Insomniac actor makes dream come true by playing 48 characters in own Gothic horror
Some actors might spend a lifetime waiting for the perfect part to come along… but not Mart Sander of Estonia. He favours a more proactive approach.
With a background in music and theatre (as well as hosting and judging on TV talent shows such as Estonia's versions of Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer), when it comes to his filmmaking, the Gothic horror aficionado is used to assuming numerous roles.
He not only writes his own screenplays, scores the music, produces, edits and directs, but from time to time he likes to appear in front of the camera too.
For his latest release – Dr Sander’s Sleep Cure (2024) – it was this latter skill that he took to superlative heights by taking on a mind-boggling 48 different parts – the most characters played by one actor in a single film.
Sander told us, when he recently visited GWR HQ, that being recognized by Guinness World Records ticks off one of his three biggest life ambitions.
(The other two outstanding goals are to win an Oscar and receive a Nobel Prize – we obviously didn’t have to ask which of these is the most meaningful to him.)
It wasn’t Sander’s original intention to take on quite so many parts in his new movie. In fact, he believed that 16 personas would be more than sufficient to claim the title, as he was under the impression that the existing record would likely be the eight characters portrayed by British acting legend Alec Guinness in the black-comedy crime caper Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
However, on doing a bit of research, he discovered that the mark to beat was much higher. Indian actor Johnson George racked up 45 character credits in the 2018 fantasy flick Aaranu Njan.
It was on discovering this that Sander had to rethink his script to find a way to massively increase his role tally, after being challenged to try and better the record.
If the same actor portraying so many different people in a movie sounds quite surreal and fantastical, then you probably won’t be surprised to hear that a significant chunk of Dr Sander’s Sleep Cure takes place within the realm of dreams and nightmares.
Many of these scenes have roots or at least elements of dreams from Sander's own fitful sleeping experiences as a lifelong insomniac.
This cerebral setting gave the Estonian creative free rein to depict a wide variety of scenarios in place and time, which obviously massively helps with a record like this.
He also revealed to GWR that he had to use most of his own wardrobe to come up with enough different costumes for the various roles!
So does he have a favourite character? “I can’t say – they’re all my children!” Sander said earnestly. “They’re all fun and quite different. I play one guy who’s celebrating his 18th birthday and another who is 80 – filters and techniques came to aid with those!
“[The film] moves through history so there is a medieval segment, a futuristic segment… I play angels and… souls in the inferno. I play a whole rainbow of characters – really it’s an actor’s dream.”
When I was small, I watched a lot of horror films [such as the Hammer series and Roger Corman films from the 60s]. In every new film I make, I'm trying to recreate the happy emotion I felt as a child watching those. If it speaks to someone else, I’m really grateful. – Mart Sander
GWR’s Managing Editor, Adam Millward, who interviewed Sander during his visit to the London office, commented: “A Hammer horror Dracula film starring Christopher Lee was one of the most-played videos in my house when growing up – even if technically I wasn’t supposed to be watching it! It was a pleasure to meet fellow horror fan Mart, though his dedication to the genre clearly goes far beyond mine.
“The amazing thing with a record like this are the virtually boundless directions it can go – the only limits truly are (fittingly, in light of the plot of Dr Sander’s Sleep Cure) the imagination of the performers and filmmakers. Unusually in this case, of course, the performer and filmmaker were the same person.
“Who knows what the future could hold for this record category? There could be someone out there who reckons they could take on 50 roles in a Western, 60 roles in a sci-fi saga or even 100 roles in a musical? One thing’s for sure, though: while Mart’s film might be all about sleep, having now met him, I can’t see him taking any competition lying down!”