For two weeks, Ran Dankar walked around with a nagging toothache, the kind of pain that makes it clear to you that there is no escape from sitting in the menacing chair with the unflattering lighting and noisy and stressful devices.
There was not a single free slot in his diary for an urgent visit to his dentist.
It's a good metaphor for what Danker has been going through in the last year, and among other things, the main reason for our meeting, which even to stick it in the diary required the work of an entire team.
Ran Danker model 2022 is the busiest artist out there.
Between performances, making music, participating in "The Next Star", modeling and fashion productions, he does not rest for a moment, but keeps the hunger in his eyes, knows gratitude and allows himself to explode on life, after many years in which he thought he would no longer experience such crazy and significant success in the field of music .
the Holy Trinity
Everything goes back to "Madhouse", the surprising pop candy that catapulted Danker to the dance floors and the playlist of thousands of weddings, continued with the gender-fluid "My New Dress", and these days also with "Queen of the Extension" - hits that explode one after the other, crazy the network and switches same as the official refresher of the year.
"I realized I can't count anymore."
Denker, photo: Or Gefen
"I admit that I couldn't have imagined the last year, actually a little more than a year because 'Madhouse' came out in March," he smiles sincerely when we meet in Jaffa, in the apartment where he lives with his partner, the director Itay Weiser, and raises his two daughters together with him as co-parents .
"All my life I've dreamed of this thing, I'm working very hard to make it come true. Beyond the fact that I was born with the mandatory name Halil," he laughs, "music was there all the time, in different forms. I started as a child studying organ at the conservatory. I didn't get to take flute lessons at home The book, because it's a pretty bad joke that Halil will play the bagpipes. I went to the Scouts as an excuse, I was bad at all the bandanas and bindings, I wouldn't come to the activities but I was in the band in the Scouts. At the age of 13 we moved from Tel Aviv to Netanya, and there I formed a rock band. We sang both covers and originals, we were the band of the guys, we didn't really perform but we studied music. I wasn't a student, I didn't go to school almost at all. I don't have 11 years of schooling, it didn't interest me.
Then came "our song". The music came later.
"Besides music, acting has always been an interest thanks to my parents (Dalit Vali Dankar; MK).
I was born in the USA to two actors who divorced when I was two and a half years old, and shortly after that my mother realized how cruel this profession was and how difficult it would be for her to manage on her own, and we returned to Israel. She found the fastest job there is - an insurance agency - but she is completely an artist In her heart. Acting was there even when I was a teenager. I studied with an acting teacher, it attracted me, but it was never the heart as much as the music, which I had reverence for. It is the sublime art."
So let's get back to the music.
After he was not accepted into a military band ("One of the examiners was Amos Ben David, who today serves as the musical director of 'The Next Star,' and the other was Idan Reichel, who played on the album with Eli Butner, and it was a great closing of the circle"), he gained publicity following "Our Song " And the joint work with Eli Butner, he left for New York for two years, came back, and tasted everything: acted in TV series, movies and theater.
Only now he finally feels that the storms and dramas are being replaced by a great acceptance, his own, and especially that of the audience.
"I had many ups and downs with music, I wasn't accepted to 'A Star Is Born', but it was really always the thing I enjoyed doing the most. I don't remember anything from my youth except that I was a very wild boy, going, going back, going to the sea, parties, and especially full of music ".
As a teenager who lived music, you could look ahead and say to yourself: in 20 years I will fill Caesarea or Amphi Shoni? releasing albums?
"I think at that time it still seemed far away to me. I had my idols: Shalom Hanoch, Aviv Gefen, the Jews, Natasha's friends, Meir Ariel, a rock and roll kid. There were posters of Jim Morrison in my room."
And now you are the king of pop.
"Rock and roll is always there in my heart, both in my performance and in the burners I open when I sing. Here too I went through upheavals. In 2007 I released an album with Eli Butner, an Eretz Israel album, most of my past from the kibbutz and his past from the kibbutz, a combination of two who want to wear T -Ripped shirt and jeans and go with the guitars, an album that I am very emotionally attached to. But after a few years I realized that I needed to go find my color in music and build myself up, after a long period of acting in movies and series. Acting was a bit like a talent that I discovered to have To me, a little bit of the genes from dad. Maybe I wanted to prove to my dad in the game that I can do it too. To tell him, 'You weren't there as a father, but I'm getting closer to you through this place.'"
