Sergej Trifunović is a man of many talents – an actor, writer, politician, and karaoke singer. We had the opportunity to learn more about his numerous interests during a conversation with the famous Serbian actor in the Garden on Sunday. On this occasion, our selector Milena Zajović talked with him before the screening of the film Dudes: Again!. Additionally, his acclaimed autobiographical book Stovarište was also presented.
He honed his writing skills by penning articles for Playboy while living in Los Angeles and pursuing a Hollywood career. At first, he turned down an offer to write a book due to the time commitment it required, but eventually, he gave in. “God heard me and gave me corona,” he said.
He describes his approach to the book: “I wrote about things that happened to me, but from a different perspective.” Among the stories and poems in the book, he singles out the poem “U osvit Trećeg svjetskog rata” (English title: “At the Dawn of the Third World War”), whose title selection comes with a humorous anecdote. “It was after the theater premiere of Julius Caesar, and I was quite stoned and drunk. Someone said that the Third World War is starting, and I believed it,” he recalled.
Despite his love for writing, he has no intention of pursuing a writing career. “I don’t have another year and a half to sit in front of a computer and write. I want to act, travel around the world, and do many other things. Writing requires significant sacrifices,” he explained.
But his favorite thing is still acting. “First and foremost, I am an actor. That is my essence. … As one great director said, ‘You are your own canvas, you paint yourself.’ An actor is both the author and the performer. You use your body, hands, tongue, you use yourself,” he explained.
The book also contains a series of children’s illustrations. The source of this idea is described in one of the stories: “I was in my Saab, flying at 200 kilometers per hour,” he tells us, and continues, “The only thing that survived, because the car was completely wrecked, was a picture drawn by my goddaughter. She was 5 years old and had painted me, my wife, and our children. That was the only thing that survived.”
He comments on his role in Dudes, the cult first part of the film Dudes: Again!, with the words, “Munje was the most fun I’ve ever had, so the invitation to repeat that fun was… if I were dead, I would rise from the grave to do it.”
As a closing remark, he touched on an interesting detail in his biography, where he mentioned that he didn’t finish anything, not just school. “In fact, I’m a person who doesn’t finish anything, not just school. I’m a jack of all trades. I finished elementary school, and then something happened to me during high school, I think it was puberty,” Trifunović joked. However, experience is still the best teacher, as demonstrated by the rich and creative career of this charismatic and authentic actor.
