She grew up between Australia and Lebanon. After a childhood spent on planes, Daniella Rahme (Instagram) let chance and fate lead her to an artistic career in her father’s tiny country. Her achievement put her in the spotlight and allowed her to embark on her other dream job: acting. After several films and series, including Tango, she shines today in a main role in the series Lil Mawt (Till Death). At only 32 years old, by dint of discipline and her dedication to self-improvement, Daniella Rahme is today an inspiration for women all over the Arab world.
Many know Daniella Rahme as Reem, the fierce, determined and rebellious character she plays in Lil Mawt. But we beg to ask — does this character resemble her in real life? Still haunted by her role, the filming of the last scene having only been completed on March 31, she is slowly reconnecting with her true self. Authentic, bright, the green of her eyes is sometimes crossed by the blue shadow of her memories, as she gradually steps back from a character that sticks to her skin. Beneath Reem’s red hair, Daniella is there. She confides in YUNG with sincerity and speaks to you like an old friend you’ve just found again.
Lebanese-Australian, Rahme has, since her childhood, been split between two countries that she calls “home”. From vast Australia to small Lebanon and back, at a very young age she got into the habit of spending large parts of her life in airplanes on long-distance flights. When asked to recount her memories of her early days, she begins with the worst. “It was unstable, all the time moving from one country to another. I went to several schools, at least three,” she confides to YUNG. Surprisingly, the graceful young lady who won the Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2010 trophy in Australia, before going on to succeed in Beirut in the Dancing with the Stars reality show, admits to having been teased during her childhood, “They made fun of my legs, which were too long… and my ears!” Rahme says that she still isn’t entirely over these childhood experiences, “When I was asked, during the cover shoot, to lift my hair and show my ears, I had a moment of hesitation,” she says. Calling attention to her “elf ears,” as her schoolmates called them, is something she hesitates to do, even years later. Apart from the inevitable little cruelties of childhood, she is grateful to have been able to play “virtually all sports” in Australia and especially to take dance classes, her other passion apart from acting. As for her best memories, they are linked to life in the open air, to moments spent on stage and to happy family barbecues.
Clearly, for Rahme, friends and family are her refuge, her anchor, her joy, one of the most important things in her life. Everyone who knows the actress, including her 2.5 million Instagram followers, knows of her devotion to her nephews and nieces. Open the subject, you see waves of tenderness and pride flow out of her. Her nephews are obviously her biggest fans, “They tell me that I am the best actress in the world!” she laughs. “My youngest niece, Avielle, who is only two years old, is very impressed to see me both on screen and in the real world, when one of my films is shown on television and I am with her in the same room. She cries when she sees me in danger, such as in a sequence where I am drowning. She wonders how I change clothes so quickly, from one scene to another,” says the actress.
Which brings up the question that everyone is asking: Is marriage and children of her own on the cards? “I’m fascinated by some of my friends who lead mother’s lives, take care of their children full time, wake up at night… and they are fascinated by my own life, always on the move from one shoot to another. Actually, I would love to get married and have children. But for that, I will have to lower the speed, refocus on myself. Problem is, I find myself at a turning point in my career, which means that this is not possible at the moment. I’m not ready to take the plunge yet,” she tells us. She says she is sometimes annoyed, sometimes amused by people who remind her of the ticking of her biological clock and advise her to hurry. As for the ideal husband, the actress sees him above all as a partner and puts good communication skills at the top of the list. Apart from that, “No one is perfect and everyone has their qualities,” she says, acknowledging that this might be a corny idea, but that it forms her compass when it comes to relationships.
Speaking of wisdom, at a time when people of influence are advocating their diets, their mediation programs and their yoga routines on social networks, when you ask Rahme what makes her feel good, she answers simply “Being with family. And then I have my own spirituality, I pray, I have faith.”
Her faith was certainly there, on August 4, 2020, at 6:08 p.m. The actress was at her home, in Dbayeh, a city by the sea about ten kilometres north of Beirut. She was unenthusiastically preparing to go to the gym. She was exhausted and about to give it up, but Odille, her agent, pushed her to stick to her schedule. So, she got up to go out. She had hardly left the living room when the monstrous explosion at the port of Beirut shook the walls. Everything collapsed. The couch she was sitting on was covered in debris and large shards of glass. “I felt something, at that moment, as if the universe had pushed me to move from where I was,” says the actress.
When asked what horrifies her most in this world, she always comes back to that moment, to her disgust at the irresponsibility, corruption and greed of the few that cause so much suffering to the many. The collapse of Lebanon angers her. “I am often told: “Why do you stay here? You can just go back to Australia, you are lucky to have a second country.” But no! This country is also mine; these people are my people, it is not so easy to tear yourself away from those you love, even in such a situation,” she says.
The flames that shine in her eyes when she remembers this moment recall the flashes in the eyes of Reem, the rebellious heroine of Lil Mawt whom she portrays with rare boldness. The conversation then turns to her career as an actress, but also as a dancer, the two arts being, for her, second nature. One of her favourite roles, she says, was that of Farah, in the series ‘Tango’ directed by Rami Hanna and broadcast in 2018. Obviously, acting and dancing are inseparable for this character.
Despite her passion for the two disciplines, Rahme confides that she had a plan B: journalism, which she studied at university in Australia, just in case. Dancing and acting was where she wanted to start when she returned to Lebanon, where her success at Dancing with the Stars literally made her a star. She immediately received a proposal to host a reality show. But she panicked because of an unexpected hurdle: her Arabic accent was strongly tinged with Australian English, and her vocabulary was a little limited. She needed time to prepare, but the production couldn’t wait. Sometime later, she received another offer for another show. She decided not to let the chance pass her by and took two weeks of intensive courses, at the end of which she was ready to take the plunge, with a perfect accent. A hard worker and a perfectionist, the actress leaves nothing to chance when it comes to her career.
A week after celebrating the last episode of Lil Mawt with the whole team, Daniella Rahme still wears Reem’s red hair. One last link with this character to which she is strongly attached. “I gave a lot to Reem, as she gave me a lot. I still have her hair, I haven’t changed colour. Filming stopped end of March and she still lives in me. I cried when she was sad, I was happy when she was happy, in love when she was in love…what else? Now I have to get away from her little by little and move on,” says the actress. Above all, she emphasises having loved this role, Reem was a strong woman, and the writers created a story that also showed the vulnerability of men and somewhat reversed the common gender stereotypes in Arab series.
As she reflects on the ending of one chapter and the start of another, she opened up about her approach to her craft, “I’m not one to be partying before the camera rolls. I know actors capable of changing their composition as soon as they hear the clap. Not me. I need to collect myself, to dig into myself before entering a role, perhaps even to pray,” she confides. She also says that she rehearsed in front of mirrors for a long time. Now she doesn’t need it anymore, having understood that looking at herself will not make the difference, but that the amount of credibility she gives to her role will. Now, she leaves it to the viewer to judge. “After studying and working hard, there comes a time when you can start letting go, trusting yourself,” she says, and the advice she would give to anyone wanting to get started in an acting career would be: always work hard and be sincere.
As for Lil Mawt, its fans will no doubt have to accept that this third season is the end. Everything will depend on the screenwriter and the production, says Rahme, who doubts that the story still has twists in store. As for the actress’ personal projects, she tells YUNG that she is immersed in many scripts. She has gone back to reading new proposals, exploring new roles. Between the planes and happy family barbecues in Lebanon or Australia, she is, for now, leaving the screen to find herself in reality, simply being there for those she loves, with total confidence.
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