I’d rather walk in life side by side with the people I share common experiences and a common emotional language with.
Andreas Labropoulos
Beyond Carmen
Text: Dimitra Kehagia
Actor Andreas Labropoulos was born and grew up in Athens, where he lives and works. He began working in the theater and the TV from an early age, before finishing highschool, whereas since 2018, when he graduated from the National Theater of Greece Drama School, he turned full-time to acting.
In the school he sought ways to ditch classes and the theater group was a good enough way-out. Following the first school theater performance that he took part in, he announced to his parents that he had found what he wanted to do in life. “It was like a revelation to me that acting could become a proper job. To constantly immerse yourself in new roles, experiencing, on stage or in front of the camera, many different lives.”
He tries to keep alive inside of him a part of that child mesmerized by his debut theater performance in school, as he believes that “if you stay true to the child that used to dream of a lifetime devoted to acting, then you are a step closer to happiness and fulfillment.”
Over the last few months, Andreas Labropoulos has been touring in several countries in Europe and all over the world with the film The Summer with Carmen, directed by Zacharias Mavroeidis and co-written by Mavroeidis and Xenofon Chalatsis.
The movie, also starring Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Roubini Vasikakopoulou, Nikolaos Mihas, Vasilis Tsigristaris, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, was screened at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, closed the curtain of Berlin’s Greek Film Festival, and will hit Greek theaters on June 13rd, distributed by Cinobo. The film has also traveled – or it scheduled to travel in the near future – in Seville, Paris, Lyon, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Istanbul, Switzerland, Sweden, Dublin, Australia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Belgrade, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Barcelona, Kyiv, Miami, Hong Kong, Reykjavik, Boston and Madrid.
Driven by the film’s topic, a summer shared by two gay friends, our talk spontaneously shifts to the homophobic assaults, such as the one that recently took place in Aristotelous Square. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time we are forced to make this unpleasant discussion. Similar incidents are daily recorded in many places all over Greece, they just don’t hit the spotlight, as they don’t involve such a big crowd or they rarely happen in such a busy central square.”
if you stay true to the child that used to dream of a lifetime devoted to acting, then you are a step closer to happiness and fulfillment.
Even though deeply concerned over the matter, he chooses to maintain his optimistic view on things. “We should not let a mob get to us, let alone when this mob has nothing to offer but fear. It is time we liberate ourselves from the role models imposed by a toxic patriarchal society, as it is the only way to see any meaningful changes,” he stresses and wishes that his generation, today’s young people, find a way to create the proper conditions for life to become less riddled with fear.
To this end contributes art as well, and The Summer with Carmen also played its small but valuable part. The actor is impressed by the warm welcome received by the film in numerous countries. “It’s interesting, and a great success for the film the way I see it, that despite cultural differences we remark a positive response in different milieus. From the Thessaloniki International Film Festival all the way to Germany and Spain, the audience reacts in a similar way, laughing and getting emotional in the same scenes.”
The film’s premiere at the Venice International Film Festival definitely stands out as one of the greatest moments in the young actor’s career. Nevertheless, his most instructive experiences came, as he says, in some of Greece’s remorse villages. “I have traveled in many parts of the country, playing theater for kids. Each time I feel the same wave of happiness, receiving the most meaningful lessons from the best teachers one can find: little children.”
Andreas Labropoulos had the chance of working at a really early age as an assistant director in the staging of the theater play Wild Teen Tales by the National Theater of Greece, a precious experience according to him, as he finds it really helpful for every actor to know
first-hand all aspects of the work. “You get to appreciate in a whole different way the privilege of being on stage when you have had a taste of other posts as well,” he adds.
He wishes and tries to maintain a balance between his professional and personal/social life. He is more into trying new things that invigorate him rather than staying busy as an actor at all costs. “Acting, at least to a great extent, is based on our experiences, and I wish to keep my arsenal full. Especially young actors in their first steps feel such a strong desire and such a dire need to work alongside great directors and appear in the most prestigious theaters, such as the Epidaurus, that they end up working 24/7 and forgetting (how) to live. This lifestyle does not suit me at all. I’d rather walk in life side by side with the people I share common experiences and a common emotional language with. Art, after all, is inspired by life.”
He consciously avoids making plans for the future, in a lesson taught to him by the Covid era, a dramatic period for the theater, which coincided with his very first professional steps. “In the post-Covid period, it dawned on me that our life is subject to radical changes at any given moment. I think the best thing to do is go with the flow. Obviously, that does not mean that I will ever stop dreaming, quite the contrary. Every day that passes, though, I realize more and more what the old folks used to say: as long as we are alive and kicking, things will eventually fall in the right place.”
As he adds, he firmly believes that such an approach to life helps people break free from the existential frustration of efficiency and success, or at least not live under this constant burden. “I want to get rid of anxieties of this kind, which prove to be counterproductive and make you miserable, and remain open to new challenges,” he concludes.
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