It’s been quite a ride for me in the Vancouver film industry, and when I first started this website, it was roughly around the same time I got situated as a regular at networking events hosted by Raindance Vancouver, where I met the DiMoftes, and over the years, I hired 4 guys who have written for my site, and to this day, at least of two of them are sticking around. It was a great event to hang out at, have some drinks, socialize, connect. For me, it was kind of up and down. Sometimes the environment made me nauseous. Sometimes I was just miserable due to what was going on. Most times I enjoyed it, it was a welcoming atmosphere. Sometimes I just couldn’t make it out due to work and other conditions, but I was a frequent regular. Just last month, I met with Nadia DiMofte at a Booze and Schmooze one last time before they were set to have a summer break. Kind of like some acting workshops I’ve been taking. Nadia informed me she was getting tired of things and that Raindance would be taken over by someone else. I met the new fellow in charge and there may be plans to streamline this website and Raindance together. After all, we’ve been sister businesses for nearly a decade, and an opportunity to strengthen our bond is what we need. Those sponsored articles aren’t generating SEO as they claim to.
Anyhow, where was I? Oh yeah, the DiMofte’s are supposedly saying goodbye. That’s what I got from Nadia’s speech at the June BnS as well as her hug afterwards and it certainly seemed that way. With that being a possibility, I had to talk to Raresh DiMofte, I mean I could’ve if he was there that night, but he was out in Europe for a film shoot. I had to reach out to him via Messenger and schedule an interview within a matter of time and talk about some of his latest work. Recently, he went back and forth between Romania and Greece a fair amount, and he just might stay out there. I had to ask him some questions about some other roles he did on account of this big news and the fact he sent me a press release a couple months ago. We’ve covered Raresh’s acting work in the past, and it’s always worthy of reading, so here’s an update article/interview on his roles in The Tourist and American Dreamer, as well as his work in the future. Pack your suitcase and let’s go for a vacation to the productive land of DiMofte, as Raresh guides us through the latest steps on his journey.
HNMAG: You recently got to be in The Tourist Season 2. Did that job require some travel for you?
Raresh DiMofte: Yeah, actually. I flew from Vancouver to Dublin. We shot everything in Dublin and around Dublin. I had 2 breaks between my shots and I had traveled to Romania to see my parents, my family. It was a very interesting and fun work.
HNMAG: And what was it like performing that role?
Raresh DiMofte: It was very interesting because initially they wanted a Romani which is a gypsy Romanian character and we transformed the guy into a very ambiguous character with an ambiguous accent as well. It turned out to be very successful.
HNMAG: Was there anything you had to do to prepare yourself a lot more?
Raresh DiMofte: Well, yeah… My personal touch was the accent. It was a combination between the Romanian accent, talking in English and a very Romani gypsy from Serbia. They have a specific way of speaking, right? So… I try to mimic that or combine these two. It turned out definitely very interesting and very worky accent in that show. Even though all the other characters were very Irish so I was standing out because of the accent.
HNMAG: Interactions on set must’ve been fun, especially given the subject matter. Did you get along with everyone?
Raresh DiMofte: Oh, yeah, yeah. It was great. I mean, I had a great time because it was fun, and because every single actor on that set were very prepared. Most of them are stage actors, so imagine the level of doing acting on that set. It was awesome.
HNMAG: And you were in a significant amount of episodes too. Was it exhausting to do all them given how each one is an hour long?
Raresh DiMofte: No. It was fun, everything was very well prepared by the team. We had 2 scenes that were troubling to shoot because of the weather. We had a lot of storms because at some point we shot outside Dublin, like 15 km away in a very rural pub. For 2 days, it was storm after storm, wind after wind, it was horrible. Other than that, it was fun to work with all the people involved.
HNMAG: Right now, the possibility of a third season is unknown. But if it were to happen, would we see Tomasz again?
Raresh DiMofte: I have no idea, but that would be awesome to come back to that or maybe a spinoff. Maybe who knows? That’d be a cool idea.
Raresh went on to explain also because Olwen Fouéré who plays Tomasz’s mother is very powerful and interesting. Admittedly, neither I nor Raresh have seen those kinds of characters in TV shows, with almost everyone fitting some weird stereotypical mould. Raresh certainly had fun witnessing Olwen’s performance and working with her. Tomasz is probably one of the coolest characters I’ve seen in media so far.
HNMAG: Let’s get a little more into your role of American Dreamer now. Was that an interesting experience working with Peter Dinklage?
Raresh DiMofte: Imagine this: We shot everything in Victoria, BC. The first scene that I shot was actually when I have the monologue in front of a big crowd in a park. (laughs) So I had to say that monologue for 4-5 hours nonstop because they wanted to shoot that scene from different angles so imagine the team threw me directly into fire with a big monologue, singing and all that. But after that, it was much more fun. When I had the scenes with Peter Dinklage and Shirley MacLaine, those scenes were super fun to work on.
HNMAG: How long did that production take to get made?
Raresh DiMofte: I think around 3 weeks, almost 4. But for me it was like 2 weeks.
HNMAG: Was there any other issues on set for that production that were difficult but you managed to get through?
