Meet Jenna Ciralli | Actor & Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenna Ciralli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenna, looking back, what do you think was the most difficult decision you’ve had to make?
In pre-pandemic 2019, my husband and I moved from Brooklyn to my homestate of Montana after building up our careers and communities for 13 years in NYC. I formed from age 24-37 there. The city gave me Professional Actor Studio Training (Meisner Technique) with Terry Knickerbocker, taught me how to produce my own work, gave me a profound sense of community/family and wonderful friends, the resilience to handle constant rejection, the ability to learn how to self-validate, a continued liberal arts education and an excellent therapist. I never, in a million years, expected to grow out of the seductive, thrilling epicenter that is NYC. But we did. We had a steady month-to-month routine but we couldn’t expand. Leaving New York was not easy. I felt a deep terror that everything I had worked so hard for as an Actor, Writer and Producer would fall away. The move required a cliff-jumping-kind-of-trust in who I am within, not wholly defined by place. Montana turned out to be a great blessing and indeed helped my husband and I expand. He went from bartender to owner of his own Italian restaurant “Campione” with two partners. I got my SAG card in Montana and have been a working actor for the past 2 years on projects coming into a state with a burgeoning Film & TV presence. I am presently in pre-production on a Western Ghost Story feature film “Clara Boone,” that I am creating with MSU professor and filmmaker, Cat Dale. I guess one cannot hold onto the idea of an old life chapter when a new one calls to you. You must go where the energy is. It may not look like the “right” path or the idealized version in your head but it will be your authentic path and call you if you are listening. No place solves a career – I find what an individual does within a community is what is real.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am an Actor, Writer and Producer in Film/TV and Theatre. Acting is my true passion but I am also a Creator and a Filmmaker that wears many hats. Over time, I have developed as many skills as I can  to bring a story forth. If there’s any method to my madness, it is saying yes before no and having to figure out new ground on the fly with good hearted intentions. I am a trained actor of 25 years but an autodidact when it comes to the writing and producing.

I love taking the journey inside out with a film — that is, beginning with a deeply embedded feeling that needs “airing” so to speak — an experience that I am still digesting on a human level. Then I take that seed and stubbornly and loyally see it through to 5 stages of rebirth: in the script, on set in production, in the edit, in the sound design and finally, to the audience. What is the most personal is also the most universal. I am really interested in telling narratives of underrepresented voices in the Western landscape via the female gaze. I also like playing misunderstood, quirky outcasts. Cat Dale and I are examining women who fall into that category in our feature “Clara Boone.” This also is explored in my short “Willow Creek Road,” directed by Francesca Mirabella. Square pegs in the round holes of society. I definitely relate to that. And the heightened beauty and structure that story provides is a safe place to explore that part of oneself. For me, story is survival.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Livingston, MT near the Paraside Valley and Yellowstone National Park. My husband’s Italian restaurant “Campione,” is downtown with farm to table “Montalian” cuisine. You can taste the love in the food and the ethically-sourced local meat and produce that comes to them. My Mom, Mona Lewis, and I deliver organic produce to them from her Paradise Permaculture Institute. I love to begin a day with a Campione brunch, grab a coffee at Eastside Coffee in Livingston, followed by a hike in Paradise Valley at Pine Creek and then finish with a soak at Chico Hot Springs. Whiskey afterwards at The Old Saloon on the way home…

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband, Jeffrey Galli, and my beautiful Livingston and Bozeman communities that bring art, integrity, craft, trade and environmental awareness to the area and one another.

Website: www.jennaciralli.com

Instagram: @jennaciralli

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenna.ciralli/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Csevw0ahs

Image Credits
Homestead poster by Nathaniel Peterson Willow Creek Road poster by Julie Asriyan Clara Boone poster by Cat Dale Photo with black hat by Marcelle Pallais Photo with no hat by Sean Turi Flower and dress photo by Gloria Goni