Siberian Colossus Stafan Kapicic has been building a career as an anonymous bad guy in American cinema. It wasn’t his language stopping him; the six-foot-four actor can speak fluently in as many as eight dialects.
He has played roles as eclectic as comedy-stoner to romantic-heartbreak in international cinema. However, until his role in Deadpool, he hadn’t had an opportunity to show western cinemas his versatility like he had the eastern bloc.
Coming to Supanova for his first Australian visit, The Iris’ Fergus Halliday caught up with Kapicic to see what he had to say about his love for comic books, Deadpool 2 and the land down under.
So Stefan, will your Supanova appearance be your first time coming to Australia?
Yes, and I’m so excited and I can’t wait to be there.
Anything you’re excited to check out while you’re here?
Well, everything I can. It’s going to be my first time there and I don’t know how much free time I’m going to have, but all the free time I have I’m going to use to see as much as I can and meet so many great people. I have so many friends in Sydney and I was never there, so this is going to be a great chance to meet so many great people.
You’ve sort of rocketed into the pop culture universe with your performance in Deadpool, but what’s the reception been like on your end?
Well everything is amazing, no one expected it to be this huge, to be this crazy. When we started working on it, you know I’m a big comic book fan, and I had this chance to become a part of Marvel Universe and one of my dreams. So when I got this role, and the whole process of working with Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds, to me, that was the most beautiful and craziest thing to ever happen to me, and I was just so happy, and then when the movie came out and I saw the reactions all around the world, this was something that no one expected.
We knew it was going to be a really nice movie, but we didn’t expect it to become the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. So I still can’t believe I’m a part of something this big, I’m so honoured and blessed to be a part of Marvel Universe and then to become a part of this beautiful story.
So with tackling Colossus, he’s quite an old character and there have been attempts to bring him to screen before, were there any other incarnations of Colossus you found inspiration in or were influenced by?
Well, no, Colossus is one of the iconic X-Men characters [but] the way they showed him was more like some sort-of T1000 terminator, like a silver skinned guy. When Bruce Banner becomes Hulk he becomes a totally different guy, he becomes a monster, but this is supposed to be [the case] with Colossus too.
The good thing was we have Tim Miller, who is a huge comic book fan, he knew everything and he has his own vision to get Colossus to be exactly like him in the comic book, so the good thing is all the fans all around the world loved the way we made Colossus, because that’s the way they imagined he would look and speak and everything. It’s something we are really proud of, and people want more from Colossus and hopefully we can keep this franchise going on for a long time, and who knows maybe Colossus can join X-men now that the timelines are [in sync].
Well aside from Colossus, you said you were a pretty big comic book fan, are there any other superhero roles you would love to tackle?
First of all, one of my favourite characters, is Batman. He’s one of my favourite [characters] of all time, and from Marvel it was Punisher. These are the characters I really love.
Then on the other side, because I’m Slavic, and my accent is kind of rough, but still it’s not like a Russian accent, my language and roots are Slavic, so one of the villains I would love to play, although I don’t know if it would ever be possible because I’m Colossus, is Kraven the Hunter, and he’s one of the biggest villains in Spiderman. I kind of resemble him, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible and I really love Colossus so it’s all fine.
So Deadpool being also kind of a comedy, were there any gags that you recorded that didn’t end up making it into the movie that you were disappointed about?
Well in the end we didn’t really have that much money, and there were some ideas that were really great but unfortunately we couldn’t do it, but now we have watched the film’s success all those things are possibly going to be put into the sequel.
So even though they didn’t happen, I’m not sad because I know they are going to happen one way or another, because the success and Fox is so proud they want us to do other things, so it’s kind of a beautiful story going on. As I said I’m so proud and humble and can’t wait to do something new.
Can we expect to see you back for the sequel then?
Well, the directors are still working with the writers on that. Even if I knew something I couldn’t talk with you about it now, because that would open so many doors for me with the NDA’s and [so] you shouldn’t talk about what’s going on. Anyway, I would be really honoured if I show up in the sequel.
Do you have a favourite line in the movie?
Well I have a few favourite lines in the movie, but the monologue, when I say, “four out of five moments, that’s all it takes, be a hero”.
That’s a great bit
I love one of the stupid lines too, like when I go to Brianna “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” it’s kind of funny, people really love those kind of lines, because I’m going all around the States and all the people love that one and the language, which used to be a Captain America line but now is a Colossus [line].
You’ve done quite a bit of voice acting as well (as traditional acting), which do you prefer though and what’s the transition process like?
I did a lot of theatre and I’m still working, the moment I got the audition I was working in Columbia and Chile and I’m working in theatre all around the world.
Acting is acting but voice acting is still really hard, especially when you’re doing something this big. Voice acting and acting aren’t really that different at all, because you just need to act as you would in the theatre but you just pick up my words, and with Colossus we had to pick up with my acting with words. It was a hell of a job.
Thanks for your time. We’ll see you at Supanova in June.
Stefan Kapicic will appear at Supanova Sydney from June 17th to 19th and also Supanova Perth from June 25th to 26th. You can check out all the superstar guests that are attending here.
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