Raresh DiMofte: That one wasn’t an issue, it was just that I was not prepared to jump on it without any rehearsal and stuff like that. I don’t see them as issues or troubles, sometimes it’s just the waiting time because you need to in my case, I need to have this in my mind to keep the energy up while waiting. Because after let’s say 4-5 hours of waiting, you need to be with your energy level up to go on camera and do your thing. That’s the only thing I need to work on every single time. Just the waiting game. Other than that, I’m enjoying doing what I’m doing.
HNMAG: Now out of those two productions, would you say they were both equally enjoyable?
Raresh DiMofte: Oh, absolutely! Always, always. If, let’s say, it’s not fun, I’ll make it fun! Good memories, right? So let’s say I find a partner in crime on set, have fun, just kill the day, find something to do, while waiting let’s say. At the end of the day, we had fun, and that was it.
Raresh really emphasized on how that elaborately long monologue scene went and how he didn’t know what to change but the director told him to keep doing what he was doing for all the different angles and they had 2 shots with the drone as well. I think that director knew he was working with a true professional right from the get-go. Casting was just perfect.
HNMAG: And you’ve certainly kept busy with these two roles and quite a few others as well. How do you keep everything balanced without stressing out?
Raresh DiMofte: That’s a good question. Well, let’s say I’m looking to work on other stuff as well, like right now I’m looking into producing, that’s #2, but #1 is with my family, our daughter, trying to get more days off to balance this crazy life of being an actor and hunting for parts, auditioning, searching, researching, and all that. When you’re burning a lot of energy as an actor, you have to find ways to find something else other than acting and hunting and auditioning, so family is #1 and then some time off.
HNMAG: Do you have a goal for just how many roles you like to book a year?
Raresh DiMofte: No. I cannot do that, I actually had this conversation with one of the actors in Greece, I have no idea what I would do in 2 or 3 months. I like this idea of surprise, I’m not counting my roles, I’m not wishing for anything especially at this point. 10 years ago I wished for some roles, but right now I’m enjoying whatever comes my way. This is the best way to actually live and work as an actor.
HNMAG: Now I understand there’s a possibility of you moving to Romania.
Raresh DiMofte: No, we’re not moving. We need to slice our time in half, half in Canada and half in Europe. Because we have a lot of things to do here and in Europe as well. We need to be actually physically present here to make them happen. We cannot do them from a distance. We tried, it didn’t work so this would be the obvious step to actually be here and do stuff. We’re coming back to Canada, we have something to do to work of course. Canada was and is a great treat that offered a lot to us, the DiMofte family.
HNMAG: So there’s going to be some back and forth then? Can you tell us what it means for your acting career?
Raresh DiMofte: Nobody’s guaranteeing anything, that’s the #1 thing I learned throughout the years. I consider myself as a working actor, so whenever an opportunity arises, I’m just going to jump on it. As you know, the industry right now is wobbly, and becomes confusing and we don’t know exactly what will happen in 12 months, 4 months. So that’s why I’m saying it’s very important for me to just stay alert, hunt for parts, create productions, and do my work like that as well.
HNMAG: It will be vastly different from Canada, but it still works out?
Raresh DiMofte: Yeah, I really enjoy the huge difference between Europe and America but it’s not that big of a difference between what is happening in Ireland and the UK. Those 2 countries have a similar way of work, the infrastructure is the same like in Canada and the States. But the rest of Europe is very different, getting the parts is different, auditioning is different. But I really enjoy it because the movie making and the tv series making is different as well.
HNMAG: What has been your favourite thing about working in Canada’s film industry?
Raresh DiMofte: The infrastructure. It’s very neat and efficient, I love that. This feeling, I had it from Day 1 when my first TV show in Canada was Almost Human. While on that, I was just in awe to see the mechanism, the American/Canadian tv series making, how it’s working and everyone knows what they’re doing. Nothing is just random, I love that.
HNMAG: What is one role you really wish to do?
Raresh DiMofte: Okay, I can give you one. It’s for stage: Faust. It’s a very deep character that I really enjoy, especially enjoy reading. When I read the play for the first time, I was floored. It’s very complex, very difficult to pull it off which is great because I love challenges. I don’t know if it’s possible to make it into a film, but on a stage, absolutely. I could jump on it tomorrow.
HNMAG: Would you ever consider directing or making your own content or have you done that before?
Raresh DiMofte: I’ve produced my own most of the times. Whenever I have the opportunity, I produce a bunch of shorts, now we’re writing 2 pilots for 2 big platforms here in Europe. I’m more inclined to go into producing and show running than direct. I don’t know about directing, maybe I will at some point. But right now I really enjoy the producing part as well after acting, of course.
HNMAG: What do you miss the most in Canada?
Raresh DiMofte: Currently… Auditioning. That’s it. Right now I’m not thinking about it because I need to finish this show here in Greece, so I’m not thinking about auditioning for another month and something.
Currently he’s shooting a new tv show in Greece. I can’t tell you which one, but it’s pretty cool. Anyways, the bottom line is he’s got more going on now and he’s going places, who knows where else he’ll be doing acting/film work in Europe? More importantly, they aren’t leaving Canada forever. You read it here, folks. The DiMoftes will be back for film work one day, maybe sooner, maybe later, we’ll see what the future holds. Right now, it looks like they’re just working elsewhere, and we might see them again at a later date. Best of luck to Raresh, and the rest of the family as they navigate their way into Romania, and who knows? Maybe I (or one of us readers) will see them again somewhere. Maybe on a film set, maybe at a film festival, maybe even a booze and schmooze. I sure hope so.