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
