Taron Egerton explains how Hollywood turned origins of Tetris into a Cold War thriller
Posted March 30, 2023 by: Admin
The new movie “Tetris” is not your typical video game adaptation. Instead of a live action-CGI adventure, the film explores the origin story of the popular strategy game with the unmistakable theme song. Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, the Dutch-born video game designer and entrepreneur who risked everything to negotiate with authorities in Soviet Russia for the rights to the world’s future block-falling obsession in the late 1980s.
“I’m doing that next,” jokes Egerton about the possibility of a live-action Tetris movie. “But yeah the movie’s called Tetris, and it’s in big bold font, so I can understand why people might think it’s more of a traditional video game movie.”
What sets “Tetris” apart is its thrilling Cold War thriller narrative. Directed by Jon S. Baird and produced by Matthew Vaughn, the film follows Rogers as he faces off against the KGB, Russian dignitaries, rival software and media companies, espionage, double-crosses, blackmail, and threats against his family. All of this is in the pursuit of scoring a lucrative deal for Nintendo and its soon-to-launch handheld Game Boy console.
The film also explores Rogers’ relationship with Alexey Pagitnov, Tetris’s original creator, played by Nikita Yefremov. “I really, really liked the character of Henk at the center of it,” says Egerton. “Just this kind of puppyish, charismatic, dogged person. So I signed up to go along for the ride.”
While the film is a work of fiction, Egerton says that most of what is depicted actually happened, aside from a car chase at the end. “The sense of jeopardy and danger at the time in terms of being behind the Iron Curtain just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and what was happening across the block at that time, I think it was a dangerous place to be. So all of it, really.”
As an actor, Egerton relates to Rogers’ hustle and determination, especially in his earliest days as a professional. “I think all actors that I’ve spoken to relate to that sense of it being a real hustle when you first start out,” he says. “But I liked that about Henk. I like the fact that he’s one of those people that no matter how many times you knock him down, he keeps getting better back up. We love people like that.”
