Santa Fe actress Melissa Chambers has worked in the film industry for more than a decade now as a character actor in shows such as Big Sky, Outer Range and Mayfair Witches. This month, Chambers made her first appearance in a supporting role on the big screen, in Mark Anthony Green’s directorial debut Opus (read SFR's review), a psychological thriller starring Ayo Edibiri and John Malkovich. In the film, Chambers plays paparazzo Bianca Tyson, and SFR asked her a few questions about her role in the film and her acting journey. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
IMDB
SFR: You’ve been in the film industry for over a decade now. After doing a project like [Opus], how would you say your perspective on the film industry has changed since?
Melissa Chambers: Since then, I feel like there’s more of a place for me in it. When I first started when I was younger, I didn’t think there was a place for me because I was not pretty enough. I was bigger than everybody else, and in the ‘90s, they wanted “perfect people,” even if they were for the not-so-pretty roles. And now I feel like film has changed, where they’re embracing real people. Also, as I’ve gotten older, I’m more of a character, and when you’re older, they don’t really care how pretty you are—not that I’m not pretty, but I’m not what Hollywood would consider pretty, I guess. Now that I’m old and wrinkly, I’ve embraced it, and so has the film industry, and I can really go into those characters, like in Mayfair Witches, and I play a blind woman. I can use it. I’m blind in one eye, and I have a prosthetic, and I roll it up in my head. When I lost my eye when I was younger, I thought, “Oh, my God, my career is over. You’ll never want me.” Now I use it. That happened when I was in my 20s, over 40 years ago. So, finally, I get to use it, but it kept me from doing film. I just started doing film. I did my first film when I was 49 or 50. I would only do stage plays because I was afraid of the camera. I don’t care what I look like on camera [anymore], and I think it’s because I don’t care what I look like anymore [that] the world, the film industry, seems to embrace all kinds of different looks and all kinds of different sizes—realism. That’s what people want to see. So I’m loving it.
What kind of characterization would you say you take on in Opus?
I play a paparazzo that’s been in the business for 40 years, and she’s beleaguered, and has seen it all. She’s backstabbed people. She’s ruined people’s lives, probably, because nobody cares about her. She’s been taking pictures of people without their knowledge and selling them, so she’s observed other people’s lives, and I don’t know if she’s lived one of her own, but things happen to her in Opus that may bring a little spark to her.
What was it like playing a paparazzo character as an actress? It's sort of like playing like the opposite of what you are in reality.
I’m not to that point where anybody’s lining up to take my picture, so I don’t really know what that feels like. I’m such an introvert and private person that I know that would really bother me. I think I also know that I’m not the type of person that would like to intrude on anyone’s space, so that’s an opposite kind of person. I also think she just doesn’t care. She’s also in a business that is mostly a male-driven industry, so she’s a hardass, and she’s had to be. At her age, it’s just kind of become part of her character that maybe was occurring when she started, but is now, because she’s just bearing with these men.
What was it like to work with such big names in film for Opus?
It was amazing. John Malkovich was so kind. The first night on set, it was so cold, and we were up in this kind of weird house, and I was sitting with the other group of actors, and Murray Bartlett was just so sweet. And I’d worked with Juliette [Lewis] before, so she and I got along. I called Ayo [Edibiri] by the wrong name. I called her Ay-o when I first met her. So we got off on a great footing. She was fine, but, I mean, she is in every single scene, so Ayo was so busy. A lot of us actors, though, had a chance to all sit around and get to know each other. One night, that first night, John Malkovich is sitting off on his own with his own private heater. And he said, “Would you like to share my heater?” So, I joined him, and we started talking about theater, and I told him that I had seen a play that he directed when I was about 20 years old and was just getting ready to graduate from the National Conservatory for Dramatic Arts [in Washington, D.C.], when he was with [The Steppenwolf Theatre Company]. I had just lost my eye, and I thought there was no place for me in the theater. And when I saw that play, I realized there was a place, because there was a character in there that I realized, “Oh, I can be a character actor.” And he and I talked about that and shared that. So we had a bond throughout the filming. I had a theater bond with John Malkovich—think about that!
