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Actress and Choreographer
Kincső Nóra Pethő
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Fresh from performing as a futuristic computer from the year 2100 who is
named after the Greek goddess of earth Gaia IA 01, and who sends a
message back to today to warn others about a pending environmental
apocalypse unless we change our ways, Hungarian actress, choreographer
and dancer Kincső Nóra Pethő sat down for a conversation with Riveting
Riffs Magazine, over Skype.
Obviously, only the Gaia part is taken from the Greek goddess, as Kincső
Nóra Pethő
explains, “I
am like a computer program from the future who becomes a real person by
the end of this 70-minute show. It was called Heroes of the Future
and it was part of Planet Budapest 2021. There were about fifty
actors and actresses working on this project, which was intended to
raise the interest of kids for protecting the environment. For one week
(in early December) the program ran from morning until evening. It was a
wonderful experience to see how enthusiastic the kids were! I felt great
about contributing to such a good goal!”
Continuing she says, “We
talk to the children about how in the year 2100 there is not enough air,
and the environment has been destroyed. (The message is) they have to be
conscious of what they are doing in the present in 2021.
After that the children stepped into separate rooms and they were given
data. At one point they met a guy who believed the whole world could be
bought and sold.
The children went from room to room and at one point Gaia said you are
not being successful enough and you have to be more conscious, so you
can find a way out (of the environmental crisis). After they completed a
test, they were told they did a good job and I (as Gaia) reminded them
that they have to be conscious to do this in the present, so they can
have a better future.”
Despite the many challenges that COVID-19 has presented for the arts
community at large,
Kincső Nóra Pethő has managed to stay busy. We have no doubt that when
international borders become more fluid and the film and television
industry returns to pre-pandemic norms, she will be gracing cinema
screens and streaming productions, following on the heels of her 2018
performance in Red Sparrow, acting opposite Jennifer Lawrence, as
an evil Russian interrogator.
When you get to know Kincső Nóra Pethő offscreen, it is actually quite
shocking to see her in the Red Sparrow role.
She drew rave reviews from the director Francis Lawrence who said that
she was fantastic and how happy he was with her performance. He
punctuated those remarks by saying she did such a great job as the
interrogator.
The trailer that was also broadcast during the Super Bowl that year,
traditionally the largest television audience in North America each
year, also featured just three people Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton
and Kincső Nóra Pethő.
Nothing remarkable stood out for her during the casting process, “I
wasn’t even sure what role I was doing. I just got this part of the
script and I didn’t know anything about the movie. I did one of the
scenes. There were two I was in, but it looks like one. I may have been
told that my partner would be Jennifer Lawrence. I didn’t really pay
attention and I don’t know why. I got the part and the script had the
same two scenes that are in the movie.
I don’t remember if the audition went well or not, and then the casting
director called me and said that I was chosen among the five or six
others who were English. They couldn’t do the (Russian) accent. It
wasn’t hard for me, because I learned Russian.
When I was chosen, I was really happy, but I wasn’t aware of the
importance of the film at that time. I went for the dress rehearsal and
we did things step by step. At one point I was there on the set with
Jennifer Lawrence and (she laughs and says facetiously) with no
stress at all. I really liked Francis Lawrence (the director) a lot, he
is such a nice man.
When I was doing the Russian accent Francis Lawrence said do less with
your face, no eyebrows, nothing. I think this is the reason it became so
good. This is why people say they are so scared of me. They tell me they
didn’t realize it was me.”
The conversation segues from evil interrogator to a role she was once
cast in as a woman who wails over the loss of her teenage daughter and
rests for a moment with her short film, Kamikaze, which Riveting
Riffs Magazine has been lucky enough to preview and we predict will be a
hit on the festival circuit.
“This short film is very close to my heart and partly because it was
shot together with my boyfriend, Ákos Barnóczky. It is important to both
of us. The other reason that it is important to me is it is the first
time I was an angel on screen. It is a twenty-six-minute short film. It
was a process for me. It is about a woman who has a secret and she wants
to hide the secret.
I don’t really want to tell the story, because we want to bring the film
to festivals. I want the public to be surprised.
We have another producer whose name should appear (in the credits), but
at the same time another institution gave us money and they have some
reasons, which are not logical and I don’t understand (why they object).
It took half of a year for our letters to get through to them and I
don’t know why they aren’t answering. All we want to do is to put the
name of the producer (in the credits) and he is the one who gave us a
lot of money to bring this film to festivals. This institute doesn’t
have the knowledge how to do that. The producer is an expert and we want
him to bring the film to festivals. Right now, we are working on that to
happen,” she says.
In October (2021) Kincső Nóra Pethő performed at the National Dance
Theater in Budapest with the Fresco Dance Theater.
“We were really happy that at last we were able to present the show
(previously we could not) because of COVID. It was to be on stage last
spring. There is no story to it, but it is called Fresco, because
there is a funny story behind it. We have a rehearsal room for this
Indian Classical dance theater and this summer the choreographer who is
also the leader and director of the stage decided to renovate the
rehearsal room. One day when I wasn’t there, they started renovating the
ceiling and they found frescos. There were three different beautiful
frescos. After discovering these frescos, the choreographer started
looking for frescoes of different Indian gods.
The
dancers from time to time stand in front of the "frescos" in the pose as
if they were sculptures, then come to life, start to move, dance and go
back to the pose of the god, frozen.
