WITHOUT MAKE-UP, WITHOUT MASKS, IN LOVE : BEREN ! IN LOS ANGELES

“I WANT TO BE AN ACTRESS AS LONG AS I AM ALIVE”

Before meeting Beren Saat in Los Angeles, ELLE’s adventure started in Istanbul, and there was excitement on all fronts. NetWork designed a T-Shirt for the benefit of Nar Taneleri project. And this girl you will meet on the cover of ELLE magazine, without any make-up, who is she in reality ? To find the answer to this question, we found her on Los Angeles beach, and she was shining
Everyone has an idea about Beren Saat.
She doesn’t like the crowds, she doesn’t share her private life, and some might consider her as little bit cold and even very reasonable “figure”.
But we encountered a very different Beren : Funny, energetic, comic and in love.
During the days we spent in Los Angeles, and one day after Beren’s photoshoot, we stopped at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and in its courtyard we found a small “proof” of that.
A few meters beyond Rodin’s sculptures -and again- without make-up but looking very beautiful, we enjoyed the afternoon sun of Los Angeles with Beren. Half-way across the world, among the crowds and even far until here, she attracted the attention.
We had in front of us a woman in love with life and who loves to live : Her work, her passions, her relationships that you’re definitely all wondering about !
“Real emotions are needed for acting”

I.S : When our readers will see the cover, they will understand that you will be totally without make-up. Not everyone has enough courage to do such a thing. What did you feel when I suggested this to you, did you have any hesitation ?

B.S : I wanted to do it right away ! It’s been years I haven’t made a magazine cover. 7 years earlier, when I made my first cover, they retouched my nose and my eyebrows, and it didn’t look like me at all. It didn’t look like a 20-year-old Beren, it looked like a completely different woman. I didn’t find myself in it, but whoever saw it idealized it. I didn’t like this pretty girl, and I didn’t want to see myself in this way. These retouches change how I look or make me look like all these look-alike women. I don’t want to be like that. So I had this struggle in my life: I saw one of the photos that we took yesterday, and I felt that this is really me, it made me feel good. For a woman to be beautiful, she doesn’t need soggy glowing lips or high-heeled shoes ! Shooting for a cover in a white T-shirt with a big smile, under the light of the sun, can make a person feel very beautiful. To the saying ” the more I apply make-up and glitter, the more I will look beautiful”, there is a response that might help : “A big smile will make you look beautiful”

I.S : ELLE’s shooting is for the first cover you will make after so many years. Our photographer Kayt Jones, is an English photographer living in Los Angeles. We’re so excited to be working with both of you for the first time. How was your set experience ?

B.S : This was my first photo shoot since 2-3 years, that’s why it was a little problematic for me. But Kayt Jones is great ! The shooting day was so enjoyable, Kayt is very easy and sweet and she has a lot of energy. The styling, the place, and all the details… everything made me feel very happy, everything was very beautiful.

I.S : Was it your childhood dream to become an actress ?

B.S : Yes, it always was. As a child, I used to read stories, enter their world and play the characters. If I didn’t want to be in a certain place, I would read a children’s novel, imagine that I am one of the characters and play it. In fact, I created my own little games.

I.S : Becoming famous at a young age has a greater effect, and there are many examples all around the world. When you’re famous and young, it is very difficult to manage your ego. How did you face your own devils ? How did you manage to remain yourself ?

B.S : There were so many ridiculous examples around me, that I used to tell myself “Don’t do this Beren !! Don’t do that neither Beren !”. I had my period of “taking the winds of fame”, but it was also a funny situation. If I was Madonna, there would be no place for me to hide in this world, unless I totally isolate myself, but we’re not like that. My life has changed, of course. Honestly, sometimes I am very embarrassed to go to some places. But still, I am able to walk, hands in my pockets in many places in the streets. Especially that we need to be in contact with life and individuals in order to be able to act and write; because after a certain time, we tend to stop exploring. Everyone in Turkey is constantly under trial. For example, a very good rock musician is seen drunk : But this man, other than being famous, has made and loved music for 30 years. Then he started drinking, chasing the nights which is preventing him from living his life as before, and actually preventing him from being productive, but no one sees this dilemma.
When you’re an actor, you are obliged to touch life. Once you do that, you should be able to achieve a lot of things. Otherwise, throughout your career, you will only be able to play characters who resemble you, and this has become an outdated method in today’s acting. That’s why we have to step on life with our bare feet.

I.S : This reality you are supposed to act, can be very close to yourself and can as well be very far from what you are. How can you join between these 2 extremes and stay the same?

