NAFA Member Olga Assabgy will be appearing in the new two-part SBS mini-series Saved, written by Belinda Chayko and directed by Tony Ayres (The Home Song Stories). The show stars Claudia Karvan (“The Secret Life of Us”, “Love My Way”), Osamah Sami (Lucky Miles), Andy Rodoreda (Black Water), and young actor Lara Robinson (Knowing). Olga writes of her experience below. [ Saved airs on SBS-TV on Sunday, 12 April at 8.30pm ]
I remember how excited I was when I read the e‑mail from Tony [Chu] saying that Anousha Zarkesh was casting for the TV movie Saved. I didn’t have an agent at that time, so I thought the possibility of getting auditions for jobs at that level was unlikely. Nonetheless, I quickly sent through my CV and headshot and landed an audition time.
I played a Persian girl, the sister of a refugee who fled from Iran after the student protests in Tehran. The audition (in early May 2008) was very interesting. My character in the scene translates the conversation between Claudia Karvan’s character and the character of my brother. However, we couldn’t really speak Farsi, so we were improvising in our own languages and had so much fun with it.
In July 2008 I went travelling through Europe. On the 29th of that month, on my birthday, while on the beach in Ibiza I got the call from Anousha saying that they wanted to offer me the role. Needless to say, it was a great birthday present.
Thanks Tony for all your great work and effort with NAFA. I look forward to more casting notices.
— Olga Assabgy 19 March 2009
http://www.nafa.net.au/news/2009/3/19/nafa-member-to-appear-in-sbs-mini-series.html