SEX AND THE SYMPHONY with Tenor Mario Frangoulis

By Slavica Monczka,  Courtesy of Seductively French (www.SeductivelyFrench.com)

One look at operatic tenor Mario Frangoulis and it will be made perfectly clear to you why he has been referred to as the Sex and the Symphony of concert halls. However, there is so much more to Frangoulis than what meets the eye. First and foremost is his divine voice that has brought him to international stardom. With all this global fame, Frangoulis has also been a whole-hearted contributor to various charities around the world. Handsome, gifted, and compassionate, Frangoulis shares with me some of his passions and experiences. So if you haven’t fallen in love with him at first site (like myself), learn more from my interview with him.

“I loved to loose myself in neighboring areas, climbing trees and spending a lot of time on the rooftops, where I could ‘see the world’ and sing about it,” describes Frangoulis of his childhood in Greece. Raised by his aunt and uncle since the age of four, Frangoulis was exposed to classical music and encouraged to pursue his talents as, “they were the ones who took me to music school at the age of six, which was when I started taking violin lessons.”

Frangoulis has come a long way since that little fiddler on the roof. His talent, education and training has skyrocketed him to performances and experiences a starving artist could only dream of. Fluent in five languages, Frangoulis has performed in Les Miserables in London’s West End, The Phantom of the Opera after an invitation by Sir Andrew Lloyd himself, and trained with acclaimed tenor Alfred Kraus. In recent years, Frangoulis has collaborated with Vanessa Williams, Lara Fabian, Vittorio Grigolo, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, and pianist Jim Brickman just to name a few.

Frangoulis with Placido Domingo

“The real ‘calling’ happened when I was sixteen when I decided to be an actor and went to audition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London,” Frangoulis recalls. “Acting is my favorite as it allows me to be all the different things I want to be,” and explaining how he loves the challenges of the metamorphosis of the roles that he plays. “The stage acts like a ‘catharsis,’ the washing out of your soul,” elaborates Frangoulis. “It is where you go to feel vulnerable and to expose yourself to hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. You learn more about yourself being on stage than being at the psychologist.” Much like an actual opera performance, romanticized and dramatic, Frangoulis states, “the stage, the lights, the audience help you ‘transform’ and elevate to another level of understanding of life itself.”

Frangoulis speaks with so much affection; I ask what is it that inspires him in life? “Talent inspires me, when I see it in others, it makes me ‘grow’ myself and makes me feel stronger and even more ambitious to succeed.” The hardworking humanitarian says “it is a great mission in my life to help others in need especially when those groups of people are children,” discloses Frangoulis, “they have a special place in my heart.” Involved in numerous charities, “the ones closest to me are the WCCCI (World Centers of Compassion for Children International) who create Cities of Peace and gives a home to children, and also the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans who provide need based scholarships.”

God-given talent may be what Frangoulis was born with (and good looks, if I haven’t already mentioned that once or twice), but it is not the end all, be all for Frangoulis. “It’s a good feeling to know that you have touched people’s lives. It makes you feel like your work is worthwhile. I would like people to remember me for my art, my music, and most of all have something to say for me as a human being. In many ways, that’s more important than anything else.”

Frangoulis now resides partially between New York and Athens, Greece. His latest album, Beautiful Things, released last December by Sony International, “gives a great message of love and hope to everyone ansense of understanding of the beauty that surrounds us,” describes Frangoulis. “We have to be able to recognize beauty no matter what the circumstances, whether we are going though difficult times or not.”

First stop on the tour schedule this year for Frangoulis and all of his “beautiful things,” will be Moscow, Russia. “It’s always a pleasure to perform in Russia because the level of artistry is very high and there are many Russian people I can call friends.” The admiration is mutual between Frangoulis and his Russian comrades explaining, “for two of my most important cds, Music of the Night (with the Novaya Opera and chorus conducted by Maestro Samoilov) and Passione – A Tribute to Mario Lanza (with the legendary Balalaika Orchestra ‘Ossipov’ and the exceptional Maestro Ponkin), I chose to work with Russian orchestras because of their high level of musicianship and dedication to their music.”

No need to journey far for you all here in the US as Frangoulis will soon be performing at several concert halls nationwide. Fall in love with Frangoulis and all the Beautiful Things he shares.

“You have to express the hopes of your soul, and that’s what my music is about. That is the number one thing I do. It’s simply about what it means to be human.” –Mario Frangoulis

www.MarioFrangoulis.com
www.wccci.org
www.horatioalger.com

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Billy Bob Thornton: The Hollywood Interview

Actor/Filmmaker/Musician Billy Bob Thornton.


