Tony Hawks: I tried to show Moldovans as they are, and they are nice

{Info-Prim Neo interview with comedian and philanthropist Tony Hawks, author of the bestseller "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis"} [ – In your book, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, you spoke about a dangerous and strange country. What has changed from your first visit here? How do you find Moldova now? How was the book born?] – Now I find that Chisinau has changed a lot since I first came here in 1998. The biggest difference that I see is these big, expensive cars. It seems that this is a way of showing that people are doing well. Obviously there are many new buildings, more advertising around the place. But I think if you go in the countryside everything looks very much the same. About “Playing the Moldovans at Tennis”, I was watching England playing football with Moldova on the television with a friend of mine. I had just been playing tennis and I was still in my tennis clothing. My friend started to tell me he didn’t think I was very good at tennis and as a joke he propose me a bet. “Tony, I bet you’re not good enough to beat all these footballers at tennis”. And I said that would be impossible, because the England players would refuse to play me, because they are big stars and so on. “OK, then I bet you can't beat the entire Moldovan team”, said my friend. I genuinely believed that I can do that, so we made the bet and the loser had to strip naked in a London street and sing Moldova’s national anthem. Perfectly normal, don't you think? (chuckles) [ – In your book you spoke about sad and indifferent people that lived here. There was a clear mentality difference between you, that stranger from the West, and the Moldovan people. Has the Moldovan mentality changed since then?] – I think it has changed. But you have to know that it was very difficult for me when I wrote the book. I had to make a decision, to be honest about what I saw as a foreigner. It was difficult because I knew that some people would read this and perhaps would be offended by what I wrote. What I saw was, in general, a lot of people who had suffered under a very strict regime and I had been told to think in a certain way. People used not to wish for too much, because to wish for too much meant you’d just be disappointed. And sadly, people were ready to be disappointed. But I think the film will be much better for Moldova than the book. The viewers will see the Moldovan people and will also see my character, and then they’ll make their own decisions. In the book they only get my vision of Moldova, but in the film they get pictures, they get the people, the characters. After all, we tried to show the people as they were, and people were nice, except for one character. I really hope that we can do the world premiere in Moldova, which would be the right thing to do, maybe even at the European Film Festival (in Chisinau). [ – You wrote that you had some bad experiences in Transnistria. We assume you know about the political issues with Transnistria. How do you think these issues can be solved?] – Thank you for asking me to solve a problem in a few words that has taken 20 years for you guys to discuss. We need the people from Transnistria to pick their best table tennis players and all the Moldovans to pick their best table tennis player and have one game to decide who gets the land. To be more serious, the problem is very similar to what used to exist in Great Britain, and in the end the only solution was for people to stop seeing each other as enemies and start to become friends. You need wise and brave leaders to push things forward, but they are in short supply. [ – Round Ireland with a Fridge, this is the movie that will close the European Film Festival in Chisinau. What you can tell us about it?] – It was the first bet that I took and wrote a book about. I'll explain how this happened. The first time I went to Ireland I had a song to sing in a competition. On my way from the airport to the festival, I saw an old man by the side of the road who was hitching with a fridge. I though this was a very surreal image. I said to the driver “Did I really see that?” and he just said “Yes”, and nothing else. I thought Ireland must be an interesting place since hitching with a fridge was not seen as something weird. And then many years later I was telling the story at a dinner party (where I drank a lot of wine), and I made a bet with a friend of mine for 100 pounds, and so the adventure began. [ – We know that you are an often visitor to Moldova. Why?] – One of the reasons why I keep coming back is because with half of the royalties from the book I wrote, I started to fund a care centre, called Hippocrates. Now we are trying to build a biggest centre and any profits that we’ll make from the film “Playing the Moldovan at Tennis” will all go to this care centre. We took the film “Around Ireland with a Fridge” to a film festival in Paris and we won the audience award and they already asked to show the next film, the Moldovan film, next year. In America we are also creating some interest. I really want to tell this story around the world and I'm hoping this will be good for Moldova and for Hippocrates Centre, also. [ – About this Centre, which you founded together with the British organization Child AID. We know that the plans of building a larger center have caused negative reactions from people living in the area. Why do you think there is such a reaction?] – I heard about the problem a few weeks ago and at first I was very surprised and disappointed, but now I think I understand. Whenever there is something new and something is happening that different in a residential area, people start worrying: somebody says there will be problems with the cars, others say why do we need this after all? People talk. But now we need to go and explain to this people that there will not be any problem and this will be actually good for the area and the community. [ – Are there similar problems in Great Britain?] – I think yes, this is common. There are always people who resist or a frightened of change. But it’s important to understand the neighbors and understand their concerns and just talk with them. Now I'd love to meet them and I’m here for this purpose. [ – Which is the next bet?] – I think I’m officially in retirement from bets, but I would possibly do a third film about a book I wrote going to France. So, that’s a possibility. [Dumitriţa Ciuvaga, Info-Prim Neo]