Casting Director: Pavlo Makarchenko

- I’ve been in the profession for 20 years. While studying in my second year at the Karpenko-Karyi Theatre Institute, I was hired by the production company Gulliver Film as an assistant casting director for extras and actors. That was in 1999, and I worked there until 2007. In 2008, during the economic crisis, I moved to the STB channel as a casting director for the “Ukraine’s Got Talent” project. After a year and nine months, I left. It was tough: a lot of work, little pay, and I had to live directly on the channel’s premises. I was also working at LimeLite simultaneously, so I wasn’t too worried when I left STB. Although it was, of course, sad because it felt like Ukraine was taken away from you! Television has great power; there was a lot of authority. You could simply announce on TV that a casting would take place at a certain location, and there was no need to call ahead: they would prepare everything themselves.

- I studied acting and directing at the Karpenko-Karyi University. It was the workshop of Hryhoriy Yosypovych Kononenko.

- I still act occasionally. I often cast myself in films where I handle the casting—in small roles. It’s not that I want to learn lines day and night and then perform them endlessly, as happens in our series now, but I enjoy acting. It’s about attention. The stage… You spend four years in theatre school, and you’re inevitably infected with this “disease.” It sometimes awakens and says: “I want to be on camera.”

- I just completed my directing studies this year. I spent a year and a half in the master’s program. I want to make a film, and not just one. I have ideas and scripts. I applied for a pitching… I pursued directing to apply for pitching at the State Film Agency. But for some reason, it turned out that this year, having an education wasn’t mandatory for that.

- I like comedies, but so far, my scripts turn out to be dramas and tragedies.

- I wouldn’t say so. Ukrainian creators love dramas, while Ukrainian audiences prefer silly comedies. I like intelligent comedies.

- I can write a script myself, but I’ll still need to find a screenwriter to refine the dialogues and handle the detailed work, which I can’t endure.

- There was a least favorite project! But my favorite is probably “The Wild Fields,” based on “Voroshilovgrad.” It was challenging to work on. We spent a year and a half casting, watched many actors. Then we went to Starobilsk, which is very far from Kyiv. I’m used to Kyiv life: step outside, eat, take a taxi. Not that you couldn’t do that in Starobilsk, but there were only three establishments, and taxis weren’t like in Kyiv. I resisted going there, but it turned out to be great. We stayed there for a month. It was a very fun time. Warm, hot—we sometimes just died from the heat on set, pouring water over our heads. And at night, we’d go swimming in the river.

- A long time ago, when I was young and doing my hundredth commercial, I might have said I had a favorite project. But now, after doing over a thousand, it’s just work that needs to be done well. Each time, you need to give 100%. It was very interesting to work with Miley Cyrus when we shot a music video for her.

- I’ve done music videos, commercials, short films, large TV shows, reality series, but never TV series. I’m not eager to get into that, probably because the scripts don’t excite me. To do your job well, you need to fall in love with it. Usually, it’s hard to do that with a product you don’t like. You need to find a part you love, whether it’s the actor, director, script, team, or all together.

- I like good arthouse films, like “Homeward” or “Atlantis.” I’d love to work with Vasyanovych. Or it should be good genre films: I want a Hollywood project, in a big team, with three units working. And, of course, I want to make my own films.

- I like Dasha Tvoronovych. She acts very well.

- No.

- That’s already happened. If they don’t come, it’s not my fault. Maybe someone thinks so, but the person has a contract, responsibilities. I’ll do everything to improve the process: get that actor or figure out how to do it differently, understand and make a decision. We’re all human, and we all have mishaps.

- I love reading books, but in the last two years, I’ve read very little. Now I’m catching up. My favorite author is Bulgakov, and the work is “Heart of a Dog.” I enjoy wake surfing and surfing. I used to play football. In childhood, I did everything: football, basketball, rowing, joined a hiking club, folk dancing, judo, violin. Now I don’t play the violin. I probably don’t even remember the notes.

- A traveler. I liked vacationing by the sea. Of course, I dreamed of being a firefighter, an astronaut, but I really wanted to be a traveler.

- Yes. Not that I’ve traveled the whole world, but almost all of Europe. I liked Prague, Amsterdam, Berlin, of course.

- For me, food is just food. As a child, I was picky, but then I went on a hike and stopped! It was tough there, and I was always hungry. I like to drink coffee with a croissant, salmon, and avocado in the morning. Three foods calm me: oatmeal, salmon, and avocado. I love spaghetti, seafood, pizza.

- To go somewhere like Bali, to Asia, for half a year. Just do nothing, surf, and dream. Write, swim, float.

– Yes, I enjoy it. I’ve already written three scripts, and I’ve shot one of them. It’s called “No One Will Love You Like Mom.” But it’s not available to watch yet: I want to send it to festivals first. It’s a 13-minute short film. There’s one actor in one room, and it’s shot in a single take. It’s an uplifting film.