Rising Stars: Meet Eva Oskarsdottir international actress based in Austria, Vienna

Hi Eva, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My journey started when I got diagnosed with an incurable eye disease. That was ten years ago. To be very honest I broke down when the doctor told me that he was sorry, but he had no good news for me, and got shitless scared when the thought of not wanting to live with the possible end result of blindness crossed my mind. I knew I needed help and went for the first time in my life to a therapist. Several months later after some ups and downs I realized that I needed to radically change things in my life. I wasn’t happy and I felt stuck in my habit-driven life – I was just functioning. So, I asked myself what I really want from life? What would I regret if I wouldn’t at least try it? The answer was acting.

I first got cast in TV commercials and then the Austrian director Herbert Gantner cast me, as one of his leads, in his award-winning short film “Broken Sight”. I felt really lucky and at the same time also experienced the dreadful feeling of “No Not You” many times. The short film “The Leeward Side of the Mountain” directed by David Keeler was the first project I, besides acting, produced. I didn’t plan on producing but it somehow always came back to me like when I was cast as the lead in my first feature film “Angels Never Cry” directed by Janice Lok Kwan Woo. I also wore two hats when Janice shot her third feature “The Darker The Lake”, starring the wonderful actresses Elyse Levesque and Veronica Ferres, in Austria.

Covid and all the lockdowns in Austria hit me emotionally and financially hard and I started questioning if I should continue on this path. Me questioning something I love so much made me even sadder. I reached out to a fellow actress and Chubbuck coach Caroline O’Brien, and she held the space for me as an actress and that gave me confidence to carry on. I had said yes again to acting but everything was moving really slow so meeting Evelyne Tollman, my amazingly talented friend and producing partner, was like a breath of fresh air.

Evelyne showed me her one-woman play she had written, and I loved it. She asked me to direct her, and I said yes but when the lockdowns stopped the theatrical performance the second time around Evelyne had enough of waiting. She turned her play into a series, and we started filming the “Hot Mess” series pilot last year. Again, I wore two hats and loved it.

During the pre-production of Hot Mess, still in the midst of lockdowns, I felt this strong longing for an acting community and that’s when Adam Davenport, The International Acting Studio (TIAS) came into my life. With Adams’s coaching, I took my acting to the next level. He also is a big role model for me when it comes to work ethics and marketing yourself as an actor (much-needed  ).

Now additionally to acting and producing I have started coaching actors online and I love being able to share with them what I have learned the last 10 years.

The last two months “Hot Mess (TV-Movie 2022)”  was selected by the Vienna Independent Film Festival and won best dark, by the Downtown LA Film Festival, by the Portland Comedy Film Festival and by the Big Apple Film Festival. Seeing all the hard work on a cinema screen with audience is a dream coming true.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
My biggest obstacle has been believing in myself and it did not help that when I finally dared to say yes to this journey an acting coach crossed the line after winning my trust. He greeted me at a workshop with an intense kiss while grabbing my ass, asking me to meet him after the class. It took me all my strength to tell him off. I was proud of myself, but he managed to tell me that I would have to hurry up if I wanted to get anywhere in this business because I wasn’t 18 anymore. What the f! How I wished that I would have had the strength I have now to tell him “……………………….” well you can fill in your fantasy here, but I didn’t. Since then, I have worked every day on my inner life. Self-love gives one so much strength. Age is no barrier.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an actress, producer, and acting coach. I am proud of how far we have come with our “Hot Mess” pilot, which my producing partner and friend Evelyne Tollman created. Playing “Barbara” the gynecologist allows me to play around with accents which I love – I mixed both German and a little bit of Icelandic together.

Few weeks ago, “Hot Mess (TV-Movie 2022)” won best dark comedy at the Vienna Independent Film Festival and was selected by the Downtown LA Film Festival, the Portland Comedy Film Festival and this November was also a part of the Big Apple Film Festival in New York.

Now the interesting journey of finding the right investors and producing partners to take the next steps has begun.

No matter if I am working as an actress, producer, or coaching I empower those around me. I can see your soul, your uniqueness and that is my superpower.

We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking.
For each one of us taking a risk can mean something totally different. I encourage it as long as it isn’t life-threatening or would financially ruin you.