Premieres this Wednesday ‘The King’s Man: The first mission’, a prequel to the ‘Kingsman’ saga where he gives life to Rasputin
We put a face on Rhys Ifans (Wales, 1967) when he played Hugh Grant’s somewhat perverted roommate in ‘Notting Hill’. Since then, her career has continued to grow, almost always putting her face in secondary roles. In ‘The King’s Man: The First Mission’, which hits theaters tomorrow, he takes on the role of Rasputin. The film, a prequel to the ‘Kingsman’ saga, which tells the origins of the agency, addresses the adventure in which a man will have to embark to stop a group made up of the most evil tyrants and criminal minds in history that seeks to unleash a war that will kill millions of people.
-How is your Rasputin?
-We all know Rasputin. He has a very iconic photographic canon and I think he was one of the first figures to be aware of what it meant to be in front of a camera. He knew how to guess the power of an image and the mystery behind that image. When you look at the photographs from that time, you realize that people seem puzzled by the fact that they are photographing them. On the contrary, it seems that Rasputin knows very well what a lens does. It is seen that in some of the photographs he has purposely darkened the eyes to reinforce that mystery. That iconography can be transmitted very well, which is what I have done with my role, and I think Matthew (Vaughn) has also done it in his way of shooting the film. But also Matthew has added another element that is that he is an exquisite fighter.
-What kind of fighter is he?
-Matthew wanted to find a specific language for the Rasputin fight. He came up with the idea because Rasputin was an excellent Russian dancer especially in Georgian or Cossack dances. So Matthew and the stunt team invented a martial art that is an amalgamation of various types of oriental martial arts and mixed it with Russian dances. Rasputin throws his enemies into a slumber with the help of music. He dances and suddenly something very sinister arises, a fatal blow.
-Did you contribute your own ideas?
-My idea was that all the people Rasputin murders usually die in what they think is a dance. So almost everyone dies with a smile on their face.
-How was the training?
-It was a fairly unknown process since we were not familiar with the action genre. It took a lot of training. That gave us a lot of clues about the character. I had the feeling that he was a holy figure, with great spiritual serenity, but the truth is that at any moment he could lose control and plunge into a delirium of violence.
– Did you have a good time?
-All the cardio exercise I had done so far was getting in and out of the shower. I have never been to the gym. But after a month or two of physical training, I reached that state that people who exercise talk about: the high. Now I run every day and it’s great.
-What surprised you the most about Rasputin?
-I think Rasputin is still such an intriguing figure because so little is known about his early years and his life with the Tsar and the Tsarina. He is a character who left a cultural mark comparable to that of Charles Manson, who hypnotized a generation. He was highly regarded but the truth is that before that he was sent to the front lines in the First World War to fight with the Russian troops and that is something that I did not know. It ended badly and it was then that it immediately fell from grace among the Russian people. He knew that he had influence over the tsar and the tsarina, that he lived the high life, and that he enjoyed luxuries that other members of the court did not have. He did not know that he was listened to at such a high political level.
– Mention Manson. Was it useful for your interpretation?
-Not directly, but in terms of its ability to hypnotize the masses. Hitler had it too, and it’s something many rock stars have used. If you look at the photos of Aleister Crowley, you realize that he was another figure who was very aware of the camera and the image and how people identified him with sexual perversion. Rasputin may well have been one of the first people to understand that perversion could be attractive.
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Rhys Ifans, characterized as Rasputin, in a still from ‘The King’s Man: The First Mission’. Peter mountain
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“Rasputin knew how to see that perversion can be attractive”
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Rhys Ifans Actor
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The trainings
“I had never been to the gym. All the cardio I did was get in and out of the shower. ”
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