From Punk Rock to Hollywood and Back

Is Eugene Hütz really a libidinous, foul-mouthed punk who smells of sweat and onions, who left Ukraine for America as a refugee, and returned to Kiev years later as a rock star on tour? Or is he just some American’s idea of what an ex-Soviet rocker and bon vivant should look like, the figment of a writer’s imagination?Having not long ago finished filming for a role in the movie version of the novel “Everything is Illuminated,” Mr. Hütz was preoccupied with the riddles of performance and personality over a late lunch at Cafe Mogador in the East Village recently.“Well everybody has persona, you know? Like what am I going to say, that I don’t classify as a human person?” said Mr. Hütz, 32, who is the frontman for Gogol Bordello, a six-member band that marries the feverish fiddles and accordions of traditional Balkan and gypsy music to the frenzied guitar of punk rock.“I don’t think in my case it’s as crafted, because fortunately I didn’t have to invent a whole lot of stuff about my story,” he said. “I looked back one day and said, ‘Motherf–r, I already lived a book, you know.'”Here’s the abbreviated version: Mr. Hütz was born Yevgeny Alexandrovich Hütz-Nikolayev in the Soviet Union in 1972. In 1986, after the nuclear melt down at Chernobyl, he was taken to the relative safety of the countryside, where he became acquainted with the music and culture of Romany (Gypsy) relatives he hadn’t known he had. In the twilight years of the USSR, he showed a talent for theater and music, as well as athletics, and was tapped to train to run track for the national Olympic team. That dream collapsed along with the Soviet Union, and Mr. Hütz and his parents landed in a succession of refugee centers in Italy, Poland, and Vermont before finally landing in New York in 1999; he founded Gogol Bordello that same year. Somewhere in the translation from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, Mr. Hütz inserted an umlaut into his name, hoping that it would help people to pronounce it properly: “Hootz.” His first job in New York was as a fashion model on a runway.“I think it’s funny that it happened to me, and people think my look is some kind of fashion statement,” Mr. Hütz said, dismissively. “But everybody in my family looks like that, you know?”Among Mr. Hütz’s natural assets are a tall, limber figure, handsome gray eyes, and extraordinary self-confidence. His cultivated attributes include a thick ginger moustache extending all the way across his cheeks, a punk rocker’s reliance on four-letter expletives, and a gold tooth that glistens every time he smiles. If he weren’t already partly of Roma extraction, one might say it made him look like a Gypsy.That bit of bling, Mr. Hütz said, is a piece of costume he’s been chewing on since filming “Everything Is Illuminated” in and around Prague last summer.In the film, Mr. Hütz plays Alexander Perchov, a Ukrainian translator and tour guide who leads a young Jewish-American (played by Elijah Wood) through shtetl country while making borscht of the English language.For Mr. Hütz, it was a chance to take some time off from touring and develop his performer’s skills in a different setting. He said Liev Schreiber, the film’s director, pushed him to do much more with his role than simply play some exaggerated version of himself. In return, Mr. Hütz said, he did not always show proper respect.“There were days during the shooting when I was up for like two, three days in the row,” he said. As a consequence of drinking, revelry, and at least one night of “acrobatic sex,” Mr. Hütz sometimes showed up to the 6 o’clock call inebriated and without having memorized his lines.“This guy was such a friend to me,” said Mr. Hütz of Mr. Schreiber. “I can’t believe I still got paid.”“I guess I gotta see that film sometime to see what really happened,” he added blithely. When pressed, he admitted that he would probably go to the premiere in Los Angeles. The film is scheduled for release in August.In the meantime, Mr. Hütz is focused on Gogol Bordello. He’s been consulting with a designer on costumes for the band’s next tour and just finished recording for a new album, due out this summer. This month, Gogol Bordello will release a collection of B-sides and acoustic tracks, “East Infection” (Rubric Records).Mr. Hütz thinks being known as an actor will be fun, but he already gets his kicks performing with Gogol Bordello. And if anyone has any questions about who the real Eugene Hütz is, they can go to one of the band’s shows and hear it straight from his mouth at Irving Plaza, or Northsix in Williamsburg, or catch him deejaying at Mehanata, the Bulgarian bar on Canal Street.“Like Nietzsche was saying, why is everyone always trying to get f–ing down in the mask?” Mr. Hütz said. “The mask is the art, you know? What’s behind the mask is not nearly as interesting as what the mask is. So what the f-is your problem, guys? This is it.”

From Punk Rock to Hollywood and Back

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