BILLY BOB'S TRIPLE THREAT
By
Alex Simon

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2001 issue of Venice Magazine.

Few Hollywood insiders have lived the real-life Cinderella stories they often portray on-screen like Billy Bob Thornton has. Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1955, Thornton's years of struggle on the fringes of Hollywood were finally rewarded when his writing/directing/starring labor of love, Sling Blade (1996) became the toast of the indie, and legit, film world, copping the Arkansas native a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his efforts. From then on, Thornton's spot on Tinseltown's A-list was etched in cement that would have made the denizens of the concrete around Mann's Chinese theater jealous, delivering memorable starring and supporting turns in diverse films such as The Apostle, Primary Colors, A Simple Plan, Armageddon, and Pushing Tin, to name a few.

2000 also saw Thornton direct and produce an elegant, lyrical adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel All the Pretty Horses, and pen (with Tom Epperson) the supernatural thriller The Gift. As 2001 comes to a close, Thornton brings his talents to three distinctly different projects: Barry Levinson's Bandits, in which he plays the screen's most neurotic bank robber since Woody Allen bumbled through Take the Money and Run, The Coen Brothers' moody noir thriller The Man Who Wasn't There, as a stoic barber embroiled in a murder plot, and Marc Forster's Monster's Ball, a visceral masterpiece of a film that has Thornton sizzling the screen as a racist prison guard who finds his life coming apart at the seams. As if that weren't enough to have on one's plate, Billy Bob releases his first solo album this month, entitled Private Radio, a unique blend of country, blues and folk sung by Thornton in a voice described by Rolling Stone.com as "a cross between Leonard Cohen and Tom Petty. These preceding reasons alone are testament to Thornton's versatility and evidence that his status should be elevated from writer/actor/director/producer/musician to that of national treasure.

Billy Bob Thornton sat down with Venice recently over a plate of freshly-sliced papaya to discuss his newest films, the greatness of High Noon, and the beauty of keeping it simple.

We have a lot to talk about. Let's start with Barry Levinson, your director on Bandits.
Billy Bob Thornton: Barry is, first of all, just a great guy, probably the funniest human being I've ever met. We could hardly wait for him to say "Cut" so he could tell us another story. Plus, he's very intuitive. You can real feel him with you while you're doing the scene, and that makes all the difference in the world for an actor, especially if you're doing comedy. I've been pretty fortunate in my career to work with, for the most part, some pretty amazing directors.

Even early on, when you were just doing small parts, you worked with some heavyweights.
Oh yeah, I worked with Taylor Hackford (Blood In, Blood Out), Adrian Lyne (Indecent Proposal). I tell you what I really loved about Taylor, is that he's a music guy, like I am. We hit it off right away because of our mutual love of music. Any time someone's musical, we always hit it off. Bruce Willis is very musical and during the Bandits shoot he would play for the crew a lot of times. That was great. Bruce loves music and does a lot of recording in his home studio, just like I do.

Is that where you cut Private Radio?
Yeah, the whole thing. We mixed at A&M on the radar system, which is where you use all the modern technology, but it still sounds stripped-down, like analog.

You mentioned Bruce Willis earlier. You guys had a great chemistry on-screen.
Yeah, we actually already knew each other. We've been friends for several years. He's the sort of guy that's always been there for me, and I've never forgotten that. In terms of hanging out together, I don't really "hang out," so to speak. I have friends and I'll see them over at their house or if they come over to mine. I'm not a partyer. I don't like going to premieres, and haven't even been to the premieres of all the movies I've been in. I don't like going out to big functions just because that atmosphere makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes you have to go, and when I do, once I'm there I'm usually okay. It's like flying. I don't like to fly, but once I'm on the plane I'm fine. But not before.

Did you guys improv a lot? The whole film had a very naturalistic quality.
We did some. Harley Peyton is such a great writer that we didn't really want to stray too far from the script. But Bruce and I have always found it really easy to sort of riff with one another. Cate (Blanchett) is the same way. Cate's my buddy, so we work real well together. We've been friends since Pushing Tin, and Cate's just one of the coolest people on the planet. When you get to make movies with friends like them and work with a director like Barry, it doesn't get too much better than that.

