Madalina Bellariu Ion On Navigating The International Film Industry, Dismantling Stereotypes, and Injecting Life Into The Stories She Chooses To Tell

Madalina Bellariu Ion is to versatility what left is to the right. Her skill is innate and inherent, and she takes great joy in providing escapism to the masses through the depth she brings to her characters. With the recent release of the action-packed thriller, ‘Take Cover’ starring Scott Adkins and vampire thriller, ‘Drained’, recently debuting at Screamfest LA, she continues to make her mark on the industry.

New Wave sat down with the actress to discuss her beginnings in the industry, the importance of the stories she chooses to tell and navigating the emotional toll of such hard-hitting subjects.

I like to start at the beginning. Tell me more about how you started in the industry. Have you always wanted to act? 

I got into acting initially because I wanted a higher grade in my French class. My French Teacher at the time was offering a higher grade for students who agreed to take part in a French theatre production in their spare time. So, I was like me, me, me, with my hands high up. That was my initial contact with the stage, and we were able to present that play to different festivals - for kids, of course! - but that ignited a passion within. I was also a dancer at the time, so I still wasn’t sure what career I wanted to follow. I ended up graduating from university with a degree in Marketing and Public Communications. I was still involved with the industry behind the scenes, but I knew I needed to delve more into acting because I loved it. So I began taking part in different courses in Italy, at first with Michael Margotta, where I did Stanislavsky’s work. I then decided to go to London because I felt that, within Europe, that's definitely where the industry sits most. That was more than ten years ago now, and here I am, transforming my passion into a career!

I find it interesting that you describe yourself as just falling into acting because your skills imply such a dedication to the craft. For example, your multi-lingual fluency. Was becoming fluent in five languages a deliberate career choice? 

I think, naturally, living in Romania, I’m used to dealing with a lot of international companies, and so I find that it's important to know languages. And, I must say Romanians - and I’m not just saying this because I'm Romanian! - but we tend to know many languages. I was born just immediately after communism, and the cartoons were still in English, so I picked up a lot from that, even from my early years. My travels across Europe helped as well. For example, I’ve spent a lot of time in Italy, where everything is in Italian, it gives you so much opportunity to practice learning and listening and eventually being able to think in the language as well. So, it’s not a deliberate choice, but it’s extremely beneficial.

I think the beautiful thing about acting across an international market is being able to embrace cross-cultural and linguistic differences. For example, you’re fluent in Italian, a very romantic and passionate language, but you’re also fluent in English, which can be slightly blunter and more deadpan. Do you find that you ever have to adapt your acting style to match the culture and language you’re acting in? 

Definitely! It’s more subconscious, I would say, though. Italians, for example, have a much different physicality in how they communicate, and I think sometimes embodying that physicality in combination with the correct accent and linguistic work really can help me to delve deeper into the character I’m playing.

Acting is, at its core, communication. You’re communicating a story. One thing that strikes me is just how versatile your communication skills are - you learnt Serbian for Take Cover and sign language for Bad Wings. What tools do you use to allow yourself to be so versatile? Is it an inherent skill, or do you have a framework that guides you?

So, for example, for Take Cover, I asked for help from Serbian friends. I think the challenge specifically with Take Cover was that we didn't have a language supervisor on set because of budget constraints. This was slightly difficult, especially concerning incorporating improvisation and making the role my own. So, I was always texting friends during takes and making sure that I was pronouncing everything correctly, I wanted to be very precise with it. Also, though, I love language, which has been so key. For Bad Wings, I got help from Richard Platt, who himself is deaf, and he trained us on Zoom. He's from the UK, so I learned British Sign Language for that specific script, and it was nice because I got to see how expressive he is and how he uses his body to communicate. I've also looked at many documentaries and studied people in depth so that I can make sure to accurately embody their expressivity and communication skills. 

You have had a few recent releases. ‘Take Cover’ starring Scott Adkins and Alice Eve, and also vampire thriller, ‘Drained’, which premiered at Screamfest LA a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the portrayal of your character, Rhea, in Drained. She is a beautifully written character, so deeply nuanced, with such a poignant humanity despite being a vampire. What drew you to the role?

Rhea is complex. She seems cold and detached, but she is layered. She causes a lot of pain to her victims because she uses them to feed, but her victims also become addicted to her, and it quickly becomes extremely toxic. The suffering and death that surrounds her take a toll on her, and I like that there’s more to her than what it initially seems. She's seductive and mysterious, but what I also loved about the script is that it's far from your typical vampire film. It centres on the relationship between Rhea and Thomas, which is very intense and addictive, and I think the film, in itself, becomes a metaphor for our addiction to modern life - whether it’s social media, a toxic relationship or substance abuse. It’s truly beautiful.

A lot of your projects have hard-hitting subjects - modern slavery in ‘Grace’, orphanhood in ‘Bad Wings’. Even in ‘Take Cover’, Mona’s character has been through significant emotional trauma. How do you handle the emotional toll of the roles you play?

I think each role affects me for the time being, but I also believe in letting go after filming. As an actor, it’s important to be able to rest and bring your best the next day as opposed to carrying the entire emotional burden for the duration of the shoot or even longer. It is so important to be able to separate these things, but every actor will have their method. I'm Meisner trained, so I believe in living under fully imaginary circumstances and then being able to let go once I’ve broken character.

But my roles will always stay with me, especially because, as actors, we are very empathetic. I think each experience changes me and helps me to grow professionally and personally.

It can be difficult as a creative to avoid being stereotyped or limited by your appearance. Do you ever feel like you are being pushed toward playing similar archetypes of character, or do you feel the versatility of your abilities - namely being combat certified and multi-lingual - provides some insulation against that?

I think that the industry has changed compared to how it was 10 years ago when a girl with an accent was stereotyped. For example, the incorrect idea that Eastern Europeans would only play villains or prostitutes or Italians would only play waiters. I think minds have expanded now, and people love accents as well! Opportunities are more readily available now for all kinds of people, and if you can prove your versatility during the audition process, then there can be a role for you on any set.

I’ve noticed that, in recent times, I’ve been able to act in roles with a bit more gravitas and with deeply layered and emotional backstories. But before this, I was frequently stereotyped as the more seductive, femme fatale type of character. But I have to say that those characters can be empowering, too. In ‘The Young Pope’, my character is a prostitute, but she speaks about God, and she’s so philosophical. She’s wise, and there is so much more to her than somebody who gives her body away. It’s so important to make a character three-dimensional, and no matter what character you are playing, you need to find the nuances that are going to bring life to the story and make it interesting to watch. There is no singular type of character because when people watch, they need to be able to see themselves, and that can only be highlighted by not being afraid of the flaws in a character and allowing them to be complete human beings, even in fiction.

You worked with Scott Adkins on Take Cover. What was it like working with such an established actor in the industry?

He is fantastic to work with. He's a great listener and, as an actor, you need that, especially when filming the emotional scenes. He was always there on set, even off camera, to feed in the lines and just give 100% of his energy. That helped a lot because it was what made the on-screen connection so authentic. It was brilliant to work with him.

You can watch Madalina in Take Cover, available now on Prime Video.