do you find a version of yourself that you like again?
That’s a very INTERESTING way to look at it. Now to switCh gears, Can you share more details about your new series Filthy Rich and what drew you to the role because it is different than past roles, right?
That’s exactly what drew me to it. This role was so different than the last couple of roles I had played, that’s usually what I try to do. I like to change it up all of the time because I have an issue with boredom. It’s this whole world of the South that I had very little contact with. It was really intriguing because it was being created by someone from there. It was really authentic you could tell, they knew what this world was. It called out to me and I realized this was something that I needed to explore a bit further. I had never played such a bad-ass borderline villain character before, which was exciting for me. It was great to be able to completely transform and get very far away from who I am. I play a Vegas girl who runs a soft porn business online (laughs). Then she dives into the Southern bell world,so it was two worlds in one that I didn’t know anything about and that was exciting.
Can you share more about your character Ginger Sweet? And then when it comes to getting into a role, what’s your process like?
For this role, I started from the outside in. When I first read the script, before I even auditioned, I immediately pictured a few people who I know. There are people that I know well who match the outside description of Ginger. I started to realize there were all of these things about her outward appearance, she dresses very loudly—there is a lot of cheap leopard. The costume department did such a wonderful job, we had so much fun. It’s so interesting to see how people can use clothes and their appearance to really affect who they are in life, they can become something formidable because of how they carry themselves. It gives them an armor in a way. Her mom was a Vegas showgirl and she has grown up in that world. There is this hyper-sexualization that she decides she is’t going to runaway from. She doesn't even walk around in her bedroom without heels; she’s full-on and magnificent even though she doesn’t have money.
The cast is great too, you are working along Kim Cattrall.
She is an icon for so many reasons but she is also just phenomenal in this part. Once you see her, you just can’t imagine anyone else doing it. We have a really fun dynamic in the show because we have to clash a lot. It was such a ride. Every person in the cast is so incredible and to me, it’s so fascinating because I am so far from that world. The characters are big. I feel like on every level of this show from casting to choices by actors, costumes and writing everything takes a risk. No one is playing it safe, which is exciting.
Since the series was shot in New Orleans, were you able to venture out much? Did you discover any cool spots?
New Orleans is fascinating, it’s like its own planet—I still have trouble describing it. It’s unlike anywhere I have ever been. The people are so welcoming and fun. I felt like it was the place where I felt judged the least. It was cool to work there, our crew was mostly based in New Orleans. I’d work with that crew over and over. And the food, oh my gosh, the food. I did Café Du Monde at 1a.m. on a Friday night—that’s not the right time to do it (laughs).
What are you most proud of about the series?
I’m proud that we are telling a story in a way that a lot of people can watch. It’s very accessible, our showrunner Abe Sylvia said, we are putting the opera back into soap opera—that’s the best way to describe the show. The show doesn’t shy away from issues, we aren’t sugarcoating things. There is definitely a perspective and hopefully we tell that in a way that is entertaining and people can enjoy. I’m proud of that.
Since you have been acting for a while, what is something that you have been surprised to learn about yourself?
I feel like it happened recently. I used to feel guilty for being an actor. I used to think it wasn’t hard work and also that it wasn’t hard enough. All sides of my family are academics, lawyers or in agriculture—they do all of these jobs that are not fluff. I always felt guilty for doing something that I am actually enjoying so much. One thing that I recently came into is that there is absolutely nothing to feel guilty about because to me, acting matters a lot. I’ve been brushing up on my art history over these past few months and I realized that throughout civilization people found out things because of artists and storytellers. It’s what holds culture together and gives it a sense of right and wrong or answers questions. To me, anything that adds into the culture of a society is absolutely essential. The arts are essential and I feel like it is important to stand up for them more and more and to demand that they are treated with the same respect as science or math. The arts can shift a society and can make people feel things and understand things that words, science or politicians necessarily can’t. I’ve grown into that confidence of what I am doing matters. I am not saying I am saving lives—I’m not curing cancer—I don’t think it’s serious in that way, but I think it is important. And that feels good. I rarely hear artists judging business owners but people are really quick to diminish the level that the artists play in a society. We are all necessary for different reasons.
i totally agree. We need to champion the arts. Do you have any hopes for the world once we come out on the other side of this?
The illusion has cracked now so there is no point in trying to go back to anything. The only way to get to a place that is decent again is going through this and confronting the issues. Any kind of sugarcoating or hypocrisy just isn’t going to work anymore. It’s just going to keep us here longer in this uncomfortable place. Whereas if we actually deal with things, talk about things and stop being so scared to have difficult conversations, maybe we can come up with something better with more systems that people are happy in. It’s clear that a lot of things aren't’ working for a whole lot of people around the world. We all need to be uncomfortable to get to a better place.