Tell us about The Man Who Wasn't There, and the Coens.
Once again, it was an honor just to work for them. I'd always wanted to and we'd spoken about it before. When I was nominated for A Simple Plan and they were nominated for Fargo, they sat behind me at the awards show and we got to talking, and every time we saw each other after that, we'd always say "You know, this would be a perfect fit." But part of their genius is that they bide their time. They know when it's the right time and the right part. And this was it. It's one of my favorite parts I've ever played. It's one of the hardest parts I've played, because there wasn't a lot of dialogue to work with.

Do the Coens give a lot of direction or do they leave you alone?
They kind of cast the right person for the part and then love it if you come up with something on your own. Again, they're such good writers, you don't want to digress too much from the script. I did come up with little things that we put into my character. For example, if you look closely at (my character) Ed Crane in the movie, you'll see that he's always doing this little nod. We started calling it the "Ed nod." And that became part of their direction. "I think at the end of the scene it might be time for an Ed nod." That kind of thing.

Let's talk about your background. You grew up in Arkansas.
I was born in Hot Springs but grew up in a little town of about 110 people up in the mountains. We lived in my grandmother's house, which is kind of common among poorer southern families. Close-knit families. I remember when we were really little, we didn't have running water or electricity. I tell my friends that and they laugh: "Billy Bob, you're describing the 19th century, that's impossible." But they don't understand that in the rural south, there are areas where when it's night time, it's pitch black because there's no lights! I mean, we weren't like Lil' Abner, or shit like that, (laughs) but we didn't have much.

Your parents sound like a real study in contrasts: your father was a high school basketball coach and your mom was the town psychic.
Yeah, dad was a hot-headed little Irishman and mom is part Italian and part Choctaw Indian. I remember I'd come home from school as a kid and there'd be all these little white-haired ladies from town waiting for their turn to have a reading. The Gift was based on her and an experience we had as kids. It was a strange household. My dad and I were never close and he died when I was eighteen, of cancer.

Do you have siblings?
Two younger brothers, one of whom is now deceased, also. He had a heart condition and passed away when I was going through a real self-destructive period. His death really made me come to terms with that, get out of the self-destruction and into self-preservation.

That must've been tough for an 18 year-old boy, losing his dad.
Tough on a lot of levels. I'd just graduated high school, and now suddenly I had to be the man of the house. It's also made me really terrified of older men. Maybe it's a need to be accepted by them, or something, 'cause my dad and I never really came to any understanding before he died. (pause) And people wonder where I get these stories, right? (laughs)

Did you take to acting and writing early on?
No. First it was rock n' roll, then it was baseball. I thought I'd try to be a professional baseball player because I was pretty good in high school. Then when I went to try out for the pros, I got injured, busted my collarbone, and that was the end of that.

You struggled for more than a decade out here, supporting yourself with some really demeaning, miserable jobs.
Yeah, but I had this catering job that changed my life. I was working this party where all these real powerful Hollywood types were just filling the room, like a who's who of Hollywood, right? Then this little German guy asks me if I'm an actor. So I said 'Yeah,' and we started talking. He said "You'll never make it just being an actor. You're not good-looking or ugly enough to stand out. Can you write?" I said 'Yeah, I can write. My buddy Tom (Epperson) and I have written a couple things.' "That's the ticket," he said. "Stick with the writing and you'll make it." I go back into the kitchen and one of the other waiters says to me "So what were you and Billy Wilder talking about?"

No way!
Can you believe that, man? (laughs) I had no clue who the man was! But that's when I got really serious about writing. And that is what changed everything.

One False Move (co-written with Tom Epperson) really put you on the map in terms of your career as a writer, jump started your career as a character actor, and was a huge indie hit in 1992.
Yeah, I'm very proud of that and a lot of the credit should also go to the director, Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress) who's really brilliant. It really upset me how controversial it was for its violence though. I mean, here you have these summer action movies where dozens, hundreds of people get killed with squibs going off in every direction, and it's almost sanitized, like a video game or something. We had a couple scenes of violence in that film that showed violence for what it was: ugly, sick, horrifying, with lasting consequences. Which is worse to show to someone with a sick mind? If you're going to show violence on film, you should be honest about it, and not glamorize it. That's when it becomes dangerous, I think.

Then Sling Blade took you up to the next level.
Yeah, it's funny. The way they do movies now with all this test-marketing stuff. Sling Blade tested very average, was made for $900,000 and then made something like $27 million at the box office. I've had other movies I've done that tested through the roof, like A Family Thing (co-written with Tom Epperson), which was made for $15 million and earned something like $13 million. So you never know.

