Talking movies with Sri Lankan American actress Thushari Jayasekera
We sat down with Sri Lankan American actress Thushari Jayasekera to talk about her role in the new movie “Yal Devi” and about her passion: movies, movies, and movies.
Directed and produced by Dr. Sumedha Jayasena with Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilake, “Yal Devi” is about a love story entangled in an ethnic conflict.
When we asked about her experience and memories of acting in “Yal Devi”, Thushari replied that she loves playing different characters in various movie, TV, Internet & stage projects and she definitely enjoyed playing the role of “Savi” in “Yal Devi”. It was also a learning experience for her because the role took her out of her usual comfort zones. In her own words, “When I heard about the project, I wanted to contribute my time using what I do-acting-to help bring this story to life.”
Thushari spoke fondly of working with a brilliant and talented cast of actors and actresses who all seemed to like the movie they were cast in.
Thushari has a busy calendar for the year ahead with self-created performance art project, and in addition to her acting career; she is engaged in lot of activism for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in the face of the new developments with the tense negotiations between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Sri Lankan American actress Thushari is critical of the widespread piracy of Sri Lankan movies found uploaded on sites such as YouTube without proper permission. She said the abuse of intellectual property rights in movies is preventing Sri Lankan actors from even attempting to make a living from acting.
Explaining further, she said that although YouTube is a great channel for promoting movies and songs, many people are constantly uploading movies illegally. The sheer volume and pace of movies being uploaded on YouTube and similar sites has made the task of monitoring the sites very costly and time consuming. According to Thushari, the end result of movie piracy is that it hurts actors, directors and producers and ultimately the whole art suffers.
Talking about movies, Thushari said her current favorite movies are “Taare Zameen Par”- a touching bollywood movie about a child identified as dyslexic, and the hurdles he overcomes in school, and “The Visitor”- an unusual Hollywood movie about the changes in the life of a college professor who happens to give shelter to young couple of illegal aliens who become victims of a real-estate scam.
According to Thushari, both movies share stories about inspiration and changes that happen in people’s lives, which have been very cleverly brought to life through cinema.
Thushari’s dream in her career is to get consistent performance related work in film, TV & commercials and to continue to create her performance art work that is thought provoking as well as entertaining. She also creates projects that highlight other performer’s talent through her on-line show with Live Jelly. Her motto is -creation-innovation & determination.