How is your relationship with your father today?
"We are in a great situation. My father adores Itay, he loves him with all his heart, and also as an actor he appreciates what he does as a director. He is also the first I told him about Itay. He screamed 'Yes!'
The most delusional father," he laughs.
Let's talk about your senior year.
Your father defined you as a "seeker", and it certainly seems to have been a year of searching and finding, even if there is still a feeling that it is not the end, that more things will come.
"I like that you say it's not all the way because many times I'm told, 'There, you found it,' and then I answer that it's a way, and that I don't know if you ever find the 'thing' all the way. If we look at what happened in the last year, And we'll try to break it down, it's about the ripening of years of processes.
Danker with his father, photo: Meir Partosh
"One of the critical points in this journey is at the age of 26, when I decided one morning, in a moment of realization, that I've been having fun for several years now and I'm successful, but I lack depth to things. There are layers that I feel I'm not reaching, amidst all the noise. I guess it was also related To gender and identity and also to my art. I was a child who rode a wave of success, which was stronger than me and swept me away. I couldn't really stop it and say for a second 'pass game', I want to understand what I am as an artist and as a person, what I want to say in this life.
"At the age of 26, I saw how it could last another 15 years: running forward from series to series, from role to role, to record another hit. I'm not discounting it because it was very hard work with a lot of thought, and there were other people who made money from it all around, it's not only You, but I realized that if I don't make a complete cut and leave, it won't happen. I think it was the most important decision I've made so far in my life."
to investigate the ploidy
With this decision, Danker flew to New York in 2009, stopped recording for a second album with Butner and canceled contracts for the yes series and another profitable campaign.
"It was saying no to everything," he recalls.
"I understood the risk I was taking. People who played with me told me it was a crazy step, that you don't do such a thing at a young age and that I should worry about my future, but something in my gut made it clear to me that it was the right thing for me. It was a time when I had anxiety attacks from the stress, the mental state Mine was not warning. On his face I shone, but I was very mentally unbalanced. I felt sad, that I was walking on fumes, that I was moving from relationship to relationship and that nothing was holding me. I realized that I had to save myself. This trip was not just an artistic trip. Yes , I went to study theater and write songs, I was there for almost two years, but it was mainly an important trip because I dropped off many kindergartens there. I rented an apartment, walked around the city anonymously with a thick beard, and it was tremendous. I searched and tried to understand who I am in this world."
what did you discover
"I discovered that I am a complex person, and that I need to find out how to get a little closer to myself. I wrote dozens of songs that were a form of psychological therapy, where things about my sexuality also came up, but these songs were shelved. My hard disk was burned with all the songs, I had no backup and I realized That I don't want backup because it was too exposed, but that's what led me to insights."
In New York did you realize you were attracted to men?
"No, I think I understood that before, but I did understand that it was a part of me that I can't keep quiet, that I don't want to keep quiet. Beyond the question of 'Am I attracted to a man or a woman', I realized that I don't allow myself to live in freedom. That I'm actually a person who censors himself in what I say and in what I think. There is some demon, you can call it sexuality, or 'connection to the feminine-emotional side', that I sealed it, I got it out in art but not in my personal life, and I realized that I don't want to live like this and that I want to find out what makes me Good. I realized that I'm Floyd and that it's not dichotomous. It's not that I'm announcing 'I'm gay'. I think it might have cleared something up in my head, because something about realizing that I'm attracted to both men and women really confused me. Today less, because today I'm making a choice - I live with a man, I can also be attracted to a woman and that's fine, but I choose to live with my lover and my family."
"I discovered that I am a complex person."
Danker in the music video "My new dress", photo: Doron Barsky
After these insights occur to you, do you choose to check the root of this ploidy?
"For a long time I was unable to, I was terribly afraid that it would change my life and I didn't know what it would do to my career. How would my friends or people I grew up with look at me? All your fears float, like in a horror movie. I returned to Israel and entered a kind of self-silence, Right under the radar. I didn't share with anyone, except for one friend, and even that was small."
Sounds like a very big burden.
"It's a prison. I felt imprisoned both in my personal life and artistically, because I don't know how to engrave. Even in art, if I'm not connected to something I don't do it and if I do it I'll find the justification. I couldn't do anything because that's what occupied me from morning to Tonight. I didn't speak, I just wrote poems in the drawer."
