If it weren’t for her, actor and comedian Shalom Michaelshvili probably wouldn’t have agreed to this interview. “I never do interviews,” he says. “Only when we’re doing something with [his comedy trio] Ma Kashur and there’s something to promote,” he adds. But when it comes to his sister, it’s a different story — so he showed up to talk about their collaboration on a series written by Natali Michaelshvili Dror and aired on public broadcaster Kan.
All Mothers Lie, written by three creators — Michaelshvili Dror alongside Yael Katz and Noam Nevo — and directed by Atara Frish (Dismissed), brings a distinctly female point of view to the screen, one not often seen on television. At its center is a single mother who joins a women’s catchball team, and together they come back to life.
“There’s complexity when you put four women in a room and in the end they have to agree on a lot of things, but we solved it together. We’re very different in our motherhood, but in the end we laughed and cried over exactly the same things,” says Michaelshvili Dror, 39. She had two dreams: to write a series and to become a mother. Both were complicated, the road to them was especially long and they can’t really be compared — and yet she asks to call her new series “my baby.”
She married Eyal in 2017, and shortly afterward discovered she had multiple sclerosis. “I had a pretty severe attack. I couldn’t move my arms or my legs. Until I was diagnosed, it was a very unpleasant period. Beyond the medications and the testing, I needed rehabilitation to walk properly again, to do physical therapy.”
At the time, she was working as an editor at Channel Kids Studio and decided to take time off for her wedding, but the medical circumstances extended that leave — and changed her career direction as well. “I took a year off for physical and cognitive rehabilitation, and also to understand what I wanted to go back to,” she says. Not long after came the fulfillment of her first dream. “I got pregnant,” she says. Then came the decision to fulfill the second dream: “I decided I wanted to write.”
How do you experience multiple sclerosis?
“It’s a disease that attacks the nerves. I have lesions in my brain and spinal cord, and when they’re active during an attack they can leave physical damage. In my case, it’s in my hands, like the big cliché — the screenwriter who can’t feel hot or cold in her palms. So to know if the water in my kids’ shower is hot, I use my elbow. But that’s it. Beyond that, I live a full, good life. My disease is relapsing, so I take medication twice a day and that’s it. If you see me, you see a beautiful woman,” she laughs.
Shalom, were you part of the diagnostic process, or did you just get a phone call with the news?
“I was completely part of it. I scheduled her first MRI. I want to make it clear that life with multiple sclerosis can be completely normal with proper treatment and medication. It’s important to me that people know that.”
How did you take the news that she was ill?
“It was a difficult time for the family because it’s Natali — she’s my little sister, she’s the most important thing in my life. It affected me.”
How did that show itself?
“The first month was very hard for me. It broke me. You should ask my wife, Inbal, because she saw me in a way she’d never seen me before. It was right after her wedding. From one of the happiest moments in life to one of the hardest. As a family, we know how to get through crises like that and stand strong together. And sorry if I sound like I’m giving a speech, but life wins over everything. We made sure there was a supportive environment and the best possible care.”
Natali, could it be that sometimes you were the one lifting him up during that period?
(laughs) “We strengthened each other. Sometimes he lifted me, sometimes I lifted him. It was a very big crisis in my life at the time, but my family was a supportive, embracing environment. I remember the moment I told him about the pregnancy.”
Tell us.
“Ari, Shalom’s eldest son, was in the bathroom and called me. He was actually the first one I told out loud that I was pregnant. I told him he had an important job — to tell everyone that Aunt Natali had a baby in her belly. He called everyone over, and we all went into the bathroom like a crazy scene — the whole family in the bathroom and the kid announcing that I was pregnant. It was very moving. It came after a difficult year, and for me it was a kind of victory — a bit of believing in my body again.”
Shalom: “I think it was one of the happiest moments of my life.”
‘Acting in a series she wrote was a dream for me’
Throughout the interview, Shalom and Natali emphasize how close they are, as well as their closeness with their middle brother, Efi, who chose a different career path as a tax consultant. “We’re the best siblings you could imagine,” Natali says. “My sister is at my place twice a week and we eat together, and our kids sleep over at each other’s houses. They’re the sweetest, most loving cousins there are,” Shalom adds.
Natali is nine years younger than Shalom. When he was already a star, she was still going to school and her friends were excited that her brother was on television.
Because of the age gap, it took you some time to enter the entertainment industry. Did Shalom’s success intimidate you?
Natali: “No.”
Shalom: “She also met me at points where I was less successful. People tend to see the peak and where you are now, but I’ve had career moments that didn’t always work out. For example, half a year ago we released an album and it didn’t blow up the way we thought it would, but we didn’t mourn it.”
Natali, which Shalom did you see in the less successful moments?
“My brother always wants to be at the top. In our house, for example, the album is always playing, so it wasn’t experienced as less successful. I mostly experience Shalom as my brother, not the way you might imagine.”
Shalom, do you remember a crisis when you shared with her and she was there for you?
“Of course. I remember calling her 20 years ago to tell her I was getting divorced. We’re always there for each other.”
What was your first reaction?
“I told him that I love him and that I’m here for whatever he needs — all of us. Efi too, and my parents.”
Their closeness is also reflected professionally. In the past, Natali wrote Metzulamim, the sketch series for Ma Kashur, and now she has “arranged” a role for Shalom in her new series. “Shalom delivers an amazing performance. He brings a different color and is so moving. There’s a kind of masculinity there that I’m seeing from him for the first time.”
How did the casting come about?
Natali: “Honestly, I suggested him for the role he plays. Everyone agreed unanimously — we were just waiting for him to say yes.”
Shalom: “Natali and I always dreamed of working together. She wrote two seasons of Metzulamim and wrote for Ma Kashur, so it’s not the first time we’ve worked together, but acting in a series she wrote was a dream for me.”
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Shalom Michaelshvili in All Mothers Lie
(Photo: Courtesy of Kan 11, Green Productions and United King Films)
What would you say to someone who claims you were cast because of connections?
“I have the honor of acting in my sister’s series and I’m so happy. I would have come even to mop the floors or carry water bottles.”
Would you act for free in your sister’s series?
“She would never ask for that. We live in Israel — everything is properly regulated here. But we’re very close, and if my sister asked me to go to Costa Rica, I’d go for her. And seriously, the best roles of my life will be the ones my sister writes for me. When we talked about this series, we were afraid it wouldn’t happen because the filming was very close to the shoot for Saving Shuli-San, but in the end, it worked out and I’m happy. Natali has the ability to precisely capture small situations and unpack them into emotions that are very hard to convey in writing. She’s the most talented writer in the country.”
That’s quite a statement.
“That’s what I think. I’m glad the world is discovering it now.”
The two are taking their collaboration one step further and reveal that they’re working together on a new film — and that the writing process itself creates quite a few disagreements between them. “We have differences of opinion about the characters, about the plotline.”
Who usually wins?
Shalom: “Usually, she’s right.”