- Cinequest Film Festival - Camera 12 Theaters - San Jose, CA - 03/2010
 Daisy Payero is a New York actress who first appeared in the indie film, “Cellar,” by Steve Staso. Daisy is an actress, performance artist, puppeteer, dancer, and more. We got a chance to chat with her at the recent Cinequest Film Festival 20 in San Jose, CA, after the premiere of “Cellar.”
K2K: How long have you been acting?
DP: I’ve been in the theater world for the last 12 years. I’ve been part of a repertory theater company in New York City, which is also a larger organization. We’re called the Society Of Theater Arts, Inc. We do after school programs, and degreed programs. Many times I teach art with them as well. And we’re also a puppet company. We are members of the Puppeteers Of America. Our director is one of the big time members of UNIMA [Union Internationale de la Marionette], which is one of the big puppeteer organizations of the world.
K2K: How long have you been into puppeteering?
DP: Since I was about 7 years old.
K2K: Are you doing stick puppets?
DP: We do different styles. We do Bunraku, which is a typical ancient Japanese style. It takes place with the master puppeteer, who doesn’t cover his face. He is the lead actor of the play. He has his helper puppeteers, all dressed in black, with black masks. They are not to be seen. It takes more than one puppeteer to exercise one character. It takes place on a platform type of scenario. Usually the typical style takes a live actor or musician as part of the show. There is a script, and the puppeteers are doing the show. There is a show that we did last year called, “The Toothache Of King Farfan,” which was a life-sized puppet show. It was a medieval story. It had live actors with a live band. We had a five-piece band, and six actors on stage, and then six puppeteers on stage, and the puppets.
Then we also do hand puppets, like the typical Muppet style, where we follow every syllable, and using your hands as a mode of transportation. Like the Jim Henson style, where the mouth moves, “Blah, blah, blah.” It’s called the Big Mouth Puppet.
K2K: What do you call the puppets on sticks?
DP: Rod puppets. They have the rod behind the head, and sometimes on the arms, to manipulate the movements. They’re kind of like marionettes, except they are not attached by strings.
K2K: Do you do marionettes as well?
DP: We do marionetting as well, and Shadow Puppeteering. And Punching Judy style.
K2K: What is your favorite?
DP: My favorite is the show that we did, “The Toothache Of King Farfan.” It’s a huge show. The puppets are heavy, about 30-40 pounds each. Basically it’s like a second body in front of you. The bodies are shaped, with foam and wire, the size of a human body. The head is the size of a human head. It’s traditionally made of foam, with a latex covering. So then it’s very flexible and it looks like skin, and you paint it. I helped build these puppets. It was a huge size show. It was almost a normal size theater show. We’re basically standing with robes wrapped around us, and the puppet in front of us, and the arms is like this, up above my forehead. I have to hold it like that the whole time. Everything is huge.
K2K: Do you remember the Teletubbies? If I remember correctly, the costumes were 15’ tall.
DP: Wow! That’s huge.
K2K: I had read that the set were huge, with actors inside the Teletubbies’ 15’ tall costumes.
DP: Do you know the guy who does [Sesame Street’s] Big Bird? [Caroll Spinney - Ed.] He’s been doing it for over 30 years. His left arm is above his head [in the 8’2” costume] and attached is a string that attaches to the mouth of Big Bird. The right arm is extended the length of his body, the whole time. It is super hard. It is super hard, and he’s been doing it for 35 years straight.
(Daisy then visually showed how the puppeteer’s body fits and behaves inside the puppet costume.)
K2K: What is your first love? Acting?
DP: Painting. I was about 5 years old, and I was debating between being a doctor or a painter. I was given my first plastic doctor’s kit, and I was in love with it. My mom, who was studying to be a doctor at that time, said, “You want to be a doctor?” and took me with her. A touch of reality as she took me to the morgue when they had classes. And I was there like this - (showing a very shocked appearance) - going, “HUH!?!? Hell no!!! I will not be a doctor!” But then the first love of my life was painting, so I went to school for that. It was kind of by default.
K2K: Any particular styles that you prefer?
DP: I like the old masters. I particularly like Rembrandt. He was the “master of light.” Then I was at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, which is where I saw the “Night Watch,” which is one of my favorite paintings ever, by Rembrandt. So that is kind of my aesthetic. I feel that these guys who paint the light to match the skin, to tell a story in a short moment, with enough movement and enough light to show the truth of that, to capture that moment. They are great masters.
 K2K: How old were you when you got into acting?
DP: When I was about 18, just finishing high school.
K2K: Is [“Cellar”] your first film?
DP: It’s my first film.
K2K: How did director Steve Staso find you?
DP: I was in with my theater company, and he and the other producer came by and said, “We’re looking for an actress” for such and such role, “Would you give us a call?” I told them, “I have to let you know that tomorrow, I am going to Atlanta for two weeks.” They said to call when I got back. I was touring with my theater company. When I got back I called them and got it.
K2K: Is this film going to be released anywhere?
DP: No. Maybe Italy. I’m part Italian.
K2K: What? I thought you’re Irish. [Said jokingly, as Daisy’s appearance is ethnically indescribable.]
DP: Are you kidding? (laughs) Was it the drinking? (laughs)
K2K: Where are you from?
DP: I’m Belize/Indian/Dominican.
K2K: Are you working on any other film projects?
DP: I am not. This film was an unexpected beautiful surprise, that I was so glad to have gotten. Really happy. Having been an actor for the last 12 years, it wasn’t so hard to interpret making a character for whatever storytelling. The fact that I had to do a shot five times, six times, ten times, from 30 different angles, was kind of annoying - as a stage actor, who reads a script, gets ready, you practice, you rehearse, you rehearse, you rehearse, and when you’re on, you’re on. For the next two hours, you’re on. You’re not going to stop to cut, and do it again. But I appreciated it, because it taught me a whole new way of acting that I hadn’t been exposed to before. It was a whole new discipline. At the beginning, after three takes, I would get really bored of the line, because it never meant anything to me, because I was just reading it. That’s something I had to get in touch with, remembering that this was a different way of interpreting a line. You have to maintain that shot.
K2K: Are you interested in doing more movies?
DP: Oh, I would love to. Oh yes, 100%. I love the movies. When you’re a little girl, standing on a platform, singing, you think yeah, definitely do movies and play a part.
K2K: You prefer stage though.
DP: Yes, I do. There is a certain beauty to entering a moment and going with it, and seeing where it takes you, that is so special about stage acting. In movies, it takes that too, but it takes a different type of detachment, going through five different shots, or ten, of the same thing, the same dimension. Consistency. I love the challenge though.
K2K: Have you done TV?
DP: I’ve never done TV. I’ve done two music videos. I did a Madonna video. In those years, I was in the depth of my punk years, had a ginormous mohawk.
And with that, it was already quite late at night as the party in the hotel was ending and so did our interview. We hope to see more of this multifaceted artist/actor/creator in the near future
- Written by Philip Anderson [with help from Keith Denison]
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