Any given night senior Victoria Male can be found acting on stage or working behind the scenes for a show. Victoria is a Dramatic Arts major and a Communications Studies double major, with a concentration in media production. She was born and raised in Colts Neck, NJ, and moved to Charlotte, NC, the summer before starting high school. An avid Her Campus reader herself, Victoria was happy to share her story with us, giving you the inside scoop on the future actress/screenwriter.
HC: When did you realize your love for the dramatic arts and for film?
VM: I don’t think there was ever a moment of realization. It was always just natural. One of the treasures of the Male home video collection is a video from when I was like two, and I would make my parents watch my “tricky stuff,” where I would kick my leg and twirl and whatnot. I also had this big, felt Winnie the Pooh honey pot that held all these little characters. I would empty the characters out and run around with the pot on my head to get people to watch me. I had this inherent love for drama and being in front of people. When I was 7-years-old my second grade class did a play about animals and pond life. I was the ladybug, and I sang “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. That was the turning point when I realized this is what I need to be doing all the time. In terms of film, I have always loved movies and was fascinated by how they were made. When I was 12-years-old I got a camcorder and made all these little movies with my friends, and I realized that I could do that for real.
HC: What made you decide to become a Tar Heel?
VM: It is not the most glamorous story. I actually didn’t want to be a Tar Heel at all, because so many people from my high school went to UNC. I really wanted to go to NYU and I was accepted there, but we didn’t have the funds to pay for NYU. But before I was accepted there I had visited UNC, and it really grew on me. So UNC was the next best thing. A big part of why I wanted to come here was the drama department. I got to meet with my current acting teacher Julie Fishell. She introduced me to the drama department and gave me a tour. I am taking a class with her this semester. I have had her pretty much every year of my undergraduate career. She’s fantastic. Also, UNC has really good film and screenwriting programs, and there’s the Hollywood internship. I could do everything I wanted to at UNC and graduate debt free.
HC: What actor/actress do you most admire?
VM: There are a lot! I love Tobey Maguire and everyone judges me for it, but I think he’s a fantastic actor. Robert Downey Jr. is an incredible, versatile actor who has come through a lot. And I love Andrew Garfield as well. He’s a really great actor. He’s the real deal. I know he’s a big deal because he’s the new Spider-Man, but he’s trained and has done a lot of theater. So those are like my big acting idols. When people ask me who I would want to have a career like I say Tina Fey. I love her. I try to be like her in like every aspect of my life. My other big role model on a female front would be Kristen Wiig. I think I reference a Saturday Night Live skit of hers at least once a day. They are both very successful actresses and writers.
HC: How are you involved with drama and film on-campus?
VM: In the past I’ve done plays with Lab Theater and Pauper Players. This year I am the videographer for the Kenan Theatre Company. I’ve also been cast in two of their shows so far, which I am just over-the-moon, thrilled about. Both of the shows have professional directors so I am so excited. The first one is called “Nine Parts of Desire.” It’s an amazing show about Iraqi women and their perspective during the war. It’s very harrowing but very joyous at same time. I did a summer program in San Francisco this summer at an acting school called the American Conservatory Theater. And the director of “Nine Parts of Desire,” Peter Friedrich, actually did the same summer program back in the day, and he got his master’s degree there. It was cool to have that connection. I have worked with him only a few days, but he is amazing. I really enjoy working with him. I am doing a show later in the semester called “Tales from Ovid.” It is a bunch of Greek myths, which should be a lot of fun and very different from “Nine Parts of Desire.” I love Greek mythology; I was in “The Bacchae” my sophomore year. I am the assistant producer of the student TV show “General College.” Previously, I wrote and acted for it.
HC: Where do you picture yourself in 10 years?
VM: Ideally I’d like to be in a major city. I don’t know what that city is yet. LA, NYC or London if I was really lucky and married Prince Harry so I could afford it! I’d like to be able to support myself through acting and film that inspire both myself and others. I’d love to have worked extensively in theater and in film, in front of and behind the camera. The biggest dream would be to see the screenplay I wrote last year be produced by a major studio. I could die happy. Also, getting to work with the people I admire would be awesome. If I got to work with Tobey Maguire I don’t think I’d survive it; I’d cry and die.
HC: What else would you like to tell HC readers about yourself?
VM: I studied abroad in London last fall and that was amazing. While there I got to intern at the Travel Channel. I did the research for one of their shows. That was really cool because I would spend my days at a desk, but in my mind I’d be in Argentina and Chile. It was really exciting because when I met with the producer he asked me what I thought we should do. He was really asking me. It was one of the first times I guess a grown-up really listened to me. I’ve seen the preview for the program and there were things that I recommended to him in it, and that’s really cool. London was really amazing; the theater scene there is intense.
HC: You are definitely very passionate about acting and working in film, could you share with our readers why you love it so much?
VM: I feel that in theatre and in film it is a totally collaborative experience in which you get to create something in a way a lot of other fields don’t. It allows you to learn about others on a deeply personal level as you work. Those connections fuel the art and the process. And of course, I have an incredible amount of fun doing it!