#mcmafia

Part 2. Meeting with James Norton

We exited the auditorium and spent some time in a bar cause we thought we had a time before actors came out of  a dressing room and went down in lobby. I took a place near the exit, auditorium entrance, passage to wc and a door marked No admittance.

And then the door opened, Malachi and Faith got out of the room. I couldn’t believe my eyes, just stayed and glazed at them for a moment. Only 10 minutes after the play left, nobody was there except a couple of people behind me at the bar, some other viewers were in lobby, waiting for actors. I went up to them and we had a nice talk. I said I saw them on TV, complimented their play and underline the high points.

When Malachi and Faith left, we decided not to hurry and stayed in the bar. Just in a minute the door with No admittance opened again, and James with Imogen entered the room.

James was in a coat and glasses, with a sharp look in the eye. I unrolled a handmade poster and looked above it at James (with eyes like the cat from Shrek). The look on the James face changed and he went up to me with words “Oh, it’s you?” and hugged me.

After that moment the most interesting part began.  I gave a small gift to James, then we observed my poster.

I reproved him a little with a smile about the fact that he didn’t pay any attention to a one-year anniversary of our Twitter group. James became very serious and said that it’s a shame on him and disgusting, but, take it easy, he is pretty far along from all that social media, just logging in, pressing some buttons and logging out. So all that I expected it to be, not perfect, but that’s not my rules in a game.

Then all of us went up to bar, James dropped off his coat on the floor (exactly that herringbone black-and-white coat from Saint Petersburg, he said that), I breathed out and did the same with my puffy coat.

James became clear there was no way back when I asked him to sign autographs for many of his fans and to shoot a short video for Russian speaking fans.

There was a funny incident during signing autographs. James began to write and said it’s uncomfortable because the marker dried up. I was in a step from panic but James offered to bring another marker, and ran away. I shared a look with my friend, our thoughts was the same: he wouldn’t come back. But a few minutes later James returned with a new marker in his hand! We kept things going. What a guy! 

Next step was to shoot a video. I asked James to tell whatever he wants, HelloorHappy New Year. He concentrated fast and said a proper text. There was a mess around, it wasn’t so easy, I got a bit hacked off, you can see how I’ve trying to make thought together and to listen to my “perfect” English… The one thing I asked him about was to say this letter is for Russian speaking fans, but he uttered it like “for Russian fans”. I don’t want to nitpick, he already remembered and did enough. So this short video is for all of you who understands Russian language.

After we’ve shot the first video James asked me – why I announced it in English if the video is for Russian speaking people? Just because of this we shot one more part.

I flatter myself that James spent so much time with me also because I told to him I read the script on the play. I complained on 4 stars, but he said it’s nothing, don’t care about it. I supposed that it’s connected with a no large-scale of the performance. It’s not a Shakespeare but a modern small play. He just nodded “yes, maybe”. I complimented the cast and the play and he was listening to it very carefully.

It’s not a surprise I was very nervous. But in that 10 minutes (or just about it) I could collect my thoughts to talk calmly and to do a maximum of the important things. Some of them went out of my mind though I was prepared. For example, I didn’t asked about a few screen caps from behind the scenes “War and peace”. Just, just… the way we are.

What else I can say? James Norton is a very nice and charming person. He is attentive and sincere, laughs openly and playful, with his head back. 

You feel like he talks to you not for advertising, for you can be useful as a fan, but just to make you feel pleasant. I believe he is kind of a person who just loves people.

Thanks to the Donmar theater, to the director and all of the cast for giving me a pleasure. I had a great time with the play Belleville. Thanks to James personally for his time, I’ll never forget it. I want him to have a luck – those, who makes people happy deserves all the best.

Have a good year, all of you. I want your dreams come true – sometimes it actually happens.

Part 1 of my story is here

When James Norton was picked to play the part of a successful London banker drawn into the violent world of the Russian mafia he looked to imbue his performance with a certain authenticity.

That desire led him to learn aspects of the tough martial art Systema, which he employs to brutal effect in some of the action scenes of the BBC’s new drama thriller McMafia, as his character tries to protect himself and his family from the violence of the Russian mob.

Now viewers of the series have begun to contact the star’s Systema teacher to sign up to learn for themselves the martial art, which has been adopted by the Russian KGB secret service.

David Kirillov, who runs the London School of Systema and taught Norton the techniques he deploys on screen, 

said: “The show has generated interest in what we do and James talking about it has raised the profile of Systema.

“People come to us because they have heard and they can see it’s a good way of defending themselves and their families.

“We live in a society where there is violence and danger and the police can’t always help us. People are scared and want to learn the skills to get back home at night.”

In an uncanny parallel with McMafia, Mr Kirillov is a Russian-born former banker who spent nearly three decades working in finance in Moscow and London and managed to steer clear of the mob’s influence.

After working in Moscow he moved to New York in 1981 and then to the UK in 1995, where he married a local girl and started a family.

Mr Kirillov, 51, who was born in St Petersburg, praises the writers of McMafia for capturing the reality of life in the post-Soviet banking and finance sector.

“I kept my nose clean and didn’t get involved in Russian ‘frolics’,” he said. “I’m surprised the BBC is allowed to make a show where they speak the truth about the finance industry. Working in banking in Moscow and London for 27 years I’ve seen it from the inside and certainly accurate about how things work.”

Mr Kirillov explains Systema as allowing the practitioner to accept the idea of pain rather than being afraid of it.

“I tried to explain to James Norton some of our methods and philosophy. What stood out for him, I think, was the way we deal with fear,” he said.

“We do not overcome it, we do not pretend it’s not there, we do not pile aggression on top of it. We do accept that it is part of us, we learn to recognise the onset of fear, and try to mitigate the physical manifestations of it. In short, we shake fear by the hand.”

Norton, 32, who is now being spoken off as a future James-bond on the back of his performance as hedge fund manager Alex Godman in McMafia, has said learning Systema enabled him to deal with the physicality of the drama’s fight.

”I went to my trainer’s Systema class where I was learning along with 20 big - mainly Russian - men. In the show you see me being hit and he’s really doing that,” he said.

“It’s bizarre but it was amazing and I learnt a huge amount. [It’s] about embracing conflict and letting your body relax. If someone punches you, you let your body take the hit rather than tense up.”

Mr Kirillow said Norton showed himself remarkably adept at the martial art’s routines and techniques when he trained with him at the London School of Systema.

“He picked things up quickly, he did the work, including the challenging and painful drills, he actually got a pretty heavy strike on him! And he made tremendous progress quickly.

”I feel James picked up the depth of what we do, and understood that combat is just a side effect of making Systema a part of your life.”

What is Systema?

Systema - or The System - is a martial art with its origins in Russia which focuses on breathing, relaxation, and fluidity of movement to use an attacker’s momentum against him.

It involves controlling the six body levers (elbows, neck, knees, waist, ankles, and shoulders) through pressure point application and striking.

Practitioners of Systema say the body has to be free of tension, “filled with endurance, flexibility, effortless movement, and explosive potential” and that the fighter’s ‘spirit’ or psychological state has to be “calm, free of anger, irritation, fear, self-pity, delusion, and pride”.

The discipline, which was adopted by the KGB for its field agents, is now understood to be popular with police and security forces outside of Russia.

You can watch full video of James’s training here:

Learn more about London School of SystemaGB!

web-site http://systemalondon.com

instagram https://www.instagram.com/systemagb/

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Text is from The Telegraph