postscreening discussion<\/a> after one of the film\u2019s NYFF showings, noting that he auditioned close to 100 actors for the role. \u201cRosalind turned out to be my favorite Misty. This was the Misty I wanted to hang out with. This is the Misty I want to spend three months making a movie with. She was the best actress, she was the smartest actress, there was the most going on behind her eyes. She\u2019s not just saying the lines; you can feel the gravitas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tMention the audition process to Eleazar, and she\u2019ll tell you a worst-case-scenario anecdote that ended up leading to another of her epiphanies about Misty. \u201cRight, so, I did OK during the first read, and I got a callback,\u201d she says. \u201cI also got some notes back from Chris, some fair notes about the character, about how Misty leads with her looks. So I decided to really zhuzh myself up, you know? Got my makeup done, got my hair done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tShe also booked a studio space rather than simply doing a self-tape at home, for a more professional setting. But everything that could go wrong \u2014 from a heavy metal band practicing next door to lagging wifi causing awkward delays \u2014 did go wrong. \u201cThe irony of it,\u201d she adds, \u201cis that they had me auditioning with a scene involving a bad audition within the film!\u201d Eleazar wasn\u2019t going to take any chances, so after that ordeal, she flew to Los Angeles of her own accord and asked to read with Rock in person. She booked the role shortly after that.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut seeing herself zhuzhed up after that chaotic reading, Eleazar says, helped her understand a key thing about Misty. \u201cI\u2019d thought the notion of \u2018leading with her looks\u2019 felt superficial at first,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I probed a little deeper, and went: Oh! It\u2019s not just about being desired, it\u2019s about a desire to be recognized. It\u2019s about validation from others. Misty has been acting since she was nine years old. She has no support system. She doesn\u2019t have the luxury of being a victim. This is what she needs to do to survive. It was another moment where I went, \u2018Yeah, I get her.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRock and Eleazar in Misty Green.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA24<\/p>\n
\n\tEleazar is quick to note that she grew up with a wonderful support system in the form of her single mother, who worked for a shipping company. Her father, a Ghanian politician, was not much of a presence during her formative years. Most of the time, Rosalind lived in South London. During the summers, however, she would accompany her mom to \u201cPakistan, Ghana, Tunisia\u2026 all these different places where she was working. I loved it. She had friends who were literally from all over the globe, and I was exposed to all of these different types of life early on. I think that\u2019s where my love of acting came from, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite being an incredibly shy kid, Eleazar says she immediately took to performing: \u201cI felt more comfortable onstage than being around a lot of people in a group situation.\u201d After doing a lot of acting in school, Eleazar might have gone straight to drama school, she says. But she ended up moving to Ghana in her early twenties and reconnecting with her dad; he passed away in 2010. \u201cThere was this detour, and after my father died\u2026 I wanted to meet that side of my family, because I\u2019d never met them,\u201d she says. \u201cI was really getting to know that side of my life in my father\u2019s absence. That was something important for Roz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEleazar fell in the love with country and might have stayed there permanently had a theater-director friend of hers not called. She asked Eleazar if she still had any plans to pursue acting, something the two of them had discussed numerous times over the years. Oh, that ship has sailed, Rosalind replied. \u201cShe knew reverse psychology works very well on me, though,\u201d Eleazar says. \u201c\u2018Oh, OK, well, don\u2019t try out for drama school and just live your life in Ghana, bye!\u2019 I thought, well, I\u2019ll show her! I auditioned for LAMDA [London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art], and got in. I\u2019ve been lucky ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tEleazar had been getting steady work for close to a decade when casting agent Nina Gold caught her performance in Anton Chekhov\u2019s Uncle Vanya in London\u2019s West End. Gold thought of her for a show she was working on, an adaptation of Mick Herron\u2019s books about a group of intelligence agents considered unfit for regular duty. The series, Slow Horses, became an international sensation \u2014 its sixth season just dropped on Apple TV last month, and a seventh is on the way \u2014 and Eleazar suddenly found herself being recognized in the streets. \u201cYeah, there\u2019s a lot of \u2018Hey! Louisa!’\u201d she says, taking on the excited, wide-eyed look of a fan unexpectedly running into an actor from their favorite TV program. \u201cIt\u2019s a little weird, to be honest, when someone starts going\u201d \u2014 Eleazar pointedly jabs her finger in the air \u2014 \u201c\u2018It\u2019s. A. Famous person!\u2019 It\u2019s much nicer when someone goes, \u2018I like your work.\u2019 That feels rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd while the Oscar buzz her performance started generating after the fall festivals will come as no surprise to filmgoers, Eleazar admits she\u2019s not sure about the extra attention that\u2019s starting to bring her. \u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said the exposure doesn\u2019t scare me a bit,\u201d she confesses. Still, she\u2019s ecstatic that Misty Green is getting the attention she feels it deserves, and has been grateful that people have embraced her version of an Angeleno grappling with personal demons while caught in the machinery of Hollywood, gym sunglasses and all.<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI have so much compassion for difficult people,\u201d Eleazar says. \u201cThey\u2019re such a misunderstood tribe of people. There was this quote that I found, and I thought it just summed Misty up: \u2018The children that need the most love in the world ask for it in the most unloving ways.\u2019 Someone who people think is abrasive and is screaming \u2018Love me,\u2019 but punching people at the same time. My heart melts for them. And Misty, you know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEleazar chokes up for a second, then composes herself and takes another sip of tea. \u201cGod, I feel so lame,\u201d she says, laughing yet again. \u201cI just get so emotional about her, you know? Misty is a mess. But I love her so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Production Credits<\/p>\n
Styling by WAYMAN and MICAH. Hair styling LACY REDWAY.\u00a0 Makeup by VINCENT OQUENDO. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S ometimes an epiphany arrives in the most unexpected package. For Rosalind Eleazar, it was a pair of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[29193,38318,64,63,447,322807,134],"class_list":["post-927485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-a24","tag-adam-driver","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-chris-rock","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}