In an exclusive interview, Flickering Myth sat down with Marie-Sophie Kindle to talk about acting, life in Los Angeles and her upcoming role in Broken English…
Hi Marie-Sophie Kindle, welcome to Flickering Myth! Was it always your dream to be an actor?
I’ve always been a crazy, wild child with a broad imagination, I know this sounds very cliché but I knew very early on, when I was a young girl: I was playing theater and put on a whole production for my family members and I did that over and over and over again, I played dress up and turned into a princess on one day, and into a pirate the next, (it also didn’t help that my mom had a whole attic full of different costumes).
There was just a feeling that I had when I played pretend, this feeling of “this is it, this is what I want to do for work”. My dad also always told me that I should do something because I love it, and not because it pays well, since you spend so much time of your life at work, that definitely just confirmed my choice. But I always knew.
There is this craving for this feeling when acting, this calmness within, the accomplishment for stepping out of your comfort zone, the fun aspect of letting yourself become a different kind of you for some time, and the most addicting feeling to me: the calmness within my mind, it just quiets, my intuition leads, and I am able to shut off my mind from everything for a moment. It’s not supposed to be, but it’s therapy for me.
Congrats on your leading role in Broken English. Can you tell us about the TV show and the role you played?
Yes! Broken English is a TV sitcom so diverse it is practically its own ecosystem. Think Friends meets “ESL textbook gone rogue.” The story follows a collective group of eccentric foreigners who form an unlikely friendship as they try navigating the rocky roads of friendship, [and] romance. This is ESL bootcamp …!
Written by Khambi Hamis, it is crammed with international misfits, all united by their glorious struggle to speak English.
A sitcom similar to Friends but make them international, every character has different challenges, trying to navigate their way through life and English class, with their broken English, a lot of misunderstandings are bound to happen, friendships and romances will form but with whom?
Tell us about your character.
I play the lead, Marjorie. She is a Swiss-French girl who got her heart broken back home in Switzerland and wants to escape from her feelings/her painful past, so she travels to LA, where she attends an English school. But she will find out that just the change of scenery is not enough, to make her NOT think about her feelings and her past.
Did you do anything special to prepare?
I read the script many times, did a lot of character work, worked on relationships, her past, and wrote together a detailed bio. Besides character work, I also focused a lot on her cultural background: Switzerland (the French speaking part). It was fairly simple since I come from the country right next to Switzerland (Liechtenstein), so I knew a lot of things prior to this anyway, but just wanted to make sure everything was accurate, dive deep into the culture and language, and had my friend who is fluent in French help me out with the specific “slang”. The accent itself just needed some more training but was there rather fast since I already speak a good amount of French.
Can you share any fun facts from the set?
The cast was incredible! We have met each other two times before the actual shoot date, for rehearsals, but on the day of shooting, it felt like we have known each other forever. I felt like we had a connection similar to what the cast had on Friends, there was just an instant connection, and all of the actors were perfectly cast in my opinion. We were cracking jokes all day, making fun of each other’s characters and were laughing 24/7, it was just such a fun experience, and it didn’t feel like work at all. The cast was amazing, the crew was amazing, everybody got along so well and just had a blast.
There was a lot of funny, unplanned, hilarious improv where some actors surprisingly got a little/a lot splashed with water, was it me, yes, was it fun, yes, memorable, for sure, and we can’t forget that amazing dance-off.
Where did you film the show?
We actually shot this in a real ESL school which was really funny, since that is basically the story of our sitcom right there.
We can’t wait to see it! If you had one message to give to your fans, what would it be?
Keep believing in yourself and never give up on your passion!
How can people find and follow your journey?
Thank you so much! My Instagram and my Facebook have some fun photos I share.
Our thanks to Marie-Sophie Kindle for taking the time for this interview, and to Liz Rodriguez from EMR Media for helping us with the interview.
