Intimate, approachable, polite and with a positive aura. THE Leonidas Kakouris is miles from Doukas Sevastos of the "Wild Bees". Besides, as he admitted to newsbeast.gr, there are moments when he gets angry with the character he plays.
The actor speaks to newsbeast.gr, analyzes the constantly angry "Duke", explains why he always wrongs "Konstantis" and shares his thoughts on the abnormal regularity of the coronavirus and the vaccine he will do when his turn comes.
- Let's start with the "Wild Bees" and the character you play. Duke Sevastos. I have a question… How can a character who has done so many bad deeds, so many mistakes, be loved so much by the audience?
I'm glad that Duke is dear, because it 's nice to be loved, but the truth is that I'm trying to explain it too. He is really likeable, they love to hate him.
- Is this or do the viewers give him an alibi for his actions because he has "lost" his child? The hardest for a parent…
Sure, but no matter how hard it is, even I who impersonate him, there are times when I read the script and get angry with the hero. I say: "My God, will he pass through this world and not take a hug? Will he not understand anything? Will he live surrounded in this world he has created, whose throne he holds and wants everyone to respect him?
- The only times that Duke Sevastos smiles and relaxes, is when he is at the side of his grandson, Sergio…
Yes, there comes another. That's where I let my personal sensitivity to the children come out. I take advantage of it in a way to pass it on to the character.
- Why is the Duke constantly angry?
Because he is constantly at war. Mainly with himself and then with others.
- Why is he at war with himself?
All this goes back to childhood and the way he grew up who is not very different from the wrong way he raises his children.
- Konstantis is always "thrown" in relation to the other children. It is as if the Duke is passing on to Constantius what he went through with his father. Is it the wrong way to harden his son?
It is the wrong way in which the Duke has realized that one can succeed in life. And he himself, when he was young, was in the position of Constantius in relation to Miltiadis, he was the most "thrown". Miltiadis was the smartest and most beloved. Throughout his life, Doukas tried to prove that he is the one who has all these gifts that his father does not recognize. And the result was to make a very tough character, an "armor" to be able to move to provoke with his presence fear and of course respect.
- So this is what leads him to constantly test his strengths and show the power he holds?
This is the way his personality has been nurtured. This is something that has been happening for years for the Duke to become like this.
- But this power goes το walk when Myrsini speaks since she knows his buttons and manipulates him with great comfort…
Of course, Myrsini knows very well his sensitive points and we saw in the last episodes how he took advantage of the fact of the murder of Eleni's father. It was an unexpected gift in her hands. A weapon in the war that had begun between them, culminating in the confession of infidelity.
- Will the Duke ever overcome Myrsini's infidelity?
I do not think so.
- I have heard you talk about "your personal suitcase" which is used to approach a role. What item did you take out of this suitcase to "give birth" to Duke Sevastos?
By "suitcase" I mean acting luggage. Our acting baggage is the journeys we have made in the theater in similar roles. One such role was the role of "Zitianos" that I had played a few years ago. I relied too much on everything I had put in my suitcase from that role to be able to "build" the tough and unwavering character.
- Was there any element of the Duke that made it difficult for you to approach?
What makes me most difficult with Doukas is his character. Scenes can be difficult, they can have physicality, violence, passion and emotional difficulty but the most difficult of all is to understand actress, all these ups and downs that the hero has, so that there is an imaginary line that connects the hero and makes him human and not a caricature.
- What is higher in the Duke hierarchy? Power or Family?
It is the Power of the Family, of the Sevastos Family. Let this family be on top and let everyone else say how good and how beneficial he is for his place. This is the Duke's stone.
- "John the Murderer" in Agapis Macheria, Lefteris in the Return and now Duke in the Wild Bees. "Bad" and cruel characters. You seem to prefer them. But it's not exactly like that, right?
Yes, because nothing is white or black, fortunately there are shades. There are not only good ones. Because if there were only good ones, there would be no bad ones. The same goes for negative characters. For example, "John the Murderer" was not a bad man, he was a very kind man who at one time found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and started a vendetta. Of course, his name came up. If they call you "John the killer" «" Lefteris "on the other hand, in" Return ", was not just a bad guy. He was a mentally ill man. A man who built a second personality after the death of his sister, 20 years, waiting day by day for revenge. This is creepy. As for the "Duke"… If "Eleni" is the positive pole, he is the negative pole in the series. Definitely all three characters are very interesting roles.
- You returned to television after 9 years of absence with "Back". Why did you stay behind the cameras for so long? I'm not saying no, because all this time you are dealing with theater, compiling and advertising.
But there was nothing… Apart from the fact that the suggestions were very measured and there was nothing that I liked. THE fiction in Greece there was a decline. Not many series were made.
- Indeed, this year fiction began to "move" again…
Yes, this is a very good thing that happened, in the sense that it shows the world that the artistic potential is here, it exists and it is renewed. Older actors, by age, move on to other roles, with all the experience they may have. The artistic world is fermenting with age. Directors etc. We see much nicer shots than before. And let us think that it is a daily series where you do not have the ability and the luxury to look and "come back" again and again. You have one or two shots. This is.
- You are an actor with a great career and many roles in your CV, but Duke Sevastos from "Wild Bees" but as if it was the role that caused an "explosion" around your name…
Obviously, the result of the work has played a role. To talk to a person or have done something that will provoke a conversation and a gossip or a role will be successful. This is probably the second.
