A Belgian actress in US relishes her Kolkata connection

You may not have heard about her. You may not have seen her performances. Yet, Laura Van Yck, born and raised in Belgium and currently thriving in Hollywood, loves to talk about Kolkata. Yes, you heard it right! The versatile actress, in fact, dreams of visiting the city one day.
Ask why? Laura has won two Best Actress awards from festivals that were held in Kolkata. Calcutta International Cult Film Festival and ‘Virgin Spring Cinefest’ honoured her with the Best Actress award for her extraordinary performance in ‘From A Barren State' which is incidentally directed by a young filmmaker from Kolkata, Priyam Sadhukhan.

In an exclusive chat with ETimes over the phone, an excited Laura who is using her specific brand, the horror genre, to succeed in the film industry says: “I haven’t visited Kolkata yet, but I feel I definitely will in the future. I would love to see all of India, as I love traveling and discovering different cultures. I’m actually very connected to India already, especially Kolkata, through people I know and love. I have learned about Indian culture at least a little, it’s such a beautiful and colorful country and the people are so very kind. I have seen a performance of Odissi dancers, which was so beautiful and inspiring. I definitely want to see that again! I’m so happy that I received awards from Kolkata film festivals. It means so much to me to see that my performance is loved, that the movie is loved.”
The pretty actress has been appreciated for her acting skills in a number of projects such as ‘Burned’, ‘Bloody Kiss’, ‘The Many Deaths of John Wick’ and a music video “Frailty” from the band Out of the Woods’. In each of these projects Laura is a perfect fit for the horror genre.

Her latest ‘From A Barren State’ which has been travelling festivals around the world is a story about a young woman Lena at the end of her pregnancy, who ended up on the streets. She is desperately looking for an old abandoned home she used to live in years ago, in the middle of the desert. When she is about to collapse, she is offered shelter by a seemingly kind couple. But when Lena finds out their true intentions, fear and despair cause her to make drastic decisions.
Lena isn’t a character Laura is usually cast for. But she made Lena her own. “Although I’m an actress, and it’s my job to embody different people, it’s much harder when you can’t find much similarity. This was the case with Lena’s character. I’m usually cast as a strong woman, and a lot of the time with supernatural ability. Lena, however, is vulnerable, alone, suppressed and threatened. Even though she gets much stronger in the end, she goes through quite a journey that can seem overwhelming and intimidating when you first take her on. But this was an opportune moment for me to prove myself with handling a character that is not up my alley. And I’m very grateful for the award and nominations I received,” concluded the pretty actress who has some interesting projects in the pipeline right now.
Beside 'From a Barren State', Laura has also honored her brand playing the lead in a recent music video: "It's for the popular band The 69 Eyes. Next to Dusty Grave, the lead singer of Stellar Corpses, I have acted as a possessed witch for the song “Burn Witch Burn”. The music video has already received a lot of appriciation."