It’s been four years since then Can Yemen he doesn’t want to be interviewed, and when he sits down to meet reporters, you can tell he’d rather be anywhere else than there. And even though he’s a six-foot-tall man, with a million followers and rising popularity with a hugely popular series “Purple like the sea” And “Turkish people”a certain amount of anxiety is understandable. From 1 December he will star as Harimau Malaysia on Rai1 in the series Sandokan, a widely publicized TV blockbuster (complete with countdown), a revisiting of the hit 1976 drama based on Salgari and destined to change the course of his career. Double-layered eyes, sword in hand, and turtle in the stomach, 36-year-old Yemen Turkey will also reach the English-speaking public thanks to the global relaunch of Disney+.
Having left Istanbul, after five years in Rome he is now in Madrid. And tomorrow?
“Fate will answer.”
Is he religious?
“Quite deistic.”
What does it mean?
“I believe in God.”
What was he like as a child? Already a pirate?
“I’m very serious. I went to a good school thanks to my mother, who cared a lot about my education. She enrolled me in an Italian school in Istanbul to learn another language. But it was personal: when my father’s economic situation worsened, I managed to survive by winning a scholarship”
What memories do you have of childhood?
“Istanbul is a big city. My school is on the European side and my house is on the Asian side. I wake up at half past five and the minibus takes two hours to reach its destination.”
Growing up between East and West, he never spoke about the crisis in the Middle East, unlike his other colleagues: why?
“I don’t expose myself because we live in an era full of hate, dominated by haters. For me an artist has to think about other things: wise men don’t talk, he thinks. As Brad Pitt said in an interview: “I’m just an actor, they give me a script and I act it”. Does anyone really care what I think about the world? You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. Then I know I can be the target of envy, because God doesn’t hold me back: He gives me a little of everything. So I have to balance it with full humility. And be altruistic, like Sandokan.”
What do you expect from “Sandokan”: a telephone call from America?
“It will be a dream. And when you dream of something so much, the time comes when God gives it to you.”
However, his success was built on his own will. Work.
“I came to Italy five years ago for Sandokan and while I was waiting to shoot it, I made a career here. I hoped to reap the rewards of this commitment. But I never planned it.”
What is he doing in Spain?
«This year I studied Spanish, four hours a day, six days a week. The Spaniards cast me as the crazy James Bond in an eight-episode action series (The Butterfly Labyrinth, ed.).”
Aren’t you tired of being the alpha male?
«I believe in male sigma».
Please?
“Sigma is higher than alpha. The alpha competes with other males: not me, since childhood. I don’t care what others do, I am my own enemy.”
But the role is always the same, as a handsome man: or not?
«Besides the fact that I consider it a privilege… although Sandokan is “cool”, he has much more to him: there is his emotional part, his values, his inclusivity, his acceptance of diversity and his evolution from a pirate to a savior of a nation».
In short, is Sandokan also a sigma male?
“Sure. He’s a man who shows his vulnerability.”
And what will be yours?
“I had so much. Anxiety, worry for my family, for my mom. And it was worth what I did.”
Did he seek Kabir Bedi’s approval?
“Kabir Bedi always speaks highly of the new Sandokan. And this is the best start I could have hoped for for myself and the entire great team in this series.”
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