Elaine Madsen: The Gallagher family is kind of the poster child for dysfunction isn’t it?
Isidora Goreshter: I would agree! One hundred percent. There is a Frank Gallagher that exists in so many families.
Even if you are not a Frank Gallagher or a Fiona – you KNOW one;. you know these people exist. It’s almost cathartic in a way to watch the show to see how we navigate through all these problems.
EM: That could just be the explanation for the shows popularity.
IG: As outlandish as our family is, the problems with which we are confronted are so real; everything from poverty, to addiction, to mental health homosexuality, coping with things of the modern day draws people to the show.
EM: The look of the show is so authentically Chicago. How much time are you there shooting?
IG: We shoot six episodes in Burbank and then we go to Chicago for about a week. 95 percent of what you see as exteriors is really Chicago…Chicago, the city is a character in the show and so much a part of who these characters are. I was there for my first time in December. I had dreamed of going to Chicago since I was a little girl and it did not disappoint.
EM: Originally Svetlana, came from outside the Gallagher family. From the prostitute we met in the beginning, which was two pregnancies ago, one failed arranged marriage ago, and a “breast milk sweatshop”, she’s arrived, wholly one of the family.
IG: All of us are the sum parts of our journey, of we are who we are today; both positive or negative. She’s believable, honest, and human… Her harshness, her brutal honesty comes from a very honest place within her. She’s unapologetic about who she is.
EM: Where did you go in yourself to find Svetlana?
IG: To play a character like this you have to find the darkness in yourself and turn it up. In order to be Svetlana I have to find the dark place in Isidora, does that make sense?
EM: Indeed, yes. Playing a complex character like Svetlana and not have her darkness creep into one’s own family life can be a juggling act for an actor.
IG: Trying to balance being a working actor, a mom and a wife, it’s all very new to me. I’m working at keeping that balance, by keeping fresh, and by going to acting classes. I teach some as well, though I feel odd even calling myself a teacher because I’m learning so much from my fellow actors all the time.
EM: Sounds like a very satisfying personal life you’ve established. Tell me, if you had a dinner party, who would you invite, Living or dead?
IG: Definitely Oscar Wilde, also Marlon Brando, that would make for fascinating conversation. I would just listen, I’d serve the tea and watch them go at it. Also maybe Elon Musk. Such a modernization figure vs such old school individuals; would be fascinating to see them come together.
EM: Think how amazed they would all be by where we are technologically, or maybe jealous?…
IG: Or frightened? Sometimes I’m frightened at the speed -of social media and where children are getting their information. I’m so old school I think I was born in the wrong era, I feel like such an old soul. I tend to stall myself with social media, I still like writing letters and I still pick up the phone to call somebody.
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Elaine Madsen
- Photography
- Alissa Pagels
- Retouching
- Brianna Kish
- Styling
- Rachel Jimenez
- Hair & Makeup
- Jean Ramos. assistant
- Hair & Makeup
- Paula Heckenast
