BBFF Interview: Maarja Johanna Mägi
"Well, this profession depends a lot on luck. If you happen to be in the right place and someone who just needs your type of acting will see you."
The Boston Baltic Film Festival runs in-person from 3/1 through 3/3 at the Emerson Paramount Center and will continue virtually through 3/18. Click here for the schedule and ticket info, and watch the site for Joshua Polanski’s continuing coverage!
Maarja Johanna Mägi is one of the most exciting young actors working in Estonia. She was acknowledged as such with the Bruno O’Ya Stipend for Internationally Acknowledged Estonian Talent award at the last Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF). She also won Best Actress at the 2023 Estonian Film and Television Awards (EFTA) for her role in Melchior the Apothecary. She’s also busy on stage. In 2022, she won the Vanemuine Colleague Award for being the busiest actor of the year with a tiring 67 plays. That business is felt on the screen too with her four appearances in films being shown at this year’s Boston Baltic Film Festival: the three Melchior films and Faulty Brides.
She’s especially engaging with her role as Keterlyn in the Melchior trilogy, a medieval mystery series not unlike Sherlock Holmes. Her Keterlyn is animated, bubbly, flirty, and stubborn, a perfect complement to Märten Metsaviir’s more serious Melchior. Mägi acts with a contagious amusement that makes her a joy to watch.
The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Boston Hassle: I’d like to start a bit playful, if that’s okay. Would you tell me something fun about you that most people don’t know?
Maarja Johanna Mägi: Oh, [gosh]… For an Estonian, it’s quite natural, but I like to be in nature a lot. Alone in nature. I [also] like to travel alone. I think that’s not something many people do.
BH: Why do you prefer to travel alone?
MJM: Maybe it’s like an egocentric thing. You can do whatever you want when you’re traveling alone and to go wherever you like. I feel it’s like a restart to go somewhere where you have never been. And you are with people you have never met. So it’s like totally in a new environment with new people. That’s what I like.
Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.