It also happened that we sometimes slept over at MKC, and the cleaning ladies came and covered us with blankets while we were asleep, after we had worked all night and fell asleep somewhere before dawn, says Mikic.

After completing the first year at the Faculty of Agriculture in Skopje, Aleksandar Mikic handed the index to his parents with the words: “If you want, you can continue, I’ll go to acting”. That is how Mikic decided to enroll at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, from which he graduated in 1992 in the class of Professor Dimitrie Osmanli.

Aleksandar Mikic is one of our most awarded actors. Since 1997, he has been part of the ensemble of the Macedonian National Theater, and in parallel with the thousands of plays played in the past 25 years, he has also played a number of film roles. His most recent engagement on the big screen was in the last film of the director Milcho Manchevski – “Kajmak”, where he plays the role of Karamba.

– I wanted to study horticulture and that’s why I enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture. There I realized that I would only be doing horticulture for one year out of my entire studies, and somehow it seemed like a waste of time, it didn’t seem creative to me. I imagined that we would learn to graft flowers, cross, but none of that. I stayed for one year, I made a condition for the second year, after which I decided to leave it and go into acting – recalls Mikic.

As high school students, they slept in the Youth Center while preparing a play

Although he doesn’t come from an acting or artistic family, Mikic, as a child, was involved in school plays and performances, showing an affinity for the stage. Already as a high school student, together with a group of like-minded people, they formed a theater group that they called “Chvor” (Knot) and with whom they practically lived in the then Youth Center (MKC) during the preparation of the plays. It was a theater group of young people who wrote, directed and acted in the plays themselves.

– My father was a doctor and my mother a professor of Macedonian language. I don’t come from an artistic or acting family, but still in our house since I can remember, the radio was playing 24/7.

In high school, in “Korchagin”, we had a theater group. MOT was very popular back then. We often went to performances and were a rebellious generation that wanted to express their ideas, thoughts and views of the world publicly, and somehow the theater seemed to us the most suitable place for that. At that time, MKC met us, gave us premises, told us to practice, do whatever you want – says Mikic.

With “Chvor” at one point they became so popular that they had a regular repertoire. They had plays that they played 15-20 times because the audience wanted to come and see them in the then Youth Center.

– It also happened that we sometimes slept over at MKC, and the cleaning ladies came and covered us with blankets while we were asleep, after we had worked all night and fell asleep somewhere before dawn. At that time, people also went to the cinema a lot. There was not much television. There were only two channels, and that’s it. As a child, I was very addicted to partisan films, from the partisan squadron “Boško Buha”, “Sutjeska”. They were so popular that we knew lines from the movies and used them in conversation with each other – adds Mikic.

Enrollment at Faculty of Dramatic Arts

Through the Young Open Theater (MOT), Mikic had the opportunity to see theaters from the former Yugoslavia and beyond and see how they work. He admits that he didn’t understand many shows because they were alternative, but somehow he had an urge to be a part of something like that. That’s when he started watching the plays in our theaters – Drama Theatre and MNT.

– The first time I decided to go to Faculty of Dramatic Arts’ admissions office, I called Nino Levi in order to prepare me for admissions, and that was a few days before enrollment. After Nino saw me, he said to me: “How about you get ready for next year, so you don’t spoil your impression now.” I thought a lot about whether or not to appear for that entrance exam and still decided to wait until next year. The following year, in February, I was ready with the monologue, the song that was required and an imitation, so everything was complete, and I was only missing that mandatory song that they give and you have to learn it – says Mikic.

On the eve of the enrollment, Mikic again asked for help from the actor Nino Levi, who watched his performance to see if he was ready and received confirmation that he could enroll.

– At the Faculty then, the main thing was not to say that you had acted before, that you were a tabula-rasa and that you were coming here so that they could teach you. When I was saying the monologue, and then the optional song, sometime before I started the obligatory song, Moni Damevski shouted: “I have seen him at an amateur screening in a play.” Suddenly, everything became dark before my eyes. However, it went well and then they told me: “Come on, you’re free.” I said, “Like free, and the obligatory song?” They told me: “There is no need.” And I say: “Well, there’s no need, I’ve been learning it for two months”? Then we all laughed, a nice atmosphere was created and they gave me to say two or three verses. Then I entered the second round, after which I was accepted and I continued at the Faculty – explains Mikic.

First professional experience and debut in MNT

When the famous Slovenian director Vito Taufer visited, Mikic and his colleague and friend, the actor Jordan Simonov, got the opportunity to participate in their first professional performance.

– It was our first professional experience and we received very good fees and I remember Joco and I saying to each other “wow, if we get paid this much as students, who knows what it will be like when we become professional actors”. We were very ambitious then. We were extras, and Taufer said he had never seen such ambitious extras in his life. He expanded our tasks and that’s where we fought – says Mikic.

Right after graduation, Mikic got a role in “Naroden pratenik”, directed by Dimitrij Osmanli. His debut in MNT was as a last-minute replacement in another play, while he was working on “Naroden Pratenik”.

– Then, eager for big roles, I frowned because I had such a small role. Only then did I realize that while I was dreaming of a big role, the small one would slip out of my hands. That’s when I started appreciating small roles. Because in a month, a month and a half, you have time to do something small, polish and perfect it, while others have to do something more complex. And so I started from small roles to make big characters that will be remembered. That’s how I honed my skills as an actor – explains Mikic.

“I was very afraid to act in movies“

Unlike the theater scene, where he felt comfortable, at the beginning of his career, the film for Mikic represented a great unknown that instilled fear in him. Among his first major film roles is in our most successful film “Before the Rain”.

– I was very afraid of the movie. Not from the camera, but from the process itself. Our academy was conceived that way – to prepare you only for the theater. There was no equipment or something similar to see yourself on the screen, so you could learn, correct, etc. For a theater performance, you prepare for a month, a month and a half, text, character analysis, mise-en-scène, and even after the premiere you have a chance to correct and upgrade. That’s how I thought about the film at the time, that he was going to film us now and that’s it, it will remain so forever. I played in “Macedonian Saga”, where that fear of the camera proved fatal for me. I even thought I had gambled away all my chances of a movie going forward. I was kind of out of my mind on camera, and you can’t hide that. It can be seen – adds Mikic.

Even though as a young actor, Mikic received advice to find a certain acting style that would work and use it constantly, still, he still tries to evolve as an actor and be different. Unlike the beginnings, he is no longer afraid of the film and the camera, on the contrary, he is open to any role that comes his way, as shown in his latest role in “Kajmak”.

– I like to introduce changes and I like to explore how far my limits can go. If I am given the opportunity to transform myself, why not take it? I always try to introduce something new into each character, even if it is a detail. I like it best when I play characters that are not close to me, to my character. In that way, I can be someone else on stage – concludes Mikic.

Prepared by: Nikola Petrovski

Photo: MNT