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"I was terrified," Richelmy said. "Language is one of the
most important things for an actor, so I worked a lot to learn."
Already an established actor in Italy, Richelmy leads the origin
story of 12th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo, credited
with being one of the world's first explorers with his
documented journey through the realms of Kublai Khan's Mongolian
empire.
Richelmy, 24, discussed his experience ahead of "Marco Polo"
being released across Netflix's online streaming platform on
Friday.
Q: How do you connect with this legendary 12th century man?
A: I'm Italian. That helps a lot because back in the day,
cultural differences were more evident ... but he was cultured
and that was the first thing that amazed people from the East.
Also, I've been in all the places that Marco Polo has been,
because my stepfather was stationed in Southeast Asia, so since
I was 9, every year I'd visit Vietnam or Myanmar.
Q: How does Marco change over the series spanning five years?
A: At the beginning, he doesn't know anything. At the end, he
knows a lot of himself, and the fact that he sees two worlds and
he's raised in both worlds, it's beautiful, because they weave
parts of the two systems into him. We wanted to create the kid
who becomes the great explorer.
Q: Italy doesn't have Netflix yet, so how familiar were you with
it?
A: I didn't know what it was. The first time they told me it was
Netflix, I said "I wish it was HBO!" (laughs) And then I
realized it's much better.
Q: After doing this show, are you being drawn to Hollywood?
A: My life now is changing, and I get calls from people that
I've never met. I've been working a lot on this, and for now
it's enough. I have my work in Rome, I want to live there and I
don't want to live here.
I'm not interested in the Hollywood system. I'd like to work
here, I love the market here and the things that they do, but I
can work even from Italy. The beautiful thing for me right now
is that I have nothing to lose. That's a good place to be.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Richard
Chang)
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