Love, Antosha

The Phantom by Anton Yelchin.

Created by Anton Yelchin.

Filming.

Taping...

by Victor Yelchin.

Costumes by Anton Yelchin and Irina Yelchin.

Story writer, Anton Yelchin!

And here it goes!

Cut. Cut!

To begin with,

I just wanted to ask you a fun question.

I don't know if...

Did you go to the movies as a kid?

And if you did, were there any films or actors

that were particular favorites or influences for you?

Well, as a kid, when I went to the movies,

Arnold Schwarzenegger was probably the biggest

-influence on me. - Yeah.

Specifically, Last Action Hero

I remember seeing, and just...

being obsessed with, you know?

And then, uh, Space Jam,

definitely, was a profound influence

-when I was younger. - Yes.

Oh!

Oh, gee!

It's funny, like, that was my taste

up until I was like ten.

Then when I was like 11 and 12,

my parents started showing me, because I started working.

And they were like, "You know, if you want to do this,

we're gonna start showing you good movies,

just so you don't think Space Jam is...

Is the peak. Yeah.

Was the peak of American Cinema.

Um, so they showed me a film shot by the same DP, actually,

named Michael Chapman, who did Taxi Driver.

I swear, I swear, I'm not crazy.

And I loved it. It was like the first thing

I consciously said to my folks, like,

"I want to do this. I want to make movies."

The actor Anton Yelchin is with me.

You Are in Vancouver and you are shooting...

-yet again something? -Yeah.

Yeah. How are you in school? Good in school?

Good. All A's except in Gym.

-In Gym? -Yeah.

- -

You're a child after my own heart,

I have to say.

But your parents are athletes?

Yeah, so I think that's enough in our family.

- Yeah. -

Making their first appearance

in a professional competition,

the former stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet,

Irina Korina and Victor Yelchin from the Soviet Union.

Thirty-eight years of age, Victor,

he has a lot of experience.

These two, now married and live in Los Angeles

with their seven-month-old son.

This is the beginning of a new career for them,

and a new life.

And I was just follow

everything what he was writing about pregnancy.

I was...

extremely happy that I have a baby.

Irina Korina and Victor Yelchin

bring that music with them from the Soviet Union.

That is the theme song from a Russian movie called

A Slave of Love.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise

in the Soviet Union.

Five years ago,

no one would have said there is any anti-Semitism.

Today, there is.

...who lived in United States,

and he came back, and he said,

"When the baby would be born, we have to leave."

...men don't cry.

And actually, I didn't.

But this time, when...

It was unbelievable feeling

that I'm staying on American soil

with my baby in my hand.

And this moment will be with me, like, all my life.

That's it.

It is fascinating to me

how you arrived in this country. So...

For those who don't know the story,

tell me about your mom and dad,

and how you, how you made your way to the US of A.

My parents were successful

in the Soviet Union.

Basically, they sold everything,

uh, and came to this country not knowing a word of English,

and...

just started to work.

And, uh, and then they raised me in the San Fernando Valley,

which I dug based on family photographs,

-I was having a... a good time. -

["Break Your Television" by the Hammerheads playing]

Hi-yah!

You know, I met him... I met him in grade school.

He was just kind of like, this loud, kind of crazy kid.

Everyone knows him as, you know, like,

this infinitely creative person, and...

You know, we were just...

We were just fucking silly together.

Poor boy.

So lovely he was, too.

Alas, what time does through the ages.

We would go running around his neighborhood,

and he would always be talking about

different things that he was reading,

and different music that we were into.

One of the first people to, like, really show me Fellini.

I don't think we watched a full Fellini film together,

but we definitely watched clips.

One of the better memories that we had

was when he brought out the video camera.

["Misirlou" by Dick Dale & The Del Tones playing]

On one level, it was just two kids just being silly,

having a lot of fun.

But on another level,

there was just something that was...

It was kind of serendipitous,

but it was also just...

Anton.

The Dream, a film by Anton Yelchin.

I was very shy, but very privately animated.

What do you want me to show you?

Drama, ballet...

or...

comedy, horror...

and action?

Sort of a closer family friend of ours

suggested they take me to an acting class called

uh, Kris Kyer's Actors Workshop.

He had like a class for little kids,

and it was all, like, eight-year-olds

or nine-year-olds.

He would look down his feet for the first...

six months, I would say.

He wouldn't look up. He would get very scared.

And all we had to do was instill

uh, self-imagination, self-esteem

for the first six months,

and then a lightbulb went on.

Seventy-three years ago,

there once lived a man,

and his name was Mr. Picognius.

He was the greatest artist ever.

He painted...

Picasso sometimes even could be like him.

We did a lot of improv, like, we would do things,

like, where he would give us an assignment

to come home and make something.

And I actually enjoyed

those moments more than I did where we had to learn scenes.

And because at the time,

scenes were just lines to me, they weren't really characters,

whereas these things where I could just create stuff,

kind of like I did at home.

The policeman tells me

that he is...

That he dropped. Yes.

And to be or not to be!

So, your audition for Chuck E. Cheese,

you did an imitation of Arnold?

- Arnold, yeah. - Yeah.

But, it's, it's gotten worse.

Oh, yeah. Oh, well, that's okay.

And then they asked us to dance.

Most guys, you know, um, that are like 10, 11, and 12,

you say to them, "Okay, dance."

They just... they wanna run away.

I always dance with my mom at parties,

and in between my dad dancing with my mom

because my parents are ice skaters.

So my mom always wants me to dance with her,

so I don't say, "No!"