B.S : This balance that exists in acting, is actually very useful for my soul. At times, a human being gets bored from himself, so he gets to experience and explore other places, and finds through other lives, new ways and new adventures. But if your emotions are synthetic, the people facing you won’t accept them. In order to reflect the real feelings, you need to be really living those feelings. Therefore, to succeed in creating this illusion, you have to possess a very good knowledge of the reality. To build this illusion, you have to create another person, but this person still belongs to you and you are bound to use your own real feelings at the same time. This process tells a lot about you, and makes you more humanistic. When you’re trying to find the balance between the illusion and the truth, and your adrenaline rises, you have to simplify things; because you can get extremely enthusiastic while experiencing a lot of new things. Life is full of little bargains, you surpass these games; when people try to play games on you, you can discover it quickly, dissolve all the fuss and reach to the essence more easily.

I.S : Very few actors have achieved this much of consecutive projects as you did, and this year too, you will be starring in the Turkish adaptation of the American hit series “Revenge”. You wanted to take a break from series, and then this very exciting project made you change your mind ?

B.S : It is a really very exciting project. I have never searched for a job based on a particular strategy, and I’ve always taken decisions all by myself. There is a voice inside me that tells me to play a character, and I follow what this voice says. Apart from the actors in a project, there is the dynamism of the developments. That’s why, it is very important to be working with the right people. And it is very important to love the character. Filming a series is not easy at all, that’s why it is impossible to tolerate those 2 years it if you do not love your character. The story is based on The Count of Monte Cristo. But this time, a woman comes back to town in order to take revenge. After Fatmagul, we’re coming back to city stories context. The shootings begin in December, I will be with Mert Firat. I’ve always been lucky concerning my co-partners.

I.S : Yes, a question was commonly asked by the fans, concerning your partner in “Fatmagul’un suçu ne?” Engin Akyurek. How was it working with him ?

B.S : Engin is not new to me. We’ve know each other 8 years ago in a competition. Engin is very professional and disciplined, and it is very easy to be with him on the set. Apart from our friendship, acting with him is very comfortable. There were rumors about fights between us on the set, but the reality is quite the opposite.

I.S : In the meantime, you starred in a movie for the Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, with Monica Belluci, Yilmaz Erdogan and Belçim Bilgin. The movie was shown in festivals and it was appreciated. At the end of this month it will start showing in Turkey. How was it to work with such a multi-national team ?

B.S : I still haven’t seen the movie. But I observed many things on the set. There is a big experience to gain by working in a multinational set, but I also noted that the Turkish cinema sector is not bad. My role is very small, that’s why I don’t want to make a big deal out of the character I played. But the main actors are very special. The great Iranian actor Behrouz Vossoughi hasn’t worked for the past 30 years, he missed acting so much and his appetite was like a lesson to those who witnessed it. Monica’s patience and compliance… both stars have an aura that cannot be explained. It was an experience to be lived.
“I definitely want a child”

I.S : You’re a very hard-working actress. How can you dedicate time for your lover, your friends, your family ?

B.S : In the first place, I am not a person who has a very crowded social surrounding. I generally have my very close friends around me. I have shootings during 15-16 straight hours every day, and between the scenes I’m memorizing or revising my scenario. But the people who really love you deeply won’t hold it against you. You can always find a way to dedicate time for the people who are really valuable to you, by jumping on any opportunity to go somewhere together, or having a 2 minute talk on the phone. Sometimes, relationships are the remedy after the hard work. Sometimes, the problem is resolved when the close ones don’t have expectations in the first place. But I’m definitely not saying this to get forgiveness or to make justifications.

I.S : You’re a young woman. If you want to get married and have children, would you be able to do this job with such an intensity ?

B.S : We have to make a choice between the 2. Our system is not a place where you can have a small baby and work at the same time, because our work is a physical battle. That’s why some people take a 2-3 years break in order to do it. People who have been doing this job for a long time say “I’m so tired now”, and from time to time, we see people leaving this job completely. I definitely want a child, when this day comes, I will seriously consider taking a break.

I.S : OK, so how do you imagine your life 10 years from now ?

B.S : I want kids for sure, but I don’t want to put precise targets in front of my eyes. Until now, life has been good to me; Sometimes it puts too much pressure, but so far, I’ve done a good job in handling these kinds of moments to prevent myself from living big disappointments. That’s why, I do not let myself worry a lot. I am moving cautiously to build my career, and protect my love life, I don’t want to be doing things I don’t feel like doing, just to keep on going with my life. In order to be doing this profession during my whole lifetime, I need to have economical freedom; this plan will allow me to keep on feeding my soul through acting, and to lead a happy life. For the rest, nothing can be scheduled. I let myself go with the flow.
 “Women are forced to fight for everything”
 
I.S : What do you think of the life in Turkey ? Are you comfortable ? Are you happy ?

