Actress Nurgül Yeşilçay, much loved for her roles in Magnificent Century Kosem, Broken Pieces and Love and Punishment, talks about Turkish TV series. Speaking at a location overlooking Istanbul’s picturesque Bosphorus straits, Yeşilçay discussed the considerable interest abroad in Turkish series and talked about herself and people she admired in cinema.
Scenes:
1. Famous Turkish actress Nurgül Yeşilçay walking
2. Bosphorus view, ships passing through Bosphorus Strait
3. Famous Turkish actress Nurgül Yeşilçay watching the Bosphorus view
4. Famous Turkish actress Nurgül Yeşilçay talking
Subtitles:
0:00:20 When you place a view of Istanbul behind a love story it becomes both very local and very universal. When you place a passionate and ambitious woman in an Ottoman palace, this is what Shakespeare does and it happens in England, but when you place her in a Turkish bath, it finds its place in the world. 0:00:45
0:00:46 I like the characters that I do not identify with more than the characters with which I do identify. Broken Pieces was easier for me because I am a mother too and our ages were very close to each other. Love is always a very universal thing, but for example when I played Kosem Sultan I enjoyed it very much. I mean it was something which had little do with me. Of course, that ambitious side is in all people, but hers was to the degree of killing her own children. The state was very important for her, power was very important for her. That is a quality which you don’t see being so important in everyone, hence it was much more enjoyable to play her. 0:01:34
0:01:35 You are greeted very nicely wherever you go, you attract interest. That is something we are familiar with in Turkey. But you go skiing in Bulgaria and everybody behaves in a friendly way and they try to do their upmost; you go to London, my son studies there, I go to stay with him, and everyone tries to do their best. That is a lovely feeling. I thank them all. 0:02:02
0:02:03 Next year I will do a series again. Because it was the last film that I watched I can say Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in The Joker, it was a superb performance in my view. Recently the film which I liked most was the Korean production Parasite. It was a magnificent film, very nice, both very local and very universal and very surprising. It had cliché elements, the filming techniques were fantastic, the scenario was very good, the performances were very good. 0:02:34
0:02:35 We show Istanbul in a lovely light. In any case, Istanbul is a lovely place. This has made a big contribution towards tourism. People are very curious about these places where the events happen. For that reason, they carry out tours. For example, the Bosphorus mansion where Broken Pieces was filmed.