Nikolai Nikolaeff – SIX

By starrymag | June 13, 2018

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on? 

 

A) It’s been a big year for me. I am very excited with a number of projects being released that I completed last year…“SIX” just premiered on Memorial Day! I play “The Prince” that is referred to extensively in Season 1 and now we get to see his evolution during this season. Apart from “SIX,” I have Mile 22 coming out this August and I cannot wait to see that film finally. It’s with Mark Wahlberg and John Malkovich and his directed by Peter Berg. It’s going to be a wild ride I can tell you that.  There are a few other things later in the year that will be very cool to see too that unfortunately I can’t talk about just now under strict instructions.

 

Q) Please tease, what you can, about the new this season of “SIX.”

 

A) This season is grander in scale than the last time. This season amped up for sure and I was one of three new cast members that joined the team. Eric Ladin, Olivia Munn and myself are joining as part of three differing story lines that this season explores. Eric joins the seal team, Olivia plays a CIA agent out to get revenge and I play the mastermind Tamerlin Shoshoni a/k/a The Prince who is the head of a vast empire and Jihadi network. We get to see where he came from and what he eventually became as a result of the betrayal he suffered.

 

Q) How was your character Tamerlin Shishoni/The Prince originally described to you?

 

A) The original character description was this:

 

JIHADIST MASTERMIND TAMERLIN SHISHONI (AKA “THE PRINCE”) 35 – 45, he is a Chechen who went to Bosnia in the nineties to fight the Serbian Army.  When we meet him in Flashbacks, he’s a track-suit wearing fixer and mid-level criminal/opportunist/Jihadist.  He loves MMA and pumps iron.  Indulges in drugs, women, but also Omar Khayyam’s poetry. Charismatic and ruthless, (think the Chechen version of Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction) he sells stolen cars in Italy, women in Dubai, drugs in Amsterdam; arms to the Jihadists, and information to the CIA.

 

Q) What made you want to be a part of the series? 

 

A) While watching the first season, I saw a few scenes that stood out as truly a unique “voice.”  The first episodes don’t hold back and we see a celebrated Navy seal – what people would think of as being ” a good guy” commit a war crime point blank.  This sets up the question of what is right and what it means to be a “bad guy.” I’m not sure if it will come across, but I hope our show makes the audience asks themselves what they would do if they had endured what my character went through…

 

Q) Was there anything you added to Tamerlin that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

 

A) Well, I always seek the humanizing qualities to a character and was so happy to read that the writers really went above and beyond in painting a 3D character in “Tamerlin Shishoni”…a/k/a “John” aka “The Prince”… One thing I added to the mix was that my character always has a secret weapon on him – his butterfly knife – from his early days as a low-level fixer when we first meet him (John) to becoming the Kingpin… the mastermind… the head of the snake – The Prince.

 

Q) What did you find challenging about your portrayal.

 

A) Doing the research on his back story and what kind of events led him to become who he is was hard.  Watching videos and reading articles about the viscous and horrendous things people are capable of doing to one another made it hard to sleep for a long time. Knowing that this really happened was difficult to process at times. But I felt like I had to do justice to the character and them. To not hide from what really happened.

It was also challenging knowing that at the end of the day, I was simply acting and that I have a life to go back to that is so privileged and safe compared to what these people have suffered. Many of whom are no longer on this earth.

 

Q) What kind of prep did you need to do in order to tackle the show’s serious stunts?

 

A) My character didn’t have to do any stunts so not much. The Seal guys however did a week-long boot camp that I would’ve loved to have been part of.  Next time. Or next show definitely…

 

Q) Were you familiar with any of your costars before working with them on this series?

 

A) Actually, not at all. I had seen “Newsroom” with Olivia Munn and was excited to meet and work with her. I didn’t realize my story line was so interwoven with hers…I did have one other person who I had known before and that was Bruce McKenna – the executive producer and Showrunner of “SIX” Season 2. Bruce and I had met almost ten years ago when I filmed a small scene on “The Pacific” in Melbourne, Australia.  It was surreal to see him again and this time to work with him extensively bringing this complex character to life. I was in awe of “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” so to work with him again on “SIX” in Vancouver was very cool for me, personally.

 

Q) Who did you become the closest with while working on set?

 

A) All the fellas welcomed me with open arms and it was such an honor to see them do their thing. At first though, our story lines were polar opposite with them effectively on the hunt for my character. So, we didn’t get a chance to see each other all too often. About half way through though, we went out for a drink and that solidified our friendship. I am happy to call all of them my friends. Juan Pablo [Raba] and I have yet to do some mountain biking together (and most definitely will) while Kyle [Schmid] promised to take me rock climbing next week.  Meanwhile, Edwin [Hodges], Barry [Sloane] and I had one of the craziest nights ever while promoting “SIX” and appearing on a late night Hispanic talk show called “Noches Con Platanito.”  We are forever bonded doing that together.  And Jaylen is just a plain legend.

 

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming “SIX?”

 

A) For me, there were many surreal moments. But one of the most profound was being able to talk to the directors and producers about the character and “combine forces” with them to make him as interesting and human as possible. It was great to actually be heard and bounce off these amazingly talented people. Often times, we filmed in amazingly beautiful locations and with black hawks resting just a few meters from us.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the show that has made it such a fan favorite?

 

A) I think that it doesn’t shy away from being real and the truth, which can be ugly. And hard for some people to process… It deals with many facets of military life and for me, I am so grateful, they wanted to get to know the other side. I don’t know how much ends up in the final cut, but it was definitely there in the scripts.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you’ll receive to your time on the series?

 

A) Look, I really appreciate the fans. I hope they like what we have done and recommend the series to their friends and family. A lot of effort went into making this as good as possible.  As for instant feedback, that’s nice but not what I live for.  Social media is an interesting beast – one that I’m not 100% comfortable with.  There seems to be too much access to people these days which I’m not sure is a good thing. I am still finding my social media voice. I just don’t want directors and producers to hire me/not hire me based on my social media followers count.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) A HUGE THANK YOU. I really appreciate it.  I would like to know what fans of mine think would be a good project for me to do next. There are a few things on the horizon that we will see if they pan out. One if which is a script that I am playing around with writing and I hope to develop that to its fullest extent…We’ll see. It does deal with a dark subject matter and after “SIX,” it might take a little while to get back into as I very much needed to take a break from all that heaviness.