THE BALKAN-AMERICAN CHARISMA OF ŽELJKO DIMIć (JACK DIMICH, STAGE NAME)

Željko Dimić (Jack Dimich) is one of the most respected Serbian actors in Hollywood. The film Tesla Nation, in which Dimić embodies the character of Nikola Tesla, was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Recently, Jack Dimić was awarded Best Actor for the role of Nikola Tesla at the Red Dirt International Film Festival, US, and the film was honored as Best Documentary Feature. It presents a journey through the past and present of a nation, from the landing of the first Serbs on American soil more than two centuries ago to the present day.

After several unsuccessful attempts to enroll in the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and the beginning of the war in the former SFRY, in which he did not want to participate, Dimić was forced to go first to Sweden, then to the Czech Republic, and finally to New York in 1994, where he studied at the famous Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in the class of Professor Michael Margott.

SAN: How did you become an actor? When did you first feel the desire to act and what was the reason?

ŽELJKO: Ever since I was a child, I wanted to pursue this profession. I did not take my head out of the first black and white TV of the domestic brand Diplomat from Elektronska industrija Niš, which mother Bosa and father Vlatko bought with a loan, because it was very expensive for us at that time, as my father worked alone and my sister Željana, my mother and I lived only on his salary. Secretly, Dad wanted me to become a pilot, although he knew that the uniform wasn’t for me because I was a very restless and hyperactive child. At one point my mother half-jokingly said to him, "There is no such thing my Vlatko, because our son will be a madman... You can see that he watches every movie and TV program on TV!" By the way, my mother called the actors: 'crazy people from the box'. Then, at the age of twelve, I applied through the children's newspapers for an audition for the movie Boško Buha, for the role of the national hero Sava Jovanović Sirogojno, and I was sure that I would be chosen for this role.

Of course, it didn’t happen, and I waited in vain for days for the letter carrier to bring me the letter with the good news about the production of this film. That was my first professional failure.

SAN: How do you interpret your failure in getting accepted to the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where you were accepted to the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute immediately after arriving in New York? What skills did you use?

ŽELJKO: This is a difficult question to answer, because I did not choose it. It was up to me to prepare for admission, and it was up to them to accept or reject me.

After a few attempts, I told myself that I didn’t want to waste my time anymore and I will try somewhere else.

So, due to circumstances, I ended up in New York, where I was accepted into Professor Michael Margott's class at the Lee Strasberg Institute in 1997, which gave me the privilege of learning this difficult trade well with one of the best acting professors, where I graduated in 2001 with the title role in William Shakespeare's Richard the Third.

(Michael Margott, by the way, was a professional advisor to Jack Nicholson for three years).

SAN: Do you think New York is the right place for an acting career, or you simply knew how to present yourself on the market?

ŽELJKO: For four years I learned this trade well under the supervision of one of the best acting professors. It's true that the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York was one of the best academies in the world at the time, but neither this Institute nor any other is a guarantee that an acting student will do his job and be successful at it when he graduates. It depends on many other factors and circumstances

You have played over 80 roles in film, television and theater. What is your most interesting experience in one of the many American TV shows you have been in?

ŽELJKO: It is true that I have played different characters in different languages and dialects in almost all the most watched American TV shows: Law & Order, CSI, Castle, Burn Notice, Blue Bloods, Braindead, Black List, StartUp, Lilyhammer, Sopranos, Hawaii Five-O and many others. All roles are close to my heart and I approach each one as if it were the last, but one of the most enjoyable and difficult experiences was my guest appearances in four episodes of CSI and two episodes of Hawaii Five-O because my roles and filming were very demanding. On CSI I played a former German spy and hitman (Paul Obrecht) and on Hawaii Five-0 I played a bully from New Jersey (Randy Thorpe).

Which films do you particularly like and why?

ŽELJKO: In Goran Marković's film The Tour, I played an episodic role (Captain Stanković) and we were shooting right on the Kozar field where I grew up. We were shooting in January 2009, and it was very exhausting, because I had to swim in about -10 °C. It's all part of our job, and an actor simply must and should do everything to play his role to the best of his ability.

The film In the Name of the Son is especially close to my heart because it was my first leading role (Pavle). In 2009, the film qualified for an Oscar in the short film category and won awards at 22 international festivals. My role was very difficult and complex, and even though it was very hard for me because my character Pavle is the opposite of me in almost everything, I enjoyed it. I like playing on screen what is the opposite of me and what I could never do or wanted to do in reality. I do not usually talk about the process and the way I work on each character, because I think every professional actor should keep that to himself.

SAN: Tell us about your first play The Emigrants?

ŽELJKO: The Emigrants by Polish author Sławomir Mrożek is not only my first role in my native language, but also the first play ever prepared and premiered in Serbian-Croatian in the US.

Žarko Laušević and I had two roles in this two-person play, which was sold out in all 14 performances in New York, Cleveland, Washington and Boston.

