![]() Haas had been told by her agent that she was auditioning for a German TV series called “The Orchestra.” After her first audition, the agent called her. Practically all of us jumped up and started crying.” “Shira was one of a whole bunch of young women who tried out for the role there,” Winger says. Having looked in Europe and the U.S., they turned to Israeli casting director Esther Kling - the same person who first discovered Haas on Facebook. “We felt at a certain point, if we don’t find this person, we’re going to have to postpone production,” Winger says. Winger - who met memoirist Feldman at the school their kids attend in Berlin - and Karolinski began writing in November 2018, and Netflix wanted the show delivered by the end of the next year. The project was on an accelerated turnaround. The actor not only would need to bewitch audiences (as all leads should, ideally), but would have to sing, play piano, know English - and, most daunting of all, learn Yiddish, the primary language of the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which 19-year-old Esty abandons to start a new life in Germany. ![]() To cast Esther Shapiro - the character around which all of “Unorthodox” revolves - Winger, Karolinski and director Maria Schrader looked all over the world. “But who knows what will happen with cinema?” Haas says. ![]() She’s also the star of “Asia,” a mother-daughter drama that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, which Menemsha Films bought for theatrical distribution. For now, there’s “Broken Mirrors,” the 2019 film for which she was nominated for an Israeli Academy Award for best actress, which comes to VOD in the U.S. ![]() She wants to write and direct, and speaks admiringly about women she’s worked with, among them “Zookeeper’s” Jessica Chastain and Natalie Portman (who directed her in “A Tale of Love and Darkness”). In conversation, Haas is thoughtful, but quick. The 25-year-old actor has been doing things for art since she was 16, when a casting director discovered her - a theater student at the elite Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts - on Facebook, and invited her to audition for the lead in the movie “Princess.” Haas’ next on-screen role was “Shtisel,” and she’s worked continuously since, in Israeli (“Broken Mirrors,” “Asia”) and international movies (“The Zookeeper’s Wife,” “Mary Magdalene”) and on Israeli television. Released on Netflix on March 26, early in the COVID-imposed stay-at-home orders, the show was a gripping, inspiring must-see - and a life-affirming antidote to the streaming service’s other zeitgeist hit of that moment, the pestilential “Tiger King.” The show received eight Emmy nominations, including for limited series, writing, directing, casting, costumes and music (two of those) - all in addition to Haas’ for lead actress.īut even if “Unorthodox” stans had not seen Haas before, she was no newcomer. This turbulent, upside-down year has seen Haas’ global breakout with “Unorthodox,” the captivating Netflix limited series based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, and created by Anna Winger and Alexa Karolinski. ![]()
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