Judith Zins

Living: Paris, France

Interview by Speciwomen — September 2016

Speciwomen: Tell us about yourself.

Judith Zins: My name is Judith Zins. I have studied in Paris, I got my High school diploma in literature with a focus in Drama at Victor Hugo, studying with Marion Ferry. Just after graduation, I was accepted to the 5th arrondissement Dramatic Academy where I studied with Bruno Wacrenier for 4 years. During these 4 years, thus from 17 to 21 years old, I learned how to be an actor but I also learned how to come up with my own ideas, and not wait for people to come get me.

S: How did you get into drama?

JZ: Honestly I do not remember how my interest for theater was born. Both of my parents are in the fashion industry, the brand Bernard Zins. Growing up, my girl friends wanted to be fashion designers or teachers. I believe that I wanted to be florist. I remember acting at the Forum Des Halles in middle school and loving improv. I have always loved to act but I think that it is really in high school that I told myself that I wanted to make it my job.

S: Who inspires you?

JZ: I think that I function mostly with love and admiration. I am inspired by great art figures and by my friends. Famous people wise, I think of Frida, Alain Bashung, Jacques Brel, Marguerite Duras and Paul Claudel. I am also into painting and photography, I sometimes look at pictures to help me write. What inspires me the most is love. When I am in love, for the best or for the worst, it is always a great moment for me, to act, to write, to paint etc. Also, St Exupery's Little Prince, the band IAM and the singer Lhasa.

S: Are you working on anything currently?

JZ: I wrote and read a text called Come directed by Alexandre Plank that I recorded last weekend at the Centre Pompidou and that is available on France Culture. I am writing a radio drama called Nos Vices, Pretexte Pour Parler D’Amour of which a section of the first episode has been broadcasted on France Culture. It is a play for 13 actors that I wrote for them and for whom musician Luc Jacquin does the music. Maybe this play will turn into a script, I am still thinking about it. I am also currently shooting a movie that is going to be called Adieu Mon Cheri by Louise Mootz Conceicao. This summer I am working in Banon to play at the Festival De Paon that we are trying to launch. I am also acting in the short film Le Martinet Noir buy Hugo Brune and in Matthias Jacquin’s next feature film which is an adaptation from L’Eveil Du Printemps. 

Yesterday, I shot for the first time with a baby! Again, for one of Matthias Jacquin’s projects which title is still to be found and that is going to include 13 women. I might go spend a while in Morocco this fall for my staging of the 20th of November, and to direct Thomas Huguenot El Bouhati in a soliloquy. I am collaborating with Victor Assié on Short Cut which tells the story of a play staged on a theater set. I strongly believe in this project. I am also going to be acting with director Sara Amrous next year in Violences de Gabily as one of the three sisters. This summer, at the Villereal Festival and in September at the SACD, I appear in the movie Creuse by Aurelie Reinhorn and Magali Chanay. I am also writing and illustrating a children’s book that I would like to have finished in September. Finally, I'll appear in a wonderful feature film next year, but that is top secret for the moment!

S: Do you have future plans?

JZ: I am still working on Nos Vices, Prétexte Pour Parler D’Amour, as well as on my songs, poems and scripts ideas. 

I want to play in movies with actors and plots that touch me, meaning that make me laugh or think. I would like to learn another language, such as Italian, Arabic or Hebrew and dance again. 

S: How is being a woman impacting your life? 

JZ: Because I am a woman, it makes me mad to see actresses simper or try to be “children-women” when they are 30. I engage, as comedian, to dare for power, authority, and strength when I am on a set. Which does not mean that I am not going to be soft or else, but I refuse to limit and shrink myself down. I also engage to write texts in which women are not serving a discourse. When something misogynistic happens, I react. Now I react in a better way, I learned how to transform my anger and my violence. I think that it is important to always ask ourselves the good old question “What should we do with dumbass people?” I am more than happy to be a woman, it never occurred to me that I would have liked to be a man. If I have a little girl, later, I’ll call her Jo. I hope to have girls and boys and that we will be able to talk about everything, as I was lucky to be able to do when I was a kid. The key is to give to your daughter confidence. I met a lot of girls that were being passive just because they were underestimating themselves. Because they were not confident at all, it was easy for others to take advantage of this lack or to use them without them even finding that unfair. I am confident. I think that people can play me and take me for an idiot but it is really hard for them to succeed without me knowing about it.