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Interview: EBRU UZPEDER / ÖZLEM ÖZKAN
Photographs: SİNAN KESGİN

İlker Aksum


A magician in many roles


We know İlker Aksum because of his magnificent performances in the most popular TV series and cinema films of the last few years. With great sincerity and with the dexterity of a magician, he breathes life and soul into a variety of completely different characters. We asked him questions about the experience he acquired during his successful acting career and about his acting approach He told us about the course his life is taking.

İlker Aksum was born in Istanbul on 30 November 1971. His father, Bülent Aksum, was a military pilot. When he was little he always dreamt of flying. As a military child, he travelled from city to city, living in military bases. He carries these traces of the cities where he lived. When he started acting he discovered that he had been making a record of people and of their behaviors since he was a child. His mother, Nurten, is a very affectionate and much-loved mother, while his father is a real childhood hero. Aksum always knew that he could be whatever he wanted to be. He believes to have inherited his skill from his father. About his father he says, “If he hadn’t been a pilot, he would have been an actor.” Similarly, about himself he says, “Me too; if I hadn’t been an actor, I would have been a pilot.” He did actually try to become a pilot at one point in his life. But he couldn’t take the exam because he failed chemistry.
Television and cinema audiences, which “feel lucky they have caught the youth of a legend,” cannot get enough of him. His praises are sung on internet share sites, in magazines and blogs. The young generation discovered him first as Atakan in the children’s series Çarli, but he actually obtained stardom as Ruşen, the son-in-law who lives with his wife’s family, in the Yabancı Damat series.Later, as the kind hearted father of triplet girls and as Azrael in the film Küçük Kıyamet, he showed that he could bring to life just about any character. In his role as Lieutenant Laroş, head of occupation forces in the TV series Karayılan, he was as French as a man from Marseilles! When watching him in his role of Halim in the series Canım Ailem, one needs to remind oneself that it’s only a film, so easy is it to believe that he is really suffering for love. In his interviews he feels the need to say that he has not suffered for love, that he is actually very happy. Aksum says that the secret behind his success is that he loves what he does and that he believes equally in all the characters he plays. He believes that an actor should have the same discipline as a war pilot.

When I searched the internet for the last episode of Canım Ailem, that I missed on TV, and I watched the sentimental scene where you throw the ring, to the accompaniment of the song Yar Demedin, I was about to cry. What is the formula for such believable acting? To what degree is it technique and to what degree instinct?

İLKER AKSUM:  This is something the whole world asks. The first condition is that yes, there is something called skill and I think it’s present from birth; as in athletes or musicians… But, as always, skill isn’teverything in acting. It is also necessary to work hard on technical issues such as voice, breathing and body language. But, most important of all, you need to love your job. When I am there I believe with all my heart that I’m in love with Seyhan… because I’m in love with my job.

To believe that you are in love… isn’t this a little schizophrenic?

İLKER AKSUM: Of course it is… But the way to stop it from becoming neurosis is to stop being Halim when the scene is over. If I feel as if I am Halim off the set, then it’s not technique; it’s an unhealthy situation… I read of this in some interviews; that some people are so influenced by their roles that they reflect it in their personal lives. I am not like that. I mean, it must be difficult for them…

How do you manage to create a consistent character?

İLKER AKSUM: Maintaining consistency for the character depends greatly on the scriptwriter’s skills. Writing a script requires great intelligence. A good scriptwriter understands life very well, and has a great deal of empathy; a good scriptwriter reads a lot and is very intelligent. Whatever I do, if the scriptwriter cannot achieve that consistency, my acting will be no good… But the actor also needs to do his job within this process of course. Whatever attitude, expressions and mimicry you use in the first episode you need to maintain throughout 30 episodes. Excluding weak points in scripts, I believe that if an actor plays a character in different ways, he is not an actor.

