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interview | annalise basso

There are moments in a creative’s life that feel like a threshold, where the work becomes more than performance, and instead, a portal to something truer and more expansive. For Annalise Basso, ‘The Life of Chuck’ was one of those moments in her pursuit of truth. A film that invited her to merge two lifelong loves, dance and acting, cracked open a new understanding of herself as an actress and a person.

Speaking to Schön!, Annalise is introspective and utterly fearless in her relationship to change. She speaks with striking clarity about the importance of discomfort, the power of creative risk, and how she’s come to see movement — physical, emotional, artistic — as a through line in everything she does. What happens when you stop chasing perfection and instead surrender to instinct, curiosity, and joy?

Annalise, you’ve been an actress for a long time as well as a dancer. It seems like ‘The Life of Chuck’ has brought those two worlds together for you. What was it like playing Janice Halliday?

Dance is something I hold pretty sacred in my life. It was my first love; I wanted to be a dancer growing up. I’ve never really shared this part of myself with everyone. Playing Janice Halliday was intimidating, scary, but also a great joy. It’s a pleasure to be able to, after so many years of doing this, to show everyone a different part of myself and finally dare to dance and not professionally even. I’ve trained hard for this and have been dancing my whole life. I’m not a professional dancer, but I am a dancer. I say that with a lot of pride now and with no hesitation.

Even to do such a long sequence is a huge feat. You were able to dance in a professional way in some sense.

Yes, and affect people in a different way. If I had dropped everything and pursued ballet full time, I would have had a very short, unexceptional career, I would have destroyed my body. I don’t have a natural turnout, the arched feet. I have bigger hips. It would have been really difficult, but the fact that I get to dance and bring everyone joy, it’s less about, look at me dance. I think for me, I wanted to show people that I could do it. With Janice Holiday, it’s about the joy that I experienced while dancing.

Having done ballet amongst other types of dance, has that form of discipline and self-expression played into your acting in any way?

Absolutely. I’ve never taken acting classes or anything. With my mom’s instincts and my own, it just felt like I could do this. I’ve never really had a relationship with my art up until I started at Stuart Rogers Studio two years ago. His teaching is a lot about being in your body rather than in your head, and dance is a huge part of that. Instead of thinking of acting and dancing as two separate art forms, now, it’s like they’re one.

Dance is very instinctive; you have to follow your partner’s lead. In acting, you have to follow the truth, that’s your partner and you surrender to that. I was so in my head and had to figure out what a scene needed to be. If the scene said to cry, I wasn’t willing to discover what it could be if I honoured my impulses. Now that I’ve been training since before ‘The Life of Chuck’, I’ve been incorporating a lot more dance into my acting practice.

With dance, you’re consumed by following each motion into the next. Would you say that it’s the same with acting? Has it always been, or is that changing now?

This is the beauty of what I’m learning right now: that it’s a shame when it stays the same. And, although I have a process and a relationship now, I hope that it continues to grow. As you said, you get so consumed by what comes next that you forget to be present. With ‘The Life of Chuck’ and the routine we learned, it was so easy to be present because we had drilled it in so hard, and that’s how I look at memorising my lines now. I want to make these words my own so that when it comes time to share them with people and perform them, I’m not thinking about how it sounds. No other word but surrender comes to mind.

You’ve tapped into your dance background with this movie. Do you find yourself sometimes reaching areas you haven’t explored in yourself?

All the time. I try every day to find something that I haven’t done before. You’re never the same from one moment to the next.

‘The Life of Chuck’ centres around the famous Walt Whitman line, ‘I contain multitudes’. It’s already interesting as a human being to be the sum of everyone around you. As an actress, do you find that your multitudes are also all of the characters you’ve ever played?

That’s a beautiful question. I think, yes, the characters are the multitudes I contain and also different layers of myself. Every character I’ve played has helped me discover something within myself that I didn’t know was there.

Have you noticed yourself adopting traits from a specific character that you’ve played?

