With a inhabitants of round 1.8 million, similar to that of West Virginia, the Baltic nation of Latvia stands out largely when it comes to cinematic breakthroughs. Concrete instance: To streamOscar for Finest Animated Function Movie in 2025. At present, an rising Latvian actor is more and more occupying a spot within the international highlight and getting ready for his debut at Cannes: Kārlis Arnolds Avots.
You could have seen him within the drama sequence Soviet denims because the protagonist Renārs, a rock’n’roll fan who units up a secret underground denims manufacturing facility in a psychiatric hospital in 1979. He gained the Finest Actor award within the worldwide part of the 2024 version of Collection Mania for the function. Or perhaps you caught it Januarywhich gained Finest Worldwide Narrative Function on the 2022 Tribeca Movie Pageant and noticed him play an aspiring filmmaker within the capital Riga, who finds himself caught within the political turbulence of the January 1991 battle for Latvia’s independence.
If not, its Cannes debut ought to do it. The 29-year-old leads Oulia, Since January by director Viesturs Kairišs, which could have its world premiere within the Un Sure Regard part at Cannes on Could 21. Avots, who got here up with the concept and co-wrote the movie, performs legendary Latvian basketball participant Uļjana “Ulya” Semjonova on her journey from a rural life and feeling self-conscious about her peak and confused about her identification to changing into a basketball star. She ended up successful the Soviet Union nationwide championship and the European Champions Cup 15 instances every, Olympic gold with the USSR in 1976 and 1980, and he or she turned the primary non-American girl to enter the Basketball Corridor of Fame.
Avots didn’t need to look far for his topic. In spite of everything, Avots knew Ulya, and extra intently than many individuals. “I knew her all my life and after I moved to Riga, she turned my neighbor,” the actor stated. THR. “His story moved me a lot and I simply realized that that is my Hamlet. Actors are all the time in search of tales that may disarm them emotionally. And for me, it was the one the place I may very well be as trustworthy as doable.
What attracted him was not the trophies however the individual behind them. “Earlier than she turned this world champion, she turned the champion of her internal world,” Avots explains. “I’ve all the time been moved by tales of misfits, of sq. pegs in spherical holes. Amongst my favourite movies of all time is that of Werner Herzog. [The Enigma of] Kaspar Hauser and that of David Lynch The elephant man. I felt like an outcast, like all of us who’re too skinny, too broad, or too tall, or too quick, or simply too completely different from the usual measurement. So I used to be capable of empathize with Ulya and really feel that the movie is actually common.
At 197 centimeters, or about 6’5″, the actor will not be as tall as Semjonova’s 213 centimeters, or 7′. However he confronted a unique problem in portraying his awkward strikes early in his profession. “I’m a reasonably athletic man,” Avots shares with THR. “I can dunk. So I needed to discover his completely different rhythm and convey my physique nearer to his. For 2 years, I did not carry any weights. It helped me get away from myself and get into character.” The truth that she was left-handed and he was right-handed additionally helped slightly, he notes.
Nonetheless from the movie “Ulya”, courtesy of Ego Media
Enjoying a girl was by no means one thing he dwelled on. “I don’t imagine that an actor acts based mostly on their gender,” he explains. “They act with their soul.” The celebs he cites as function fashions are not any shock on this context. “Lately I have been actually impressed by Sandra Hüller, who’s a really thrilling actress to look at. See Jessie Buckley in Hamnet additionally impressed me so much. And Joaquin Phoenix has all the time been an ideal function mannequin as a result of he can get into that zone the place you’ll be able to really feel like there isn’t any appearing. You’re momentarily delighted and surprised by this whole honesty.
Analysis is simply as important. Avots spoke at size with Semjonova herself and her teammates in order that “the story would sink into my pores and skin” and printed images of the basketball participant in numerous physique positions and with completely different facial expressions. “I simply tried to replicate the photographs and acquire these positions, states and expressions,” he emphasizes. “I needed to be as genuine as doable, as a result of I felt an enormous duty in portraying her as a result of she trusted me.”
The legendary athlete died final January and was subsequently by no means capable of see the movie. “I thought of it so much,” Avots says. “However I feel most significantly, she knew {that a} movie was being made about her by somebody who really cherished her. And he or she noticed how my eyes lit up after I talked about her story, and the way a lot love I needed to inform it.”
Talking of affection. Appearing wasn’t Avots’ old flame. “I attempted to develop into athletic, however I used to be always altering sports activities, from basketball to volleyball, from volleyball to snowboarding, altering sports activities in addition to garments,” he says with a smile. “I noticed that it wasn’t going to go wherever. And I noticed that appearing all the time begins once more with each new function, and that works with my need to always change. With appearing, that is it.”
Avots was prepared to start out as a puppet actor scholar on the Latvian Academy of Tradition when there was no room for classical theater, however was advised he was too huge. “Man, we will’t cover you” behind the puppet stage, he remembers. “We are able to see your face on a regular basis.” Nonetheless, he remained trustworthy to his dream and took programs. “I used to be so determined to behave, so I managed to battle my manner by means of it,” he shares. “I all the time undergo home windows, not doorways. I am an idea-driven man who actually desperately assaults one thing if my thoughts is on it.”
Nonetheless from the movie “Ulya”, courtesy of Ego Media
The trade has taken discover. In 2025, the actor was amongst 10 promising European appearing skills chosen for the European Capturing Stars showcase on the Berlin Movie Pageant. Now he is prepared for his Cannes close-up, sharing that he could not sleep till 4 a.m. after discovering out that Oulia has been chosen. “It was a dream of mine,” says Avots THR. “I felt it may land someplace particular. So I am very completely satisfied.”
There’s nonetheless so much to do for the Latvian rising star. Avots is worked up in regards to the Amazon Prime Video sequence Blood Ax Since Vikings creator Michael Hirst, which is due out this yr and can give a worldwide viewers the prospect to see him in motion. What can he share about his function as Egil Skallagrímsson? “He’s a loopy character,” he says, laughing. “It is a kind of roles that an actor needs to play, an ideal addition to the corporate of anti-heroes within the historical past of cinema and tv. He is a Joker-type Viking who’s each a poet and a killer, a girls’ man and a sociopath. He is a misfit as soon as once more – an outcast.”
Avots additionally performs a job in Expensivea BBC and ZDF Chilly Conflict spy thriller from producer Sid Mild Movies that has been described as a prequel to its hit sequence. Kill Eve. He performs a younger Constantine, the function performed in Kill Eve by Kim Bodnia.
After which there’s Kill Jackiea Prime Video thriller sequence starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Daniel Ings, set to premiere this yr. “This expertise was unimaginable,” says Avots THR in regards to the filming. “Being alongside these actors was fairly nerve-racking. However on the similar time, I found that I may work at that degree. And I felt like I used to be residing in a giant, pleasant neighborhood.” Among the many issues he obtained to do on set was stroll round Bilbao, Spain, in 40-degree warmth, with a gun. “I’m the antihero, however with coronary heart,” Avots says of his function. “Enjoying the dangerous man with a coronary heart appears to be my cup of tea.”
Within the case of his Cannes movie OuliaNonetheless, he slips into the function of an actual star who has overcome obstacles. “When you name one individual a monster, then we’re all monsters,” Avots says. THR. “As an alternative of pointing fingers, I feel we have to rejoice our variations extra. »