“In international terminals I feel like a world citizen”

İlker Aksum is a good flight passenger! He finds travelling, seeing new locations and being able to experience new cultures exciting. “Wherever you go all over the world, you encounter people who are shaped by their geographical location. I too question the stereotype of cultures, especially in big cities. But a new definition of world citizen is also developing. Don’t you feel the way cultures come together in international terminals? Both people in very traditional clothes and people dressed in a western style fly together, from place to place. Sometimes I feel as if I was in a flight station designed for a Star Wars film. And then there is the group called “professionals.” It doesn’t matter at all from which part of the world they come. They are all dressed formal--or “casual,” as the business world refers to it--with their laptops; they live their lives as the “travelling professionals” of the “international terminal” country.
International terminals seem like independent islands all over the world, but it is as if they were actually connected through invisible ties. Isn’t that the spirit of terminals after all? However different people may be, here everybody feels as if they were a small member of humanity. And I feel like a “world citizen” in international terminals…” At this point we switch to the accent of the baked beans seller Halim: “Come on, get up, world citizen! Here, this is what the so-called world citizens are like! Come on, hurry up, hurry! Let’s get on the plane, find a planet and set up a colony…”
“If I work on it, I can do rap, I can do waltzes and I can do ballet… No one has to ask me “Did you study ballet?” Otherwise why should I be an actor? In what way would I be different from others? An actor should be able to imitate everything. I can learn French and become a French commander; and then Serra Yılmaz, that master of languages I greatly respect, will call me and say, “Are you from Marseilles?” That’s it!”

This is not a field where it’s easy for one to stand out. How did you achieve it?

İLKER AKSUM:  In the last 10-15 years, many people have reached significant places with their physical characteristics only. Producers tend to think that the main thing is to find good-looking boys and girls and that even if they cannot act, they will make do once they are dubbed. The dominant attitude is that television is watched, whatever the programme. There are five series a day on TV, this is a very large figure… This situation has resulted in a state of laziness for actors, producers and scriptwriters. Luckily, this situation has begun to change a little recently. Anyway, in acting, you cannot rely only on your physical appearance. A pilot who does not set his route gets lost. Ultimately, I am an average type; I am neither very handsome nor very ugly; neither very funny, nor very dramatic. Actors in my track need to have absolute concentration and a military sort of discipline; otherwise we have no chance to survive. They would gobble us up. We would end up doing very ordinary stuff. But I am a very ambitious actor. I have to be successful at what I do. It’s a characteristic I inherited from my soldier father. A pilot who is not disciplined dies. So does an actor…

When it comes to good scripts, good directors and good casts, actors are not faced with a great variety of choices. Are you lucky from this point of view?

İLKER AKSUM:  Very young actors who have to pay their bills, or fresh graduates from the conservatoire, or people who have not received any training have no such luck; they have to do whatever they get. But when you reach a certain level and a certain life standard, your major duty is to make the right choices. Just as pilots need to be equipped with the skill to make cool-headed decisions and to make rapid and correct choices…

Can your experiences in the cities where you lived because of your father’s job have influenced the characters you create?

İLKER AKSUM:  I definitely carry traces of Erzurum and Erzincan, where we lived because of my father’s job; of Kars and Sarıkamış, where I did my military service; and of Antalya, where I later worked. My brain makes a record of types of behaviors, they just emerge from somewhere in my brain. But this too has a lot to do with listening, with technique. For example, I don’t know Adana or Antep at all. To do the part I spent three days in Adana. I recorded on camera how they speak there and then I worked on it. One needs to be a “researcher” as well as an actor. You need to work on it, to find out what there is where the story takes place; how they speak, how people have been affected by their geographical location. But the truth of the matter is that you need to believe in it… When they say, “3, 2, 1,” I do my very best to become that person.



When shooting ends, how involved are you in your daily life with the characters you play?