When did the prison doors open?
"When I met Itay. Six months after I returned, a friend invited me to Avi Dangor's musical show, 'Avi the Singer.' , different and free. A few days later they invited me to stay, and that's how we connected.
"There was an immediate connection with me. I showed him songs I had written, which had hints of being interested in men. He reacted quite evenly, and later when we talked about it he told me he didn't even suspect it. I think from the first moment he felt a connection to me, but he didn't want to at all Entering such a story because then he will be this gay man who is attracted to a straight man? The most boring."
And finally it happened.
"After a while the pull was too strong, we were just looking for moments to be together. We sat on the roof of his apartment in Jaffa, and I said to him: 'What's happening to me?'
And he says to me: 'I don't know what's happening to me!', and then we both went on this whirlwind of falling in love and everything opened up."
"I don't shut up anymore"
His eyes shine when he talks about me, a present evidence of the happiness that this relationship fills him, like the family unit that the two of them built together.
They were married in a small ceremony and have been living together for a decade (with a break of a year in the middle), raising two girls from Itay's joint parents (ages 6 and a half and 12).
The shared apartment exudes "artists live here", with a music room that contains guitars and a piano, but also maintains modesty and warmth.
"All my life I thought terribly about what they would say about me. It was very important to me that they accept me: that the musicians accept me as a musician, that the actors accept me as an actor, that my father accept me as an artist. It was also very important to me in my personal life to be loved. This has led me all my life, sex Primary lack of children As soon as I met Itay I realized that I can't count anymore, it makes me lose the honest fibers that make me up.
"I looked at other artists and canceled myself because 'what do I have to say', but then I realized that I have a lot to say, only that I live in a limited way. From that moment the process of shedding shells and realizing fantasies began. I came home from the theater and told Eita that I want to make music, And when he said to me: 'Why don't you do it?', I told him: 'I don't know, I'm afraid.' I was the voice of something. I wanted to express myself in music."
Denker says that in 2005 his life underwent another change following the performance in the play "Arrested at Midnight" at Bhima.
He played the character of Hans Litten, a freedom fighter who agrees to die at the stake for his values.
On the day of the premiere, he said in an interview that he lives with a man.
"I kept saying that in rehearsals I talk about freedom and free love and I'm living a lie. Shira Banki was also murdered in those days and I became dizzy. I decided that I'm not going to keep my mouth shut anymore, I'm not going to be silenced, because such silence will probably not help prevent the next murder in the LGBT community , which has suffered years of oppression."
"There was depression."
Danker and Ili Butner, photo: Meir Partosh
From there the road to a personal album was relatively paved.
"I took diaries I had written, fragments of songs, some were on the computer, others were handwritten, and together with Noa Golandsky, who turned the texts into chants, we created the album 'Something Else', which was released in 2018. I did a show with this album: debut performance at the circus, billboards , a bit dark folky rock and roll, I was sure it would explode and that I was going to perform like crazy. The theme song goes through a playlist, there are some good reactions and from that moment - silence. I release single after single, and nothing happens. So even today I believe in the album blindly. Although Yes, I started concerts and the audience doesn't come. I do have a nucleus of several thousand people from all over the country who go with me, they were my fuel, mostly girls, many girls aged 12-17, who I was surprised that connected to the album that comes out when I'm 34 years old, living with a man and two daughters at home ".
Did it disappoint you that mostly girls come to the concerts?
"It mostly confused me. I didn't understand how it was possible that I was speaking from my age at eye level about what was happening to me and the person who met him was a different generation. I didn't understand how it happened, and every time older people would come, they would say to me, 'Wow, what a show, We'll tell our friends', but it didn't happen and slowly we started to decrease the size of the places."
And how do you deal with it?
"There was a hidden depression, but I fought, and when I fight I don't see a rain. It's a kind of survival need of an artist to say 'I do' and I really believed it. I felt indifferent from the media. I wasn't at all strong on the networks, I didn't play the game, I decided that I was doing the thing Mine, and if you asked me then what I'm going to do, I'd tell you rock and roll, because I don't care anymore."
"I thought it was the end of the world"
Danker's feeling of militancy was added to the arrival of a deadly and frightening virus, which forced the audience to shut themselves in the house, and Danker was actually filled with a spontaneous spirit.
