In an example of art imitating life, a former Hasidic Jew is the star of the upcoming film, ‘Felix & Meira’
Actor Luzer Twersky was 23 when he decided to leave his entire life behind. He had grown up in the Hasidic community in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, he was married with two young children, and he was, he’ll admit, miserable.
“I just didn’t fit in. I didn’t believe in God. I realized that I was actually an atheist and there seemed to me so much more to explore in the world and I didn’t want to limit myself to that tiny little community.”
He plays the character Shulem, the Hasidic husband of Meira. Meira, played by the Israeli actress Hadas Yaron, turns to music and drawing to escape the religious life that has been prescribed for her. Twersky can’t help but relate.
“Once you get married, that’s when you get your freedom. In a weird way, because up until that point you live with your parents or you’re in Yeshiva, you’re in school so you’re supervised 24 hours a day. And when you’re married you get freedom," he says.
Twersky himself turned to music and film.
“The first CD I ever bought was probably when I was about 21. It was a Britney Spears CD and I’m still absolutely in love with her music,” admits Twersky.
He hid the CD in the compartment for the spare tire in the trunk of his car. That’s where he also hid his DVD player and a growing trove of movies.
“I didn’t even know you could rent DVDs. I would go to Blockbuster and just buy everything I wanted to see. So, at a certain point, I had so many DVDs in the spare tire compartment," he says.
He’ll never forget the moment when he officially lost faith. It was Friday night, Sabbath and he was at synagogue doing Friday night prayers.
“And I was just standing there with all the hundreds of people praying. And it just hit me, this is so pointless. Everybody is insane in here,” he remembers thinking.
But he didn’t leave right away. Instead, he became more brazen about his pop culture obsession.
“The more I realized that I don’t want to live that life, the more careless I became about hiding it. By the end of the marriage I was watching DVDs at home,” Twersky says.
His wife would ask him to close himself in the dining room and watch his movies with headphones on. Finally, his wife asked for a divorce.
“That’s when I realized that it’s over," he adds. "As soon as I got divorced, I was officially out."
For seven years he didn’t even speak with his parents.
“My lifestyle goes against everything they believe in. Them being OK with how I live my life automatically questions how they live their lives,” Twersky says.
However, he did continue speaking with some of his 12 siblings.
“Half of them speak to me, half of them don’t — which is still a lot of siblings to speak to,” Twersky jokes.
His father did finally reach out to him more than a year ago. He called him early in the morning and left a message on his phone.
“He didn’t say anything, he just left a message with a prayer," Twersky explains. "I didn’t know if I should call him back. I appreciated that he called me but, ‘That’s what you have to say, after seven years? That’s all you have to say?’”
Twersky called back and they reconciled, sort of. They still don’t talk about his life. It’s the elephant in the room that will never go away.
Performing the role of Shulem in “Felix & Meira,” re-inhabiting the religious garb, speaking Yiddish, saying prayers that he once said, was somewhat nostalgic, somewhat traumatic, he adds.
“Every once in a while it creeps into your mind, ‘Did I make the right decision?’” says Twersky, “As an actor, you go back there you get both the comfort of it and the conflict of it. That was difficult for me. Between takes, I would just go outside and chain smoke.”
Felix & Meira opens in select theaters on Friday.