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FINDING THE BEAST WITHIN
Once Vladimir landed the role, not only the fun but the pain began as well. The Beast is the terrifying incarnation of the Devil and thus being so, needed to look downright pee-in-your-pants frightening. Co-executive producer Jeffrey Bell hired make-up guru Robert Hall and his effects shop, Almost Human, to make Vladimir a walking nightmare. The costuming and make-up for The Beast is completely body covering - a new experience for the actor. "I always wanted to do a role where they covered up my face. [Actor] Ron Perlman ("Vincent" from Beauty and the Beast) does this as a profession and people always say, 'If you get a role where they cover up your face, that means they want you as an actor not as the person that you look like.' So, I always wanted a job like this." Of course the old axiom, "Be careful what you wish for" immediately comes to mind in this case as Vladimir went through the daily eight hour process of being completely transformed by the make-up over an eleven week period. Being The Beast meant not even the mans eyes were his own, "The worst part was the contact lenses they used. These particular ones were the largest they've ever made. They actually cover the entire eyeball. I didn't realize how big they were until two days ago when we finally took them off and I looked at them because a tech puts them in for you. They were the size of a silver dollar so I could finally understand why my eyes were so scratched and red at the end of each session."
Robert Hall puts the final touches on The Beast
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Within every man, there is a demon waiting!
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The Beast is truly a monstrous creation; sporting horns, hooves and cracked skin that looks like molten lava is residing just beneath the surface. The Beast makes you want to whimper "Mommy" at first glance, but for an actor, the prosthetics, fiberglass body suit, contacts, and make-up don't exactly make for the most expressive of costumes through which to emote. How did Vladimir then adjust to the challenges? "The trick was not to play into the mask, which hopefully worked. You just try to go a little deeper inside of you. It works like this for me, once they zipped me up into the suit and I got on the set, the last thing we'd do is pop in the contacts. You can never see completely through them. It's like if you wear glasses and there is fog on the glasses." Vlad explains, "What happened to me is that I started to become introverted and I kind of drifted off into myself. I felt like I was almost hiding inside of myself - you couldn't see me because of all this makeup and contact lenses. I was able to search a little deeper for material while I was in the character because I was cocooned off. I decided to just get as cocooned as possible and play it that way and say the words that way and see how it came out in the end. In fact, the first episode I saw, The Beast says the line 'Do you really think she is safe with him?' and I said to the director, 'Is that me?' And everybody said, 'Yeah.' But I was so surprised that I went that far away from what I am. It was liberating."
With the outer shell in place, there were few, if any, specific influences on how Vlad crafted his harbinger of evil. "Somebody said I should have watched Legend and it happened to be on TV just before the first episode and I started to watch it. The opening scenes are in a dungeon and creatures were getting beat and I just hate that stuff, you don't have to show it, you can imply it. Plus, I didn't want to be influenced by the fact that people were saying The Beast was like Tim Curry in that film. I've played villains in almost everything I've ever done. I think The 13th Warrior was the only thing I wasn't a villain in.
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"People always say, 'If you get a role where they cover up your face, that means they want you as an actor not as the person.'"
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For me to decide, 'how do I make this guy evil?' - you don't really have to make him evil. All he has to do is say, "Do you really think she is safe with him?" and that's evil." Vlad gives a deep, rumbling laugh and adds, "I also try to throw lines away. When writers write for evil they often over write. Also, the actors on the show are all paid to be specific characters. They are all boisterous and young and they have all this energy, so there's no point for The Beast to pretend he is 18."
We spoke with Vladimir the day after he had completed filming his arc for the season and he was enthused but weary. "I'm tired, really tired," he confessed. "I've never actually been this tired in my life from anything like this before." The costume took its toll, "Just by being in it for so long and it doesn't breathe. The only place, for the chance of anything to come through it, are these two little holes they put in for my ears so I could hear the dialogue." The physicality of the role helped to tire him out as well. "I had a stunt guy do a lot of it but once in awhile they would say, 'Ok, you just have to do this little thing.' Next thing you know, it's like seven punches and then 'he is going to kick and you duck' and all of a sudden I'm doing all these fight scenes. I guess that's because I've done so much in the past, I think they assumed I would be ok to do it. It just tires you out. They have the stuntman there to not drain you. They throw the guy in when they see Vladimir is starting to wobble a little bit."
