Kazakh actors tell about partaking in McMafia TV series

ALMATY. KAZINFORM Kazakh actors Yerden Telemissov, Murat Mukashev, and Nurken Tumatayev told about their experience of doing McMafia, a BBC television series, Kazinform correspondent reports.

On January 1, BBC One started broadcasting television series, a co-production of the BBC, AMC and Cuba Pictures. It was inspired by a book, McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (2008), by British journalist Misha Glenny. In the series directed by James Watkins, all three Kazakh actors acted as Mafiosi.

According to actor Yerden Telemissov who played the role of Timur, no casting was arranged in Kazakhstan. In October 2016, world-famous violinist and conductor Marat Bisengaliyev messaged Yerden via Facebook, saying that the casting director of the new project McMafia asked his daughter Aruhan Galiyeva, a British theater and film actress, to find three brutal actors of Asian appearance for the project. Telemissov contacted the production studio and they requested him to find two more ‘gangsters'. Thus, Murat Mukashev and Nurken Tumatayev acted in the series as Rustam and Alisher, respectively.

The characters played by the Kazakh nationals appear in the first episode and only one of them acts in the third episode. It is noteworthy that the roles played by the Kazakh actors, according to the script, are quite remarkable.

"The director said that after our appearance the protagonist will not remain the same. Our appearance is one of the key moments of the series. When we first appeared on the location, we were called ‘Assassins'. But the make-up artist Nicole shaved off our beards, and the director explained that, although our characters are murderers according to the script, it should not be seen at once," Yerden Telemissov recalled.