Vespyr from ‘Captain Fantastic’, she had this crazy confidence and hunger that Annalise was a little bit afraid of because to admit you’re hungry admits that you need something. It’s a vulnerable place to be. And I am hungry. I want to act, dance, and create more. I want to do everything. Vespyr was a character who read, devoured books, devoured her world, and that, I think, was always there, but I was just afraid to ask for permission. Vespyr just went for what she wanted.

‘The Life of Chuck’ points to how these fleeting moments with people we don’t know, Janice being one of them, can shape us. Does anyone come to mind when you think of people who have impacted you?

All of the teachers in my life. Every single one. My many dance teachers, my Muay Thai coach, my high school teachers, my friends teach me a lot. I want to surround myself with people who inspire me to grow. My dad, my mom, obviously.

You’ve worked with director Mike Flanagan before in ‘Ouija’ and ‘Oculus’. What was it like working with him this time around?

I was nervous, weirdly. Even though I had worked with him twice before, he had never seen me dance in person and, because there is that mutual respect and love between us, I didn’t want to let him down. That’s the kind of pressure I love because it brings out the best in me. Working with Mike this time, I noticed a sort of nervousness or butterflies in him as well because he’d never done anything like this before. The way he charges so fearlessly into the unknown inspired me and gave me the courage to do what I did as well.

This movie was a real turning point in your career, having not known if acting was something you wanted to continue pursuing. Has it been as fulfilling as you hoped?

It’s crazy because the minute I stopped expecting it to fulfil me, it became fuller. I don’t expect anyone or any job to fulfil me. Not saying that it doesn’t add to my happiness, but that break where I was questioning, is this something that I should even continue doing? I was constantly comparing myself to other people in this field – I should be where they’re at if I’ve been doing this since I was, you know, eight or nine. Once I stopped and looked inward, instead of outward, it all fell into place really beautifully. I really think the only things that can truly fulfil you in life, and have fulfilled me, are truth, justice, peace and love, and nurturing those things in my own life, and not looking for something external to fulfil that.

Do you think your approach to acting or your view of acting has changed after this?

It’s just different. Before, it was absolutely my job, and I was driven by it, by a desire to succeed. Now, the desire is to be truthful no matter what. I needed time to truly expand my gratitude for the career I’ve had and the people who have helped me get here. When you start so young, and I’ve been working consistently, it’s easy to take that for granted. I needed time, and now I can say without a shadow of a doubt, this is what I’m meant for.

You need the suffering sometimes. If everything’s great and hunky dory, you’re not probably sitting back and asking yourself, what is my purpose? Why is this happening? People don’t question prosperity as much as they do adversity. When they encounter suffering, it’s, “Why me?” There’s value in that questioning, and I think that’s what ‘The Life of Chuck’ shows us is the moments of suffering can be redeemed with a moment of joy and dancing in the street. How suffering and joy are complementary.

And, if we were watching the life of Annalise, what could we expect to see?

It’s so interesting as an actress to think, what is my life in a movie? To play it back in your head like that. My parents were so good at sculpting and giving me all the tools I would need to pursue this life or career path. My whole childhood in Missouri, my mom would encourage us to go outside. My dad is a lawyer, and he was very pragmatic and wanted us to ask questions about everything. So, I would say my whole story is about curiosity and discovery all within the context of pursuing truth.

The first chapter of that would be my parents planting the seeds to constantly be curious, constantly challenging yourself. The second chapter, that’s the chapter I’m in, is finally understanding what the yield of that crop means. Then, hopefully, continuing to sow those seeds for the rest of my life. I have no idea what the future holds; that’s why I’m not afraid of it anymore. I’m not trying to plan for it anymore. I am just curious to discover what it has in store. You only get one life. I want to put my hands on it all and experience it all.

I can see that curiosity also in being someone of so many talents, from acting to dancing, mai tai, and crocheting. If you could convince people to pick just one of them, which one would you recommend?

