[FINALE] Vincent vs. Si-Yeon: Italian Actor Lorenzo Renzi talks about FINALE...

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[endif]I am proud to present this special blog entry which is written by one of the FINALE actors Lorenzo Renzi. He writes about how he got involved with the film, how he prepares for the shoot and about his view on working with Bae Seul-Ki. My agent called me and told me some crazy people were up to shoot  an action movie and they needed me for a talk. I was a little bit surprised because in Europe we shoot action movies as often as it snows in June. So I went to meet director Rouchdi Guedria and his “factotum” assistant Hussain Abdullah. After a few drinks I was half drunk discussing Sergio Leone’s best movies and extreme martial arts. I was dreaming:  no more dramas full of tears and the chance of some ass on-screen ass kicking. What could be a better dream for an actor? We talked a lot because I always approach new jobs like a baby, curious but also ready to propose. I found a director incredibly committed to his work and I got involved in this adventure.Vincent, the character I play in FINALE, is a muscular character with a particularly religious attitude. First he breaks your face and then he prays for your soul. There was and still is some huge preparation for this character. I increased my weight from 87 to 105 kilograms of muscle, working out five times a week. I am eating 15 to 20 eggs each morning and 700 grams of meat a day. I am starting to pick up a lot of wives  in need of attention and believe me having big arms really helps. Seriously, it is really hard to reach this kind of a body and I need to shoot this movie soon before my liver sues me. I am also training in Jiu Jitsu because I will work with Korea’s most wanted action director, Jung Doo-Hong, and I want to be ready for him. My character is a bear and my preparation as an actor, as Strasberg said, drives me in different ways every day. So I’m  also studying documentaries about Grizzlies, giant American bears, which more or less resemble my character Vincent. I worked with Rouchdi on shooting a FINALE teaser so my expectations are very high. The set was like the perfect car and he was the perfect pilot for it. Anyway we were shooting in Germany and they know how to make cars, don’t they?Watch the teaser Lorenzo talks about on YouTube.

Learning from a master like Jung Doo-Hong is always a great opportunity and a great honor. I will give all I can to reach the level needed for this sort of a movie and I will buy a lot of pain killers to swallow after training sessions.As for my on-screen enemy Si-Yeon, I am not scared to hurt a Korean girl, because in a martial arts contest every Korean person could easily knock down a European. I saw Bae Seul-Ki’s photos.She is cute. Her character Si-Yeon might be a young woman, but she knows the most deadly tricks when fighting so she will be a dangerous enemy for Vincent, even if she loses her two swords. It should be interesting to see this petite, delicate young girl going head-to-head in a fist-to-fist fight with a Grizzly bear such as me.Just the thought of that makes me look forward to training with Jung Doo-Hong and Bae Seul-Ki.