QA IN HER OWN WORDS
&
LULU MEISSNER
Teacher that had the biggest impact on you and why?
{ G REE N WIC H A CA D E M Y }
Mr. Borowka, who has been my acting teacher since sixth grade and my advisor throughout high school. He gave me my first lead role when I was new to GA, and that was a significant highlight of an otherwise difficult year. He has consistently advocated for me and found parts to challenge me ever since.
A
s far back as she can remember, Lulu Meissner has wanted to be an actress. At just seventeen years old, the Greenwich Academy senior is well on her way. Last year, Lulu got her first credited role in a film, Red Joan, starring Dame Judi Dench and directed by Trevor Nunn. “I’m over the moon about it,” she says. “It’s the culmination of a dream that’s been a long time coming.” Lulu developed her acting chops at an early age. “At school in London, acting classes are mandatory,” she says. “The goal is for kids to get comfortable being on stage.” She remembers her first role: Whoopsie Daisy Angel. “Tripping across the stage at the right time was a hard thing to do at that age,” she says. Lulu was in sixth grade when she entered GA, after her family moved to Greenwich from England. (Her mom is also a GA grad.) Since then, she has jumped at every opportunity to hone her acting skills—taking roles in everything from drama to comedy to cabaret. The turning point in her nascent career came two summers ago when she returned to London to attend the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA). It was there that she learned of an open casting call for Red Joan, about the woman accused of being the longest-serving KGB operative on British soil. “Even though I’d lived in the States for five years, I could still put up an accent.” She got the part, playing a waitress at a small tea shop on the British Coast during World War II. One of the highlights was getting to meet the young actor Tom Hughes. “He told me he remembered how special his first time on a movie set was and that I should take it all in and savor every moment.” Academics are also important to the burgeoning
What would you tell your freshman self?
actor, and this year her honors-heavy course load includes Chinese, U.S. History and English—her favorite subject. She is editor of the school’s online lifestyle magazine, Tartan, and works on the staff of the literary magazine Daedalus. Recently she’s been helping the theater director produce middle school plays. “It’s been a huge thing for me to step behind the lens, so to speak.” And, like any aspiring actor, she reads the trades, including Backstage. “I go into New York for auditions when I can,” she says. “I’m lucky. As a student it’s not my number-one priority right now.” Instead, she is focused on college, where she hopes to major in international relations or linguistics. One of her role models is Emma Watson, who catapulted to fame with the Harry Potter movies. “She took time off to go to Brown, and now she’s in a position where she can take on projects she likes and do her activism work. I want to get a real academic degree and then use [acting] as a platform to do good.” »
Don’t be afraid to be a little different from your peers. It’s okay to not fit the mold. Focus on things you love and find more ways to get involved in them; write your own parts if you have to!
Advice for underclassmen?
There are so many ways to make your high school experience your own. You just have to advocate for yourself.
Words to live by?
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” —Albus Dumbledore
SEPTEMBER 2018 GREENWICH
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