B.S : I am happy but a little bit nervous too. Of course it is not a pink-painted happiness. Once again we are losing our grays, our moderation; no one listens to “the other”, no one tolerates the other. Religion, race, sharpened politics; we are alarmed by war ideas every day, it scares me a little lately. But living in Istanbul, I love my country very much. I’m not one of these persons who use the stereotyped sentence : “I need to move to somewhere else”. Although it seems that I’m doing a luxurious job, I always tell myself that I can use the power of fame to do a lot of things especially for the women of my country.

I.S : That’s why you’re involved in every social responsibility request. How did you develop such a consciousness ?

B.S : I don’t know how it developed, maybe it’s something that comes naturally from the inside, being a woman. So I started thinking that there are too many things that can be done for the women in our country. Of course there are a lot of people to help, but women have to discover themselves first; and I even think that positive discrimination should be applied towards women. Unfortunately, women are always in the back, and when some women achieve success they face even more opposition. Over the years, I’m understanding more and more the power of what is called “popularity”; You reach people very easily. If you simply say that you love something, people will follow you massively without thinking or judging. That’s why, I should always share the right message when I have a request or a feeling inside me.

I.S : Your fans have the same feelings as you do. Since ever I started checking the social media pages, I noticed that your fans are amazingly behind you: Whatever you do, whatever you say, they are behind you, they give you a 100% support, they are very clear fans. Moreover, you do not have a one-on-one contact with them, so how did this relationship of trust take place ?

B.S : It’s not only me. I believe the same thing happens to a lot of other celebrities. I started realizing the power detained by a famous person, after the first advertising campaign I took part in. Before that, I wasn’t aware of this power: When I became famous, I was still young.
“Kenan and I have the same point of view concerning fame”

I.S : Your energy is very high, you look very good and very happy. Were you always like that, or is it something new ?

B.S : I haven’t had this much vacation since years ! I had very quiet and beautiful months; that’s why I am very happy.

I.S : How does the time pass in Los Angeles ?

B.S : It’s a comfortable city. In cities that have a higher rhythm, you can’t find time to live, you get tired and you loose your energy. Here, the rhythm is a bit slower. That’s why it feels you’re always on vacation when you are here.

I.S : You work so hard, how can you stay so beautiful ? How do you live ? what do you eat ? what do you drink ? Kayt Jones who works everyday with top models couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw you without make-up. Is this a gift from God ?

B.S : Since my childhood, I prefer to eat vegetables and fruits, I am lucky. But of course, it is very hard to preserve this healthy diet while being on the set. But I find a solution to every circumstance. I have learned to control my köfte and bread meals. My grand mother gave me the habit of eating small portions of food at night. I can eat anything as long as it is in small quantities and it makes me happy. I love eating very much, and I eat whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes I gain some weight, sometimes I loose some. If I say that I practice sports regularly I would be lying, because I work 15 hours per day after all.

I.S : Are you a laid back person, or do you get easily disturbed ?

B.S :I think at lot. If you look at me from far, you wouldn’t understand. The people who are close to me can feel me and know how I am. I don’t think the people who work with me would consider me as a stressed out person, because even when I’m stressed, I control myself. I’m patient too. But when I’m stressed, I get stressed from the inside, and a lot of things can disturb my mind.

I.S : Everyone would like to know, is everything on the right track with your new boyfriend Kenan Dogulu ? He is a musician, you’re an actress and both of you are very famous, how is this relationship going on ? How do you preserve your relationship ?

B.S : Because we work in different fields, things work out more easily. But I have to confess that when two celebrities get together, people become crazy around this subject. I had never experienced such a situation in my whole life, I was really surprised. As a couple we are unable to do some things that I might have done all by myself. But we share the same point of view concerning the fame. The past of both of us is out there, we share the burden of fame which makes it feel lighter, we do a lot of humor talking. People who don’t control their egos, lose the importance of the “work-power-reputation” notion, we live our relationship the same way everybody else does. And then there is love of course : We’re in love.

  “The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.” 

 ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

"I must say this quote is very much true for Beren Saat, perfect face of beauty with really very expressing eyes , only celebrity who has guts to show her real face to every one and still looks adorable....

 And other thing that impressed me most is that she didn't wear much makeup as she said in her interview that
 'I AM NOT IN PEACE WITH MAKEUP.'

In her every interview, the most noticeable thing is that
She didn’t say one single unnecessary word. Her words were weighted, shaped.

Her words : "My thoughts are not a rebellion, they just come as a whimper and remain like that." "I don’t like rankings, but yes I am popular, I became popular. But the word “star” is for others, I wouldn’t use this word for myself yet. I’ve chosen this path to become an actress, not to become a celebrity. That was my childhood dream."

all of her statements reflect her beauty of mind, she is not only physically gorgeous but her mind, her nature is as gorgeous as she is"