300
Coming from Brazil, Rodrigo Santoro has been exposed to American audiences in doses, a few scenes on Lost, in Charlie's Angels 2 or Love Actually. 300 puts him on the big screen, even larger than big screen life as Xerxes, the Persian king. Portrayed as a seven foot tall giant, thanks to CGI work, Santoro had only blue screen to work with.
Rodrigo Santoro on 300's Xerxes
"It was blue, very blue," said Santoro. "You were 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. 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."
With prosthetics and fake piercings contributing to Xerxes' look, Santoro had plenty of time to imagine his character. "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."
While some actors might worry about spending an entire shoot in a blue soundstage, Santoro saw the opportunity. "I was actually salivating when I saw the pictures, when I saw the drawings, 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 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."
All the actors playing Spartan warriors hit the gym to pack on muscle mass. Santoro had a different training regimen. "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. 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, Zack 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've 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 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."
300 is out in theatres now.
For the video journals, stills, trailers, more stills, reviews, posters and
movie info, head over to the 300
Movie Page.
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