Few months ago, “The Swimmers” film was screened on Netflix, directed by Sally El Hosaini, starring the Lebanese actress Manal Issa, and her sister Nathalie Issa, who played the roles of the Syrian swimmers Sarah and Yusra Mardini, who fled their country during the war, had a risky trip by sea to Greece, and then to Germany, lived as refugees, but all this never stopped them from following their dreams, till Sarah became a human rights activist, and Yusra joined Rio Olympics 2016.
Influencers Today Magazine had an inspiring chat with lead actress Manal, we asked her about the movie, what was behind the scenes, her upcoming projects, and got to know her more through this inspiring interview.
Influencers Today: “The Swimmers” was not your first movie, but it may be a major turning point in your career, so tell us how did you get your role in “The Swimmers” film?
Manal Issa: The production team of the movie contacted my agent, and said that they watched my previous work and would like me to play a role in the movie, I wasn’t ready at that time, but they contacted me again, so I told them that I needed to know more about the movie, specially that I couldn’t swim, though, I went through a long casting, then a group casting for me and my sister Nathalie to get the roles of Sarah and Yusra Mardini.
Influencers Today: You were not only Nathalie Issa’s sister on screen, but also you’re sisters in real life, so how did you find working with your sister?
Manal Issa: Acting with Nathalie was awesome, especially that the circumstances of shooting the movie were really hard, so what helped us through this, is the absence of barriers between us, we didn’t need to know each other more or become friends.
I believe that it’s really important to work with someone you’re at ease with, acting then becomes spontaneous and natural, and that’s what happened because of Nathalie’s presence which made everything easier, we used to spend most of the time during shooting together, which made us even closer and made our relation gets better and stronger.
Influencers Today: How did you and Nathalie prepare yourselves for the roles of the swimmers, Sarah and Yusra Mardini?
Manal Issa: At the beginning we had swimming trainings, we learned swimming basics, movement of arms and legs, free style, speed, and racing, for 6 hours daily, and physical trainings day after day, also because of the resemblance of features I have with Nathalie, I asked to increase my weight and muscles mass in order to look different than Nathalie on screen, so I had a different diet, more calories intake, and extra weight lifting trainings which lasted for a whole month.
Influencers Today: What do you have in common with the role you played as Sarah Mardini?
Manal Issa: Honestly, we worked on the script, story line, and character building, not the real characters. I didn’t try to be Sarah Mardini, but what I focused on was that I wanted to show the struggles which the Syrian people are going through, the younger generation who travel abroad looking for new opportunities, and to show the emotional and impulsive sides of Sarah, even during shooting I used to say some sentences without thinking in order to transmit these feelings to the audience. I tried to show the impulsive side of the elder sister who has a lot to achieve, but at the same time she’s so vulnerable and easy to break, also I was keen to work on my body and strength, in order to show how Sarah was capable of protecting her younger sister and helped her to overcome what they were passing through, also being strong doesn’t necessarily mean to be fit, as Sarah in the movie had a strong body but on the other side she used to drink, smoke, party and eat anything, so I used all this for the character building, but unfortunately we didn’t talk much with the real Sarah and Yusra as Sarah was busy at that time in Italy. I and Nathalie worked on the characters because we know quite well what’s happening, may be the foreigners who were shooting the movie with us didn’t, but we’ve witnessed many revolutions, and we know its impact on our generation, that’s what I wanted to show through Sarah’s character, I wanted to show her weakness before her strength, to be vulnerable, and to express the anxiety she has and the motives pushing her to follow her goals.
Influencers Today: There were many tough scenes in the movie, Which scene was the hardest one for you during shooting?
Manal Issa: To be honest, all the scenes were hard, time was very tight, and we were shooting many shots especially in the morning. Shooting the movie lasted for 3 months only, and I felt all the time as if I was running around the clock, but if we talked specifically about the hardest scene, then it would definitely be that one in which we were swimming beside the boat. In this scene the boat wasn’t moving, we were swimming in our place and there were artificial waves, as the first part of the scene was in the sea, and the rest of it was in the tank, so the artificial waves were hitting me while I was putting a rope around my neck and screaming “urgent”, I think that was the hardest part.
