MASIELA LUSHA

Many countries had a hand in raising me. I am the product of many contradicting philosophies and cultures... My entire universe is comprised of these foreign traditions. If any one of these experiences are to be ignored, I wouldn't be the same.

As an actress, if you find inspiration through my work, then my job is complete.

I often feel like a pretender when wearing makeup. The most beautiful features in a woman are her character and her experiences. Why hide that?

I find time to write the way kids find time to ride their bikes.

There's always an added element of a poem when it's read aloud because then you can really hear the rhythm, and the cadence, and even the pronunciation sometimes adds another layer to the poem.

I feel like I try not to limit myself. So every experience so far, I've just gone headlong into.

I feel it is our inherent duty as a humane society, above any intangible responsibility, to invest in our world's children's potential, passion and confidence.

I know that there's this one Albanian myth that's always reflected on, and I think it reflects on the actual core culture. That myth is called The Besa. B-E-S-A. The Besa is a word that Albanians use to mean avow, but it's such a strong promise, that even past death, one cannot break that promise. It is unfathomable. So if you give someone your besa, life or death, heaven or hell, you have to fulfill that besa.

Bound in primal longings, we pine to be understood by ourselves.

I always have to do more to contribute to society.

I always feel vulnerable talking about the poetry aspect of my career because it's little diary entries that I need to sometimes close read, and to reveal that much, it's a bit nerve-racking.

We're renting the space that we call Earth, so we may as well just go for it.

Being as restless as I am by nature, I couldn't simply just be on set, wait for my turn to rehearse for the week. And I kept reading, but it wasn't enough for me.

Through my former experiences, writing poetry and learning other languages leading up to English I find ways to stitch words together that may seem a bit odd, but somehow, sometimes they do work.

I'm actually very spiritual.

I'm an actress, primarily. I love to write poetry. I've been writing poetry since I was 12 years old.

That's the best part about being an actor though. One of the rewarding aspects of it is you're actually traveling in parts of the world that one wouldn't necessarily go to just because it's so far removed, but also like even beyond the metropolitan areas. You're in the woods.

I've been to Asia, but I'd love to go to Thailand. I'd love to go to some rural areas in China.

I'm thinking like the character in order to be as authentic as I can. But after a while, how would I be able to cleanse myself from this unless I do something that's a different medium but also creative. That's what I do. It's my little ritual. After every filming, I just write a poem about it and my character specifically and I can let her go.

I'm not religious, and I feel that has to do with me being uprooted so many times in my life that I've explored many religions and sentiments from many different families basically across the globe.

If I'm not writing a poem to decompress from my experiences on a movie set, I usually just cook and it's like meditative. Especially since I'm at the stage now where I don't really use measuring cups. Kind of instinctual, I just kind of prepare my own dishes as I go along.

Sometimes I feel too transparent in my poetry, but that's what I think the beauty of poetry is, because as transparent as the author can be, it's usually only a reflection of what the reader can interpret, and based on their own personal experiences.

I participated in many different rituals, but for me, I'm very spiritual and I believe that there's definitely be a greater force that defines us and leads us. For sure. No question for me.

I think going back to school, studying as much as you can, especially literature and close reading some of the most beautiful works. You can always apply that to acting.

My mom makes this amazing little snack that, to this day, I still think about. It's pita bread wrapped with melted butter, feta cheese, and cucumbers. That, to me, is still heaven. It's my childhood.