What kind of film did you shoot Sling Blade on?
We shot it on 35mm with Panavision, the whole deal. But because I shot it back home in Arkansas, a lot of folks were real nice and helpful and we got a lot of stuff for free. We had a great time doing that movie, shot it in 24 days.

Sling Blade had a true genesis from one man show, to short film, to feature. Tell us about that.
The short film was done because I'd worked with the director, George Hickenlooper, on another film and he asked if I had any scripts he could look at. I said 'Yeah, I've got this short film,' and he liked it and we took it from there. I like the short very much. It all came from the character, really, and just grew from there, sort of took on a life of its own. I just knew what this guy looked like, talked like, how he walked, how he smelled. I do that when I read a script. When I read A Simple Plan for the first time, I just knew what this guy looked and sounded like. You just know.

Mike Nichols is one of the greats. Tell us about working with him on Primary Colors.
Mike is another director like Barry Levinson. He gets a kick out of the whole process, laughs a lot during the shoot. He gets very immersed in the movie itself, talks with the actors a lot about the story and their characters. He's a very psychological director and our rehearsals consisted of sitting around a table and psychoanalyzing the characters. Another really terrific thing about that movie is that Elaine May, who wrote the screenplay, was there. So we got to hear Nichols and May comedy routines every day! That was a lot of fun.

Your character was based on Clinton campaign manager James Carville. I know that you're friends with President Clinton. Were you initially gun-shy about doing that part?
I actually called him and asked if he'd mind if I did the movie. He said "Are you kidding? It's a great part. Play it." I played a character based on Carville, but I didn't want to imitate him. I tried to imitate his attitude, but that's it. I wanted to make him a more laid-back, smart-ass southern guy, as opposed to a hyperactive one. (laughs)

It was Mike Nichols who turned you on to All the Pretty Horses, right?
Yeah, he was thinking about directing it for a while, but thought I'd be better for it. How can I start this story? Okay, let me start by saying that my favorite movie of all time is High Noon. I watch it probably three times a month. I think it's a perfect movie. Everything is in that movie. Everything you need to know about human beings is in that movie. The poetry of that movie is so beautiful, yet so simple. I believe in simple stories with complex people, about behavior. When I was given the book of "All the Pretty Horses," I didn't want to direct someone else's movie. I didn't want to film a book. It just all seemed to me like way too much. I get over to Sony and they said "Mike Nichols really wants you to do it! We really want you to do it! Which was probably bullshit. I'm sure they really wanted Spielberg or somebody, but they probably went "Well, Mike wants this asshole..." I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, I had a deal with Miramax, so they had to be involved, too. So we all started to hook up and they started to tell me how things should go. At that point I said "Look, I don't have to direct this movie. I don't need to. I kind of don't even want to. But I love the book. I think Cormac McCarthy is a great writer, and this is the kind of book where if I were as good a writer as Cormac McCarthy, I might have written it. So I would like to do it, but I'm using my crew, not the Star Wars crew like you want. They said "We want a big movie." I said 'Yeah, but the desert's already lit. My crew can probably do this better than your crew. They understand me and they understand how I work. What's hard to light is a 12x12 room, and that's what we do best.' I said 'You understand that I see this as a big character story. So when we're inside, I'm going to shoot this movie just like Sling Blade. When we're outside, it's going to be John Ford. You understand that by hiring me, this is what you're going to get. Is that what you want?' "Oh yeah, yeah!" Then they say: "Who's gonna be in it?" I said 'Here's who's gonna be in it.' They said "We don't want those people. We want these people." So I argued with them for several minutes. Finally I said, 'Fine, make the movie your way, I'll walk away with no hard feelings. I've got stacks of stuff at my house that I want to do. I don't have a problem with a choice of movies to direct. But if you want me to do this one, here's what you're going to get. Are you sure it's me that you want to do this? You realize that this is an epic movie that's going to be about three hours long?' "Oh, of course!" So they agreed to all the rest of my terms. We went and shot the movie and I had the best experience I've ever had doing a movie. The minute we were done, it became a nightmare, and they proceeded to change it into a love story with an airbrushed poster aimed at getting 14 year-olds into seats. They cut out any of the edge, and what was meant to be a three hour movie became a less-than-two hour movie and they removed Daniel Lanois' beautiful music score.