Also, there was a really tough scene which I couldn’t shoot, I was really sick and I had to get underwater although I wasn’t trained enough to swim in deep water, I tried a lot but I couldn’t, as I was having nose congestion, so I felt that I couldn’t breathe even with oxygen, and that I’m going to die, I wished if I had enough time or if we could shoot this scene in another morning, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it.
InfluencersToday: How was the atmosphere on set, knowing that people working on this project were of more than 7 different nationalities?
Manal Issa: I’m always keen on enjoying my work and having fun during shooting, as I believe that there should always be a good atmosphere while shooting, in order to create a magical movie. I love making people laugh on set, and that’s one of the reasons I enjoyed Nathalie’s presence, because we used to talk about different topics, laugh and relax between shots, to reset, and feel while saying certain lines, as if we’re saying them for the first time, I don’t know if other actors do the same thing, but you can call it “Manal’s technique”, because I believe that even in real life, we couldn’t focus all the time, we could think, laugh, and have fun, so that’s why I always loved to make Nathalie laugh, because she laughs really hard on my jokes, and that used to make me happy during shooting the movie.
InfluencersToday:“The Swimmers” left a massive impact on everyone who watched it. What, is the message which you hoped the movie conveys to the audience?
Manal Issa: Well, I believe that it should be at first, a really nice movie to the eyes and feelings, before being a movie for awareness.I hoped that many people would watch it and debate about it, also I wanted it to show what’s really happening, there are many things which un fortunately people don’t know. After the movie I received many messages from people telling me that they didn’t know that all this was taking place, and I wished I could tell them, go watch the news, I felt after the movie that there was a huge distance between foreigners and Arabs, and I’m glad that the movie made some issues clear.
So, I wish the movie makes debates not only about political issues which happen every day, but also about how we as Arabs could make better movies, and be more present on the art scene in the way we’d love to and desire.
InfluencersToday:Who’s your favorite actress?
Manal Issa: Nowadays I could say that my favorite actress is Maria Schneider, as I’m working with the American director Elisabeth Subrin, on a movie about her, and what she has been through, as while she was shooting last tango in Paris, she made a non-consent scene, and she kept talking about it but nobody heard her. She made a great career and has a really nice story, so nowadays I’m obsessed about her because I’m working on her biography. I loved her because she’s someone who expresses herself, appreciates her personal freedom, and I felt that I’m a lot like her.
InfluencersToday: If you have a super power to change something in this world, what would it be?
Manal Issa: If I have a super power, I would make people nicer.
InfluencersToday: Tell us about your upcoming projects.
Manal Issa: Honestly I receive many offers, but as my 6 year old daughter goes to school, so I’m in a break now, because as Maria Schneider says “we live, more than we shoot”, So I’m trying to focus on my private life and become closer to my daughter and spend more time with her, that’s why I prefer shooting during summer when she’s in a vacation, so I can take her with me on set.
Nowadays I’m working on a long movie, written by me, it’s about a group of young people living in Beirut, it’s inspired by some incidents which happened in my life. Now I’m working on the casting, and the script, which I’m 80 % satisfied with till now, so I’m trying to work on it more.
I’m looking forward to working again in this movie with Ely Dagher, with whom I worked with in the movie “The Sea Ahead”. I believe that it’s not only about working with people who take you higher in your career, but also it’s about working with people whom you’re comfortable around, and you feel that you could talk, laugh and cry with. I’m not looking forward to making big movies, as much as I’m looking forward to making movies about really nice and deep people.
Influencers Today: You’re an influencer in so many different ways, which message would you work on delivering to your followers?
Manal Issa: Actually, I’m against social media, and I don’t prefer marketing myself as an actress through social media, I only use my Instagram account to say things that I’d like to say, for example, talk about what’s happening in Palestine, because I believe that only when Palestine becomes free, all of us will be, other wise I’m anti- social media, and accordingly my message will be to stop using social media.