Inside the Actors Studio, sabra-style

Director Eytan Fox has no problem channeling James Lipton from “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

The director, known for his films and TV series, will be talking with actress Dana Ivgy (in English), on Tuesday evening in Actors Studio, an event sponsored by NYU Tel Aviv, a satellite campus of New York University.

It’s a good match.

Ivgy is best known for winning two awards at this year’s Ophir Awards (Israel’s Oscars); best actress for comedy “Zero Motivation” and best supporting actress for “Next to Her,” about a mentally disabled young woman.

“Zero Motivation,” which was initially shortlisted as one of Israel’s nominees for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, recently opened in the US.

Fox and Ivgy worked together in his 2013 comedy, “Cupcakes,” about a group of friends who gather together to watch a Eurovision-like event, and end up recording their own entry on a mobile phone. Ivgy recently returned from New York, where she performed with comedy troupe Tziporela in their sold-out Off-Broadway show, “Odd Birdz.”

“Actors are the most important thing to me, actors give birth to the character, and the relationship between actor and director, and with the script, that creates the character,” said Fox. “Dana Ivgy is such a terrific actress, one of best in Israel. This is her year.”

Fox, who teaches a master class at NYU Tel Aviv, will show clips of Ivgy’s work, and the two will speak about preparing for roles and transitioning among film, television and theater.

Fox first became known for the 2002 film “Yossi and Jagger,” about a love affair between two male officers in the Israeli army, as well as his 2004 film, “Walk on Water,” about a Mossad agent who befriends the gay grandson of a Nazi officer.

Like Ivgy, he also works in different mediums, including his 1997 television series, “Florentin,” about the artsy Tel Aviv neighborhood. His latest television series, “A Good Family,” just completed its first season on Channel 1.

The series was a labor of love, said Fox, based on his own family.

“I tried to be as close to myself and as authentic as possible,” he said. “If you do that, I think you create something specific and very unique, because there’s only my one Fox family, living in a certain kind of Israel, a certain kind of Jerusalem where families behave in a certain way.”

The show seemed to work, said Fox, proven by the ratings that grew from week to week, and the channel’s decision to renew the show for a second season.

“I think it was the kind of viewing where people who did watch it — it wasn’t masses of audiences like Channel 2 — but it became a weekly experience for them,” he said.

NYU Tel Aviv, Actors Studio, Tuesday, February 10, 6-8 pm, at the Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, 25 Louis Marshal Street, Tel Aviv. The event is free, but attendees must register online.