Either that, or an interesting snack somewhere, but I think I’m going to have to stick with the underwear for now. Other than a previous guest’s underwear under the bed? (Laughs) In Iceland or otherwise, what’s the best thing you ever found in a hotel room? They have thermal springs, and there’s northern lights. I want to build a house in Iceland and I know this doesn’t sound romantic in terms of it’s bloody cold there, but I love the cold and snuggling up in the cold.
What is the most romantic locale for a little lovin’ as far as you’re concerned? We had some rehearsals, but there’s nothing quite like breaking the ice with a scene like that, with the crew as well, who were literally ladling warm water down my pants and over my body to keep me warm! As a writer, I wanted to see something I hadn’t before, and we wondered where their first experience would happen and I really take credit for that. I spent eleven hours in the sea that day and it was actually our first shooting day together. It was shot in the Baltic Sea in the beginning of September, so it was really cold. There’s a sure-to-be iconic, stunning love scene between Sergey and Oleg that takes place in the water. Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodnii in ‘Firebird’ (Photo: Herkki-Erich Merila Roadside Attractions, LLC /The Factory) And it really saddens me that there are places on earth where being in love with a person can get you killed. We wanted to present love between two people. What Peeter and I intended when making the film was to do that very thing, and hope the film causes greater understanding and connection with people who actually aren’t members of the LGBTQIA+ community. But I believe it’s something like a film that can create greater understanding.
Russia is to one extreme, but the extremes of what’s going on in African countries as well is to a whole other level. It absolutely baffles me that this is still an issue. How do you feel about visiting places where homosexuality is actually criminalized or the politics just go against it? But the Russians as people are so warm and friendly and hospitable: the problem is with the system and the fear mongering that happens.Įven some states in the US are seeing fresh waves of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Even if you haven’t done anything wrong they could find something and make you wrong for it. In pretty much most of the countries I’ve been to most of my life you don’t have to worry about safety, but it’s a whole other game in Russia. We certainly couldn’t say, ‘this is the content of the film we’re creating.’ There was an awareness of unease, that’s for sure. We had to be mindful of having a suitable enough cover story. Was that dicey given how bad things are for LGBTQ people under Putin?
You actually recorded some of the film in Russia. I like to think I see the best in every situation no matter how hopeless it gets, so that’s probably the biggest trait I took from meeting him and used in the film. And that’s why I decided to play Sergey in the film in such a way that he’s not this tortured soul in terms of his identity, but more in terms of how he kept such a positive outlook that resonated with me. It was actually his warmth, sunniness, and positive outlook which I was so honestly relieved to find in him when I met him in person. How did you most connect with Sergey, both the real person and the onscreen alter-ego you portray? He recently spoke with PASSPORT via Zoom to discuss bringing Fetisov’s story to screen, shooting a love scene in the chilly Baltic Sea, and which fellow out actor he’d love to share an onscreen romance with.
GAY MEN CRUISING IN ORLANDO FLORIDA MOVIE
He trained at England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), and also counts Kingsmen: The Secret Service (2014), Iceland Is Best (2016), and last year’s dramatization of the 1919 Sette Giugno uprising in Malta against the British, Blood On The Crown, among his movie credits. Firebird’s screenings overseas have already struck nerves back in Russia, where according to the press notes some headlines read “A Brit, an Estonian and a Ukrainian Shame the Moscow International Film Festival.” Bots have attacked the film’s website, and the filmmakers have received death threats from ultra-nationalists.Ĭurrently dividing his time between England and Estonia, Prior was Attitude Magazine’s February cover boy. Rebane and Prior, who first met in 2014, spent time interviewing Fetisov in Moscow during the two-plus years they fashioned the script (Fetisov died in 2017 following an illness-related surgery: more on his story can be read here).