Hailing from her native Australia, actress Maia Knibb can be seen in short films “White Noise” (2017) and “Caicias” (2014). The latter would go on to win best picture at the Brisbane 48-hour film festival awards. She most recently appeared in “Making Madison” (2017), a web series sponsored by YouTube and Advanced Queensland. With so many credits to her name, Knibb plans to move to Hollywood to continue her streak of landing quality roles on unique projects. We caught up with to Maia to ask her a few questions about her methods and career thus far.
Hey Maia! What has it been like to work in L.A.? Things you love or hate about the city?
I absolutely love L.A.! The projects are always really interesting, typecasting isn’t as prevalent (well, at least marginally less), and all your friends are usually working around you. But for some weird reason, every female character in auditions is listed as ‘sexy’. That’s probably the only thing I hate. It could be a wild woman who has been living out in a muddy cave for the last ten years, but as she emerges, she is described as ‘sexy’. School librarian? Sexy. Nun? Sexy. And I swear I don’t see it in other countries!
Oh man, yeah that’s terrible! Speaking of actresses, who are those that inspire you these days?
I am absolutely in love with Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, and lately Katherine Langford—but I think one of the most inspirational performances I’ve seen lately was Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything (okay, so not quite so recently). I remember finishing that movie (with tears in my eyes) and thinking ‘this is why we do what we do’.
Tell us about how you prepare for a role. What are the tips or tricks to crafting a great character?
I’ve fallen in the trap of thinking I need to make myself like a character too many times, and have finally learned that I am who I am, and I just have to bring out the parts of myself that work for that character. I was prepping for a character for a TV show that’s shooting here in Queensland, and spent far too long reading into the character descriptors (no ‘sexy’ in this one) and how the character was painted, rather than picking up on the subtext and just accepting that I am bringing myself to the party, rather than trying to turn into someone else. That said, it’s always fun to figure out what makes that character tick and try and find parallels in your own life.
If you could pick one filmmaker to work with, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
I am such a massive fan of Wes Anderson. His shots are just so incredibly clever, I’m literally smiling and swooning just thinking about it.
What has been your favorite on set experience?
I finally got to live out my childhood dream of being a magical creature on a new TV show that’s filming in the Gold Coast, but I obviously can’t say anything other than that... But that was really cool! I think other than that, any time that I’ve been on set with an animal. A little while ago I got to film with my dog, which was awesome, and that film is going to be in a film festival, which is even more awesome!
You are in the works of wrapping up a new feature film this year, how exciting! Any news you can tell us about it?
I am! It’s such a fun film, I’m playing totally against my usual typecast, which is really exciting. We have an amazing international cast, and some local talent who were working on Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor, which filmed in my state recently. It’s very much a character driven piece, so we have some really incredible actors and I actually realised just recently that I am in every, single, scene—so hopefully people don’t get sick of my face!