Choursoglou Interview - Clip 6
Dia Philippides:
Indeed, because you cannot give an actor complete direction in a film.
Periklis Choursoglou:
I experienced this completely when I myself acted in my latest film, and that was really the end of it all; I had to address these problems. Actually, I’m kidding. I acted in my last film because I wanted to…, and this is something I believe in, I appreciate actors very much. The love that I’ve had for theater since I was very young — the Art Theater, and so on — I believe that it resulted in my liking to teach actors in the cinema. And as the years have gone by, all that much more I want, as American actors say, to not ‘play’, but to ‘be’ a character. In The Building Manager I felt that a lot. Indeed, I had many inhibitions because I had never acted, and even in family photos I used to be shy, so I would either hide or make a face. When the idea came to me to act in the film, I had fears and inhibitions, but we did a brief tryout with my wife, Vangelio Andreadaki, who plays in the film, and from what I saw afterwards in a few scenes — we improvised on shooting with a video camera — it seemed as if I was in the house of these two people. That gave me the opening I needed to play the building manager.
Dia Philippides:
I hope we find a way to bring your films closer to the young people we teach outside Greece. We don’t teach them all that you do about how great films are made, yet I hope we’ll discuss another time what possibilities we have for future collaboration — from your position as professor at the University of Thessaloniki and from my position on the other side of the Atlantic. I thank you very much.
Periklis Choursoglou:
With pleasure. I thank you too.
Indeed, because you cannot give an actor complete direction in a film.
Periklis Choursoglou:
I experienced this completely when I myself acted in my latest film, and that was really the end of it all; I had to address these problems. Actually, I’m kidding. I acted in my last film because I wanted to…, and this is something I believe in, I appreciate actors very much. The love that I’ve had for theater since I was very young — the Art Theater, and so on — I believe that it resulted in my liking to teach actors in the cinema. And as the years have gone by, all that much more I want, as American actors say, to not ‘play’, but to ‘be’ a character. In The Building Manager I felt that a lot. Indeed, I had many inhibitions because I had never acted, and even in family photos I used to be shy, so I would either hide or make a face. When the idea came to me to act in the film, I had fears and inhibitions, but we did a brief tryout with my wife, Vangelio Andreadaki, who plays in the film, and from what I saw afterwards in a few scenes — we improvised on shooting with a video camera — it seemed as if I was in the house of these two people. That gave me the opening I needed to play the building manager.
Dia Philippides:
I hope we find a way to bring your films closer to the young people we teach outside Greece. We don’t teach them all that you do about how great films are made, yet I hope we’ll discuss another time what possibilities we have for future collaboration — from your position as professor at the University of Thessaloniki and from my position on the other side of the Atlantic. I thank you very much.
Periklis Choursoglou:
With pleasure. I thank you too.
