Bulgarian film - celebrities on Bulgaria

Bulgarian film has come a long, long way.

Many celebrities and filmakers are choosing Bulgaria as a low budget option for film shooting.

There are currently over 10 films in Bulgaria being made, with more queued in post production.

Many A list celebrities are frequenting Bulgaria on location for their movie shoots to reduce cost and take advantage of the vast landscape.

The born Bulgarian star Aziz is one of the more famous Bulgarian celebrities, along with soccer star Berbatov.

There are interviews with celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and John Cusack about filming in Bulgaria.

Only 21 years old, Scarlett Johansson has already had the opportunity to work with several legendary directors, including the Coen brothers, Woody Allen and, umm, Michael Bay.

This week she adds another to her resume with her latest project, Brian De Palma’s noir-ish crime drama, THE BLACK DAHLIA. Based on James Ellroy’s acclaimed novel, DAHLIA delves into the underworld of old-school Los Angeles , where crooked cops, studio bosses and mafiosos often mingled together behind the scenes.

Last week Johannson stopped by the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles for a press conference to promote the film. Here are some excerpts.

How deeply did you delve into this character with your director, Brian De Palma?

"We talked about the character in regards to different scenes and that kind of thing, but Brian has a real respect for the time and space that an actor needs to prepare for something. He was never overly personal about where I was getting my inspiration from or anything like that and always very supportive if I felt that I needed something more. We could be wrapping up the whole set, and I would say, “Brian, I think that I need to do that take again.” He'd be like, “All right, boys, bring everything back in.” He was really good about that, but we never went too much into depth about the character, no."

How were you able to create this character?

"Luckily I had what a lot of actors don't have which is the source, having the book. I mean, you read a script and you interpret the character's emotions through their actions and their words, but I had the perspective of Bucky's character looking in on Kay. So I really used that as the beginning source to find the character."

Was the film actually shot in Los Angeles?

"We filmed it in L.A. and we filmed it in Bulgaria as well."

What was shot in Bulgaria?

"We shot most all of the interiors there. Dante Ferretti had built the sets and he actually built the Chinatown set there. He had built the apartment there that they find. He built the interior of the house there and the boxing ring and the police station. A lot of it was just there."

What was Bulgaria like?

"Sofia is a city that at one time was a real jewel of Eastern Europe, but it has been trampled on so much throughout every war. It's been bombed. It's been taken over. It's been given up. I mean, it's really been just harassed and of course seeing remnants of the communist regime there it's interesting the kind of buildings that they have there. It's like you're almost in a time warp or a kind of broken city somehow. What's interesting also about it is that the youth there, they have a lot of very promising sort of creative outlets there. There is music and dance and art.

There are a lot of young people there who are very enthusiastic about life, and some of them are happy about joining the EU. Others are very much against it.

There is a real kind of passion there right now and so in some ways it feels very sort of forward thinking and then in other ways it's like being in a time warp. There are a lot of strange things like if you go to the markets there, there is all this Nazi paraphernalia that you can buy. It's really interesting.

It's very strange, very strange."