Ladytaksa on the forum found a interview on a russian site for One Cinema about Bigga than Ben.
She's translated Ben's interview and also translated parts of Andrei Chadov aka Spiker interview where he talks about Ben.
How did
you get to the film?
- At that time I was finishing my work at the Star Dust. Once producer Suzie
Halewood invited me to a meeting but said nothing about
any casting. When I came to her studio it turned out that there was being
held a casting. Suzie asked me to read a text with russian accent. I fell
in love with the script immediately. I think that my love for the story about
two russian guys helped me to get the role.
- Do you have any resemblance
with your character?
- I think there are more differences...Cobakka is a big guy. To look more
mighty I had to put on a lot of clothes. I grew a small beard for the role.
as for the resemblance...I think we both have an analytic turn of mind, we
can and like to analyse different situations, people. But he is much harsher
than I am - emotionaly and physically, maybe thanks to his life experience.
- How was the work with
Andrei going?
- Great! though he spoke bad english and I understood nothing in russian.
during the shooting we lived in one flat and with the help of cigarettes and
vodka we gradually statred to understand each other, value the humour. Andrei
is a cool guy and plus to that he is a brilliant actor.
- But how did you manage
to work together, speaking different languages?
- Easily. for a house relations I bought an english-russian phrase-book and
there was an interpreter on the set.
- Have you learned anything
new about England during the shooting?
- It was great to work in my native city, I had never shooted in London before.
After this film I opened my eyes on an ambiguous attitude of english people
towards the immigrants, foreigners and tourists.
- What do you think can
interest english people in the film?
- The same thing that interested me: the opportunity to look at our country
from different point of view. It gives you a lot.
- You are not only an
actor, but also a musician. what do you think about the role of the music
in the film?
- The music helped to create an atmosphere of modern London. the mix of russian
and british music was necessary to make the audience to feel the difference
between the cultures.
- Did you like the soundtrack?
- 4-5 compositions I liked a lot, especcialy the one of Pete Doherty.
- Please tell us about
your impression after you first saw the film?
- I was surprised how cool it turned out to be in spite of the sort period
of the shooting - only 4 weeks. I did not expect such a result because the
shooting was held almost without rehearsals, in realistic format, as with
hidden camera.
- What are you working
at nowadays?
- These days I'm shooting in Oscar Wilde's famous novel "The Picture
of Dorian Gray".
Andrei Chadov aka Spiker interview where he talks about Ben.
- How did you get on with your partner, Ben Barnes?
- To tell the truth, we didn't get into contact with each other immediately.
During the shooting Ben was 25, now he is 26, but he made an impression of
a complete child: hi-hi, ha-ha - it was incomprehensible how to communicate
with him. but in the process of the shooting we chumed up, the story helped
us, we became closer. By the way, during the shooting he had no place to live
at, he is a student, since his 18th birth day he has been living separately
from his parents and he has been supporting himself. so he lived if and when,
and the last two weeks he lived at my place. i'm so happy for his, now he
will for sure get his own place to live (smiles).
- Your parnter graduated
Kingston University with two specialities - english literature and drama.
was it difficult to communicate with a person, who knows english much better
than an avarage englishman?
- ...For a month I lived almost alone, there was no a word in russian. I spoke
russian on the set, Ben - english, and we understood each other perfectly,
almost without any translation, just because of the emotions.
- On the set, there met
two guys, the one was russian - who had no foggiest idea about english life,
the other was englishman who had to get into the role of a russian...what
did you learnt from each other?
- I taught Ben russian slang and accent. Ben has an ideal pronunciation, but
he had to exaggerate it. He mispronounced the words so industriously, trying
to take off russian accent! As for me...I didn't learn anything from him.
I was taking pleausre in life and work.
- Were those conditions
in the film closer to the native englishman than to you?
- They were new to Ben because he didn't know this side of the english life
and get into a story, conditions which where absolutely crazy for him. At
first, Suzie even confessed that she had doubted in him. Ben had such a 'sugary'
type, a resemblance with young Keanu Reeves - real Prince Charming. and here
we have a story about drugs...I think it was easier for me, because there
were such moments when I had to stand up for myself and my childhood wasn't
very bright.
- Does Cobakka from the
film look like his prototype?
- No, Cobakka in real life and Ben Barnes are absolutely different. Cobakka
is very tall and thin, absolutely another type. But, I think, that's not the
point, the main thing is that everything coincides per se....
