Michelle Danner
Michelle Danner is a director, actress, and producer, as well as an acting coach at the Michelle Danner Acting Studio.
She joined me to discuss her career and her latest movie, The Italians.
To watch the interview with Michelle Danner, click the play button below (or click here to open the video player in a new tab/window).
Click here to display the video player on this page.
To listen to the interview, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
Michelle Danner is a supporter of Wags and Walks.
If you'd like to donate, you can do so here, via their website.
Please note that interviewees select their own charity. Any charities mentioned or linked are neither vetted, nor endorsed, by the author or this site.
Mike Reflects
While Michelle joined me primarily to discuss her work on The Italians, I always like to explore how people (especially those who wear multiple hats) approach their work.
The Italians was a great lens through which to do that with Michelle.
At its core, the story is simple: it’s about a family navigating their relationships with each other and their son’s new girlfriend, who isn’t quite who they expected her to be.
I think, for many, that story is relatable, which means that looking at the way it was brought to life by the cast and crew is a look at the choices that would be made to tell a story of our own lives.
As Michelle mentioned, the house where a lot of the movie takes place is practically a character in itself. When she talks about what she looked for in scouting it and what was done to make it the Vitali family home, it’s easy to understand how it plays a role in telling us who the Vitali family is, in the same way that we can see ourselves and our own families in the décor and layout of our own homes.
Similarly, other creative elements in how the story is told are just as easy to see and understand by, again, looking at our own lives.
Ultimately, every movie (and play and TV show and…) is there to tell a story. The Italians is not unique in this regard.
But often a plot is so extraordinary or otherwise removed from our own lived experience that even when a filmmaker lays out “Here’s what we were looking for and why we did what we did”, it can be hard to fully grasp why they made that choice instead of another.
In this discussion, about this movie with these characters telling this story, I couldn’t help but nod along as Michelle discussed the project and think “Yep, I get that completely.”