Andrea Stefancikova finds herself in ‘Promiseland’
To truly appreciate the beauty of Promiseland – and it is a beautiful film, despite the acts of violence and the ugliness of some of its scenarios and characters – you need to accept a couple of truths.
The first truth is that Promiseland is fiction. It doesn’t always feel like fiction, but it is fiction, mostly pulled from the mind of Vancouver filmmaker and renowned stunt artist Kirk Caouette.
The second truth that needs to be accepted in order to fully appreciate the beauty of Promiseland is that Velvet, the character that Andrea Stefancikova plays, is at once a fictional character and also representative of Stefancikova’s own life, beliefs, and experiences.
Promiseland follows the misadventures of Velvet, a sex worker with a troubled past, and a delusional stranger (played by Caouette). Here’s how Whistler Film Festival (which hosts the world premiere this week) describes the locally shot action drama: “Sparks fly and the constant threat of betrayal pervades on both sides, as this errant duo embark on a vigilante mission to exact revenge upon those that have wronged them. With numerous quality fight scenes and action sequences, Promiseland credits a stunt team of nearly one hundred men and women, along with four months of fight choreography and almost two years of shooting and editing.”
Andrea Stefancikova is Velvet and Kirk Caouette is Victor in Promiseland. Contributed photo
Velvet was not written for Stefancikova. She auditioned for the role rather late in the casting process, after an impromptu conversation with Caouette on the street. During the conversation, Caouette challenged her to take the night to read the script and write a biography for Velvet – and Stefancikova leapt at the opportunity to flesh out a character who was, even at that early stage, already so much more than a stereotype.
“I think when you think of a sex worker in a film, most people revert to the stereotypes – ‘Oh, she’s going to be naked, and there’s going to be a sex scene’ – because that’s usually how they’re presented in films,” says Stefancikova. “But in Promiseland, it was more about her as a woman – a broken woman – who was disadvantaged from a very young age. She was exploited, and surrounded by mostly men who took advantage of her, and abused her, but despite all of the hurt she’s had in her life, she still has dreams and she has some innocence to her, and she just happens to be a sex worker which is a byproduct of her journey, which I think is actually very common in a lot of cases.”
So over the course of that fateful night, the Vancouver-based actress fleshed out Velvet’s origin story. “I felt like, ‘Okay, if I have a chance to write a biography, I’m going to give it everything I feel that’s interesting from reading this script,’” she says. “I created this whole persona and her favourite foods and music and the way she looked at the world and what she felt when she looked at the sky.”
Velvet became Eastern European, just like Stefancikova, who was born in Bratislava and immigrated to Canada as a teenager. And she became a survivor of kidnapping – again, just like Stefancikova.
“There were so many layers I felt that I could bring to this character, because if I have a chance to read [for this role], I want people to see just how human she is,” says Stefancikova. “And then I sent it all to Kirk and he said, ‘I didn’t expect all that; we would love to see you.’”
Even though Velvet’s journey in Promiseland isn’t particularly joyful, there was a lot of joy in it for Stefancikova. She relished the opportunity to perform the role without having to hide her Slovakian accent (you can read more about Stefancikova’s experiences as an actor with an accent in this May 2019 article from the Vancouver Courier entitled “Actors with accents want their voices heard”).
Andrea Stefancikova as Velvet in Promiseland. Contributed photo
“Being able to use my own voice gave me a lot of freedom and power and it just made me sure of everything I said,” recalls Stefancikova. “Normally what it’s like when I have to sound neutral, in my head I’m listening to myself. Even though I’m able to 98 per cent sound neutral when I have to, I know if there’s one word, one syllable, that’s off, suddenly I know, and it throws me off. So I wasn’t thrown off by the way I speak. Kirk said it worked so well. I said to him, ‘You’re probably going to make history as the first filmmaker in North America that doesn’t care, that gives a lead role to someone who doesn’t sound North American’ – even though she is North American, because it’s 2019. We have so many immigrants from so many different countries here. There’s no standard accent anymore.”
It was important that Velvet be something of a mirror for real-life sex workers, according to Stefancikova. She says she spent time on the Downtown Eastside before Promiseland went to camera, speaking with – and listening to – women who work in the local sex trade. “I wanted to make [Velvet] authentic,” she says. “I wanted to make this character someone who would exist in real life.”
And she also wanted to honour the 19 year old she had once been – the one who had been kidnapped in Istanbul.
“I knew what happens psychologically, and I knew about the PTSD, and I knew about it firsthand, and even though it happened many years ago and I’ve gone through many years of counselling, and all kinds of ways of coping – like drug addiction as a byproduct – that was the path I took,” she says. “It was so important to me to have this chance. I knew I had a little bit of life experience that I could mix with research and then create this character in collaboration with Kirk. We had a big crew. Some days, I would just request, ‘Can no one speak to me? I want to be quiet in between the takes and be focused.’” She pauses, before smiling widely. “There was also laughter.”
Last month, Stefancikova was named one of four Canadian Stars to Watch at the 19th Whistler Film Festival.
Promiseland also stars Michael Kopsa, Adrian Hough, Milan Stefancik, and Zak Santiago.
Promiseland is one of 86 films screening at “Canada’s coolest film festival.” The festival runs until December 8 at venues around Whistler. Tickets and information at https://whistlerfilmfestival.com/.
