Bennu Yıldırımlar

Photo Source: Kuruluş Orhan, Atv, bozdagfilm

Bennu Yıldırımlar is a Turkish actress. She acted in Avrupa Yakası (European Side, also: Nihal), Yaprak Dökümü (Leaf Cast/The Fall of Leaves, also: Fahriye & Neslihan), Umutsuz Ev Kadınları (Adaptation of Desperate Housewives), Gönül İşleri (Affairs of the Heart, also: Can), Kadın (Woman, also: Seray, Feyyaz, Caner & Özge), Sadakatsiz (The Unfaithful), Kusursuz Kiracı (The Perfect Tenant, also: Emin & Dilan), Veda Mektubu (Farewell Letter), Bahar (Adaptation of K-Drama – Doctor Cha/Blooming Lady, also: Zeynep), Ahlat Ağacı (The Wild Pear Tree), as Malhun Hatun in Kuruluş: Orhan (Establishment: Orhan, also: Alina, Mert, Faruk, Semih, Belgin, Şükrü, Mahassine & Şükrü) and more.

Facts:

• she has been actively acting since 1988
  • was born into a family of Cretan and Macedonian immigrants
• in the 1990–1991 season, she went to England and took a drama course at the Westminster Adult Education Institute in London
• despite appearing in popular projects, she says she’s not a tabloid figure and finds it odd that the media treats her normal life as something mysterious
  • she explains that she has a stable marriage of many years and an adult daughter and sees no reason to “hide” this, she simply lives a normal life that doesn’t attract sensational interest
  • says fame never meant much to her; she prefers a normal life, shopping with her bag in hand, living in a neighbourhood, greeting the street animals and staying connected to people, because she simply enjoys being an ordinary person
• though she often plays calm and distant characters and is mistaken for being cold, she says she’s nothing like that, she’s lively, humorous and loves to have fun at work, as her colleagues can attest
• has no tolerance for disrespect; she always tries to be respectful and expects the same in return
  • she dislikes overly familiar behavior from strangers and believes people on television shouldn’t be treated as if they’re part of one’s household
• says her face always reveals whether she likes something or someone; she can’t act in her own life
• when asked about the hardest thing she has achieved, she says simply staying alive, she hasn’t gotten sick or caught the virus
• if she could speak to her 20-year-old self, she would tell her: “Keep going just the way you are. It’s a good path.”
• says people never truly forget, memories stay tucked away somewhere, but being forgiving is very important, depending on what you’re forgiving
• believes everyone should, at least once in their life, go far from where they are, stay for a while and return; experiencing something entirely different
• says the secret to sustaining a 30-year marriage is simply compatibility, two people who get along can stay married that long and they don’t have fights or drama
  • explains that love doesn’t stay the same as in the early years; it transforms into a deep, beautiful affection
  • life changes, responsibilities grow and as long as the couple isn’t fundamentally incompatible and wants similar things, the relationship continues
• agrees that while men often continue to receive leading roles as they age, women are usually offered mother roles
  • she says playing a mother isn’t the issue, the problem is the lack of variety and depth
  • what matters is writing mother characters who have real function and influence in the story, not women limited to baking cakes and pastries, she wants to see female characters whose words carry weight
• her female hero is Sabiha Gökçen, the world’s first woman combat pilot; to her, flying represents immense joy and freedom
• she once dreamed of becoming an archaeologist, but instead became an actress and continues her excavations on human nature
  • from these “excavations” she has learned not to judge people without truly knowing everything
• says acting is a profession rooted in deeply studying emotions, so she already knows every feeling she portrays
  • each character becomes her own interpretation and while she avoids projects she doesn’t want to join, she doesn’t judge the roles themselves
  • though she’s often cast in sorrowful roles, she actually loves laughing and making people laugh
• describes herself as a detail-oriented person who strives to analyze things correctly and rarely acts impulsively
  • with high emotional awareness, she doesn’t give up easily, is steady rather than pushy and balances her feelings with logic, never emotionless, but someone who knows her limits and where she needs to stand
• believes not forgiving harms a person from within, saying resentment makes you sick before it harms anyone else
  • since she isn’t vengeful and doesn’t feed off anger, she chooses forgiveness to enjoy life, though she never forgets either kindness or wrongdoing
• says nothing in life is truly “impossible”, “never” or “always”, she doesn’t believe in absolute terms