Chatting with Shira Haas

ON ‘culture’ night at Summit UIA, before moderator Kathryn Eisman and renowned Israeli actress Shira Haas chatted about Haas’ remarkable career, the pair touched on the situation in Ukraine.

“To the Jewish people in Ukraine and to every innocent citizen there, it’s just very painful,” Haas said.

“It will be very hard to just go on without talking about it a little bit at least.”

Talking about her Netflix series, Unorthodox, Haas admitted she doesn’t speak Yiddish, while Eisman asked how Haas felt in the pivotal scene when her character Esther has her head shaved.

Eisman referred to Haas’ acting as “complex, emotional and brilliant” during the scene, which was filmed on the first day of shooting.

“It’s such an extreme experience … and it was a very emotional scene,” Haas said, explaining that it brought her straight into character.

Following Unorthodox’s premiere, Haas told of how as she walked onto her balcony in Tel Aviv, she saw the show on almost every television screen in the building opposite. “This was the moment that I understood that something is happening,” she said.

Asked whether there was a character with whom she had the deepest connection, Haas chose her title role in the film Asia, saying she was a challenging role, emotionally and physically, especially considering her own health challenges as a child diagnosed with kidney cancer.

“It’s a story about life and connection, and how experiences, even the worst ones … makes us who we are,” she said.

On the sensitivity of Haas’ roles in both Unorthodox and Shtisel, Haas said it was a never-ending conversation about not showing ‘black and white’, because both stories exist, and both roles gave her compassion and understanding of all sides of the coin.

“There is so much beyond the outfit, the language, the accent, or the rituals. We all want to be loved, belong.”

She also spoke about her upcoming role as a young Golda Meir in the new series Lioness, produced by Barbara Streisand.