İLKER AKSUM: A month before shooting begins I attempt to walk and to talk like the character I am going to play. But outside of the actual filming I do not act like that character. The role that forced me the most, over which I was about to lose my mind, was the French Lieutenant Laroş. But that was because I worked very hard at it. Up to now foreign roles in Turkey have always been spoken in a set way, whether French or British, everybody speaks the same. I practically learned French for this role.

Which character would you dream of playing? Is there a film, or a director, for which you would say, “I wish I could play that role?”

İLKER AKSUM: Thank God I am already playing in all of them. Just look at the last six years! But of course I would have loved to play in Aşk Filmlerinin Unutulmaz Yönetmeni (The Unforgettable Director of Love Films). And I would love to play in films by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and I would like to do one more film with the Taylan brothers. I love Çağan Irmak’s films and Yavuz Turgul’s films too. I am sure it would be splendid to work with them. But I suppose nothing would make me as happy as to work in Hababam Sınıfı.

Are there any film directors that you have been following or films that you have liked recently, or American series that you are a fan of?

İLKER AKSUM: Özcan Alper is a wonderful scriptwriter and I was enchanted with Sonbahar, the film he directed. It will sound a bit funny after Sonbahar, but there are some series of Hollywood that I am a great fan of. The last one I saw was X-Men, I love that series. The first film I ever saw was Star Wars. I was eight years old when I saw it in ’79, at the Akün Cinema in Ankara. My favourite American series in Sex and the City; the script is extraordinary, the dialogues are very cleverly written. But it’s only 45 minutes… If you extended it to 90 minutes, would anybody watch it?

Turkish male actors do not have a great reputation when it comes to dancing. In some series those scenes are almost unbearable and if you do watch them you end up feeling sorry for the actors. If a musical was in question, would you be able to dance?

İLKER AKSUM: Yes, whichever dance you want me to do, I’ll do it. Just give me a month. I’ll say it again: what matters is that you have to work on it; in a month I can become a tango dancer. If you are what they call an actor, you have to be able to use your body. Even if an actor is stunted physically… what matters is that he is not “stunted in spirit!” I am sure that Gerard Depardieu could become a tango dancer in a month. I could too. If I work on it, I can do rap, I can do waltzes and I can do ballet… No one would have to ask me “Did you study ballet?” Otherwise why should I be an actor? In what way would I be different from others? An actor should be able to imitate everything. I can learn French and become a French commander; and then Serra Yılmaz, that master of languages I greatly respect, will call me and say, “Are you from Marseilles?” That’s it!”

You had a role in the short film project by the Turkish Foundation of Assistance for the Disabled and Sports. Would you like to take part in other projects too?

İLKER AKSUM: They were shooting the short films in Emirgan, where we are shooting Canım Ailem. I was passing by and they called out to me and said, “Sit.” I suddenly found myself in the middle of this project. It was a very fun project. Then we went to its launching and we cried. Of course I would like to take part in projects like that; that I believe in, that I am convinced by.


Can you tell us about your new film project, Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz (Our Great Desperation)? As far as we know it’s an adaptation of a novel by Barış Bıçakçı… When does shooting begin?

İLKER AKSUM: That’s our project with Seyfi (Teoman). We are talking about September-October. If we can arrange my series schedule, I would like to work with Seyfi. One day Seyfi Teoman’s name will be on everyone’s lips. I believe he is a good director and a good scriptwriter… It’s a nice script about two boys and a girl. Besides it’s a very unexpected role; I may surprise people…

Do you have any objectives for the future?

İLKER AKSUM: My wife and I love animals. We dream of having a farm with cows, horses, donkeys and dogs. We too, like everybody else, have dreams like these in our lives full of the stress and tension of Istanbul. But we have city dreams too. I may want to form a theatre company that develops a following, like that of the Kenters or of the Dormens. I would like to have a theatre of the kind referred to as a superstructure. But for this you need to drop everything and concentrate on a completely different thing. Maybe one day…
  TAG: ilker-aksum    Canım-Ailem    roles-    international    terminals    short-film-    film    characters-    actors