[FINALE] Filippo Valle in Cologne

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www.finale-movie.comFilippo Valle was in Cologne to meet with the FIANLE gang.

Hey guys,this is my first full FINALE blog entry in a long time since some cast members wrote the recent entries. This time I am going to blog about the last weekend on which FINALE lead actor Filippo Valle (Finn) was here in Cologne to discuss the project and to shoot an interview.

But first let me tell how we originally met Filippo.

Back in 2007, me and Rouchdi went to Italy (Rome) looking for suitable actors for the four main bad guys of FINALE. The actors we picked to meet, including Lorenzo Renzi, were all good and had something about special them. However, one agency wanted us to meet with Filippo Valle. Judging from his pictures we didn’t think he would suit the role of a FINALE villain, though. The agency however insisted. “OK, fine. Let’s meet with him. You never know…”

Me and Rouchdi were sitting in the café of Hotel de Russie where we held all our meetings. I went to the lobby where Filippo was waiting in order to pick him up. As we said hello to each other I noticed that he had no accent when speaking English. We later learned that he had been living in Los Angeles, California for seven years and that he took acting classes there.

As we sat down together in the café we had a good time chatting to Filippo. He had read the script for FINALE and knew that we were looking for someone to play the lead villain Enzo DaSilva. When Filippo talked about the storyline he proved that he had a deep understanding of all the characters and their motivations. After about an hour he left and I was sitting there with Rouchdi talking about what a shame it was that his looks didn’t fit the character. He would have been a great Enzo, because he understood what the character was all about and how he fit in context with the whole story.

It was an exhaustingly long day. We had so many meetings with the same talk over and over again each time we met a new actor. And each time we had to look fresh and as if Rouchdi was talking about the project for the first time. Being tired we sat down in the lobby of the hotel and just didn’t talk for a few minutes. In my mind I was trying to remember what happened that day and I just couldn’t stop about what an impression Filippo had made on me. Rarely does an actor bring along so much thoughtfulness concerning your script on the very first meeting. Then I started to think outside the box, because we were looking for someone to play Enzo. Would he fit another character? Oh man, when it dawned on me that he could play Finn, I went through every scene of the script and imagined him playing Finn. It worked so well in my mind that I had to tell Rouchdi. He gave it some thoughts and he just agreed. We decided to tell Filippo on our next meeting.

This next meeting occurred about one year later. When we told Filippo that we didn’t think he was appropriate to play Enzo, the poor guy looked a bit disappointed. However, we continued and told him that we thought he should play Finn.

“Are you kidding me?”  he asked with a smile on his face.

The decision was just right. He fits the character just perfectly and the fact that he understands Finn and his motivations so well is a guarantee that he will play him beautifully. Rouchdi usually doesn’t do auditions. He likes to sit down with the actors and talk to them. If he feels they understand the story and the characters then he knows that in combination with his direction the actors will give great performances.

It was great meeting Filippo again. I drove to Frankfurt airport to pick him up and it has been almost exactly a year since we last saw him when he was with us in Seoul, Korea to meet lead actress Bae Seul-Ki, action director Jung Doo-Hong and composer Jo Yeong-Wook. We had a great time together there so it was a nice reunion when I saw him in Frankfurt.

On the 2 hour drive back to Cologne me and Filippo caught up on old stories. I was really happy to see him again. In the meantime, Rouchdi was organizing a hotel room for Filippo and then went to wait for us in a café.

As Filippo saw Rouchdi they were both glad to see each other again and they hugged. What we did first was have a cup of coffee and talk about FINALE. Rouchdi is going over the script in order to improve some things until we start shooting in May. So he wanted to hear Filippo’s ideas. Together we came up with some great ideas which are real improvements to an already great script.

Later we were joined by Steve Man (content & creative consultant) and we had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant called Bali. Later that night the guys went to have some drinks, but I left to meet with my fiancé.

On the next day, Saturday, we went to have breakfast. We were joined by German actress Jeanette Hain who will play the character of Viviane. She came over from Berlin, which is about 600 km away. Filippo and her met for the first time. They have a lot of scenes together and they got along well. Especially since Jeanette speaks Italian. Sorry, Rouchdi! Can’t translate that to you! =)

We later went to Rouchdi’s place. Jeanette had to leave after half an hour, because she had other business in Cologne. After she left we prepared the interview with Filippo. Steve set up the lighting, microphone and the camera and we were ready to shoot. Steve is an experienced interviewer. He has held about one hundred interviews, including actors and singers like Kylie Minogue. So he knew what he was doing.

Filippo turned out to be an entertaining interviewee. We can’t wait to start the editing process and put it online for you guys to watch it.

Later that night we had dinner at a sushi bar. Rouchdi, Filippo, Steve and me were joined by my fiancé and Katrin Staub, our editor. After we finished the guys went clubbing and on the next morning Filippo left to Frankfurt airport by train.

It was great meeting Filippo again and he and I agreed that we were both looking forward to meeting again in April when we do the rehearsals with all the actors, including Bae Seul-Ki, Lorenzo Renzi, Natale Stefani , Ralf Richter and the lovely Jeanette Hain.

As for Lorenzo and Natale, they will come over to Cologne this month and we’ll shoot their interviews as well.

As so many things are developing these days I will be back more frequently updating this blog.