![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM4-1024x683.jpg\")
(Netflix Photo\/Katalin Vermes)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM3-1024x683.jpg\")
(Netflix Photo\/Atsushi Nishijima)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM2-1024x683.jpg\")
(Netflix Photo\/Timea Saghy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul> Images from left, Loberti relaxes on the set; in scenes with Hugh Laurie, who plays Etienne LeBlanc, and Mark Ruffalo, who plays her father, Daniel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey usually come up to me and tell me how much the work means, or they’ve read an article or they’ve seen CBS Sunday Morning or something,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s just really cool to share those moments with people and see how much [the series] impacted them and get to give them a hug and thank them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Loberti, her role in the Netflix adaptation of Anthony Doerr\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is her first\u2014which she landed on her first audition. It is also a big budget production. And she is the lead. Loberti plays Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind teenager in Nazi-occupied France during World War II who meets a young German soldier, Werner Pfennig, as they try to survive the war\u2019s devastation in seaside town of Saint-Malo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loberti was a big fan of the 2014 novel. She heard about casting for the miniseries in fall 2021 while she was pursuing a Ph.D. in ancient rhetoric at Pennsylvania State University. On a whim, she sent in an audition tape, one of thousands of hopefuls from around the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loberti said she has wanted to be an actress since she was 4 years old, memorizing movies and dance numbers to put on one-girl shows of Judy Garland songs or \u201cPhantom of the Opera\u201d for her family. But she lacked the role models who were, like her, blind or low vision to show her that acting was a realistic career path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is grateful to series executive producer and director Shawn Levy and Netflix for taking a \u201crisk on a complete unknown,\u201d she said. Loberti, who has been an advocate for people with disabilities from a young age, said the series could be the first step to a wider commitment to authentic casting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI wish the world were a little bit more accepting of people like me so that we could follow our dreams freely,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much talent. Thousands of people auditioned for this role and not all of them were blind or low-vision. There were a lot of sighted actors and famous sighted actors who sent in auditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are so many people who want to make it in so many different careers who because of disability or another marginalized identity are deterred from those paths,\u201d she added. \u201cI think [the series] is one of the most definitive examples of if you look for and celebrate people as people, good is going to come of it. This is the first time something like this has really happened and I feel the weight of that every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM5-1024x683.jpg\")
(Netflix photo\/Atsushi Nishijima)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM7-1024x682.jpg\")
(Netflix photo\/Timea Saghy)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2023\/11\/AM6-1024x683.jpg\")
(Netflix photo\/Atsushi Nishijima)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul> From left, Aria Mia Loberti in a scene from \u201cAll the Light We Cannot See\u201d; her guide dog, Ingrid, on set; and Loberti working on a scene with director Shawn Levy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n In her first role, Loberti said she found the hardest part was being a newcomer. But she received a lot of help from Levy. Before her first scenes were shot in Budapest, she was able to shadow the director for three weeks as they filmed scenes with Louis Hofmann, who plays Werner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After shooting her own solo scenes for about three weeks, she finally started acting alongside veterans Mark Ruffalo, who plays her father Daniel; Hugh Laurie, who plays her uncle Etienne; and Marion Bailey, who plays her aunt Madame Manec. They were very warm and full of good advice for a new actor, she said. Ruffalo would crack jokes on the set and they\u2019d goof around in between scenes, sharing inside jokes and making up games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was really a lovely group of people to be around and not intimidating at all after I got over the fact that I was existing in the same room as them,\u201d she said. \u201cI really hope that we get a blooper reel for the show because that was the atmosphere. I think when you\u2019re dealing with such difficult subject matter, it takes a real psychological toll on you if you stay in that headspace all day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before filming started in Budapest and France in spring 2022, Loberti worked closely with Juilliard acting coach Bob Krakower and dialect coach Neil Swainto to prepare for her first role. She also pulled together a lot of pieces to build the character of Marie-Laure. She combed through Doerr\u2019s novel, kept spreadsheets and notebooks and even wrote diaries and fan fiction from Marie-Laure\u2019s perspective. She also did research into the psychology of what makes a person who they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t come from acting training,\u201d said Loberti, a Fulbright scholar and honors student who graduated in 2020 with degrees in philosophy, political science and communication studies. \u201cI\u2019m an academic, so I have to use what I know to prepare. I did a lot of research into what makes a person behave the way they do and what life factors contribute to certain behaviors. A lot of it led back to senses, which is really interesting because, of course, this is a blind character.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of her favorite parts of the filming was doing almost all of her own stunts, including surviving constant explosions and being drowned by a crazed Nazi officer. She had to convince Levy to allow it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I asked the question, I didn\u2019t know how atypical the request was because almost no one is allowed to do their own stunts. There are few exceptions,\u201d said Loberti, who has an athletic background that includes ballet, martial arts and yoga. \u201cBy having me do my own stunts, when typically actors wouldn\u2019t be allowed to do that and in a show that is extremely physical,\u201d she told Levy, \u201cyou\u2019re sending a message of empowerment and inclusion that you want to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levy agreed with one exception\u2014she wasn\u2019t allowed to drive a car. \u201cBut everything else you see on screen from the bombings and the falls and the trips and the drowning, that is all me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drowning scene, highly choreographed and safely staged, itself took four days to complete. Filmed in a man-made grotto with controlled tides, Loberti is repeatedly dunked under the water by Lars Eidinger, who plays Standartenfuhrer Reinhold von Rumpel. Eidinger \u201cwas a human teddy bear,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had a lot of moments where we would just hold onto each other in between takes and breathe together to get ready. He was like, \u2018I\u2019m sorry I have to do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Netflix released the miniseries on Nov. 2, Loberti has only recently been allowed to do interviews about the show because of the six-month-long actors and writers strikes. She has enjoyed the reaction from fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA month or so ago, there was an early screening of the series in Toronto for fans of the book and the film,\u201d said Loberti, who couldn\u2019t be part of the event because of the strike. \u201cThat was really extraordinary to see what was coming out of that. I really appreciate the outpouring of support and love from the fans and the industry itself because of this groundbreaking piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Loberti, who has put her Ph.D. studies on hold, is already adding to her resume. She has several acting projects in the works and has already completed filming of one of them. Next spring, she will appear in the miniseries \u201cThe Spiderwick Chronicles,\u201d a role she landed the day after finishing filming of \u201cAll the Light We Cannot See.\u201d The eight-episode series is scheduled to be released in early 2024 on the Roku Channel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has also narrated an audiobook of Jules Verne\u2019s \u201cTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,\u201d and is the brand ambassador for L\u2019Occitane en Provence, along with working on two novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s so exciting that things can start to open up again,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten such an outpouring of support to continue pursuing this. It is the career that I\u2019ve always wished I could do. Now that I have the support, I’m really excited and I feel really lucky and fortunate to be able to say that I can do it. I can’t wait to see what’s next. That’s the beauty about being an artist. I think you can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Nov. 27, 2023 \u2013 Since the release this month of the Netflix miniseries \u201cAll the Light We Cannot See,\u201d its star\u2014溏心vlog免费B站 alumna Aria Mia Loberti\u2014has been a little amazed, maybe a bit embarrassed, by all the attention. Reviews have called her a \u201cbreakout star\u201d and her performance \u201cluminous.\u201d Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":90611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90604"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90627,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90604\/revisions\/90627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}