Hey folks, Harry here, I've been out all day and night hanging out with a friend and watching Hanks' FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON series on DVD... Boy I love that series... But anyway, back to the issue at hand. Here's a bit that came in from a Croatian Newspaper about both EYES WIDE SHUT and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE... Pretty groovy stuff I think...
I've decided to write down the
highlights of the latest interview by Rade Serbedzija in Feral
Tribune. Feral is the celebrated Croatian opposition newspaper, and
Rade is that actor-with-an-unpronouncable-name who played the villain
in 'Saint' and 'Mighty Joe Young'.
So let's learn to pronounce his name together, and see what's he up to.
The Pronounciation:
Rah-deh Cher-badge-ee-yah.
Whoa, it really sounds like something from 'MJY'.
The News:
Well, Rade spent two months working with Kubrick on 'Eyes Wide Shut'.
He describes his character as a "weirdo, a dangerous character - like
someone out of a Dostoevsky novel. Very complex. When I got the part,
he was an American, but then Kubrick insisted that he should have a
Slavic name, even though he doesn't have a backstory. I got to name
him, and I chose to call him Mr. Milic. It took me a while to come up
with a name, because any movie I make lately offends either the Croats
or the Serbs..."
Here I interrupt with some uninteresting bacground info on how Rade is
a Serb from Croatia, which was not exactly a perfect nationality to be
lately, so even though he was Croatia's foremost actor he chose to
seek employment elsewhere. End of interruption.
"...and Milic can be a Serbian name as much as a Croatian name."
So Rade plays a psycho opposite Tom Cruise for two months, and lo and
behold, they become friends. Last autumn, Rade throws a birthday party
for his daughter Vanja in London, when suddenly Tom appears, and
obviously gives all the little girls there petite pink heartattacks.
Then he and Rade have a little chat, and Tom tells him how great a
time they had working on the Kubrick movie, and would Rade consider
working with Tom again.
So then a little later Rade gets a part in 'Mission: Impossible 2'.
Like, he was the first person cast beside Cruise and Ving Rhames. This
time, amazingly, Rade plays a good guy, Ethan Hunt's best friend, a
scientist, a very positive, interesting character...
This interview was done sometime last week, and Rade explains how they
kept moving back the production start date in Sydney, and the latest
is March 29. This seems to agree with your most recent posting.
In closing, Rade says that after MI:2 he has another American film
lined up. 'Independent' will be directed by another ex-Yugoslav,
Djordje Milicevic, who wrote 'Runaway Train' for Andrei Konchalovsky.
This is his first film as a director, and Rade will be playing
opposite Diane Venora.
OK, that's it as far as scoops go. As you can suppose, most of the
interview was centered on trials and tribulations of Rade's expatriate
life. But even this little much is more than what was previously
available on the Net... and I can't help wishing that I'd interviewed
Rade personally. I would have gotten EVERYTHING out of him. Plus, he
really is a great guy.
Hope this helps,
your good ole Witch Doctor
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