Tom Prior — The Maverick behind Firebird

From London’s West End to his breakthrough performance as Sergey in Firebird, we met up on a sunny July day with Tom Prior for an interview. In our interview, Tom is telling us more about the intricacies behind Firebird, the physical training in the Estonian Defense Forces, and his personal mantras.

Tom Prior photographed by Terrence Seah in London, styling by Sylvester Yiu, interview by Jon Rusen with a special thanks to Craig at Pinnacle PR.

Firebird is such a heartfelt and touching movie. What was most rewarding about the filming process?

Tom Prior: The biggest rewarding factor for me was the belief that I could do it. I had been developing the film for a number of years, and it actually came down to the moment where I had to play the character of Sergey and had done all the accent work to prepare. It was so rewarding to look back and see everything come together; the details; the visual world; the financing; the raising; the writing; and the producing.

Were there any challenging moments when portraying the affectations of a real love story on screen, also maybe knowing that its reception could be rather divisive, or aggravate Eastern European audiences?

TP: The level of detail and accuracy in our performances was also thanks to the fact that we had managed to go to Russia a few times while we were researching the film. Getting to meet the real Sergey Fetisov (who’s memoir is what the movie is based on) in Russia informed a variety of the decisions. It wasn’t only about how I was going to play him; rather, about how we decided to retell the film and make it dominantly a love story rather than a political statement.

What guided or inspired you during the process of producing and co-writing the film?

TP: It was the everyday lives of people living under the totalitarian regime that was most crucial to my research. Whilst researching, we found that there were a lot of subcultures. People still had sex, went out to meet their loved ones, and yielded to the calling of their hearts. They pursued unmitigated love, despite the laws surrounding them.

Did you review archival material for the research process, or how did that come together?

TP: We met a lot of people that lived during that time. Parts of our crew also lived during the Soviet Era. Yet, most of them refused to speak about these two years of their life because of the trauma that was inflicted on them.

You mentioned on your Instagram that preparing for the character of Sergey demanded rigorous training. Could you tell me more about it?

TP: The physical preparation really was demanding. I mean we also made a deliberate stylistic choice. For instance, the uniforms fit slightly better than they would in real life. Actually, there is a sub-story, which did not make it to the final cut. It is about Sergey’s personal pursuits and his enthusiasm for gymnastics. There are a few moments in the film where he is exercising in a bigger group. He is balancing on these parallel bars and doing all kinds of intricate tricks. So some of that is actually shot, but did not make it into the film and was partially the reason why we ended up having people in better shape. And yes, my physical trainer was demanding. I had to go through the Estonian Defence Forces. It was a really cool experience. I had to learn what it’s like to not have the choice, to do what you want with your day, and not choose what you want to eat. It’s more like this: here’s the food, eat it. We were learning how to shoot, dig foxholes, fulfilling protocols, and not saying thank you for things. You simply do it because it’s an order. It was really interesting to learn these intricacies.

The accent training must have been challenging, too.

TP: Because we were looking for the rest of our cast for a long time, we looked into England and mainland Europe, but we were still struggling to find roles for the characters of Roman and Luisa. We then extended our casting to Russia. It was there when we met some really talented actors, including Oleg and Diana. While Oleg’s English was rather limited, Diana’s accent was strong. It was a very tough job for our dialect coach Catherine Charlton. She had to listen to the intricacies and cadences of our voices and then find a common ground to aim towards. There was a mix of accents we worked with. For me, it was a strong Russian accent to begin with. I was actually really grateful for that process, as it helped me to be more emotionally available. It gave me a sense of freedom and authenticity, but was nonetheless, challenging.

Does self-awareness guide you in your personal life when you’re not on set? Do you abide by a specific mantra, maybe?

TP: I regularly ask myself what kind of person I want to be. I think as we progress through life, it is really important to continue to ask ourselves if we are living our truth. I ask myself that because of the acting as well. So am I the kind of person that inspires and helps? If not, what can I do to become more of that person, become more of an inspiration? Whatever it might be, it is important to create intentions. They can be little, it can be something like: today I want to experience the magic of life, and just allow that to show up. Or, my intention could be: I want to listen to the subtleties surrounding me. You have to be open, if you’re not, you won’t see it. Ask for openness, and you will be able to see more opportunity and abundance, and love for life. So essentially, to be open to it.

Tom, What is next for you? Any upcoming projects?

TP: I am continuing to write scripts, but am still open to new projects. There are a lot of new acting jobs coming up, though I can’t divulge them yet. I mean, I haven’t been yet cast in the next Marvel film. I would enjoy doing something of that sort. There’s something incredible about superhero films because they invariably give a lot of hope. I’d love to play a really amazing biopic again. Somebody who has to overcome a significant loss or a great challenge for the greater good of society. I don’t like to create aimlessly, I usually think about its contribution to the greater good.

Finally, who do you think SID is?

TP: SID is this man who knows everything. He is inspiring the way in which people show up in the world; a man whom we don’t know, but who is showing us how to be.

FIREBIRD: Directed by Peeter Rebane / Written by Peeter Rebane and Tom Prior / Cast: Tom Prior, Oleg Zagorodnii, Diana Pozharskaya, Jake-Thomas Henderson, Margus Prangel and Nicholas Woodeson.

Now available on demand at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play and VUDU .For more details click here. Watch the trailer below:

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