"One day I went up to the roof and photographed the family dancing to the song 'When They Tell Me No', a song that is a little more pop of mine, although it carries a tough social and political message. I wanted to fool around a bit. I called my friends from the Bat Sheva band and asked if they wanted to dance in the music video, and they happily agreed ".
This pan show was broadcast on all kinds of websites, which led to short interviews.
"I told myself that this is probably the right direction, even though we are all at home, and I am anxious, because I am also a hypochondriac and I was sure that the disease would finish us all."
Were you worried that the cultural world would not return to action?
"I thought nothing would come back, I saw the end, I thought the end of the world was coming. I was one of those who went out with gloves, I was terribly anxious."
Danker's spontaneous act became a rolling snowball, and later changed the limited world of culture as we experienced it during the Corona period.
When the world and the hall were closed, and the audience consumed music at a zoom, Denker was the first artist to write a post in which he offered to come to homes and yards for intimate and private performances within the restrictions, which swept many other musicians, actors and artists after him, who realized that if the audience could not reach them - they would come to him.
"I really think that was the real turning point in my musical career, which came from real desperation at home, after Ethi said to me at night: 'My love, we need to bring in money.' Lives at home, before which I drank whiskey to put myself in the mood and make people happy.
"The next morning I asked my guitarist Avner (Twig; MK) if he wanted to come with guitars for two or three performances in the yards of houses.
I thought of a reasonable price, NIS 4,500, for people to join together and each pay NIS 100 or less, and within half an hour I receive an insane amount of inquiries and recruit Natalie, a good friend, to use her phone number.
A day later she already bought a phone intended for work and a regular phone.
We opened Beit Hmal."
You started what later became a phenomenon, the only way to consume music, theater and entertainment shows.
"Nobody realized how thirsty the audience was for it. We came out with it in June, and during July-August we had 30 shows every month. We got to places I hadn't heard of, we performed all over the place, sometimes we stayed to sleep because there was another show in the area the next day. The shows During the Corona period, they restored my trust in the audience, because after the first album, my heart broke a little and I thought that maybe I'm not interesting to anyone. I said to myself: 'This is probably not your time, let go'. We performed for youth, adults, people who don't speak Hebrew. I also did a festival which was only broadcast online and suddenly I had a lot of fun, this area of lightness, which I distanced myself from.
"I realized that I miss performing in a big way. In my fantasy I am Mick Jagger, I am Freddie Mercury (laughs), I run on stages, so why do I have to perform in a small way? I had enough, thank you, I understood. And I started looking for what would turn me on. At home I am I listen to Israeli indie, rock, Hila Ruh, it's not that pop wasn't there, because Dua Lipa grabbed me when she released good stuff, and David Bowie is my favorite. The pop I like is pop whose performance is different, that takes it to the extremes, and it took me a while to understand how I connects to this world."
From the movie "Open Eyes" 2009,
"I was afraid of being pathetic"
Denker thought of the producer responsible for the most recent songs and reached out to Jordi, who met with him after persuasion from Denker.
"He was busy. I sat on him because I thought there could be an interesting connection. I went to see him but on the way I said to myself 'What are you doing? What is your connection to Jordi?'
He worked with Noa Kirel, with Static and Ben-El, what's the connection? I came to a meeting, sat with him and Ron Beaton, and they ask me what I want to do. I said that the artists who influenced me were David Bowie, Depeche Mode and Robbie Williams, artists who created very pop teasers . We started a session, and within an hour I'm in a dream. It took nine hours and we made 'Madhouse.'
I felt something crazy had happened."
I'm not sure at that moment you realized how crazy it was going to be.
"Absolutely not, I didn't think I was going to get into the current scene either. The day before the single was released I sat with Itay and said: 'I hope it's not a pathetic move'. I was afraid it would be like 'Ren Danker is now doing Geordie'. It came out in March 2021, And from the embracing reactions, I realized that it touches a lot of people. What made me the happiest is that in the clip I was for the first time very free, like I'm at home. People called me and said: 'You're onto something, it's your thing.'"
Just before the release of "Madhouse" you had thoughts of retiring from the world of music.
"True. I thought I would make music for myself, record at home with my people and whoever it reaches, let it come. Within a week of the release of the single, we are already being thrown into break-ins in clubs at night, and when we go up it's a hysteria that I don't understand."
