ODESA, Ukraine – When talent agent Richard Cook applied to become a volunteer of Ukraine’s yearly Odesa International Film Festival seven years ago, the organizers told him the condition for Cook to get in was to bring his client, famous Irish actor Cillian Murphy to the festival.
So Cook persuaded the actor, renowned for his roles in “Batman Begins” and “Inception,” to visit the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in 2012 and present his film “Broken.” And that’s how Cook, the founder of the top Irish talent agency “The Lisa Richards,” became a regular guest of the Ukrainian festival that is taking place on July 14-22 this year.
This year, Cook brought another Irish star to the festival – actor Aidan Turner, who is famous for portraying Kili the Dwarf in Peter Jackson’s trilogy “The Hobbit.” Turner visits the festival for the third time.
“There is something unique about this festival, it’s very well managed, and it’s all about films,” Cook told the Kyiv Post on July 20. “The audience really comes here to see relatively obscured independent films that might not have a commercial life.”
Cook added that he loves Odesa’s weather, architecture, beaches, and food – “everything that makes those days of the festival special.”
This year, Cook is on the festival’s jury board for the second time. He will be choosing the Best International Film among the 12 competing movies.
Irish talent manager Richard Cook talks to the Kyiv Post in Odesa on July 20 during the Odesa Film Festival. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Cook said that he would rather choose a controversial movie that part of the jury hates and part is passionate about than simply give the prize to the film that everyone liked.
“I think your own character comes out in how you conduct yourself as a jury,” he said.
Despite his personal fascination with Odesa Film Festival, Cook said that the festival is still little known among his colleagues. Still, he sees it as a great opportunity to meet new people and find fresh talents: Later these days he is going to meet an actor who played a supporting role in the Ukrainian film “Laugh or Die” that was screened at the festival. He also complimented the main actors in another Ukrainian film from the festival, “Falling.”
Cook is sure that if Ukraine keeps investing money in producing new films, more talented actors and filmmakers will appear – especially young ones.
He also noted that poor knowledge of English prevents many Eastern European actors from getting parts in international projects. There is no need to get a pure British or American pronunciation, he said, but fluency is required.
Cook is also skeptical about actors who think they can become successful by simply going to Hollywood, without getting famous in their native country.
He explains that now big companies usually aim at international box offices so they would rather take an actor popular in his or her country because it means that many people would probably go to the theaters there.
Moreover, he is sure that people will never succeed in acting when they just want to get into a big movie.
Casting director: ‘Create your own works to be noticed’
Nancy Bishop, an American Emmy-Award nominated casting director who worked on the movies like “Mission Impossible 4,” “Hannibal. Rising,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” also visits this year’s Odesa Film Festival.
American Emmy-winning casting director Nancy Bishop talks to the Kyiv Post in Odesa on July 20 during the Odesa Film Festival. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
She agrees that simply aiming for Hollywood isn’t the right goal for an actor.
“It’s not about wanting to be in a Hollywood movie,” she said. “The way they should be thinking is ‘I am an actor, I want to build up my craft, I want to work internationally.’”
Bishop started her career in casting in the 1990s, while working as a theater director for the English-language theater Black Box Theater in Prague, Czech Republic. She knew most of the English-speaking actors in the country, so various directors and companies started to ask her to help find an actor from that region. Since then, Bishop has been recruiting actors in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom.
Bishop said that every Ukrainian actor should create their profile and share their works on various international casting platforms, such as E-talenta.com and Spotlight, so the casting directors could reach them.
She also said that it would be nice to create some kind of a cooperative where actors would help to promote each other: For example, to launch a website called “Ukrainian Actors” where casting directors could find both popular ones and beginners.
Bishop also recommends actors to create their own works. She recalled that Vin Diesel was noticed by recruiters after he shot a short movie about himself being unable to get a job.
