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March 2007
300: An Interview with Rodrigo Santoro

300: An Interview with Rodrigo Santoro
By Wilson Morales

When Hollywood starts convincing established foreign actors to cross over to do commercial films, some of them don’t always get the best of parts. Either they make eye candy appearances to appeal to the youth or they don’t get enough screen time or a substantial part equal to what they get overseas. Rodigo Santoro certainly doesn’t belong in this group. Santoro is an already accomplished actor having won acclaimed for his roles in the Brazilian films, “Behind the Sun” and “Carandiru”, and his American roles have been in films such as “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “Love, Actually”. Besides films, Santoro just landed a plum role in the acclaimed TV series, “Lost”, playing the role of Paulo. In his next role, Santoro not only literally stands out amongst a bevy of talent, but he plays the role with such fierce. In “300”, based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, Santoro plays Xerxes, leader of the Persian army who goes out the entire fleet to destroy Leonidas and his 300 men. In speaking with blackfilm.com, Santoro talks about his character, getting into makeup for the role, and his current role on “Lost”.


Before you got involved with the film, were you aware of Frank Miller’s work?

Rodrigo Santoro: Yes, I was aware. I didn't know 300 was going to be a film. Since Sin City, there was a friend of mine who is very, very into all the comic book world, and he showed me 300. And I looked at it and said, well, that could be a great film. Then after months, years, two years I think, I heard that 300 was going to be a film through one of the producers on the film Gianni Nunnari was actually the one who brought up my name and asked me to audition for this role.


YOU WERE HESITANT ABOUT GETTING YOUR EYEBROWS SHAVED?

RS: I had my whole body shaved. We started waxing and I had a lot of respect for women after that; but I left for the girls that part, because it just hurt so much that the next day I asked for a razor and shaved my whole body. But here we actually tried some prosthetics on first, tried to change my forehead or something like that, and then Zach just said, “No, no, no, I just want Rodrigo the way he is”, but the eyebrows were actually the makeup artist's idea just to cover with prosthetics. There was no need to really . . . oh, after all my body, I'm going to be scared of this? No.


DID YOU MAKE ANY POSES THAT COME FROM THE COMIC?

RS: Yeah, the inspiration was basically the graphic novel. I wanted to be very faithful to what was there, because I do believe that Frank Miller's vision is pretty clear for the character, and I do see a soul for the character. So I just try to be faithful to that, and just try to bring to life, just adding what I had to add to the character, but also respecting his vision.


YOU RECENTLY JOINED THE CAST OF LOST. WHAT'S THAT EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE?

RS: It's great man. Lost is another unique experience, just like this one. You literally don't know what's going on, so there's no control, there's no — actually it's hard to build a character like that. So it basically puts an actor in a position where you just have to live the moment once you get the script, which is not long before you start shooting, and you've just got to go from there and be in the moment. It's this kind of "lost" feeling actually. You feel like you're a little like — what's going on? You don't know. And I think that's the beauty of this experience.


ARE YOU GOING TO GET A FLASHBACK?

RS: Yes. I can't say a word, man. If I say it, we'll all have to kill you.


HOW DID YOU GET ON THE SHOW?

RS: I met one of the producers on the show for Alias two years ago. I was shooting something in Brazil and I could not do this, he offered me a guest star or something on Alias, and they brought up my name when he joined the Lost show. And then I had two meetings with every body — J.J. Abrams, all of them, and it was from there.


CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?

RS: I can't say anything. I don't know a lot about my character at all.


HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FILMING?

RS: Since last August.


IS THAT AS WEIRD AS WORKING ON A GREEN STAGE AND HOPING IT LOOKS COOL?

RS: Yeah. It was blue, very blue. You wear working on blue screen and you didn't have anything around you. We did have the graphic novel, so we could know what final result we were going to see, but once you're there working, it's all about imagination, the ability you have to live in the world of imagination — and you make it up, especially a character like Xerxes, who is this sort of self-proclaimed god who believes he is above everything and everyone in the planet earth. So he's a little bit of an egotist in my opinion — so it's all about imagination what he creates, his perception of reality, it's just his, his world.

Actually the makeup process, four hours and a half, was a great time for me to get into character, because he's so much about himself. I just took that time for myself to get into that character and just be a megalomaniac giant believing that he was just beyond anything.


HOW TALL IS YOUR CHARACTER IN 300?

RS: Seven feet. Seven feet tall.


AND YOU ARE . . .

RS: I'm 6’2.


WERE YOU HESITANT AT ALL WHEN YOU WERE FIRST APPROACHED, KNOWING GOING TO BE ALL BLUE SCREEN, VERY FEW SETS . . .

RS: You mean to play this character? Not really. I was actually salivating when I saw the picture when I saw the draw, because I thought, this is amazing, this is a great opportunity to play something completely different from everything I've done before. The process is completely different. Everything was new for me. But yeah, hesitation always because — not hesitation but some concerns. It's a risky character. It's a very tricky one. To find the right measure and to fit with all the performances with this operatic stylized comic book, so it was tricky. I just made a choice, just had to go for it.


WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ZACH THAT YOU WOULDN'T GET IN THE PRESS NOTES?

RS: Well, I'm going to tell you my point of view and how he helped me. I don't think it's in the press kit. We were shooting overnight and it was like a long shoot, and he was like from the beginning to the very last minute with the same great energy, which was very pressing — like 5.30 . . . and he was — let's go guys, always up there. He was a true warrior. He just wanted to win that battle and he would give anything, and he was just willing to give, and very open to hearing what everybody had to say. Like with me, he would come to me and say — how do you feel that, how do you think Xerxes should say that or should do that. So he was open. But on the other hand, he knew exactly what he wanted for the film. There was no trying here and there. He knew it. he already had everything in mind, he already knew what he was doing, so he was very precise and secure and confident. But on the other hand, just open, so it was a perfect combination. It couldn't be better. I had a great, great relationship with him, and I give a lot of credit to Zach Snyder.


HOW MUCH PHYSICAL TRAINING DID YOU DO?

RS: My story is a little different from The Spartans because they had to go to training for fighting, and since I'm up there on my throne, I didn't have to do that, but my interesting little story when I auditioned for this role — I was shooting something In Brazil where I had to lose 35 to 40 pounds. I was like just bones and skin, and when I put myself on tape, Zach and the producers saw it, they said that they liked it but I was too skinny. I said this is the character I'm playing here and how many months I still got about four or five months we're going to start shooting. And then there was my physical training. I had to just put all the weight back on and also just build — not to be too big, like muscle bound, just to be a giant, to be like this towering figure. So it was a lot of strict diet and a lot of weights and sweat and a lot of work. I did most of it in Brazil and then . . . I came to Montreal and that was two weeks before we started shooting. I have a personal trainer here in Brazil that helped me a lot. And it's basically just discipline. That's what it is.

You gotta be like (slaps hands) army; no chocolate, forget about that. It's just eating the right stuff, just working out, working out. It was great. It was very healthy but very strict.


YOU'RE VERY WELL KNOWN IN BRAZIL. ARE YOU PREPARED FOR HOLLYWOOD?

RS: Am I prepared? Well, I don't know man. I always think about what I'm doing right now, so if I start to think about everything, it's just too overwhelming. I never make a choice thinking about the results. I'm never gonna take a role or a project thinking where this could — what this could bring me or something like that, because you've got no control about anything actually. So I just do the work, get the material and try to make my choices based on my instinct, what I feel. And the rest is like really a consequence, that you have to deal with. So I don't know. I'm not thinking about that. What I'm thinking is that I hope — like this work right now with this movie — I hope that people are going to go and watch it and most of all I really hope that it's not just for people who are into graphic novels. I think it's a very original interesting unique piece and it could be a great ride for any viewer.


HOW MUCH DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE STORY OR ABOUT XERXES?

RS: Well, I'd heard before when I was in school. I always loved history so it was something that I was aware of but I went researching in the great historian book, Herodatus, which was the best source and there was a lot there, actually about the battle; and there was a lot about Xerxes. He's very controversial, Xerxes, according to Herodatus. There is a piece of information there that I found very interesting — it actually helped me with the character, because he says that Xerxes' father, has more — I think two more sons, and the power could have been passed to any of them. For some reason, it went to Xerxes. He doesn't explain and he thinks it's very controversial. And there is a sculpture in the Palace of Persephone? Of Xerxes in front of his father's sculpture with an inscription saying that he was his father's choice. So he wanted to make sure that everybody knew he was meant to be the king. That kind of made me think that underneath he was very insecure. He was very scared of everything. And it helped me — this Frank Miller vision that he is this god king, and I think he put out this figure in order to protect a lot of insecurity and a lot of stuff underneath.


WHO ARE YOU HANGING OUT WITH THE LOST CAST?

RS: Well, I have a couple of friends there. Ian Cusack is someone — we play soccer together. He's a nice Scottish friend, he loves soccer and we play soccer on Sundays.


THINKING ABOUT A PROJECT FOR THE HIATUS?

RS: There projects in Brazil and projects here in the States that I'm considering. I just don't know exactly and am trying to find that I think it’s going to be right and interesting to do. It's very difficult after something like this which I found very interesting. It's difficult to find a part like that, but you know, it's looking and seeing what could be right.


YOU'RE SAYING YOUR CHARACTER'S GOING TO CONTINUE INTO THE FOLLOWING SEASON.

RS: Who knows? I'm not saying anything. If we knew more — we cannot say, because that's part of the whole mystery of this show, but we do not know a lot of information at all. We have very little. Any actor, any character in the show, will tell you the same . . . we have very little information. That's part of the experience.


WATCH THE SHOW BEFORE YOU GOT CAST?

RS: Yeah. I was working in Brazil on and off so I didn't have a lot of — I wasn't following anything, but I heard. But Lost is even in Brazil it's huge. It's very huge and everybody's aware all over the world, so I watched a couple of episodes. I wasn't following it. But when I got the role, they sent me seasons one and two and I watched everything in a row. Like a long feature film; it was really cool.


300 OPENS ON MARCH 9, 2007

 

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