Victoria Mindova
If you wonder who are those Greeks who go out on the roads, blocking the highway, striking, screaming and complaining of the reduction of the 13th, 14th and 15th salary and want everything as it was back in the day, I can tell you that Themisto Angelopolos is not one of them. He is a boy born in Patras and raised in a village near the Peloponnesian town. You will not see him striking and protesting, not because he has a problem with defending labor rights in Greece, but because he has never taken advantage of them. Yes, there are Greeks who work from an early age, they are not public servants, they are not waiting for unions to defend their rights and they even pursue and achieve their dreams.
Nothing came to Themisto ready, even though you will never hear him complaining. He is not pleased with many things that surround him, but he knows that if something will change, he must do it himself. He is not waiting for someone to save him. He firmly believes that opportunities in life must be earned and no one will give them to you. He follows his dreams, even if this means that he will have to starve. Today he is an actor taking part theatre plays and television series on Greek TV, but he dreams of the big screen. Like all young artists Themisto is short on cash too, but he struggles with life, works at least in two places and does not stop dreaming.
Whoever does not work – will not eat
I came to Athens as soon as I graduated from high school. I applied to university but I was not accepted the first time. The second time I was accepted, majoring in Economic Sciences. After about two and a half years I dropped out - studying was merely a pretext to change my surroundings. The main reason I moved to Athens was to go to university. The truth is that I wanted to get away from home. I wanted to be independent. While studying I started work in a record company “7 records”. It was interesting, but I was working for many hours. Generally people were abused in this company and I decided to quit. I did not have even a penny.
Alongside my work in the record company I was introduced to Petros Kochubas, the old manager of AN Club on Exarhia Square. Back then this place was just starting to take shape of an underground scene. He was living right on the square and every day he was going down with his dog Olaf to have some dinner in Vergina bistro in Exarhia. I, on the other hand, was “accidentally” passing by around that time almost every other day. He will greet me, I will greet him. Kochuba would say: "Come, sit down to eat with me!" and thus I would eat something because I had no money. For about ten days, this repeated several times. One day Kochuba told me: "Hey, boy, do you want a job?" and I answered happily: "Of course!" He gave the keys and told me that there are some empty beer barrels at the club and I must exchange them with the full ones. During that evening there was going to be a concert. It turned out that the barrels were about 50. (Laughs heartily)
This is how I started working at AN Club. I helped with whatever I could. One day, however, came a foreign band, which was going to have a concert in the club. Their catering list and their contract were in English and I was the only employee who more or less spoke any English. This was the beginning of one of the best parts of my life. I started dealing with greeting and taking care of bands that came to play in the club. I enjoyed my work very much because it gave me a chance to meet and interact with people from around the world. People who more or less have the same views as me. People with who I can exchange thoughts and ideas. Everything continued like this until Kochuba was a manager. After that we all left.
Actor - to be or not to be!?
Then I started working as a runner boy at Gagarin club. This was the period when I decided that I wanted to deal with drama. I started attending Victoria Haralabidou’s Acting courses, which were based on the Stanislavski system, but it was just a hobby. When I finished my first year, Victoria called me and asked me: "Do you want to do acting professionally?” I told her that I did not want. The same thing happened after the end of my second year and I answered the same. I was scared and this is why I did not want to go on stage professionally. At that time I had a certain idea about this type of work that many people share, but it is far from the truth. The idea that you must have "something," otherwise nothing will happen. It is not like that. I have many colleagues who work hard and are very serious in what they do.
The work is interesting and exciting and it gives me a lot more that it takes from me. The moment when things changed for me was during workshop for the exercising Michael Chekhov’s technique, led by Anestis - director and brother of my teacher Victoria. The seminar was really difficult and it was only for professionals. I saw people who collapsed and wept. It was a very emotional experience. This is when I decided I wanted to act professionally. I went to Victoria and I told her: "Finally I decided to look into professional acting. Do you think I am good at it? Do you think I can do it?" And she turned and looked at me amazed and said: "But how do you even ask me such things! How can I know if you can handle it? It all depends on you. It does not depend on anyone else!" At that point I did not feel very good about myself. I just didn’t understand her answer. (Laughs)
Now I know.
Smooth roads are not for us
It is clear that nothing is easy. Whatever work you decide to start and if you want to do it well – there will always be problems. Currently the problem is that there are less and less projects and work cannot be found easy. This means that you should try harder, be better, so you can survive in these conditions. Except for not being able to find work easy, today we have another problem – salaries fell. So I am forced to work a second job, so I can survive.
Actually I do my second job so I can continue to do the first one.
Always a good boy
Most often they give me the role of the good boy because I have such a face. At least according to casting directors. There is this stereotype that people are judged according to their appearance, and this is particularly true for my work. In one of the last films in which I participated this year, the director gave me the role where I had to steal. Basically it was a very violent scene. In a conversation with a casting director, she said that if it were up to her, she wouldn’t have chosen me for this a role. However, the scene was very successful.
The truth is that with work and perseverance come opportunities for more interesting roles. At the beginning you accept any roles you are offered, but at some point comes the opportunity to choose what you want to play or to try new roles, unknown to you until that moment. You fight for the opportunity and they give it to you. I have many colleagues, who choose a certain type of character and remain loyal only to it, but this is the easier road.
Right to a mistake
The hardest thing for me is when I hear from close people, questions like "When will you find a normal job?" When you hear such a question from the nearest around you, you understand how alone you really are. Such questions are unpleasant, but when you have made the decision on how to shape your life, then you stop paying attention to these things. My people enjoy that they can come and see me in the theater or see me in an episode of a TV series, but nevertheless according to them acting in not a job. Probably because from the outside it looks easy, but it is not. Whatever the reason is, I want my friends to support me when I am wrong. When I am obviously right, all support me, but my friends need to be with me when I am wrong as well. A man has the right to be wrong and this comes from the fact that we know what’s best for us. Knowledge about some things comes only with experience. In order to get through some vicissitudes of fate, we need our friends. They just make the process easier.
Love
Love finds a place in our lives by itself. When the time comes to make a decision, this is when it shows who you are. I have not yet experienced my great love, because I was not given the chance. I was betrayed. I fought for her for a long time, until one day I realized that there is no point. I asked my roommate to grab the closest thing and hit me in the head if I ever even thought about calling the girl, who broke my heart, again. He took this burden, but thankfully he did have to go through with it.
Basically I believe in great love, but whether I believe or not, it does not make much difference. Nothing has changed much so far. I believe in luck as well, but it hasn’t come along too! However, we never know what future has for us.
My conclusion from my meeting with Themi is that whether you believe or not, does not matter. It is important to act. Never to give up and always to look for new roads. At the end of the day, thing can always be worse and if we want something different, then it all depends on us.
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