300 PERSIAN KING GETS ROYAL TREATMENT

Lost star Rodrigo Santoro got the royal treatment portraying Xerxes, the Persian King in 300. Playing the seven foot tall golden deity on screen had its advantages off screen as well.

While all the other actors had to lug around their heavy capes, Rodrigo had the crew to do his bidding.

“I had this long velvet blue cape and my cape was kind of heavy and tight here with all that jewelry. So I’m trying to go up to the steps and walk around on the set and it was kind of hard to move around. I’m trying to be in the character so just as a joke I clap my hand and go, ‘I don’t have a helper to carry my cape,’ and this guy from the costume department just came and kneeled at me, ‘I’m your helper from now on.’ So that was my little thing on the set. I wouldn’t go there and hang out with the Spartans. Most of the time I was just trying to get into that mood and that atmosphere, hanging onto my throne and with that little friend that was carrying my cape around.”

After filming wrapped Rodrigo says he couldn’t wait to get back to his earthly routines.

“I went surfing, let my hair grow back, did a lot of yoga just to get it back because I was feeding my ego pretty much just to make it strong so I could use it. I wasn’t being the character all the time, but when I was on the set yes. When you finish you want to go away a little bit so I just wanted to do things that would ground me more and more.”

Rodrigo says filming Lost in Hawaii is the perfect place to reconnect, not to mention to practice his surfing.