The Baltic Sea country of Latvia has a population of about 1.8 million, which is similar to the population of West Virginia, making it punch well above its weight in terms of cinematic breakthroughs. Example: flowAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature 2025. Now, an emerging actor from Latvia is increasingly attracting the international spotlight and preparing to make his debut at Cannes: Karlis Arnolds Avots.
You may have seen him in the drama series Soviet jeans As the protagonist Renard, a rock and roll fan who sets up a secret underground jeans factory in a psychiatric hospital in 1979. He won the Best Actor Award in the International Section of the 2024 edition of the Mania series for this role. Or you might have caught him Januarywhich won the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival award for Best International Feature Film, sees him play an aspiring filmmaker in the capital, Riga, who finds himself embroiled in the political turmoil of the January 1991 struggle for Latvian independence.
If not, his debut at Cannes should do it. The 29-year-old drives Olya, from January Directed by Viesturs Kairišs, it will have its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes on May 21. Avots, who had the idea for the film and co-wrote it, plays legendary Latvian basketball player Uļjana “Ulya” Semjonova as she journeys from rural life and is embarrassed about her height and confused about her identity to become a basketball star. She ended up winning the USSR national championship and the European Champions Cup 15 times each, an Olympic gold medal with the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1980, and became the first non-American woman in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Avots didn’t have to look far for his subject. After all, Avots knew Ulya, and more intimately than many people. “I have known her all my life, and when I moved to Riga, she became my neighbor,” says the actor. THR. “Her story resonated with me so much, and I just realized this is my story village. Actors are always looking for stories that can disarm them emotionally. And for me, this was a place where I could be as honest as possible.
What attracted him was not the awards but the person behind them. “Before she became world champion, she became the champion of her own world,” Avots explains. “I’ve always been moved by stories about misfits, about square pegs in round holes. One of my favorite films of all time is Werner Herzog[[puzzle] Kaspar Hauser And David Lynch Elephant man. I felt like an outcast, like all of us who are too skinny, too wide, too tall or too short, or too different from the standard figure. So I can relate to Olya and I feel like the film is really universal.
At 197 centimeters, or about 6’5 inches, the actress isn’t quite as tall as Semjonova’s height of 213 centimeters, or 7 inches. But he faced a different challenge in portraying her awkward movements early in her career. “I’m quite an athletic guy,” Avots shares THR. “I can dive. So, I had to find a different rhythm and get my body closer to her. For two years, I didn’t lift any weights. That helped me get away from myself and get into character.” He points out that the fact that she was left-handed and he was right-handed also helped a little.
Playing a woman was never something he dwelled on. “I don’t think an actor acts according to his gender,” he explains. “They act with their souls.” The stars he mentions as role models come as no surprise in this context. “In recent years, I have been inspired by Sandra Holler, who is a very interesting actress to watch. Seeing Jessie Buckley in her role. Hamnet She also inspired me a lot. And Joaquin Phoenix has always been a great role model because he can get into that area where you can feel there’s no acting at all. You are thrilled and stunned for a moment by this complete honesty.
The research was equally important. Avots spoke at length with Semjonova herself and her teammates to have “the backstory ingrained in my skin” and printed photos of the basketball player in different body positions and with different facial expressions. “I just tried to reflect the images and collect these situations, states and expressions,” he asserts. “I wanted to be as authentic as possible, because I felt a huge responsibility in portraying her because she had such trust in me.”
The legendary athlete died last January, so she never got to see the movie. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” Avots says. “But I feel like what’s most important is that she knew there was a movie being made about her by someone who really loved her. She saw how my eyes lit up when I talked about her story, and how much love I wanted to tell it.”
Talk about love. Acting was not Avots’ first love. He says with a smile: “I tried to become an athlete, but I was constantly changing sports, from basketball to volleyball, from volleyball to ice skating, and I changed sports like clothes.” “I understood that this would not lead to anything. I realized that acting always starts over with any new role, and this corresponds to my desire to constantly change. With acting, that’s it.”
Avots was ready to start as a student puppet actor at the Latvian Academy of Culture when there were no places available for classical acting, but he was told he was too tall. He remembers being told, “Man, we can’t hide you” behind the puppet theater. “We can see your head the whole time.” He stuck to his dream and sat in the classroom. “I was so desperate to act, so I somehow made my way.” “I always go through windows, not doors. I am a man driven by ideas and keenly seeking something if my mind is set on it.”
The industry has taken note. In 2025, the actor was among the 10 rising European acting talents selected for the European Shooting Stars showcase at the Berlin Film Festival. Now, he’s ready for his close-up at Cannes, where he said he couldn’t sleep until 4am after he found out Olya He was chosen. “It was a dream of mine,” Avots says. THR. “I felt like it could land somewhere special. So I’m very happy.”
There is a lot ahead for the rising Latvian star. Avots is excited about the Amazon Prime Video series Blood axe from Vikings creator Michael Hirst, which is expected to be released this year and will give global audiences a chance to see it in action. What can he share about the role of Egil Skallagrimsson? “She’s a crazy person,” he says with a laugh. “It’s one of those roles that an actor wants to play, and he’s a great addition to the pantheon of anti-heroes in the history of movies and TV. He’s a Viking-type joker, a poet, an assassin, a ladies’ man and a sociopath, all at the same time. He’s a misfit, once again – an outcast.”
Avots also has a role in honeyan upcoming BBC/ZDF Cold War thriller produced by Sid Gentle Films which has been described as a prequel to its hit show. Killing Eve. He portrays the young man Konstantin, the role he played Killing Eve By Kim Bodnia.
Then there Kill Jackiea Prime Video suspense series starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Daniel Ings, is expected to premiere this year. “That experience was amazing,” Avots says. THR About shoot. “Being alongside these actors was nerve-wracking. But at the same time, I found that I could work at that level. It felt like a big, friendly community.” One of the things he had to do on set was wander around Bilbao, Spain, in 40-degree heat with a gun. “I’m an anti-hero, but with a heart,” Avots says of his role. “Playing the bad guy with a heart seems to be my cup of tea.”
In the case of his film at Cannes OlyaHowever, he slips into the role of a reality star overcoming the odds. “If you call one person weird, we’re all weird,” Avots says. THR. “Instead of pointing fingers, I think we should celebrate our differences more.”