- As a person you are not one of those actors who provokes with posts. You do not provoke just to provoke…
I was never interested in provoking to provoke. You provoke for some reason. I can challenge you to swim to that rock, but challenge you to challenge you, why?
- It's a way of promoting for some…
Maybe that 's why you're starting to become an actor. I did not become an actor to hear my name.
- Why did you become one?
So that I can express myself.
- The coronavirus has "hit" your space for good. How soul-destroying is this whole situation for you? The fact that we are actually going day by day and uncertainty prevails?
It is very soul-destroying, and not only for me, for the whole society, for the whole country and the whole planet. We have been stopped for too long. I recently had a conversation with my pharmacist and he told me the exacerbation of psychotropic drugs… There is nothing you can do. You can not live your life. From the moment we hear around us that we live in conditions of war, we are "fortified" behind the information. What does the update say? He says he is one virus, that so many die every day, that it spreads, that it has contagion. So the man gathers back and leaves in front the doctors and all those who have knowledge about the subject. Then comes the state where it tells you what you need to do to protect yourself. And you go further back. So all you have to do is maintain yourself. You do not live. You are in a state of maintenance. But when this maintenance is done close to a year again it is not maintenance… It is like ice that does not melt. It is unnatural. We define as normal and natural a normality that is completely unnatural. Is it natural to go around with masks? No. Is it natural to greet with our elbows? No, it is unnatural. Nightmare scenario to make this a way of life.
- The coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Greece. Can the vaccine help us get our lives back? Will you do it?
Going to do it immediately is not going to happen because it is not going to be granted to me immediately. Vulnerable groups, nursing staff and doctors must be vaccinated first. The vaccines they come in waves. Seeing how the situation is going, I will follow the instructions of the scientists. I will not run to do it because as a human being I have a reservation. I will not fight it because I do not know. I will listen though. All this time until I do, I will listen. The question is theoretical anyway. This is not the time to get vaccinated. I will be vaccinated when it is my turn.
- Are you satisfied with the measures taken by the State against the artists in the midst of a pandemic?
The measures are incomplete. They are essentially non-measures. We do not hear at all what is going to happen with theaters, music scenes and concert venues. We hear about restaurants, schools and shops. It is as if this industry does not exist. Something must be done anyway. Because it is now a matter of survival for many colleagues.
- Does your job also work as a psychotherapeutic tool in this difficult period?
Mainly. The object of work works psychotherapeutically. At least on me. The other difficulties or injustices that this job may have are that they can create emotional vulnerability.
- Have you encountered injustice?
Of course, this is not something that happens only in Greece. To see people without any content being over-promoted and people who really have a glittering artistic value blurring over time and retiring because they had no suggestions.
- What was the biggest injustice they have done to you?
Nah, I do not keep them to remember them. The river takes them because the right information must come in. Empty.
- It takes a lot of work for someone to do it…
Yes, I can, but I will not dwell on injustices. I will definitely pick them up but there is no reason. If you have understood injustice there is no reason. It is of course what you do in injustice. React.
- Your first appearance was in a very favorite program of mine, in "Koutiou ta Paramythia". What do you have left from that period?
A small clumsy young man who took his first steps as a Wolf.
- Is it true that you were negative in the beginning about dealing with advertising and that there was a person who urged you to do so?
At first, as a child, at school, I thought that my voice should not be characterized. Then I realized that this can be done without qualifying and it is a job that can sustain you for quite a long time, so that you can raise your children without having to make concessions and play in series that you do not appreciate or do not want and you will do it just to survive. This is one reason that can make an actor emotionally vulnerable. On the one hand, to see that the artistic product you are called to work in is not what it should be, which means that in this product, you are not properly equipped to be able to show your art, and to be obliged to you're doing it. This creates an internal conflict.
- What did Nikos Foskolos tell you and persuade you to become Timos Drakos in "Lampsi"?
It was the third or fourth time that Nikos Foskolos called me on "ShineAnd I had a fear of saying "yes" to such a widely accepted daily routine. My friend, Athena Tsilira, who we played together in the theater "Mousetrap" directed by Manousos Manousakis, learned that I had been proposed and left me a crazy message that told me how happy she is that we will play together. The truth is that I was also very financially constrained then. There was also a meeting with him Nikos Foskolos and I said "yes".
- Did you regret it?
No, all I have done is what I am today.
- A few days ago the movie "Happiness" was shown where you played Vassilis Tsitsanis. The film "countered" with two final reality shows, "Bachelor" and "Big Brother" and won after being scanned on television. After all, do channels determine what people will see, or do people determine the program of a channel?
The channels determine their program. Who knows what people want? And for the "Wild BeesOne could have said a lot. "And everyday and season and slowly now…" But here…
- What is the role of your heart? The role you have played and have you stood out?
It is the role of "Etsi" in the play "Sto Falimento tou Kosmou". It was a musical-theatrical role. It was a show for him Nikola Asimo. It is a role that since 2013 has risen and appears, more and more comes to the fore without doing the slightest thing. He lives on his own, despite the difficulties of the beginning, until he is set up and done. From there it has followed an enviable course.
- And let's close with a message for the new year. A wish…
Let the ice that left in our hearts in 2020 melt and become a heroic exit like 200 years ago to take our lives again.