FWM: How did you start your career in show business?
I blame it on my High School choir director and voice teacher. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our choir director, Laven Sowell, was also the Chorus Master for the Tulsa Opera. For Oklahoma, they did amazing productions. Scenery designed and painted in Italy, lead singers from La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. They had a full-time symphony orchestra too, so they were magnificent productions. In my Junior year, the director got our elite high school choir to be the chorus for Don Pasquale instead of the big chorus they usually had. When the costumes arrived from New York, it turned out that I fit the costume for the maid to the leading lady! So besides singing, I got to be on that stage alone with the star, helping her with her dresses. Not only did I love being on the big stage with the huge audiences, but I also got lots of strangers talking to me after performances and the lead tenor invited me to the cast party!! I was 16 and unfortunately, my parents didn’t let me go:(
Meanwhile, I started earning money singing around the same time. My voice teacher sent me as a substitute soloist in a Christian Science church. They didn’t have a choir, just a soloist to lead the hymns and sing an anthem. I got paid $25 just to go to church! She told me whatever happened to be sure to smile. So I did. After that, the church always asked for me when they needed a sub. My teacher said they liked me better than any of the adult singers she had sent them. That seemed like a fun way to earn money!
FWM: What roles have you gravitated towards?
I tend to get the boss, leader, the authority figure in a show. Maybe a medical examiner, a CEO. I played the Madame of a high-end call girl service once! That was fun. Having been a classical singer and teacher/professor for most of my life, people tell me I just bring a leadership vitality into the room. As classical singers, we were taught to radiate presence and warmth into the hall as we walked onstage. “Take the stage” was the terminology. It’s different from a play where you enter as a particular character in that story. As a concert singer, you bring the most confident version of yourself to the stage. The audience wants to be thrilled with whatever you’re going to sing. It’s a huge part of the performance. That is so ingrained in me after all these years, it’s just part of me.
FWM: Can you share a pivotal moment on set?
Whenever I’m on set, I observe the main characters at work. They’re the best teachers of all. I recall working with Jamie Lee Curtis on Season One of “Scream Queens.” She was such a warm, down-to-earth human being. I played her secretary. One episode I had been sitting around all day. I did a small scene in the morning, but they never wrapped me, and Jamie had been chatting with all of us on set when she wasn’t shooting. They were getting to the final scene of the day and she, as the Dean, was going to make a major announcement to the college. She told Ryan Murphy that her secretary should be by her side when she made the announcement. So I instantly became a part of the big moment. As Woody Allen said, 80% of success is just showing up.
FWM: Your Film/Pilot Extradition has become prophetic. Tell us about Extradition.
Our characters evolved from who we were. Anna Just is a Ukrainian immigrant, so she wanted to be Ukrainian and she wanted to do something to help her homeland. I wanted to be a diplomatic character of some sort and I loved House of Cards and Madam Secretary. In working with a Russian hacker, the Senate Intelligence Committee became the logical relationship. That committee investigates security issues and works with the FBI. So, we have a Ukrainian Counsellor from their Embassy in Washington coming to the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee to ask for help in discovering how and when Russia next plans to attack Ukraine. Sen. Stromberg realizes she has an opportunity here, so she suggests that Ms. Zalenko locate a Russian hacker wanted for extradition back to Russia, but the FBI says is living in NYC. The files don’t say exactly where he is, but if Ms. Zalenko can locate him, the Senator will help her negotiate a deal with him. Via her network, Ms. Zalenko finds a connection and contacts him to set up a meeting. It turns out he is attracted to her and is quite seductive. She stops the progress until they can meet with Sen. Stromberg who will guarantee he will not be extradited if he helps Ukraine. Finally, they all meet in a hotel suite in New York. The senator opens champagne to celebrate, but Ms. Zalenko soon passes out and the senator has Mikhail all to herself. Will he help her get re-elected? If not, she will turn him into the FBI for extradition to Russia. Checkmate.
FWM: You play the role of the cunning, Senator Stromberg. Does art imitate reality?
There are several levels at which this story activates reality. We did this film a year before Ukraine became part of the Presidential entanglements. Note–he wanted help getting re-elected from them, right? Ha ha! Senator Stromberg wants help getting re-elected and uses her Ukrainian connection to reach the hacker she wanted to use all along.
