Actress The Wrestler Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York.
She is adding a new notch to her belt, moving up the ladder from actor to director. The short film, Woineshet, covers and Ehtiopian human rights activist and her life struggle which begins at 13 years old when she is kidnapped and raped. Marisa Tomei, was asked to step in by producers after the original director bailed on the project. Days later, Marisa Tomei found herself in Ethiopia interviewing Woineshet Zebene.
It was a narrative 15-minute short that just kind of came up, spur of the moment... Someone else was supposed to direct it and they dropped out at the last minute, and I happen to know the people who are producing and they were like, 'Do you want to go to Africa on Tuesday and make your directorial debut?' I was like, 'Can I bring Lisa Leone', my dear friend who is a cinematographer and who also directed her own shorts? We co-directed and we went to Ethiopia and we met Woineshet. She was kidnapped and raped when she was 13 and then fought to change the laws in the whole country. Now she's 21 and, in less than 10 years, she has taken on a codified patriarchal system and made it different for everybody in the whole country. It's a piece of her story.
Despite the heartache attached to developing the project, Marisa Tomei is still excited about doing the film and can't wait for its release:
It was quite a crazy thing and I think I only could've done it spontaneously. I mean it's (film) in another language, which I don't speak, and I got there and had to cast within days with no script. This wasn't even the movie they were going to do.When I got there Woineshet had just gotten the head of the whole African conglomeration's personal phone number and was calling him and insisting he speak with her to make further changes. It was such a humbling experience and I'm grateful to her for what she's done for everybody and to see that perseverance. If I'm asked, I would do it again.
She is adding a new notch to her belt, moving up the ladder from actor to director. The short film, Woineshet, covers and Ehtiopian human rights activist and her life struggle which begins at 13 years old when she is kidnapped and raped. Marisa Tomei, was asked to step in by producers after the original director bailed on the project. Days later, Marisa Tomei found herself in Ethiopia interviewing Woineshet Zebene.
It was a narrative 15-minute short that just kind of came up, spur of the moment... Someone else was supposed to direct it and they dropped out at the last minute, and I happen to know the people who are producing and they were like, 'Do you want to go to Africa on Tuesday and make your directorial debut?' I was like, 'Can I bring Lisa Leone', my dear friend who is a cinematographer and who also directed her own shorts? We co-directed and we went to Ethiopia and we met Woineshet. She was kidnapped and raped when she was 13 and then fought to change the laws in the whole country. Now she's 21 and, in less than 10 years, she has taken on a codified patriarchal system and made it different for everybody in the whole country. It's a piece of her story.
Despite the heartache attached to developing the project, Marisa Tomei is still excited about doing the film and can't wait for its release:
It was quite a crazy thing and I think I only could've done it spontaneously. I mean it's (film) in another language, which I don't speak, and I got there and had to cast within days with no script. This wasn't even the movie they were going to do.When I got there Woineshet had just gotten the head of the whole African conglomeration's personal phone number and was calling him and insisting he speak with her to make further changes. It was such a humbling experience and I'm grateful to her for what she's done for everybody and to see that perseverance. If I'm asked, I would do it again.
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