It is very beautiful and classical. We have dancers appear like frescos,
sculptures and statues. They move out and then they move back and then
comes the other dancer.
I have a solo that is very special and at one point there is a white
light and I start to dance as though I was painting and the flowers
start to appear on stage through the use of a computer program, similar
to CGI. It looks like I am (painting) these flowers,” she says.
Kincső Nóra Pethő has come a long way from the small Hungarian town near
the Austrian village, where she grew up.
“We didn’t have a theater at that time and there were only ballroom and
Latin dances, but the dance group there was internationally famous. I
was an only child. There were doctors, engineers and teachers in my
family, but no artists. Only my grandfather who died, before I was born
and who lived in west Hungary was said to be a very artistic person. He
could sing, play the piano and he led the choir at church. He could also
draw and do Hungarian folk dances.
The first time I was on stage as a dancer it was a polka. I was the
smallest child and there were two lines. I was the last one in the line.
I was eight or nine years old and that is my first memory as a dancer. I
also remember when I was standing in front of a lot of kids and teachers
and (reciting) a poem at the end of the school year. It was about our
happiness that we were going on vacation. When I was a kid in our first
flat, we had a bigger room and I remember pushing the sofas outside of
the room, so I had enough space on the floor. I put on some music and I
started singing and dancing as if I was on stage.
I have an English teacher diploma, because I promised my parents I would
get a normal education, before I became crazy and became an artist.
Because of the English teacher diploma, I got a scholarship to Brighton,
England. This was also the year I decided I wanted to change (my focus).
I was far enough from my normal life and Hungary to be able to decide
and change. At the time we didn’t have cell phones, so I could only
phone my parents once each week. I was writing a lot, thinking about my
life and what I wanted to do. That year helped me to change and to
(pursue) theater and the arts.
At Brighton I did a diploma in European studies. I studied European
politics, culture and films.
I decided to become a professional in the arts when I was in England, in
Brighton. That was when I was conscious enough to decide what to do.”
Our conversation moves back to more recent years and the twenty-minute
short film Anti-Feminist. She says, “The story is about a woman who is
fighting for women’s rights, but it is set in modern times. She gets
elected and she is invited to a party, which resembles the party
attended by Tom Cruise’s character in Eyes Wide Shut. (The main
character) starts to walk around and she finds different characters. It
is a nice building, but we are not sure where we are. I play a
psychiatrist who was a very strict character and not a nice one (she
laughs).
At the end of the film, she wakes up in her room, so it appears to be a
dream. She doesn’t know how she got home. She finds a letter that tells
her to be careful. She realizes she shouldn’t act so extremely and she
should be more considerate in how she treats people and things like
that. There is this twist in the story, which is why we say
Anti-Feminist.
Other theatrical, film and television productions that have Kincső Nóra
Pethő fingerprints on them include, serving as the assistant
choreographer for Blade Runner: 2049, the choreographer for the
stage production of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and appearing in the
television series Alienist and Marco Polo.
She talks about the latter two series, “I was so glad I got to meet
Daniel Brühl (on the Alienist), because he is such a great guy and
actor. He also speaks Hungarian in the series and it was for quite a
long time. I adored him for that, because our language is really hard to
learn. I played a character called the angry woman.
(We
share a joke at this juncture about some of her characters scaring me.)
I don’t know why, but on stage I usually make people laugh, but on film
they think I should be angry or wailing. In the film in which I had to
wail, I had to cry for three minutes.
We have a very famous television series (in Hungary) and it is similar
to Friends in the U.S. I was a character in that series for about
a year. I played a serious, very dark woman who was in a sect. She was
full of sorrow. I was very famous for that character. Once I went to the
bakery and I could see in the woman’s eyes she wasn’t sure if she should
say something or not. At one point she said your smile is nice and you
look so much nicer than on television!
For Marco Polo, I was a cathedral nun with Gabriel Byrne who was
playing Pope Gregory X and I remember that, because he is a very nice
guy. It wasn’t as big of a job as Red Sparrow, but it was bigger
than the angry woman. It was filmed in Hungary.”
As for some of the several projects she has in pre-production, Kincső
Nóra Pethő says, “The one I am really excited about came after Red
Sparrow and that was the moment when I felt Red Sparrow could
bring me opportunities. One director from Oregon, Simon King asked me if
I would read his script and that is the Romanian Incident. We
talked a lot and I got excited. It is like an Agathe Christie story. I
have a very good character, but (again) it is not a positive one (she
laughs). My character is a Hungarian woman. We were supposed to
shoot that film in February 2021 in Romania.
We already had contracts, the places to shoot the film and we had
the money, but some sponsors withdrew their money. Right now, I am not
sure what will happen, but it is the one I am most excited about.
There is also 1000: The Sword in the Stone, which is also in
pre-production. That takes place in the Middle Ages and I will play a
gypsy and it is a big part.
Please
visit the website for Kincső Nóra Pethő and you can also
follow her
on Instagram.
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When
we had some rehearsal groups and I could see a small guy, who was ten
years old and he wore glasses. I was sitting in a box and at first, they
could only hear my voice. They could not see me. I could see the boy
talking to the other kids. We wanted it to be personal and to not feel
like a program, but that someone was talking to them. I (as the
computer) said to him you in the glasses, don’t talk to your partner,
because I am saying important things to you. It was so funny, because
now he wanted to know who was speaking to him and where she was. The
others were laughing like crazy, so I know they enjoyed it. 