Is there any chance you'll do a "Director's Cut" DVD?
Well, it doesn't exist in that form except in a very poor quality VHS version, with the original score. They originally told me I was going to get to do a DVD, but then said it was going to be too expensive to do, and not worth it. I don't want to point any fingers, but no one's ever going to see the film as it was intended, which was about three hours and forty or fifty minutes long. You know, against my better judgment, when that 3 hour, 50 minute assembly was done, I screened it for the executives at my house. They all wept during the movie, clapped at the end, were all patting me on the back, with one guy telling me that not only was it the best movie he'd ever been involved with, but the classic American film of all time. And then they proceeded to re-make it into a two hour movie and took the guts out of it, in my opinion. Now, in spite of what all this must sound and read like, I have no hard feelings against any of those people. I want that to be clear. I understand what they do. They are business people, and always will be, no matter how much they love or hate movies. The bottom line is, they want 14 year-olds to come to their movies. If they give you $50 million to make a movie, you can be damn sure they're going to double that number with 14 year-old butts in seats. The problem was, they took a movie that was about the end of the west, and one kid's journey into manhood and the future which is unknown and realizing that he can't live in the past even though the past is where he thought his future was. And that's what that movie is about.

I always felt that a good companion piece for it would be The Last Picture Show, which explored many of the same themes.
Absolutely! Great comparison, great analogy. And it could have been that kind of film, too.

Well, look at what Coppola just did with Apocalypse Now. It doesn't have to be over yet.
Well, maybe...We'll see.

With that war story in mind, any advice for first-time directors?
Don't pay any attention to anyone's advice. Make your movie about something that's close to you, that's your thing, as opposed to trying to make something that you think "they'll" like. Basically know what it smells like, feels like, tastes like and sounds like, and then go do it. And nobody else has to know what you're doing, except you. That's my advice.

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From Coast to Coast: Ryan O'Nan Brings THE BROOKLYN BROTHERS to the Santa Barbara Film Festival

by Terry Keefe

As Sundance draws to a close this week, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival revs up its annual star-studded event, which includes the U.S. premiere of The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, one of the surprise hits of the most recent Toronto Film Festival. Brooklyn Brothers was written and directed by Ryan O’Nan, who also stars in the film and who has been having what could be modestly described as a “breakout year.” O’Nan composed much of the music for Brooklyn Brothers, which centers around a fictional two-man band comprised of O’Nan and Michael Weston (“Six Feet Under”). At Toronto, Rhino Records fell under the spell of the tunes so much that they offered the pair a recording contract, under the fictional Brooklyn Brothers moniker. O’Nan has also just completed starring roles in Freelancers, opposite Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker; The Frozen Ground, with Nicolas Cage and John Cusack; and The Iceman, which O’Nan is currently shooting in Louisiana with Michael Shannon, James Franco, and Winona Ryder.

O’Nan himself spent a number of years as a struggling musician, after which he opted to focus on acting, so he clearly had more than a little autobiographical material to draw from in creating his role of Alex in Brooklyn Brothers. A broken-down guitar player, Alex only starts to find his groove again when he embarks on an impromptu tour with Weston’s Jim, who specializes in playing children’s musical instruments, such as the plastic ones manufactured by Fischer-Price.

Ryan O'Nan and Michael Weston in BROOKLYN BROTHERS.

 “I really wanted the story to be about two guys who are the opposite halves of what make up an artist,” elaborates O’Nan on how he structured the two lead characters. “One half has a certain amount of talent, but also has a lot of self-doubt. The other half is completely fearless and pushes relentlessly into the unknown, despite whatever factors kind of come up against him. And I split that into two people and made them the Brooklyn Brothers. They’re lost without each other, basically.”

 A character in the film describes the sound of the Brooklyn Brothers as “The Shins meets Sesame Street,” and their use of the children’s instruments also serves as an apt metaphor for the career struggles of O’Nan’s Jim. “This is a story about a guy who’s learning what it means to be a man, and kind of leave the land of childhood,” says O’Nan. “And the question is, ‘Can he bring his childhood dreams into his adult life?’ The actual instruments he uses to do that are these children’s instruments.” O’Nan and Weston just cut the Brooklyn Brothers album for Rhino this past month in Los Angeles, although an actual recording contract wasn’t one of O’Nan’s goals when he started shooting Brooklyn Brothers. “It’s a dream come true that we actually got signed as a band, but totally unexpected. I stopped playing music as a career a long time ago, and focused on the medium of film, but it’s totally come back around in a beautiful way,” he explains.

Ryan O'Nan in THE RED ROBIN. Photo by Meg Urbani.

