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How EastEnders star Rob Kazinsky made it in Hollywood

Former soapstar talks Pacific Rim and missing out on The Hobbit.

After a stint in Soapland, most ‘Eastenders’ stars are destined for a life of ‘Celebrity Special’ quiz shows and ‘Loose Women’ promo spots. Going to Hollywood is just never gonna happen. Except for Robert Kazinsky it did.

“I still feel like a kind of fraud and I’m gonna get found out,” laughs ‘Pacific Rim’ star Kazinsky, who played ‘Eastenders’’ Sean Slater from 2006 to 2009. “You don’t really honestly believe that you’ll be in this position, and yet here I am blessed and lucky enough…  It’s a pinch yourself moment every day.”

“I’m taking my parents to a movie premiere tonight of a Hollywood movie that I feature in. It doesn’t get better.”

Now, stop “”aww-ing” and check out the video above, exclusive to Yahoo! Movies UK.

[Kanye West takes to Twitter to praise Pacific Rim]



So how do you go from the “Oi!” riddled grime of ‘EastEnders’ to Guillermo Del Toro’s colossal monsters vs. robots epic? Not by making plans, according to Robert:

“There’s no point making plans, because they never go to plan… I’ve just wanted to be inspired. So wherever I’ve gone I’ve just sought that inspiration. And somehow, through magic I think it must be, it’s led me here.

“It was never my actual intentional plan to [go to America],” says Robert, who admits he’s “super excited” about doing press for ‘Pacific Rim’. “I did a movie called ‘Red Tails’, met a girl on it, and then moved to LA to be with her. And that was that, like two years later I was making movies.”

“It wasn’t, you know, a quick transition for sure,” he added “But it’s been slowly and by increments. There was never a plan, there was never an ambition. There was never a worded dream. Just a dream that I didn’t dare to dream coming true.”

[Is there hope for Hellboy 3?]



Rob, who recently had  stint in hit US show 'True Blood', came close to a big break before, having been cast as Fili in Peter Jackson’s on-going ‘The Hobbit’ saga. However, well into production he had to pull out for personal reasons and was replaced by New Zealand born actor Dean O’Gorman.

“I was such a fan of ‘The Hobbit’, and obviously I had to leave for personal reasons, but I mean I got to spend eight months on-set, seeing like the best things I could possibly see,” says Robert. “I’m a huge Tolkien fan. And Pete, Fran (Walsh, Jackson’s wife and producer), Philippa (Boyens, screenwriter) and everybody were so supportive and so kind to me. The film’s turned out even better than I ever thought it would.”

So, featuring in this summer’s (literally) biggest blockbuster, almost immortalised in fan-lore in ‘the Hobbit’, does Rob consider himself a real Hollywood star yet?
“No! There’s no such thing, that’s a label that other people attribute to you!” he laughs. “I’m still not rich, I’m still making no money. I’m still struggling along. But at the same time I’m just happy to be working. I might not be working tomorrow. So there’s hope that it keeps happening.”

‘Pacific Rim’ is out in the UK 12 July 2013.