Dance. I have two categories for dancing – professional dancing and having a good time. Even if you’re just having a good time, go out, take a hip hop class – something that’s completely different and intimidating and weird. Look like an idiot. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

If you’re experiencing joy and people are laughing at you, whatever. It’s your joy, your life. It’s your experience. I think we give other people too much weight, and surrender so much of our identity and joy to how other people define it. I don’t want to do that anymore. I spent so much of my life just going, I’m going to just tuck myself away. There’s no fun in that. I’m not going to try to be a chameleon and be what this person wants. There’s no truth in that, no self in that either. There’s just adapting, which isn’t bad. When you try to please so many other people, you just lose what life’s about.

Does it take you a while to build up the courage to do something new, or is it instant?

There’s a good fear that’s a motivator, like the fear of the unknown. I go towards that. But the fear of stagnation is a fear that I don’t want to touch. I’ve experienced it a couple of times, and I just pick up a new skill, not coming from a place of, I’m afraid to do anything, because it’s nice to do nothing sometimes, pet the cat and drink coffee in bed. But life is too beautiful, and it feels like time is going by so fast. With all the things that I want to do and with how much life there is to live, it’s coming from a greedy place, not a fearful place.

I mean, the play, I put that up, rehearsed it, staged it, all the things, in a month and a half. I was like, “Why am I doing this? It’s not going to go anywhere.” It took me a while to write it because I had that attitude. But there’s this idea here, and I need to nurture it. Then at the beginning of March, I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to do it. I’m going to call the venue because I saw a choreographer showcase there, and I’m going to ask them if they even have the technology to do plays.” The worst thing they could say is no. I called and they were like, “Yeah, we do that here, what days would you like it? And I was like, it’s that easy?

I realised how easy it is to just do stuff, so now, I feel a little guilty waiting. There’s no board of people that you have to go through to create. It’s just a matter of will power, discipline and drive. I have a firm belief that there are so many artists out there, but it’s not easy to be one, because I think it’s easier for people to just surrender to the mundane. It’s a career of mental fortitude. I keep seeing these cheesy Instagram reels pop up of obsession beats talent every day; it’s a matter of drive. But it absolutely is.

What’s coming next? Are there other genres you’d like to portray in a character or avenues you’d like to go through in film or in your life?

I am producing, directing and starring in a short film this summer that my writing partner, Nicholas Goldstein, wrote. I’m so excited for that because I wrote, directed, and produced a play in March, and it was successful in that, I just want to start conversations about things that I’m passionate about. It’s not even about creating something necessarily good; it’s about executing a vision.

I want to bring to life whatever is in my head. Definitely, in the future, exploring what it is to be behind the camera, in a more developmental view. Not saying I’m going to put acting aside, I’m going to try to do it all. Why not? It’s a wonderful thing to know one’s limitations. I just haven’t found them yet, and I’m not going to stop until I do. We have nothing to lose right now. We have no idea what the future holds. I think the world just desperately needs more artists right now.

After speaking to you, that’s fitting. There’s no better way to grow than experiencing things.

That, and I might do the short film and realise, I can stage a play, but directing a film is something maybe I don’t enjoy or I’m not good at. I’m not afraid to say this is something I’m not good at because then there’s room to grow, and then I’ll weigh, is this something I should continue practicing? Do I just need more time?

My dad always said, analyse your wins as deeply as your losses. If you win and something’s a success, you never really ask yourself why but with your losses, it’s easier to grow from that because at least you know what to work on next. I don’t know how this film is going to turn out. It’s really ambitious, and I’m assembling a group of people who really believe in me and the project. There’s again, the pressure that I felt working with Mike, a pressure of wanting to create a foundation for all of these artists to do what they do best. So I’m really looking forward to that, to a new experience.

I worked on a show called ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ at the beginning of the year. I don’t know when that’s coming out, but I’m hoping to be part of every genre. I haven’t done a period piece yet, I don’t think. I mean, ‘Ouija, Origin of Evil’ was one of Mike’s films that took place in the Sixties, but I want to do period period. I was going to say I want to be this character so bad, but it’s in one of my favourite books, and I want to adapt it, so I’m not going to say anything about it.

‘The Life of Chuck’ is in theatres now.

photography. Michael Spencer
talent. Annalise Basso
casting. Alabama Blonde
hair + make up. Janelle Walker
interview. Rhea Lobo