Cute blonde, 14-year-old English actor Max Pirkis co-stars in his first feature film as Midshipman Blakeney in the high seas adventure movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Max was just sitting in his French class when a teacher entered scouting for young guys who might like to try out for this major feature film. Hey, Max had been in a few school plays. Why not? Next thing he knows, he's training, auditioning and getting a part in the Russell Crowe movie as a brave young sailor.

In that cute English accent, young Max told us all about his experiences on set, interaction with other actors and getting his "sea legs".

AGW: Did you always aspire to be an actor?

Max: Not especially. I'd done school plays before but not t.v. commercials or anything. It was literally completely out of the blue and I wasn't expecting anything like that. But it was really good fun.

AGW: Will you film something else soon?

Max: I want to get school done first then if something comes up that's really worth doing….There's no point of working just for the sake of it at the moment.

AGW: So how did you get cast in the film?

Max: At my last school we were sitting in a French lesson and they asked the English teacher at the school to come around and look for people. Normally he'd say no but he thought Peter Weir was a good director so he said yes. I guess they must have liked the look of me so I went to a workshop, then auditions and got it.

AGW: Did it mean a lot to you to get the part when you auditioned?

Max: Well, I wasn't guaranteed [the part] so it was getting on with normal life and then a little interlude with workshops and things and we took it as a joke and not seriously because, obviously, when you don't get it it's going to be like 'oh no!'. Then, when I got it, that was good.

AGW: Were you confident that you could succeed in this?

Max: Yeah, I really didn't know what to expect so I was open-minded and I just did it how I thought it should be done and if I did it wrong, Peter [Weir, the director] would give me tips on how to do it right.

AGW: Did you read the series of books on which the film is based?

Max: I really like the Hornblower series and the Sharpe series that are similar but more child-friendly. When I get older I'll try and read them again.

AGW: Were you aware that such boys were on these fighting ships in the Napoleonic era? Would do you think it was like?

Max: [It's a] really tough life at sea. I wouldn't have wanted to be like that. They were expected to act like men; kill other people. I don't think anyone from nowadays can really comprehend how bad it was because we live in a cushy society. Rich children would go into the navy as officers in training and you'd carry messages and command gun crews and things like that. Then you'd get promoted to Lieutenant and then Captain. It was pretty commonplace. Poor children would be powder monkeys who would carry powder and cannonballs to the guns during battle and grow up to be seamen or a warrant officer.

AGW: Would you have wanted to live in that time?

Max: I think maybe in the time because I really like the adventure and stuff and the way they lived but I'd rather be here nowadays because it's a lot safer and less hectic.

AGW: Had you ever been at sea before?

Max: I've been on a boat, yeah, but nothing from the 1800's period and nothing like living on it.

AGW: Was it tough shooting with nothing modern around the set?

Max: It was really surreal because you would have everyone in costume with cuts all over them and then you'd walk past a man with a radio on or something, really weird. Off-set there were t.v.'s and things.

AGW: How did you get along with Russell Crowe?

Max: We got along quite well. I didn't see him nearly as much as Paul Bettany who I got on really well with. But he [Russell] was perfectly nice and generous. He took us away on weekends and gave us a lot of stuff.

AGW: Was this a hard film to make with bad weather and all?

Max: Well Baja (Mexico) wasn't the nicest place in the world but it was boys mucking around, shooting and killing and generally having a really good time. All the storm scenes, I didn't have to jump in the water and get cold and stuff. Apart from one storm scene where I got cold and wet, I was pretty dry most of the time.

AGW: What was the coolest day of shooting?

Max: When we're going around Cape Horn and there's snow all over. As the camera sweeps past you can see people chucking snow balls at each other when in fact, because it was so hot in Baja, they kept spraying ice all over the ship and it would melt and they'd spray all over again. In the meantime, we'd be chucking snowballs at each other. We attacked the quarterdeck and all the officers were pinned down and we were chucking snowballs at them. That was good fun.

AGW: So you had been to the Galapagos Islands before doing this film?

Max: Yeah, my family is always traveling a lot and by pure chance we went on a six week holiday in South America, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador and then we went to the Galapagos for a week on a boat. It was nice going again because there was a lot of stuff I'd missed the first time around. There were iguanas and sea lions and birds.

AGW: In some scenes you were actually out with the big tortoises? Was that fun?

Max: Yeah. We went to a reserve on the biggest island and they had a dust area just filled with tortoises. We'd stop and eat our lunch and all the tortoises were having their lunch as well around us.

AGW: How prepared are you for your life to change after doing a big movie like this?

Max: Obviously it's going to change. I hope it doesn't change that much. I just changed schools so if it had come out before I met all my friends they'd be like 'well, who is this coming in?' But instead they know me rather than "me" in the film.

AGW: You play the saxophone?

Max: In my school I'm not extraordinary music-wise. I just play an instrument. One boy in my house plays three instruments and is in like ten bands. I'm not that much a musician but I play saxophone and I'm going to be in a band next year.

AGW: What is your favorite band?

Max: The Strokes. My sister converted me to them when their first album came out. She really liked them.

AGW: Who helped you with acting on the set?

Max: Peter Weir [the director] was the biggest help and then Paul Bettany because I had much more to do with him on set but Russell [Crowe] was just helping and giving tips. He was always ready for a laugh and easy to talk to; lots of mucking around and practical jokes.

