Police have stopped you, right outside your house, for documents identification. How did you feel? Do you believe that stereotypes still exist in our times?

-The stereotypes still exist and will exist above times. Concerning the incident, I just feel that these guys were just doing their job, perhaps with excessive eagerness.

You have travelled all over the world. What have you learned from your trips? 

-Since I was a kid, I liked adventure and exploring. Trips are part of everyday life and include great contradictions. They give you a sense of freedom, your horizons expand and you gain self-awareness and wisdom.

“Paraskevas the Greek”. How do they treat you abroad? How do you experience that “Greek”?

-They treat me with respect and perhaps sometimes, as a “mythical” figure. Personally, I feel the burden of our long historic past and I carry the rate that accounts to me and my heavy north heritage.

“How is it possible that we talk about beauty at my 42?” you have said before. What is your term for beauty?

-For me, beauty is an absolutely feminine idea. Man is characterized by his morality, which is consisted of prudence and braveness, in all its forms.

“The Castaways – Mount Athos”. Tell us about this project.

-“The Castaways” is a project that emerged through my trips to Mount Athos. It is a beautiful feeling to collect dead pieces of nature and bring them back to life…Mount Athos means devoutness, prayer, fast, temperance. The harmony of nature and the absolute silence fills you with total calmness and soul uplift.

Additionally, you are directing and you are writing too. What is it that you are dealing with, with these ventures? Which is your inner need?

-A director or a writer is a strong characterization for me. I am a professional model, with various quests which at the right time and with the right stimulation, I share with the others. This is exactly what happened with the book “For a wonderful life” and the second one “Respect”. As for the movie, “The Father” is a legacy for my family and my children, a tribute to my father, both as a person and personality. 

After this manifold career, which is your next destination? 

-There is no particular destination for me, the goal is not an end in itself. There is a new project that has started 3 months ago. It is a very warm space in Athens (Ipeirou 8 street), called “BOHO vintage clothing”, where 70’s meet bohemian, retro and ethnic style. At the same time, I am working on several other creative projects, but nothing is to be announced at this particular time. 

In Greece, we tend to put a label upon everyone and everything. Which are the labels you have renounced?

-The model Paraskevas begins and ends in the studio. After that, I am just Paraskevas. I hate labeling, especially in Greece where “you are whatever you declare” stands.

“We are lucky to be living in this blessed country”, you have stated. Why?

-Greece is the country with the spirit and the arts, that penetrated all the growing forms of human civilization. Greece has marked all the forms of science, with the unrepeatable spirit of expressing delicate meanings of philosophy and specified rough meanings of culture and politics, complex meanings of gospels and religion, deep meanings of contemplation of ancient drama, prose and poetry. 

Is there anything that hurts you about Greece? What would you change?

-What hurts me the most is the fear I see amongst people, the fear about their future, their jobs, their families. I believe that we have to reconsider our values as Greeks. It is the time to live more “like Greeks”, with morals, prudence, modesty, elevated spirit and more God within us. But I would not change a thing. Life should be confronted exactly as it comes, at every time. Nothing should be taken for granted. We have been through wars, civil wars, poverty, bankruptcies and true miseries. We had always had “barbarians” to fight and we have fought them with strength and braveness. That is exactly what we should do again.   

Is there a ''New face of Greece?''  Where does it lie?

-Of course there is! One can see it widely in the new generation, in every section, science, arts, sports, business. It is them, the young people, who will lift upon their shoulders the heavy heritage and impart it to the next generations.   

What is your moto in life?

-Regardless the time, my moto is that “the man doesn’ t need much to be calm and good, just some food, some wine, Christmas and Resurrection”, by our great, Nobel prized poet, Odysseus Elytis.