JEFF LAPRADE: So you got into the acting scene in Czechoslovakia? VLADIMIR KULICH: So you know, it was always the same acting company, the State Theatre of Czech. The state ran everything, and my uncle had a theater company on the Hungarian border in Slovakia. I would spend the summers with him and in the winters, I would spend Christmas Holidays with him, and I just ended up being in his plays. My job really was to take an empty pitcher and go down to the pub to have them fill it up with beer. Have it waiting for him when he got off stage at the intermission. J: Like the coffee boy
V: But Czech style. I got the smell, I got the thrill of the theater, but I was six, seven or eight; I was young. So I didn’t get back in until I was 30.
J: Was it an inspirational moment or more of a buildup?
V: A total buildup. We left Czechoslovakia and moved to Canada. The Bohemian culture of Czechoslovakia was gone in Montreal, it became a homogenized society, a white-collar society. There was not much color to life in the suburbs. It’s the average dad goes to work, mom in the kitchen doing the delivery boy, nuclear family, and it hurt because I was used to going down the street getting pitchers of beer for my uncle at a play, and then going to a concert. Prague is such a small city, you can walk anywhere and get all of this culture. Whereas in the suburbs of Montreal, you are just stuck there, no culture but television, and so I started to long for it. But there was no venue at that early stage, so I wanted to become a professional hockey player. I took a shot at it, got picked up by the Rangers. I didn’t make it, got sent to the minors and that was the end of it.
J: I recently watched 13th Warrior that is one epic death scene. What was it like being a part of that?
V: Someone sent me a clipping. I am not sure, I think it was Premiere Magazine from Paris. It was voted as the 7th Most Badass Death Scene of any action film. It happened by accident. Originally, the guy was going to die in battle, they see him dead on the ground and that was going to be the end of it. They were shooting us, and John McTiernan, the director, says, “No, you’re not going to die with your face in the mud. You’re going to kick their asses, and we are going to build a throne. There can be a dead Wendol there, you kick him off your throne, sit down, plant your sword in the ground, and die with your eyes open.” What is interesting, if you look at that death scene, just as I die, there is a guy behind me, one of the farmers, and the rain is coming down. What is really weird is that there is a bunch of wood behind me, and there is a little cross. Just over one of my shoulders, I have studied it, and it must have been by accident. The whole idea was that my character was basically based on Beowulf, and Beowulf’s story in part is that he started to embrace Christianity over Paganism. How cool, if just through osmosis we ended up with something that resembles a cross over my shoulder just as I’m dying. That’s why my character’s name is Bulywif. It’s bizarre.
So then I got a motorcycle and traveled around North America trying to find out who I was. And I ended up well, one summer I ended racing sailboats in Canada, just accidentally. Certain boats need heavy guys, so these guys say, “Hey, you’re strong, we need a heavy guy, we’ll put you on a sailboat.” I was part of a crew representing Canada in the 1979 Tornado World Championships.
J: Fate?
J: How big are the boats?
V: I first came here in 1990, early ‘90. I left for two years and came back permanently in ‘94. I have been here ever since.
V: Tornadoes are 19 to 20 feet long, they’re catamarans. So I raced that, and from there I ended up on a little trip to the Grand Canyon and saw rafts going down the Colorado River. I hopped on a raft through one rapid, and they dropped me off because they had to go down another 200 miles. I said,”That’s it.” I went back to Canada and started a river rafting business. I did that for ten years. So that’s what happened. I was doing river rafting and the crew from 21 Jump Street used to shoot in Vancouver, British Columbia. These guys went rafting just as a recreational thing. They came and said, “If you ever want to be in the show or want to act, come down.” It started in ‘87, and I was in Canada until ‘92 then moved back to LA.
J: Of course, there were cultural differences in the acting scenes, Czechoslovakia compared to Los Angeles. What stood out to you?
V: The thing is, in Czechoslovakia at the time there was no such thing as Celebrity, maybe if you were a national team soccer player, but those who went into the arts, there was no money, no fame, and you just did it because you liked it. It had a real relaxed aura about it.
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In L.A, as you know, everyone wants to be on the front cover of the magazine, everyone wants to be famous, and it has nothing to do with why they want to be famous. Fame to me is a byproduct of doing something well. Here people think they don’t have to do anything well, they just have to be famous. Society promotes it though, so we can sleepwalk through the world.
| swoopmagazine.com | summer 2013
V: I’m not sure about fate.
J: So how long have you been in Venice?
J: What do you think keeps bringing you back? V: There is an energy here that if you talk to anybody, they can acknowledge. There is a weird vortex, I don’t know why. I think if you look at Santa Monica Bay, a huge bay, from Palos Verdes to Malibu, Venice is at the center of it. That’s why we get the June Gloom all of the time. The fog gets get stuck in the bay, and I think there is a huge energy field. The Pacific hits here and the desert air comes from the east and they clash. It is a weird vibe, and on top of that you’ve got Hollywood and show business. I get bored everywhere else. I may talk about going to the country and living in a cabin; well, I did that for ten years. I know what that is like, and I need interaction with other human beings. You get really challenging interactions in this place because it brings everybody in. So I’m still digging it even though Venice now has become so uppity.