Angela Sarafyan to star in "A Beautiful Life" Oct. 2

Published: Wednesday September 16, 2009

Angela Sarafyan in A Beautiful Life.
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New York - In A Beautiful Life, which opens in New York City on October 2, Maggie (Angela Sarafyan) is a teenage runaway fleeing her family; David (Jesse Garcia) is a teenage illegal immigrant in search of his. When their paths cross, both are alone in the City of Angels, a place where some come to dream and others to hide.

A bus drops off Maggie in downtown Los Angeles late one night. She is unsure of where she's going; she only knows that she's not going back home. After wandering the dangerous streets for hours, she finally falls asleep in the one place that seems safe – the garbage dump behind a strip club. It's there that she's discovered by David, who works as a janitor at the club. He brings her in to let her use the bathroom and a kind stripper, Esther (Bai Ling), takes pity on Maggie, cleaning her up and begging David to take her home that night so she has a warm place to sleep.

Maggie and David at first are suspicious of each other, but soon find they have more in common than they think and realize that their only chance of survival in the city may be if they stick together. In spite of themselves, they fall in love and together they struggle to find the courage to dream and hope again. Their blossoming love eventually lowers their defenses, allowing them to reveal their painful pasts to each other.

Along the way they encounter hunger, desperation, and danger. However, they also find kindness in a local librarian, Susan (Debi Mazar), and the family they never had with Esther.

But when Maggie seeks out her mother's (Dana Delany) help, the truth catches up and she has to decide to face her past or keep running.

A Beautiful Life reminds us that a life is not just the singular story of one person. Rather, it is the story of all the lives that intersect with our own and enrich it.

Angela's interest in movies and acting began very early. She says:

"Ever since I was four years old, I loved movies. This may sound ridiculous, but some of the very first films that had a profound affect on me were The Terminator, Terminator 2, and Robocop. I remember watching Arnold Schwartzenegger die and thinking, 'that's where I want to be, in a different world, in this other life, even if I must die for it.'

"My father told me it wasn't real, but I wouldn't believe him. I did see Arnold die with blood. But the next thing you know, he is playing Danny DeVito's twin. I tried to convince my father that he must have done the movie before The Terminator; but eventually I believed my dad. And decided that I wanted to be an actor.

"My father was an actor, and he did not take me seriously – I also wanted to be a ballerina, a truck driver, a teacher, doctor, a store clerk, mother, a pediatrician, a mechanic, a cook, an astronaut, a scientist, an angel, a smurf (I liked where the smurfs live).

"I loved all the cartoons – Tom and Jerry, certainly Tom was my favorite – and I wanted to be a part of that family. Maybe Tom could be my cat, and I could be Donald Duck's girlfriend; I loved Donald from the Disney Cartoons, and the Looney Tunes.

"So, now you can understand the mind of a four year old, or maybe just my mind, and why my dad didn't take me seriously. But you see, through acting I could live these lives. OK, maybe not Donald Duck's girlfriend, but it's always fun to live in my imagination."