Coming into an established show as a featured character can be a daunting proposition for most actors. Assimilating into a cast, which has been together for years, can be challenging depending on the actors and the show itself but Vladimir had no such problems. "They were very welcoming. For the first two or three days, I would show up and get myself lost. I could stand there next to them and they wouldn't even know I was there. I was almost like a statue. If you looked at me and if I didn't move, you wouldn't be aware that there was somebody in your space. The suit was so stiff, I could almost, like a cow, sleep standing up," he jokes. "But they were wonderful."
POST APOCALYPSE
An avid dog lover, Vladimir found a kindred spirit in Boreanaz. "David was always very nice and sweet and very normal. Normal is a really high compliment in this business. On the last day, I brought my dog Spanky, who is a 95-pound Pit Bull, onto the set. When we got him I didn't know he was a Pit Bull, he looked so sweet. Anyway, to see a big Pit Bull and me in my monster suit was kind of a funky thing. I brought Spanky up to David to say 'hi' and David absolutely just became a different person because he is a dog lover. He has three dogs of his own and so he was completely slobbering over Spanky - falling in love. So, we ended up on a high note."
Vlad away from the set with his horses
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Vlad may have finished his filming in December but audiences will only now get to witness the havoc The Beast has in store for the A.I. gang as the series returns from winter break in January. If he thought he had a fan base before, wait until the Angel fans get done with him. In preparation for the potential swell of recognition Vlad explains he, "realized early the studio was pushing this character as the arc of their season so they are investing a lot into it. Put it this way, I probably received a thousand times more promotion on this than I did on The 13th Warrior - a $100 million dollar film." Fan conventions are a normal destination for a lot of the Angel cast members in their downtime and Vlad would be interested in appearing as well. "It depends on what I have to wear. If they don't have to put a lot of junk on me, I'd be happy to do some of them. At this point, I'm so exhausted, I don't want to see another mask or smell the latex at least until next year."
Vladimir plans on continuing to pursue new roles and one in particular he shared sounds very promising but he cautiously added, "But if I say it, it may blow up on me." In the meantime, he keeps himself busy with a relatively new past-time renovating homes. "I learned house renovations over the last three years. A friend of mine is a realtor and they find the houses and we rebuild them and sell them. It's a nice therapeutic thing to do. I can do woodwork and the electrical but what I like to do is redesign the house. I want to take whatever house we are dealing with and make it bigger not by adding but by removing walls and making space. I keep getting these offers to play Nazis and Russians, always-named Vladimir. Some of them are so bad that I don't want to do them but I have to eat so I renovate."
Considering a dream role that he would love to tackle in the future, Vlad takes a long pause to reflect and answers, "I love the play Les Miserables. I wouldn't mind playing the lead in that." He also adds preferably, in film. "I just love film. Stage you can do in your backyard, I love film because it is more precise and I love precision." As to his aspirations of writing and developing his own projects, Vladimir wearily chuckles and offers, "Shame on me, I've been a little bit lazy on developing things. I had somebody organizing stuff for me but I should just call him up and say let's do it." So, now that he's played the Lord of the Underworld and knocked around the good guys for fun, Vladimir can take a long rest and reflect on his stint as the ultimate evil. Once he gets a long nap, he promises to get back into the Hollywood fray looking for more unique roles. With the genuine enthusiasm he approaches each and every project there are no boundaries to confine this distinctive talent. Soft spoken yet rich in verse, and with vast interests that diversify him even further, the future a waits to enlighten Vladimir's fans with his next exciting endeavor.
Written by CoA Writer, Tara DiLullo
CityofAngel would like to extend our thanks to Vladimir Kulich for being so gracious with his time.
Special thanks to Roberta Trahan for her assistance in coordinating this feature.
For more information on Vlad, visit his Official Website at: VladimirKulich.com
NOTE: Pictures courtesy of Roberta Trahan and Robert Hall.
If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Spotlight' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com
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