In Simple passion, Sergei Polunin plays a Russian diplomat who takes advantage of his work trips to Paris to lead a bloody affair with a single mother (Laetitia Dosch).
He says he was happy to be shot naked and head on by director Danielle Arbid.
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“I saw his passion and that’s what catches my attention. When I see this impulse, I want to help your dreams come true. “
The film represents an important moment in Polunin’s transition from ballet superstar to film actor.
Previously, the 31-year-old felt like he was chosen only into roles that played out for him in the dance world.
In Red sparrow, he played the former dance partner of intelligence rookie Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) and he appeared as Yuri Soloviev in Ralph Fiennes’ biopic Rudolf Nureyev The white crow.
When I suggest that his Earl Rudolph in Kenneth Branagh Murder on the Orient Express I didn’t dance, he retorts: “My character was basically a dancer, so that made it easier. To be honest, I’ve only done movies where I’m a dancer.
So Simple passion presented a refreshing challenge. Born in Ukraine, Polunin used his experience of life in Moscow to inform the role.
“He’s a spy and very Russian. Many Russians hide their emotions. We don’t smile. A woman is a woman, a man is a man. People open up later – you have to be very close to a person to be able to smile at them. “
As he says this, Polunin’s expression does not change. We sit on opposite sides of a table on a hotel terrace in San Sebastian, but his penetrating eyes and chiseled bones aren’t diminished by social distancing. He’s in a black tie, ready for the premiere of Simple passion later this afternoon.
It’s been a whole decade. At 19, the world was at Polunin’s feet. He was the youngest principal dancer of the Royal Ballet.
Her early years in Kherson and Kiev, and her move with her mother to London, aged 13, to join the Royal Ballet School, were captured in the 2016 documentary. Dancer, which details a life of constant demands and sacrifices. In early 2014, at age 21, he surprised the world – and strengthened his reputation as a ballet bad boy – by leaving the company.
“I reached the top and then realized that not much had changed,” he says. “There were 10, 11 hours in the studio, six days a week, on tour, a month off a year, and only a tiny bit of money. I thought the world must be much more than that, let me see what is out there.
Offers poured in, but he decided to head to Russia, where his reputation hardly mattered. “When I went to Moscow, I was like no one else. I was put in this little hotel. There was nothing in it. And no one told me about anything. I thought, I don’t care; I’ll start at the beginning.
Bad press came for the first time. “If you’re not mature enough or if you don’t have a world around you, you start to believe it. You think, “OK, if you think I’m bad, I’m going to be really bad.” It’s a mistake because you get lost. So he left the ballet world – at least that’s what he thought.
In 2015, what was supposed to be her swan song, dancing in Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” music video, shot by David LaChappelle, became a viral hit. It’s an extraordinary performance – but not for Polunin. “When I first watched it I was really disappointed because I knew I could have done better.”
In 2017, he was ready to make his official return to the dance world, this time on his own terms. He started his own business, Polunin Ink. Initially, the ballet world seemed resilient and reviews were mixed.
“The industry will kick you out. I left the system, but to be honest I didn’t know what to do for a long time, so I went back into the system. But now I am creating a parallel system to work with large institutions. As soon as I do that, everyone stops you from entering. I get it. When I was part of the system, whoever is different, I didn’t like them.
Two years later, in 2019, Polunin destroyed himself again, when he made a series of outrageous and offensive comments, including shameful and homophobic slurs on Instagram.
He was abandoned by the Paris Opera Ballet, but did not apologize, although he deleted the messages in question.
I probe him for signs of contrition. He argues that he believes comments in which people revoke their views on social media are empty.
“Seventeen seconds of apologies erases everything you’ve said,” he says. “But someone who goes on Instagram and says they’re sorry probably doesn’t mean it. It is selfish. These are magic words. People, for whatever reason, need it. I do not believe it.
He says he has no problem apologizing directly to people. “A public apology is so unreal; you don’t know who you’re apologizing to. It’s something that, in my head, I’m trying to figure out why it’s important.
“It was the same when I was a kid; if i thought i hadn’t done anything wrong i didn’t apologize to my mom for days.
In May, coronavirus permitting, Polunin will make her London debut as Romeo, alongside ballerina Alina Cojocaru in choreographer Johan Kobborg’s new version of Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall.
He does not arrive so much as the rebel, but rather as the new establishment – although there are still many infamous tattoos to mark him: Vladimir Putin on his chest, swastika symbols on his stomach and, on his face, a bird flying towards his left eye.
Soon, he told me, they will be gone. “I take off all my tattoos. I cleanse the face a little, purify the tattoos a little. To me now, they are childish. I have passed the time for tattoos.
The change came when he had a son early last year, with Russian skater Elena Ilinykh. Tattoos no longer reflect the character he is trying to present to the world. When his body was first inked, it was a mark of rebellion. “You couldn’t work in some offices or at the Royal Ballet; it was freedom of choice for me.
Their removal is an extremely painful process. “I did the suppression of ‘Church’ the other day [he has DLCH for David LaChapelle across his knuckles]. “I sweated so much,” he says. “Afterwards, I felt fresh and new. It’s a long process, but it’s a good process. “
“Simple Passion” is now on Curzon Home Cinema; “ Romeo & Juliet ” is at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on May 6 (020 7589 8212)