Interview with actor Emilio Salerno

Emilio Salerno is an actor from the SW of England. Taking the lead roles of school plays and being headhunted by theatre companies, he's always been able to adapt to different scenarios and exceed expectations. As he turned 15 his voice talents were spotted by a sound engineer whom worked for Little Entertainment group (now Fubuloo) and has since starred as a voice in Team Umizoomi and in 2014 took the lead dubbing role of character Iftach in the Nickelodeon teen drama; The Greenhouse. Since his various voicing roles he has become acquainted with Amarok Films, an independent Gloucestershire/London based film company with which he has already taken three on-screen roles under his belt within just one year of on-screen acting. Being highly appraised by all those he has worked with thus far Emilio was approached to actually join as a creative director at Amarok films. His notable work includes the award-winning "Destitute Blues" music video in which he took the lead role, "The Pursuit of Normality" an independent feature film and has been accredited to many up and coming roles not yet announced. We have conducted an interview with him.

Was it difficult to transit from voice acting to on screen?

Well, it definitely had its challenges. I guess my biggest worry was whether or not I could do the job because it's very different. I mean on camera everything is much more intense; from lighting to being on a much tighter schedule like waiting for a certain kind of weather. Plus you can have your script in the vocal booth!

What's the best part about being a film Creative Director?

Oh it's brilliant. When Joshy (Amarok Films) first approached me to join him as a creative director I jumped in with two feet. I've always had a lot of creativity to put into things and now I've got an opportunity to do that, I'm massively grateful.

How do you envision your new horror feature film 'Bloodhound'?

Dark, disturbing and visually gripping. My heroes, director wise, have always been the likes of Refn and Kubrick. A big reason for that being how visually powerful they always are. So I think bloodhound should be somewhere between Valhalla Rising and Full Metal Jacket; the visuals gripping and the narrative pushing the audience's buttons whilst not making then unnecessarily uncomfortable. It's a fantastic balance when it's executed.

Which is one horror film that you have ever seen?

Bit of a confession here I'm not the hugest horror fan. Mainly thanks to my sister making me watch the exorcist at a young age! I'll remember watching evil dead for as long as I live but for me it's all about a psychological film with horror elements. I mentioned shutter island earlier because I spent a lot of that film waiting to be jumped out on by a crazed inmate and the penetrating quiet of the dream sequences kept me very on edge.

What is your background? What is your favourite notable work?

I was born in the southwest of England. I've moved about but always staying in the south-west. I've always been very interested in drama school and college but I didn't take a really keen interest in acting in till I was headhunted by someone from Nickelodeon when I was 15. I was very young at the time so didn't think too much about the situation until a few years later when I was asked to do a lead voice in the show "the greenhouse". That's when I decided I could really make a go of this. As for my favourite work that's a tricky one, I know exactly what my favourite work is going to be (giving nothing away here but keep your eyes open) but it's got to be destitute blues. It looked beautiful and the character wasn't just involved it was physically challenging, something I hadn't taken on before on screen but loved every minute on set.