Betrayal: An Interview with Jack Topalian
Jack Topalian is quickly becoming one of those actors you recognize on sight even if you don’t know his name – and it’s a sight that might well make you tremble. For Topalian, this is very good.
In appearances on such shows as HBO’s Luck, Showtime’s Ray Donovan and Weeds and CBS’s NCIS: Los Angeles, Topalian’s characters are similarly sinister. He looks tough, and he fine-tunes his accent to suit the villain du jour — Russian, Italian, Arabic, or all-purpose foreign threat. You can’t be sure he’d harm you but you wouldn’t want to take a chance.
Being an in-demand heavy is a solid achievement for any actor, especially one whose career started close to mid-life. But at 46, Topalian has bigger ambitions and good reason to believe he can achieve them.
Most American audiences would probably be surprised to learn that he’s already a star. After playing lead roles in three popular Armenian TV series (Sinners, Immigrants and Los), Topalian is a celebrity with an international audience.
“These shows are shot in America but they’re transmitted globally,” he said. “If you have satellite, you could be watching me in Boston, Moscow, Toronto or Paris. I wound up in the biggest hits in Armenian history.”
That experience gave Topalian the confidence and support to tackle his most ambitious project, the feature film Betrayal. It’s a gangland thriller with hints of The Sopranos but with a twist: The gangs are Armenian and Russian, and the land is Los Angeles.
Betrayal starts fast and keeps up a steady, involving pace without detouring too deeply into the back story of the main character, Vazgen, played by Topalian.
“Too many directors get caught up in the art and forget to move the story along,” Topalian said. “In this day and age, people are moving at the speed of iPhones and computers. You have to move fast or you lose them.”
What we learn about Topalian’s character in the first few scenes is enough to carry us well into the movie: He’s a powerful Armenian-American businessman with ties to the casino industry. He has enough friends in places high and low to almost always get his way. He loves his wife and children and will do anything to protect them.
The action is touched off when Vazgen’s son, whose judgment is clouded by an ill-chosen love interest, kills a man who belongs to a Russian mob. The Russians send Vazgen a forceful message that this death must be avenged. Vazgen replies with equal force that his son’s life is not negotiable.
The clash plays out in tried-and-true gangster fashion – plenty of shootouts, car chases and a dramatic hostage ploy.
Topalian insists Betrayal is very much a collaborative effort but his imprint is all over it: He directed the film and co-wrote the script. He’s also co-producer with Valerie McCaffrey, who happens to be one of the industry’s leading Casting Directors.
His own life experience lends authenticity to the story as well as to the characters. Topalian was born in Yerevan, capital of what was then Soviet Armenia. He came to America at age 10 with his family in 1977. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, worked as model and musician and later in the construction manufacturing industry before making a mid-life career change.
“I took my sons to some auditions and every casting director would ask me if I was an actor,” he said. “After a while, I decided it couldn’t just be coincidence. So I decided to give acting a try.”
Topalian did more than just try. He studied acting at Stanford and at the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco. He got a break when producer Jason D. Morris cast him as a mob enforcer in a short film. He’s remained friends with Morris, who co-wrote Betrayal.
Betrayal’s Armenian characters appear authentic because most of the actors who play them are Armenian, including Vaz Andreas as Vazgen’s son, Michael, and Roman Mitichyan as his loyal lieutenant, Arthur. There are plenty of familiar non-Armenian faces, too, including Eric Roberts and Ric Young as other syndicate chiefs.
Adding to the realism, the toughest Russian mobster is played by genuine Russian tough guy Oleg Taktarov, former Ultimate Fighting Championship winner and one of the biggest action stars in Eastern Europe.
Like film makers whose mob characters sport Italian surnames, Topalian is prepared for criticism that he is being ethnically insensitive or even insulting.
“I’m very proud of my ethnicity, but this is a business,” he said. “I wanted to show Armenians as real people. This guy Vazgen could be living next door to you.”
Topalian remembers the equivalent of “made men” from his childhood.
“In Armenia, they were considered Robin Hood types,” he said. “My father knew them. They’d come to the house and talk politics and world affairs. One was a good chess player. They were good people who made sure the girls in the neighborhood were protected and stopped punks from doing crazy things. They were respected.”
Vazgen’s crew may not have hearts of gold, but they clearly do have hearts. The underlying story touches on serious themes of loyalty, family and responsibility.
The film’s violent resolution brings clarity to the title and delivers a final message.
“I hope it’s a story that touches people and provokes thought,” Topalian said. “I wanted it to be entertaining, but I don’t think you’ll forget about it three minutes after you leave the theater.”