An Interview with Palina Rojinski from ‘Where’s Wanda?’

Palina Rojinski in "Where's Wanda?," now streaming on Apple TV+.

Palina Rojinski is an accomplished actor that has appeared on both the silver and small screen. Currently, she stars as Karatina Vinson on the new Apple TV+ series, Where’s Wanda?, and we here at NTG had the honor of sitting down with Palina to discuss her work on the show.
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John Betancourt: I'm very curious to start off by getting to know what attracted you to this project as an actor.
 
Palina Rojinski: It was, it was a pretty special thing because it's the first German production, it's the first Apple TV German production, yes. And so, everybody was super excited. And, you know, the talk of town was already, was already around like, “Oh, Apple is planning a German TV series, really, but the production should be also German.” And then everybody was super excited. So, under the actors, it was pretty, pretty special to be part of the project. And yeah, so when I was invited to the casting, I was very happy. And also, I know our female CEO in Germany, Francisca, and Francisca and me were talking about, “Yeah, let's do some cool stuff where we can do a little bit women empowerment stuff” and things like that. And so yeah. And now here we are.
 
John Betancourt: Yes, here we are, and I think one reason this show has been so wonderful to watch is that you and the entire cast do such an amazing job just selling this world of grief and loss and all this thoughtfulness. And I'm very curious how you as an actor, created that depth and created that realism.
 
Palina Rojinski: For Katarina…. Katarina is… she's like, on the surface, she's perfect. She looks at every time of the day, she looks perfect. Like, I think, that she has a private makeup and hair master who's doing her makeup and hair in the morning, and also, like her private cosmetics in the evening. So, for her, it's super important that everybody has a good opinion about her, and for me, but also, her family is also so perfect. So, for her, it's important her husband, who's this dance master and has his dancing school, and the children they have, they have like these perfect looking children, and everybody is just like superheroes, almost, (Laughter) like not human and through the series, she gets a turn, so you don't know what to expect about her. I think everybody knows in their neighborhood, a person like Katarina, who is like, “Oh, look at her. What!? At that time, she looks like that already?”
 
By the way, I don't… don't look like that when I wake up in the morning, yeah? (Laughter) So when we were in the makeup for the for the series, for the shooting, I needed two hours. Let's be honest, to look like Katarina, and for me, it was very interesting and inspiring to play the role of a character which is so strategic and so un-emotional, in kind of way. So, she is emotional, but you don't, you never know, is it real, or isn't it? So, the role is very curious but on the same time, she like she doesn't want to let anybody come too close to her. And so that's the tension. That's the tension that the that the audience wants to know, what is it about Katarina?
 
John Betancourt: What have you enjoyed the most about playing her so far?
 
Palina Rojinski: For me, it was interesting to play her with… to try to play it without any emotions, or with, like, fake emotions, like, because she doesn't, you know, in Germany, we say she doesn't like that somebody's looking into her cards. Zeigt ihre karten, she doesn't show her cards, so you never know what to expect about her. So, when she is meeting Dedo and Carlotta, she's like, “Oh, I'm suffering with you, and how are you?” But at the same time, it's like this, there's something lying underneath, and you never know. How does she mean it? Is it like, really her, or does she have a deep secret, and to play her, always with this in the background, to have a big secret, that was super interesting for me.

John Betancourt: Obviously this show has a lot of messages in this story, which I really appreciated the depth of it. And I'm curious, what if there's one particular message you hope the audience takes away from this, what would that be?
 
Palina Rojinski: Don’t rush your prejudices. You have to find out what’s beneath the surface.
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for you today, what are you most proud of when it comes to what you've accomplished in season one as an actor?
 
Palina Rojinski: I think the big scene where she's standing on the big stage, and she's having her big speech at the Wandafest, and she's having the speech about the neighborhood and that she announces she is going to run for Mayor. And it was, it was very cold on that day when we were filming. It was already autumn. But in Germany, we have also this golden autumn, where it's pretty warm and beautiful outside and sunny. But exactly on this shooting, filming day, it was super cold and rainy, and we were like, “Oh no, we have to play the summer fast.” But our company and our organization, they were very fast. So, they organized everything. It was warm, we had tea, we had umbrellas and everything, and so to play this day at the Wandafest… but that's why it's a show, and I think we did it pretty well and had a very good time.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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