A Cypriot actor from Nicosia, Ioannis Charalambous, will be playing in the popular British period drama television series on ITV Downton Abbey in season four, which will begin in September.
Charalambous, 27, has already had an appearance in the Christmas special at the end of season three, which aired on Christmas day, 2012 in which he played an unnamed ‘period dancer’.
He got the part after receiving a phone call from one of his teachers at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) about an audition she thought he should attend.
“In London it’s who you know and who you get the chance to meet. If someone in the field sees that you are simple, disciplined in what you do and have your feet on the ground, they will want to work with you again,” Charalambous said.
“I had attended an audition for Sherlock Holmes and my teacher remembered me from that and thought I should attend another audition she had in mind. I didn’t know what I was auditioning for. I just read some lines and at the end they told me it was an audition for Downton Abbey,” Charalambous added.
When on set, Charalambous was amazed by the simplicity, how everyone worked together to achieve the best result. “We would be filming for 15 hours but I didn’t feel tired at the end of it. I felt happy that I had learned so much and was honoured that I was able to work with such professionals.”
The cast of Downton Abbey include Dame Maggie Smith, Jim Carter, Hugh Bonneville and Lesley Nicol. Charalambous said Smith was a professional who was efficient and disciplined.
After finishing his army service in Cyprus, Charalambous went to London to study marketing and advertising but his passion was always acting. “I knew I wanted to be an actor but at the time I could only imagine doing so in Greece because I had no knowledge about training for the theatre in the United Kingdom,” he said.
While going to see a play, Charalambous met with George Rodosthenous, a lecturer in music theatre at the University of Leeds. Rodosthenous advised Charalambous to contact three schools but only LAMDA’s deadline for admission was still open. After auditioning Charalambous got a recall and entered a training course.
“I was the only foreign student there and when I asked why they accepted me as I had never studied English literature and didn’t know much about the great British playwrights like Shakespeare, I was told that it is not about what you say but about the passion and the energy you have. I had the Greek passion they said,”
After playing in Henrik Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean at the National Theatre for five months, Charalambous entered the Drama Centre London for a year.
His next project is to perform an original monologue in London that has never been staged before. He is also waiting to hear back from auditions for a part on the big screen.
From a young age Charalambous can remember being taken to the theatre by his uncle and playing in The Grammar School’s productions, where he went to school. “It is from my teachers at school that I got my first love for the arts. I remember falling in love with Cypriot poetry and learning about our culture. I am very proud to be Cypriot and I hope to come and perform in Cyprus very soon. I am open to play anywhere. It is not about where you act but about the excitement behind the project. I had to go through a lot of rejections until I got a yes. Theatre, like any art, is a passion that you carry around with you. You can’t let anyone put you in a box or tell you not to dream.”
Cyprus Mail
