Last week, Director Armando Bo (screenwriter of Biutiful), had the opportunity to premiere his new film The Last Elvis at the Sundance Film Festival here in Park City.  It is a touching story about an Argentinian Elvis impersonator, who slowly starts to slip further and further into the mindset of the man he is impersonating. Along the way, he must reconcile his family life, with the life he experiences as in impersonator.

At first, this film may have the appearance of perpetually being a comedy, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.  What we in turn see is a touching story about a man, that while perhaps a bit insane, is an exaggerated image of that part of all us that feels the need to have our social lives guided by the superficial things in this world.  I recently got a chance to sit down with the film’s director Armando Bo, to talk about his wonderful film.

There may be some mild spoilers so if you are worried about such a thing, steer clear!

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HeyUGuys: Where did the idea for Last Elvis come from?

Armando Bo: Well I once met an Elvis impersonator while in Argentina, and I began wondering why somebody would want to take up another person’s life.  This sort of psychological side of people is an idea that has always interested me.  We feel the need to adopt the image of people we see on TV.  We choose the clothes we like because we saw them worn on somebody else, or perhaps I have curls in my hair because I like Jim Morrison.

HeyUGuys: Is that true?

Armando Bo:  I don’t know, but it sounds good!  I think it’s something that is growing, this need for normal people to base their personalities off of famous people, without ever knowing the deeper story of these famous people. They just base their life off of these superficial things.  For me these topics have always been very interesting.

HeyUGuys: When reading the description of this film, it almost appears like it may turn out to be a Comedy, but it isn’t at all is it?

Armando Bo: No.  Of course the first thing that everybody thinks about an Elvis impersonator is something funny or bizarre.  I didn’t want to want to tell that kind of story.  Of course I wanted to include a little of that, but I also wanted to force him to confront reality you know?  For me that journey of change is a very interesting one.

HeyUGuys: Where did you find the actor that played Carlos.  Did you have to audition Elvis’?

Armando Bo: It was magical because I didn’t want to do a film with a documentary aesthetic.  I wanted a really good film with a nice production, so I was trying to find a famous actor to get more money, but this just wasn’t happening.  Then one day I was walking on the street and I discovered an Elvis store, and I found the CD of an Elvis impersonator there.  So I picked it up and called him and brought him to a party to sing.  Then after seeing him perform I then invited him to be the coach of whatever actor we did find.  However we never found another actor and so I ended up doing a test with this impersonator, and the first time I saw him on camera, I just couldn’t believe I just know I had the guy.

HeyUGuys: So he did his own singing then?

Armando Bo: Yeah he has this amazing voice and that’s why I chose him as a coach, but when I saw him in front of a camera, I realized that he was an even better actor than he was singer.  It was an amazing and interesting moment.

HeyUGuys: Are impersonators really a huge thing in Argentina?  In the film you have a sort of ‘Office of Impersonators’; Does this really exist?

Armando Bo: No.  We created that world just for the film.  It was important to show that kind of reality where this guy was a winner or a star.  It was really difficult to achieve the tone of that setting because it was a fine line between keeping those scenes natural and real, or making them unrealistic.

HeyUGuys: You kind of picked the most depressing Elvis songs for this film.  Is that just because that’s what he was recording around the time in the 1970s?

Armando Bo:  In the 70s especially, I think he was almost an impersonator of himself you know?  I think that the music is a kind of journey.  You start off with some superficial nice song that shows he’s an amazing writer, but then you start to get deeper and deeper as you go along.  I don’t know if they are depressing as much as they are deep.

HeyUGuys: Did you always plan on ending the film with ‘American Trilogy’? To me that song, while lyrically hokey, has always been a very powerful one.

Armando Bo: I had always envisioned the film ending with that song because it kind of gives off the impression that Carlos is a winner you know?  It was very important that the ending of the film have that ambiguity of happiness but sadness at the same time.

HeyUGuys: At one point he says to his daughter “When you believe in something, you have to pursue it.  Those who don’t will never be happy.”  Do you think that he was actually happy in what he was doing?

Armando Bo:  Well from his perspective I think yes.  Of course Freud would probably see it differently.  He was always living in the moment and achieving exactly what he set out to achieve.

HeyUGuys: Stanislavski would probably view the character of Carlos as the perfect method actor.

Armando Bo: Yeah of course.

HeyUGuys: There is this thin line between the audience perceiving Carlos’ character as this insane person, and the audience seeing somebody they can empathize with correct?

Armando Bo: Yeah of course.

HeyUGuys: Why did you pick Elvis out of all the enigmatic Rockstars available?

Armando Bo: For me Elvis is a cliche.  There are so many impersonators of Elvis that it was interesting to show another point of view of one of these cliches.  At the end of his life he ended up singing not because it was something he wanted to do, but because there was so much pressure from the world for him to do so.

HeyUGuys: Do you think, had there been an epilogue, that Lisa and Priscilla would have been accepting of what Carlos ends up doing?

Armando Bo: That’s an interesting question.  I think they would understand but they would of course not be happy about it.  I think they would understand that in the end it was just his decision but it’s really up to the audience.

HeyUGuys: Do you have distribution yet?

Armando Bo:  We have distribution in Argentina, and almost in Latin America.  We are still looking for international so we are almost there. In the 26th of April we will show the first screening in Argentina so it’s really exciting.

HeyUGuys: Do you have anything you are working on now?

Armando Bo:  We wrote a script that I would like to do, but for now we’re just focusing on bringing the story of Carlos to audiences around the world.

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Check out a trailer for the film below!