O’Nan most recently wrapped the lead role in The Red Robin, where he plays the adopted adult son of a famed, dying psychiatrist, portrayed by Judd Hirsch (“Damages, “Taxi”), who did some mysterious work for the U.S. government during the Cold War. At an impromptu family reunion, O’Nan’s character makes the accusation that his father adopted his large family for the purposes of dark mental experimentation. Explains O’Nan about what attracted him to the Michael Z. Wechsler-directed psychological thriller, “I’m the oldest of five kids and we went through a lot together. I’m fascinated by the idea of siblings and how they come together, how they survive together, and that’s what the story was about. And, I’ve also been a huge fan of Judd Hirsch since I was a kid. Working with him was such an amazing experience.”

 As to whether he can attribute his myriad successes of the past year to anything in particular, O’Nan replies, “You know what? My biggest philosophy is that the harder you work, the luckier you get, and I’ve tried to live my entire life by that philosophy. I just love making things. I’m incredibly lucky to be in this industry, where you’re constantly meeting new people, and you’re getting to work with people who you respect. I just feel so, so lucky. I really do.”


 The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best screens at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on January 27th at 2 PM; January 29th at 4:30 PM, and February 2 at 1 PM. More information on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival can be found at www.sbiff.org.

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Best Actor Nominee Demian Bichir: The Hollywood Flashback Interview

I sat down with actor Demian Bichir during the final months of 2008, when he was appearing in “The Waters of Babylon” at the Geffen Playhouse. Since then, Bichir has become a recognizable face north of the U.S.-Mexico border following his lauded turn in last year’s indie hit “A Better Life,” for which he was tapped with a Best Actor Oscar nomination yesterday. 


DEMIAN BICHIR DRINKS FROM THE WATERS OF BABYLON, FIGHTS A REVOLUTION WITH CHE AND TAKES A WALK IN THE WEEDS
 By Alex Simon

A native of Mexico City, actor Demian Bichir is currently batting a triple with two high-profile supporting roles on the big and small screen, as well as the male lead (co-starring with Shannon Cochran) in Robert Schenkkan’s play By the Waters of Babylon, which is currently onstage at The Geffen Playhouse. Prior to trotting the boards in Westwood, Demian wrapped Steven Soderbergh’s back-to-back films on Cuban Revolution icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Guerilla and The Argentine (later retitled to the simpler Che), playing the pivotal role of Fidel Castro, and debuted on the Showtime hit series "Weeds," playing the wily and charismatic Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico: the new love interest to series star Mary-Louise Parker.

The second of three sons born to renowned theater director Alejandro Bichir and actress Mariacruz Najera, Demian and his brothers Odiseo and Bruno are three of Mexico’s most renowned performers, so much so, in fact, that one year at Mexico’s MTV Movie Awards, there was a special category called “Best Bichir in a Movie,” which Demian won. A veteran of stage, screen and television in Latin America, Demian Bichir’s star has arrived on American shores with a vengeance. He sat down recently at The Geffen to reflect on his life as a performer.

Demian Bichir in A Better Life. 


Let’s start out with Che. You spent five months working on it. 

Demian Bichir: I was lucky enough to get the offer when I had enough time to work on it. I dove into the character, the process and research of it. Plus, growing up in Mexico, we are very close to the event of the Cuban Revolution, because it was planned in Mexico City. I already knew many, many things about it. I read Castro’s spoken-word autobiography, called “One Hundred Hours with Fidel” (U.S. title: “Fidel Castro: My Life”), which is a series of interviews he did with Ignacio Ramonet, who’s a famous journalist. I also got a lot of DVDs, many from Havana, where I was able to study footage of Fidel, which was very helpful.

Tell us about Fidel. What was your take on him?

Well, when I put myself on tape for the audition, I remember thinking that there were so many great characters involved in the Revolution; I knew I just had to play one of them. I didn’t have my heart set on playing Fidel, to be honest, and didn’t even really think of him. Then I got the call at five in the morning that Steven wanted me to play Fidel! I was like ‘What…?’ (laughs) I looked at myself in the mirror and thought ‘What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Me, as Fidel?!’ Then I started to see Fidel in my own face, and I thought ‘My God, Soderbergh is a genius, because he saw Fidel in me before I did!’ Then by the time I’d started working on it, and really getting into the character, people would stop and ask me for pictures! I was having breakfast at the Urth Café one morning, and this guy kept looking at me, and he asked “Do you mind if I take a picture with you? My grandfather is Cuban, and you look a lot like the young Fidel Castro.” There was another time where I was picking up my girlfriend at the airport, and there was an orange alert on, at the time. I had my beard fully-grown out by then, and they pulled me over and asked to look in my trunk. So I said ‘Sure,’ and got out and opened my trunk. And one of the cops said to me “What’s with the Fidel Castro look?” And I said ‘Well, I’m glad you asked.’ He said “Why is that?” And I said ‘Because I am Fidel.’ (laughs) And he gave me his “don’t fuck with me” face, and I said ‘Yeah, I’m doing the film with Steven Soderbergh, and Benicio Del Toro is playing Che…’ Then they were like “Really? Really? Hey Bobby, Richard, come over here! This guy is playing Fidel in the new movie!” (laughs)

