Shiva Negar (interview) on Still Smiling: The power of tackling domestic abuse

In a raw and inspiring performance, actress Shiva Negar takes on one of the most challenging roles of her career as Darya in the independent drama, Still Smiling, which also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo, Peter Facinelli, Shane West, and Billy Zane. Based on a harrowing true story of domestic abuse, the film explores the devastating toll of violence behind closed doors. For Negar, it was more than a movie role, it offered her an opportunity to understand the pain, survival and silent strength of countless women around the world who have lived this kind of truth.

Darya’s story is emblematic of many women in Iran who have had to deal with radical systematic misogyny. Darya’s story centers around a woman who endures years of emotional and physical abuse and then finds out the most shocking truth: that her husband—played by Facinelli—has put out a hit out on her.

I spoke with Negar when I attended the World Women Foundation panel at the Cannes Film Festival. We talked about how Negar stepped into Darya’s shoes, an immersion for a role unlike anything she had previously experienced.

The below answers have been condensed for clarity and conciseness.

Have you done a role like this before?

I've done a lot of action thriller drama, but not to this extent, and also not this much based on true events. I love telling true stories and human stories. But I have to say, this was definitely very intense, because we didn't want to fake anything, and even Peter [Facinelli], who plays my abusive husband—he’s actually lovely person—I told him, ‘Don't hold back. If I'm really in pain, I will let you know.’ But we just really wanted to go there, so it was an intense couple of months.

When you do such an intense role like this, I've heard it just takes some recovery time to get it out of your out of your head.

After we were actually wrapped, I literally took a month, mentally and physically, I had to recover.

Are there any stories that come to mind, any incidents that you are aware of in your life that you thought about while you were filming something this?

I'm an immigrant myself; I was born in Iran. We migrated when I was a kid from Iran to Turkey in Istanbul, and from Istanbul, we went to Canada. We've been moving around all through my childhood. And as a family, we were stuck in Istanbul for almost five years before we migrated to Canada.

I've gone through so much migrating, and there's a lot that I don't even want to get into, but a lot of abuse from different men, just physical and mental abuse. And I definitely pulled from all those as an immigrant just trying to make it, and getting caught and having to go through such a rough journey, to be able to escape Iran and make it and start a life in Canada. So I applied all that to it.

What did you think of the script when you first read it?

As soon as I read it and it said, inspired by true events, I couldn't believe this is true, this is insane. And I'm always looking for stories like this as an artist. I want to shine a light on women who went through this and no one knows about. I feel like that’s what moves me.

Because I had such a rough upbringing as well, and I have a soft spot for the voiceless, everyday heroes who you don't necessarily know of unless you've seen these films.

It's so important to tell these stories.

And there's worse. So right away, I said, ‘I want to tell it, please introduce me to who's behind it and everything.’ So he did the introduction to Bella [Danesh, story creator] and Luna [Zhang, producer]. I called my agent, I called my team. I'm like, ‘Guys, there's this story, it's independence, it is low budget, but I wanted to do it,’ so I told them, ‘I have to do this.’ It was like fire inside me, and I'm like, ‘I have to tell the story.’ And I even came on as an executive producer on it, because I started helping Bella with the process.

We had a lot of limitations. Our budget was limited. It was really raw and, but I had to tell it the best way possible with the limitations that we've had, and I'm just so grateful that we got such a good cast and crew that really helped the process.

What was the biggest surprise about researching such a project?

Honestly, the biggest shock to me is spending years of your life falling in love with someone, getting married to someone, having kids, and going through times. To get to a point where your own partner in life actually wants you dead and tries to have you killed. To me, that was the biggest shock. I couldn't believe this actually happened.

I love the fact that we tried to tell his story as well, what he went through [with his father].

What do you hope audiences get out of this when they see it?

I can't believe we still have to talk about this. It’s 2025, but I also want the women who are actually going through it to light a fire in them to actually stand up for themselves and do something. This is not normal, and for them to actually protect themselves and defend themselves and do something. Also to know about the charity organizations and places that they can go to.

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