AGW: What was it like to pretend to lose an arm?

Max: It was kind of strange. My mom's a publisher and at one of her book openings was a woman who had lost an arm and we had a talk about what it was like. Do you lean one way because you feel you've lost [balance]? But you get used to it. In my costume I had my arm strapped to my side and then a bodysuit around that and a stump on the end and then my uniform. After a while it felt natural but at the end of the day I couldn't feel my hand and it was all rank and sweaty.

AGW: What about getting seasick?

Max: Well the boat was on a gimble thing and it didn't move that much. I don't think anyone was sick on the gimble but we went out on the HMS Rose for a week at a time. One day we went out at six in the morning and didn't get back until twelve at night and almost everyone was sick but I survived. I felt ill but I wasn't sick.

AGW: What was hard for you?

Max: Continuity. They were always taking photographs so they could get it right. Often I'd come on set and my hair would be wrong or I'd have on the wrong clothes. I completely outgrew my clothes by the end so they had to remake them, especially shoes. I went though three pairs. They'd get completely trashed or too small.



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I agree...  excellent interview.

thank you very much boy55.   

Oh, I enjoyed it too, boy55.  Sorry I got sidetracked when you first posted it and I read it.   

Max Pirkus seems pretty down-to-earth, for a rich kid whose parents can afford to take him on 6-week holidays to South America.   

Wouldn't it be nice to grow up with that kind of situation, an epic movie to your credit, and good looks to boot?   

Love,
Sir J

I'm late too!  I really enjoyed reading that interview, Boy55.  I always like to read how the more experienced adult actors befriend and guide a new young actor.

I should have this movie in a couple days.

MASTER and Commander action star Max Pirkis was back in a boat yesterday — with posh pals wearing flowers on their hats.

Etonian Max, 15, returned to more gentle waters after appearing in the high seas blockbuster with Russell Crowe.

He sported traditional uniform to cox classmates in the snooty Procession of Boats on the Thames.

His eight crew wore the colourful flower hats in a re-enactment of King George III’s birthday parade.

Max — who played one-armed midshipman Lord Blakeney in the movie — stood at the helm to doff his hat to Eton, Windsor and the king.

One parent watching at the school famous for its Eton Boating Song said: “He was a gentleman on the big screen and played the part again today.”

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Sex and the city with togas

by BAZ BAMIGBOYE, Daily Mail

09:36am 29th October 2004

Rome wasn't built in a day. The one Joseph Bennett designed took about a year and, if he's lucky, it'll stand for another five.

Behind sound stages at the famed Cinecitta Studios (just outside the real Rome), a replica of the Arch of Janus and the two temples of Mars and Jupiter, along with the Basilica Giulia, have been erected for an epic television drama called - you guessed it - Rome.

The American TV company HBO (behind Sex And The City and The Sopranos) has teamed up with the BBC to create a drama that really brings the ancient civilisation of Rome to life.

As Jonathan Stamp, the show's historical consultant, noted: "This is the studio where the movies Cleopatra and Ben-Hur were shot, and the same kind of look pervades those movies.

"I call it the Holly-Rome look - starched white togas and everything sanitised. The whole ethos of our Rome is to do something entirely different."

Indeed, James Purefoy, who portrays Marc Antony in the new production, has already boasted on these pages about how the bonking scenes have left him exhausted.

Even a lothario of his stature was initially unnerved when told that his love scenes would be scrutinised by actors playing slaves. "But this is what went on," explained Stamp.

"It meant nothing to Mark Antony to have his slave, or the slave of his mistress, in the room during sex. It was what they did then and was considered perfectly normal," Stamp told me as he gave me a guided tour through the incredible back streets and lavish temples created by Bennett and his team. Some of the buildings have been daubed with red paint, and straw and food (offerings to the gods) left on the steps.

The idea was to give various buildings a lived-in and weathered look.

In a sense, the same is true of the cast. Sure, the men are handsome and the women beautiful (costume designer April Ferry has created some opulent, decadent gowns), but they look like real people, as opposed to that plastic, full-whiteteeth look of some U.S. actors who get cast inTV roles these days. Ciaran Hinds, as Julius Caesar, leads the company.

Other British actors such as Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson star as foot soldiers, whose lives we will follow in the drama which has an initial 12 episodes, with the possibility of five series in all.

Polly Walker plays the manipulative and sexually eager Atia, who's also the mother of Octavian (played by the acclaimed young actor <b>Max Pirkis</b>, who was so good in Master And Commander).

Lindsay Duncan is Servilia and Indira Varma plays Niobe, who is married to McKidd's character. They have three children, although the parentage of the third becomes a major plot line in itself.

As I walk around the various stages and workshops, I am fascinated by the activity around me. I have the feeling that if they can get it right - and there have been some major production problems - it could be a big hit.

Brit prop master Arthur Wicks is 'dressing'a lavish banquet scene with roast hams, quails, figs and chickens, as Stamp watches carefully to make sure no food is presented that wouldn't have been around in 50BC.

Wicks reckons he'll be in Italy, on and off, for several months for filming.

"There are enough stories to go to at least five seasons," Frank Doelger, the HBO executive in charge of production, told me.

He said that the tales from that period have a "great familiarity and yet there's a wonderful strangeness about these people and their lives."

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