Jonny Pasvolsky. Photo credit: Shaughn + John
Australian actor Jonny Pasvolsky will appear opposite Hollywood heavyweight Johnny Depp in upcoming American comedy Mortedcai.
Directed by David Koepp, (Ghost Town, Premium Rush) and adapted from the book anthology The Mortdecai Trilogy, written by Kyril Bonfiglioli, the film also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn and Aubrey Plaza.
The plot follows dashing art dealer and part time rogue Charlie Mortdecai (Depp) who travels the globe in search of a stolen painting rumoured to contain the code to a lost bank account filled with Nazi gold.
Pasvolsky will play Emil Strago, ‘world criminal’ who stands in Depp’s way.
Pasvolsky has extensive experience working in Australian film and TV, with roles on The Moody’s, Mr and Mrs Murder, Offspring, Underbelly and McLeod’s Daughters.
He lists the role of Peter Vanetti in Mr and Mrs Murder as a career highlight thus far.
“Peter Vanetti, In Mr and Mrs Murder was particularly fun,” he tells IF. “Working with Shaun Micallef was particularly exciting, as he has such a smart approach to everything he does. My character and his had a very direct conflict and absolutely nothing in common except for the love of Kat Stewart’s character. He was completely cerebral. Peter Vanetti was not. He was Monty Python. I was Beverly Hills Cop.”
Casting in Mortedcai came about when Pasvolsky’s American agents sent him the script. He did a self-tape and sent it back to them, only to have director David Koepp call him two weeks later.
“He gave me some directions and I re-taped with those in mind,” says Pasvolsky. “Once I’d sent those off it became a waiting game, which took about a month and a half. Two weeks after that I was on a plane to London for ten weeks and LA for a month.”
Asked to describe his character, the world criminal Emil Strago, Pasvolsky says: “He’s just a man trying to make his mark on the world. Any world that he can find that will have him, even if it’s an enemy recognizing his existence by trying to kill him. He’s a revolutionary looking for a revolution. The contradiction is that he actually loves so many things about the world that he is trying to destroy. He does a truly mediocre job of mastering the English language but does a great job of trying to destroy Charlie Mortdecai, in his almost OCD-ish pursuit of a mysterious painting, worth millions.”
Pasvolsky says, like the film, the production process was a lot of fun and sees him and Depp take part in a fairly unusual fight sequence.
“I spent a long time in London training for a few stints we had to do including a sword fight I have with Johnny Depp in the movie. I think it took us five or six days to complete,” he says. “There was quite an intricate fight we had to do in a moving car that took us eight days on location to shoot and two additional days in the studio. David Koepp created the most jovial atmosphere on set and everyone responded to it with the skillful silliness this movie needed. We improvised quite a lot which made the whole experience a blast.”
Mortedcai is slated for an Australian release early next year.
View the trailer below.