Back when my acting career was peaking, I did a short student film with now-graduated Lily Abagyan ’09. Bridget Saracino was my co-star, and we shared a totally steamy on-screen peck. I’m sorry you had to find out like this, Tori. Moral of the story, she out-acted me so badly that I was forced into retirement for two full years, and have been relegated to semi-pornographic public service announcements on the rare occasion I do get work. Just kidding, mostly. But Bridget has gone on to become one of Cornell’s premier student actors, most recently taking the lead role in Precious Little a story that wraps gorillas, language preservation, and artificial insemination all into a succinct and sublime 90 minutes. Bridget plays the protagonist, Brodie, a lesbian linguist approaching middle age who has decided to have a child, all while balancing taboo romances and senile Eastern Europeans with varying levels of success. I sat down with Bridget on Monday to hammer out the intricacies of her method.

The Sun: Tell me about Precious Little. How’d you originally get involved?

Bridget Saracino: Well, I’m a theater major, and I basically audition for every show that I can. I really like to be working.

Sun: How does it compare to other Cornell productions that you’ve been a part of?

B.S.: This was a really interesting experience because it was directed by a student, Myles Rowland ’11. He was given a main stage slot and great set designers and was able to really come at the project as a professional director. And the play itself is really fascinating — it was written by an alumna, Madeleine George ’96. 

Sun: And she actually sat in on some of the rehearsals, right?

B.S.: Yeah, at the beginning they had workshops with her and she also came to opening. Really the coolest lady ever, very chill. Madeleine was very open to letting the actors take her script and run with it, she didn’t come in with any sort of omnipotent entitlement as the playwright or anything. For a lot of their productions, Cornell usually chooses plays from the Western canon, classical stuff like Shakespeare — we have Molière coming up next with The Learned Ladies — so it was a very fresh and interesting experience to break away from that with Precious Little. 

Sun: So how did having a student director compare to some of your other productions where you would be working under an adult rather than a peer?

B.S.: Every director has their own style, but Myles is really great to work with because he understands that from an actor’s perspective — and he understands that every actor, too, has their own way of doing things. He gave us a lot of creative freedom but would step in whenever he saw that we needed help, and he had a very unique vision for the show of a meta-theatrical, abstract, liminal space. It’s a piece that raises a lot of questions — so many people had questions after the shows. The last night we were performing, an old man came up to me and said, “So you turned into a gorilla at the end!” I mean, maybe I did. I don’t know. He just kept going, it was…

Sun: Old people are so dumb. They are just gorilla-crazy, every one of them. 

B.S.: Precious Little is a play that can leave you with a lot of different interpretations; it’s brilliant like that. And I think Miles handled that beautifully and was able to accommodate all those possibilities without compromising the play’s messages. 

Sun: You’re someone who has tackled both theatre and film as an actress. What definable differences have you been able to identify between the two and which do you end up preferring?

B.S.: I definitely feel more comfortable with theatre. Film is really hard, because you can’t ever overdo it.

Sun: You’re always stopping and starting, it’s hard to maintain any sort of emotional continuity while you’re acting.

B.S.: I think it’s a lot harder to do film … you have to show and feel everything while only acting with your eyes. And the camera’s so close that it’s always obvious when you’re not completely invested. I can’t even stand to watch myself on film.

Sun: So I take it you were raised in a primarily theatrical household?

B.S.: Both my parents did community theatre. This is really corny, but they met in a community theater show. Even when I was a little kid, my mom would look and audition for parts that had, like, a woman with a child and carry me up on stage —

Sun: That’s really weird.

B.S.: It’s so weird. 

Sun: Super creepy. Have you messed around with any other artistic disciplines to inform your acting?

B.S.: I did a lot of pottery in high school, which I really loved and miss now. I started doing ceramics a little bit here at Willard Straight, but I haven’t had that much time this semester. There were some musicals in high school, too —

Sun: You can sing?

B.S.: Sort of. Not really.

Sun: You wanna do it now? 

B.S.: Not a chance. 

Sun: Fair enough. Being a part of Cornell’s acting community for a few years now, have you noticed any significant trends or changes during your time here?

B.S.: Well, obviously there are the budget cuts [to the Department of Theatre, Film, an Dance] that were enacted last year. I don’t want to say it’s a battle, but it has definitely turned to be a point of tension. There are a couple of different camps, but one of the silver linings of the whole situation is that a lot of student work has come out of the hardships. I really appreciate and love that because there are a lot of theater spaces that are left unused and a lot of students who aren’t willing to commit the time needed to use a main stage. It’s great to see people come from all over campus and all these different majors create something collaborative. So I really like the idea of a student-based initiative. One of the things that’s really going to be missed, however, are the RPTAs (Resident Professional Teaching Assistants) — basically professional actors that are hired to teach acting classes. I’ve learned more from the RPTAs than anything else during my time at Cornell, taking classes, working in shows with them, having outside sessions, workshops — I mean, I wouldn’t ever be prepared to enter the world of acting without them.

Sun: Respect. What do you have coming up? 

B.S.: I’m actually working on a short film with two friends, Caitlin Cowie ’13 and Linda Barsi ’11. I think it’s called Scripted, and it looks like it’s going to be really fun. And at the end of the week, The Learned Ladies starts. I just have a bit part, so I get to hang out with my ukulele and have fun. 

Sun: I’m sorry what?

B.S.: Yeah, I have a tiny soprano ukulele and uh … yeah

Sun: I gotta say, if I was gonna equate you with one instrument, it would’ve been ukulele.

B.S.: I get that a lot.