Mummy’s the word in new Monster High movie
Cleopatra and Queen Esther provide inspiration for Jy Prishkulnik in her new role
Jy Prishkulnik has just exploded onto screens in Monster High: The Movie, which is now available to stream on Nickelodeon and Paramount Plus ahead of Halloween. The film, directed by Todd Holland, is a High School Musical meets The Addams Family-style live-action romp based on the popular Monster High fashion dolls first launched by Mattel in 2010. It’s the first of a two-part reboot of the brand that also includes a forthcoming animation series.
Jy is every bit gore-geous as Cleo de Nile, a centuries-old teenage Mummy who is popular and high achieving, but also something of a mean girl to her fellow classmates. Some suggest her too-tightly-woven bandages have hardened her heart. Cleo thinks she has life all wrapped up, until the arrival of Clawdeen (Mila Harris), a half-werewolf, half-human, who threatens the very existence of Monster High with her homo sapiens genes, for only those with “true monster hearts” are allowed at the school.
Her bloodline must remain hidden, even to new friends Frankie Stein (Ceci Balagot), a genius with a brilliant brain created from Einstein and Turing among others and Draculaura (Nayah Damasen), the daughter of Dracula, who is scared to tell her fang-toothed father about her forbidden desire to dabble with witchcraft. When events compel Clawdeen to reveal her secret, Cleo finally finds compassion and comes to understand what true leaders are really made of.
While Cleo is only loosely based on her historical counterpart, Cleopatra, researching more into the iconic queen helped Jy “fill in the blanks” of her character.
“Cleopatra was not actually Egyptian. For starters, she had no Egyptian blood whatsoever. She was from the Macedonian kingdom in Greece, but she came to Egypt with her family, who stole the throne, and then she eventually came to power,” the bubbly 23-year-old actress enthuses during our chat.
“Cleopatra was also one of the first Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt who actually spoke the language of her people. She learned it so that she would be able to hear their needs and really engage with them in a meaningful way.
“In some ways, she reminds me a lot of Queen Esther, who also came into power and did so much for her people.”
Jy was equally struck by how both Cleopatra and Esther’s actions were impacted by being outsiders – Esther as a Jew and Cleopatra as a foreigner.
It’s a message not lost on the young actress, who is a first generation American and the daughter of two immigrant parents. Her father Jake (born as Yakov) is originally from Israel, while her mother, Elizabeth, was brought up Roman Catholic in Italy.
Neither were particularly religious, she says, but aged 12 Jy developed an interest in learning more about her Jewishness and discovered a sense of belonging she had not experienced before.
Jy says: “I was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where there’s a pretty considerable Jewish community. We didn’t really observe Shabbat, but we would celebrate the major holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah and Pesach. When I was 11, I said to my dad, ‘Shouldn’t I be studying for my Bat Mitzvah?’
“So, every week I would go to Temple and I really found a love for the spirituality and the sense of community. Ever since then, I’ve just had a really strong connection with my Judaism and what it means to me.”
Jy’s identity has been strengthened, she says, as a third generation Holocaust survivor. Both her father’s parents – Isaiah, who escaped from Ukraine and Esther, from Poland – are in their 90s and alive and well in Israel today.
“I think one of the most profound stories my grandmother told me was that she was about three when her family had to flee. Her mother had just gone to the shop and they were faced with this choice to leave and never see her again or wait and potentially be killed. They ultimately decided to leave and unfortunately never found out what happened to her. Over the course of the war, my grandmother and her younger sister, Rivka, who was just a baby, were separated. Eventually, now aged eight, my grandmother ended up in Israel and every day she would visit the displacement centres hoping to be reunited with her baby sister.
“One day she saw this little girl and they locked eyes across this crowded room. They had found each other, but they couldn’t communicate because they didn’t speak the same language – Rivka hadn’t learnt to speak Polish by the time they had left. But they were alive and reunited.”
Having Holocaust survivors in her immediate family has, says Jy, informed her decision to become an actress. “I get to tell the stories of those who didn’t get to tell their own stories, whether that be in realistic fiction or even complete fantasy,” explains Jy, who moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16 to pursue a career in acting. “The background is what enriches the character, so I just use my own experiences to sort of connect the dots and bring in that sense of realness to whatever film I’m doing.”
There’s certainly far more to Cleo de Nile’s fashionista monster than meets the eye, though it goes without saying that Jy definitely enjoyed her time on the colourful set in Vancouver. “Right away I could tell that it was going to be a great job, because everyone was just so excited to be there. Everyone recognised what a special thing this was to be the first live action representations of these beloved characters.
“We had two weeks of boot camp, which was just prep – preparing the dances, figuring out all the costumes, getting the wigs cut, doing lots of screen tests and making everything perfect. I do remember showing up on the first day and learning what turned out to be the easiest dance but worrying how I was going to do this in heels! I was terrified.”
For all her initial fears, Jy never tripped over her words – or her heels – and the end result is a delightfully ghoulish film that has a monster message at heart for tweenagers who feel they don’t quite fit in. “Just like any teenagers, these monsters start off insecure, but eventually learn the biggest lesson of all – being proud of who you are and having confidence in yourself.”
Monster High: The Movie is now available to stream on Nickelodeon UK and Paramount Plus.
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