Bichir as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's Che.

You managed to get Fidel’s voice down, his mannerisms, and his Cuban accent. Was all that difficult? 

Yes, that was all a big challenge, which is what drew me to the part to begin with. As soon as I don’t know what to do with a character, that’s when I say ‘yes’ to it. When on paper it’s really difficult, and I have questions, then I know it’s going to be a nice journey, a nice trip, especially if you’re with the right people.

How were Benicio and Soderbergh to work with? 

They both are where they are in their careers because they’re great, just the absolute top in terms of their talent and commitment to their work. They’re both extremely clever and Steven actually held a boot camp for us prior to filming, which helped us all get into character: sleeping outdoors, living like the rebels did in the Sierra Maestra. Benicio is so funny, and such a real human being. So often you meet stars that you admire and they disappoint you, but with Benicio it was just the opposite. He got into character and pretty soon was commanding the whole boot camp.

Men in black: Demian Bichir (center) with brothers Odesio (L) and Bruno (R).

You come from a theatrical family in Mexico City. 

My parents met when they were studying theater in a small town in northern Mexico called Torreon. They traveled to Mexico City without knowing anybody, and my father became a theater director and my mother an actress. Both my brothers are actors, as well. So it was in the blood from day one. (laughs) My parents had a theater company that would perform shows in every plaza in Mexico City. And we were always there, backstage, trying on the fake mustaches and driving everyone crazy! One day, the actors locked us up in a back room because we were such a nuisance. It was a real revelation for us when we figured out that our parents were making a living playing make-believe just like we did. Pretty soon, we all started doing professional theater when we were kids. When I got a little older, I wanted to play soccer professionally, and one night, my soccer coach came to see me in a play when I was about 14. And my coach was very impressed, apparently. At our next soccer practice, my coach took me aside and said “Listen, I had a great time last night. You were really amazing and fantastic. Do you know who Pele was?” And I said of course I knew who he was. My coach said “Do you know how he started playing soccer? He kicked coconuts around barefoot on the beach, because he didn’t have money for a soccer ball. He didn’t have any other choice, and you, you are a great actor.” (laughs) So that was a very nice way of telling me that my talents lay elsewhere than the soccer field! That was it: from then on I was an actor.

It’s interesting that you go from playing Castro to a victim of his regime in By the Waters of Babylon.

(laughs) Yeah, this play is really very poetic, in many ways. That’s why I love it. The characters are really well-written and (my character) Arturo has this duality and ambivalence that most Cubans feel and live with. There are so many Cubans in the world that have these amazing stories to be told, and Arturo’s is just one of them. I have many good friends who are writers that had to leave Cuba, and the story that Arturo tells is so heartbreaking and moving and special, and really hit close to home for me after hearing what so many of my friends went through, so that’s what really drew me to the character.

You and Shannon Cochran had to go to some very intimate emotional and physical places. I’ve always heard that love scenes are very difficult for actors. 
Oh, absolutely, very difficult, especially if you don’t really know the other actor all that well. Most of the films I’ve done have involved some sort of nudity in the love scenes, but I’ve known most of those actresses prior to that time. It was much harder recently with Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds because the scene we did was filmed just a few days after we’d met. It was really intimidating for me because she’s such a great actor and so beautiful that…well, you don’t want to mess it up, you know? (laughs) So yes, it can be very tough, but that’s what they pay you for, is the hard stuff.

Bichir and Mary-Louise Parker in "Weeds."

Your character in "Weeds" is very interesting because he’s morally ambiguous and quite pragmatic: he’s forced to tread in some dark areas in order to get good things done for his people.

Yes, and that’s what I find fascinating about him and the characters on that show: they’re very real. It’s all about the gray, because none of us are black & white. We can all be angels or demons, or both.

What category does your take on Castro fall into?

