A pretty fucking fun bonanza
“For anyone who managed to squeeze into Gogol Bordello‘s legendary set at Toronto’s Drake Hotel in early 2006, seeing frontman Eugene Hutz and violinist Sergey Ryabtsev on London, England’s Wembley Stadium stage with Madonna for the Live Earth concert was surreal, to say the least” – Noah Love writes on Canadian music website ChartAttack.
“It turns out that Madonna is a pretty big fan of the group, so much so that she invited Hutz to star in her directorial debut – a film called Filth And Wisdom.”
ChartAttack: You did a short film with Madonna?
EugeneHutz: Yeah! We just finished.
CA: Did you do it in New York, or was it in London?
EH: No, it was in London.
CA: How did you get hooked up with that? What’s it all about?
EH: We just had some mutual friends. And I’ve heard for a while that she was a big fan of Gogol Bordello and of my acting efforts. At one point we were talking, she just called me, and we’re talking more and more and eventually arriving to an idea that she was arriving to her perfectly super-fun offer to do a lead role in her directing debut. It was really fun. It was very much of a collaboration, and eventually the whole band was in the movie – playing Gogol Bordello playing itself. And when she asked me, “So how do you feel about dressing up as a woman?” I knew it was going to be fun. Still, I didn’t know it was going to be that much fun.
CA: How was she as a director?
EH: You know, I think she’s really good. For directors, you can always tell. You can always define the power of a director by how specific they get. And she was incredibly specific. Not necessarily with me, because I basically operate by doing my own thing. By inviting me, it’s pretty much…
CA: You get what you pay for.
EH: Yeah and, I mean, of course there was things that she needed from me as a director. We just had a perfect communication about that. And I think it’s going to be a pretty fun – a pretty fucking fun bonanza – when you see it.
CA: It’s like a 30-minute thing, and it’ll be out at the end of next year.
EH: Yeah, I think it’s going to be much sooner than that. She’s a real, real dynamo. It was amazing to see how she works. She is actually that girl that makes it all go around. You know what I mean? So as much of her worldwide-known show business enterprise that goes along with her name, you know, the person who’s actually in the centre of it all, that’s making it all happening, is her. I was super-impressed with that.
From an interview by Noah Love, ChartAttack.