Our hacker, Mikail Vasilyev, is loosely based on a real hacker who is now in custody in the US. When he was captured in Prague, he was living in a 5 Star hotel, dating a model and loved expensive jewelry. He had done five endorsements for Lamborghini! In my mind, a James Bond type of guy which gave the story more appeal.
For Senator Stromberg, I mixed the personality of Hillary Clinton with the conscience and strategy of Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins.
For the Ukrainian, we wanted a young rebel who wants to protect her country from the insidious Russians who had already stolen Crimea from them in 2014.
FWM: What did you set out to do in Extradition?
I began brainstorming this show with Anna Just, who is the Ukrainian counselor in the story. We were Actors who wanted footage of an ideal role for each of us. A political figure for myself and a business/legal type for her. As we worked on it though, it became obvious that we had an important story that should be told. I felt strongly about wanting to expose the Russian interference in our last presidential election, so I added a Russian hacker to the story. It would have been great if the senator could have saved the day somehow, more like Tea Leoni in Madam Secretary, but the story evolved with the Senator being a not so nice person. Reflecting many of our current Senators who are not being very truthful about their real reasons for voting the way they do. What payoff do they get for supporting a President who violates the Constitution of the United States? The truth seems to be a thing of the past for so many.
FWM: What are audiences taking away from Extradition?
Audiences are enjoying the political topic. Politics have been demanding a lot of our attention during the past three years and here’s a story that could be true. People love the irony of the twist at the end of the film. It’s two-fold… First, the seemingly amicable and supportive senator turns out to have not so honorable intentions, but also, different from most stories, the two women actually trap the man into working for them. Senator Stromberg really has the Hacker in a bind at the end, but she could not have done it without Katarina’s assistance.
FWM: You’ve won many awards. Why did it mean so much to you?
There have been a variety of awards for Extradition. We’ve won Best TV Pilot at two festivals. We won Best Social Action Film at two others. Our Director, Anthony Grasso, recently won Best Director here in NYC. I just learned that I won Best Writing from a festival in Tokyo! To date, I have won 7 Best Actress Awards from the film/pilot. This month I’m headed to London for the North Europe International Film Festival where we are nominated for Best TV Pilot and I’m up for Best Actress.
For me, this is a culmination of everything I’ve done to this point in my life. My acting career, of course, is being validated, but my acting is a compilation of all my disparate, desperate life experiences. If I hadn’t gone through two major legal battles with my ex-husband over my daughter, perhaps I wouldn’t bring the same cool, confident presence to Senator Stromberg, while planning a major upheaval.
The big surprise to me was that I could write a screenplay! I am looking forward to fleshing out this short pilot to an hour-long pilot and then expanding the story into a series.
FWM: How do you switch gears from acting to a “normal life?”
Whenever a show wraps or an audition is over, there’s always a letdown. I find going home and playing with my cats and working in my garden particularly satisfying. Also, I have been remodeling a little wreck of a house in the Hudson Valley for over a year now. It’s quite rewarding to see the place develop into a home and it definitely makes me feel like a “normal” person. Nothing like worrying about a plumbing problem to make you forget about being an Actor!!
FWM: What advice would you give upcoming Actors?
First, develop your own material. It’s an unpredictable career path. Find a way to show the world your best qualities. Second, live a well-rounded life. Don’t spend all of your time doing acting classes and auditions. You need real-life experience to bring depth and truth to your acting. When I taught at Lee Strasberg Institute in NYC, the Director would talk about this at Parents Weekend for the NYU acting majors. They were too young to bring much life experience to their acting, but they were learning skills that would stick with them as they age. Develop your skills and get onstage and on camera experience, but experience everything else too!
FWM: Share your goals for 2020.
Here’s my to-do list: Keep writing and developing Extradition. Get a full-length pilot episode of that “in the can” and see who it can reach. Book some great roles in series and films. Try to keep my cool about the presidential election. And finish renovating my house!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristin.samuelson.9
Instagram: @KristinWhoTalks https://www.instagram.com/kristinwhotalks/
Trailer: https://youtu.be/PBvhwsFWj5c
CMA Entertainment: nyc 646 847 8389| la 818 280 6325
Loved this.
This was a great interview with Kristin. I respect her work.