It was a pleasure to work with my colleague Laušević on this excellent project, notwithstanding the fact that I was still a student at the time, namely a doctoral student at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.

SAN: How did you get the role of Nikola Tesla in the play TESLA and how did this experience influence you?

ŽELJKO: I gladly accepted the role of Nikola Tesla in the play Tesla by the English author Sheri Graubert.

We performed it very successfully in 2013 in St. Marks Theater on Off Broadway because the entire performance was sold out.

The experience was more than significant for my career and I will always be grateful to have been offered the role of our great scientist in this excellent play.

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SAN: Was that play an incentive to re-interpret the character of Nikola Tesla in the feature-documentary drama Tesla Nation (2019)? Has that been your biggest professional challenge so far?

ŽELJKO: Interpreting the character of Nikola Tesla, one of the most significant people from the beginning of civilization until now, is a challenge for every actor. Before me, he was very successfully interpreted by Petar Božović, Rade Šerbedžija and David Bowie, so that is an additional motivation for me to dedicate myself to him as much as possible. I played him for the first time in 2013 in the play Tesla by the English author Sheri Graubert directed by Sanja Beštić in St. Marks Theater on Off Broadway, and then four years later in the film Tesla's Nation, which was qualified for the Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature in 2019 by the outstanding director Željko Mirković. I worked for a total of eight months on this role with great pleasure, paying attention to all the details that such a complex character requires. That was one of the biggest professional challenges so far in my career. Recently, this film was awarded the Best Film in a competition of 80 films, and I was awarded the Best Actor for the role of Tesla at the Red Dirt International Film Festival, US.

SAN: Because of this film, you were a guest in Toronto last year at the Serbian Film Festival. How did the audience welcome you here?

ŽELJKO: The festival in Toronto was organized in an excellent way and I was delighted to accept the invitation of festival director Nenad Stanković. The film Tesla Nation, directed by Željko Mirković, in which I portray Nikola Tesla, was very well received by the audience, and the film received a standing ovation in the packed cinema hall after the screening. I am also happy that the audience of that wonderful city accepted me in the best possible way.

SAN: Since you often shoot in Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, can you make a comparison between the ways of working there and in the USA?

ŽELJKO: Wherever I worked, I was lucky enough to meet professionalism at a very high level, both in New York and in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Los Angeles, Novi Sad, Budapest, Havana, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Las Vegas, San Juan, Miami and everywhere I worked.

Productions mostly depend on the amount of the budget, but this is not always the main prerequisite for a quality project. Sometimes a good story can be made with fewer resources.

SAN: What is your attitude towards the choice of roles? Do you have some priorities, some roles that suit you more emotionally and some that you would rather turn down?

ŽELJKO: I accept those roles that I think are worth playing and, of course that the script is of high quality, because let's not forget that everything starts with a good story, i.e. good scripts. I must refuse roles if they are part of a project with some political connotation, if they have some prejudice or if they are consciously directed against any people. I have done this on three occasions so far because I did not want to be a part of films that have a negative attitude towards any people as a whole.

SAN: Do you think that the stereotypes about the Serbian people are changing in the USA, especially in Hollywood, and are you perhaps influencing that? Do you maybe have an anecdote from working in Hollywood?

ŽELJKO: I have never played stereotypes nor do I intend to. Every character in a play, series or a movie has its own life, just like every person in real life. That's why I don't admit or do stereotypes because anyone can do that. It's a waste of time in this business.

SAN: What does your usual New York day look like and do you manage to dedicate yourself to your private life and any hobbies?

ŽELJKO: I try to live every day in the best way and to enjoy every moment regardless of what I'm doing at the moment, both in New York and wherever I happen to be because I love and travel often. Of course, I try to learn something every day that I didn't know yesterday because I think that in the constant pursuit of knowledge and in knowledge itself lies the greatest power of every thinking person. I try to be one of them.

I devote a lot of time to physical activity, reading and, of course, interacting and socializing with people, because man is, first of all, a social being.

SAN: What project are you currently working on? How is the COVID pandemic affecting your career?

ŽELJKO: Currently, among other things, I am working on the role of the controversial businessman Mileusnić in the TV show Klan directed by Slobodan Skerlić, which I will shoot in Serbia on several occasions: at the end of May, in August, September and October. I am already intensively shooting the web TV show Milorad Zeneka in which I play the title role and it is produced by Mi magazine from Toronto and edited by Nenad Stanković. It is a parody and a comedy review of everything that is happening to us right now, but all the characters, names, events and places are fictional, i.e. they are the product of my imagination since I am the author of the project in collaboration with Nenad Stanković. For the first time, I am doing four jobs at the same time: I am a cameraman, a screenwriter, a director and an actor, and for now, here, after five episodes, I can say that the reactions are more than good. Milorad Zeneka is a trained reporter who is currently reporting from the fictional Autonomous Region of Tuključani, and is currently filming in New York, but will also report to his loyal audience wherever he is: Los Angeles, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Prague, Banja Luka, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Skoplje and many other cities.