I think the big difference between a dictator and a leader is what you do or don’t do for your people. All of Fidel’s tasks and goals were always aimed at helping his people. That’s my perception, and when you think about Fidel’s actions and words, they were always aimed at helping his people. He knew that many things had to change in order to make things more equal. It made me think of our own revolution that we had in Mexico a hundred years ago, for the same reasons. It seems that now we need a revolution again in Mexico, because things have not been equal there for far too long.

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SLAMDANCE TURNS 18: Talking with Festival Co-Founder Dan Mirvish on the State of the Indie

David Mirvish, filmmaker and Slamdance Co-Founder 

By Terry Keefe


As the Sundance Film Festival gets underway this week, the neighboring  Slamdance Film Festival also kicks off its 18^thedition in Park City as well. This writer was there for the first Slamdance Film Festival in 1995, where a small group of the festival’s founding filmmakers were screening their films in whatever venues were available, including restaurants, and soliciting whatever audiences they could find in the snowy streets, via fliers and posters. Since those early days, Slamdance has grown into a powerful force of the independent film world with its spotlight on first-time filmmakers and has screened first features from the likes of Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), whose feature Following screened at Slamdance in 1999. Films are now regularly picked up for distribution at Slamdance, including the debut installment of the Paranormal Activity series, which was purchased by Dreamworks Pictures after its Slamdance screening in 2008.

Dan Mirvish was one of the co-founders of Slamdance in 1995 and has remained one of its guiding forces, while also sustaining a directing career which began in 1994 with his first ultra low-budget feature Omaha (the Movie), and continues today with his just-completed feature Between Us, starring Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs, Melissa George, and David Harbour.  Although the recession certainly cut back on the acquisitions budgets of independent film distributors, Mirvish believes that Park City will see a lot of film-buying activity this year.  “I think it’s going to be a good year, judging from what I know of the films that are going to be there, at both Sundance and Slamdance,” says Mirvish. “The word on the street is that distributors are going to be buying films. There’s a couple of big filmmakers, like Spike Lee, who are coming to Park City, without distribution (with Red Hook Summer), with films which 10 years ago would have been made by a studio.”

The digital revolution in filmmaking has made it possible for anyone with access to a camera and computer to make a feature film now. While that has unquestionably increased the numbers of other filmmakers that a first-time director has to compete with today, the lower costs of shooting on digital, as opposed to film, have sometimes freed up budgets for directors to hire better-known actors on a small project. Eli Perle, Mirvish’s manager at Provocation Entertainment, who also represents a number of other indie filmmakers, including previous Slamdance Grand Jury winners Daniel J. Harris (The Bible and Gun Club) and Kevin DiNovis (Surrender Dorothy), elaborates, “With the whole digital aspect of getting films made, you can make a really good-looking movie for a lot less money than you used to. But more importantly, actors, and, even more importantly than that, their agents, have realized that the big studios are not making adult dramas.” Mirvish nods, adding, “Studios don’t really make Oscar movies, independent films become Oscar movies. Because of that, the agents and the actors are realizing that they need to pay a lot more attention to indie and low-budget filmmakers in a way that they hadn’t so much before. Which is great for the filmmakers, because it means that you don’t have to necessarily raise millions and millions of dollars to get A-list actors. You can raise a few hundred thousand dollars, get great actors, great cameras, and make a really amazing movie.”

Another trend that has dovetailed with the ascent of digital filmmaking has been the use of “crowd-funding” via sites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo to raise budget financing. Mirvish says, “This year, I think Kickstarter was involved with around 20 films at Sundance.  And probably half the films at Slamdance did some type of crowdfunding. I think it’s become a lot more acceptable, and mainstream, to just ask friends for money to help make your movie.”

At the same time, Mirvish, whose Between Us received some of its initial funding via a successful Kickstarter campaign, points out that there is a reason the site is called Kickstarter and not KickFINISHER. He elaborates, “You don’t raise all your money through Kickstarter, and one shouldn’t expect to. A lot of people really emphasize the money aspect of these crowd-funding campaigns, but also important is the emotional aspect. You know, the hardest part is convincing yourself that you’re making the film. The second hardest part is convincing others.  What Kickstarter and these other campaigns do is convince you that you’re doing this thing. And even though you don’t necessarily owe those people back the money, you sort of emotionally do. In a very real sense, it sort of forces you to put together business plans and trailer reels and get your act together.”

The 18^thSlamdance Film Festival runs January 20-26 in Park City, Utah.

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