While some may be quick to reconcile Isadora Verwey’s 7de Laan role as Elsa Winterbach, editor of prominent fashion magazine Bella Donna, with that of Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, they would be off the mark. The actress offers an incomparable performance and she tells Debashine Thangevelo why she adopted a different approach…
INTERVIEWING veteran actors can be unpredictable. Some can be curt, some indifferent or dismissive and others, like Isadora Verwey, utterly adorable and engaging.
Exuding an infectious warm tone, complemented by a cheerful disposition, it wasn’t difficult to immediately grow fond of her.
In chatting about her role as Elsa Winterbach, the demanding fashion editor of a prestigious magazine, Bella Donna, she teases, “Now you must know fully what the character is about (referring to my hectic morning of deadlines) and about being on the ball.”
I gave a knowing laugh.
In 7de Laan’s current storyline, Elsa, accustomed to perfection and getting what she wants, has been exceptionally demanding on the Bruynwaves team, especially Altus, for the magazine’s 60th anniversary function, which airs tonight.
On the character bearing a resemblance to that of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, she clarifies, “It is always the first thing that springs to mind. Elsa Winterbach is a formidable character. While Meryl Streep also created a formidable character – it has been done. The world has become a global village. We all know these characters and personas. I almost deliberately tried to veer away from it and was aided securely by the script.
As you know, being the media, she is a hard-core woman. I would believe, if you are the editor of a fashion magazine, you can’t be a pushover. Not in the day and age we are living in. I suppose because of the constant tightrope.”
Verwey continues, “To try and create a multidimensional character in a short arc of 10 episodes is almost insurmountable, as all creative people will tell you, but, in saying that, you always reach out for the impossible.”
No stranger to the medium or TV given her work in Villa Rosa, Erfsondes, Hopeville, Kompleks and Gabriël, to mention a few, I asked her about joining the 7de Laan team.
“Being a freelance actor, one becomes a bit of a creative nomad. By that I mean, you arrive at a project just to leave it again. The marvel of that, once you arrive, is you inhabit the project, the space, the style of life that that given project offers. I’m not a great television watcher. It is not part of my daily routine. I arrive there (on set) fresh and almost like a sponge and I absorb what those actors give.”
Verwey sings the praises of the whole team, from the wardrobe mistress to the writers, directors, actors, set designers, etc.
As for the fun she has been having with the character, the actress says, “Firstly, I am a very serious protector of the planet we live on. And the mainstream theme that runs through this given storyline is that we have to use and reuse what we have got. I had a definite connection with that eco-theme. The other joy, I have to admit, being a woman, is being in the world of fashion. This character has a sense of dress and occasion. You become a girl and you enjoy that.”
Tonight’s episode is centred on the 60th milestone for Bella Donna.
Verwey says, “Every single outfit that the viewers will see is made out of what we see as trash.
“I didn’t see the models and costumes prior to shooting and when they came down the ramp, we were all just amazed.”
In the meantime, she is looking forward to performing Albert Martitz’s Mooi Maria at the Nelspruit Innibos Festival. And she is off to Canada soon for a month-long holiday.
While such phenomenal talent deserves a break too, Verwey will be back on our screens soon enough.
• 7de Laan airs on SABC2 at 6.30pm on weekdays.