This freedom below with the song that came out later, "My New Dress".
"'My New Dress' was another challenge for me - and for the audience. It touches on things I deal with: gender, identity and freedom. I saw that the world of 'Madhouse' worked, I wanted to show more of my colors, and 'My New Dress' was a metaphor Thank you for this freedom. The audience stood up to the challenge tremendously, I expected a lot of homophobic reactions, blocking. I believed in the song and the momentum, but I didn't know how they would eat it, and I got very few such reactions.
"I perform all over the country, go up with a dress and sing 'It's not a matter of the rabbi's honor nor a matter of the judge, nor does Allah care above,' and I also have a religious audience that comes to the performances, and everyone understands the message. It connects in a strange way to the song 'Shavim' When I sing 'Svivim' it is loaded with so many things that didn't exist when it came out in 2007. 'The Dress' drove the last nail in this world, because 'Madhouse' could have remained a curiosity, but it made it clear to both me and the audience that some kind of line is formed here, which continues now with the 'Queen of Expansion'."
"What turned me on about the image of 'Queen of the Expansion' and its text is that it is a song that encourages people to go on stage and be who they are. It is of course a metaphor, like the dress.
"I don't know if many people know, but those who are close to me know that I am not an extroverted person in my everyday life, even quite shy. It is easy for me to put on the mask of the familiar person, but underneath that there is me, and this is something that concerns me - shame and embarrassment, it occupied me me all my life. In 'Queen of Expansion' I don't sing in the first person, but pass the reins to the audience. In the last two weeks, men and women come to concerts in boots, despite the heat, and I put them on stage. It's something I threw in my story as a joke, and people started taking pictures of my boots in advance Then come with it to the show, and I put them on the catwalk."
As a woman I know that boots are not comfortable. How do you go about it?
"I wear these boots at concerts, and it's amazing. It's uncomfortable, you sweat in them, but the shoe itself is comfortable. Even when I go on stage in a dress and boots, I always have a little fear that there will suddenly be a reaction, that some comment will be thrown, but this fear turns me on, arouses Me. I understand that if this is my fear I have to push it forward, because in my view I don't see it as an issue, I see it as a sign of freedom.
"You can think, so the man wears a dress. People wear tunics and galabies in the Arab world, it's a social thing, so let's open our heads. It's clear to me that boots have a feminine sign. By the way, it's a lot of fun to go up with such a boot and walk like a rascal, it's my alter ego. I put something out there that is less common every day."
Besides your freedom and celebration on the stages, is this also accompanied by the responsibility you have as a public figure, followed by a young audience?
"There used to be no responsibility in this, and I didn't think about it. Today I understand that being famous, being in prime time and releasing songs that reach a lot of people is a responsibility. It's not a didactic responsibility, I'm not an educational figure, and I don't feel I have the right to educate, but I do have a responsibility Moral that starts with my values. There are probably people who don't agree with me or who think that what I do is too permissive and that's fine, but as long as the discourse takes place I feel I'm on my mission. It's important to me to stimulate the discourse, to talk about equality. There is a lot of conservatism and fear in our society and that's why It's important to me to be in my boots and dress, precisely because I know I'm being listened to and looked at."
The representative of multi-tasking
The haploid sexuality in the sparkling music videos, the activity on social networks, the music that transmits freedom and lightness and the groundbreaking looks made him not only a phenomenon, but also, if you will, the closest thing to Harry Styles that we have.
When I ask him to find out if he has already heard of this comparison, he smiles awkwardly and admits that he has.
"I think it comes from the fact that he allows his look to be very fluid, and his songs also talk about freedom, and he does it without fear and with genius. By the way, he is knocking in the world with looks that I haven't reached yet, I don't know if they are ready here yet (laughs) ). I really think it's a compliment, because today he is a strong and good artist, and I appreciate him and his music."
And speaking of Harry Styles, Danker not only models looks like him, but also stars on television and in commercials.
When he's not making music, he's the presenter of Renoir, Cellcom and Nespresso, a judge on "The Next Star" and fits in quite easily in the multi-tasking age of the millennial generation who do everything from everything.
When I ask to find out if he isn't afraid of the show and this too, and if there is no fear of over-revealing and disgusting the audience, he admits that it crosses his mind.
"I do believe in doses, but this wave that I'm currently riding is good for me. I believe that if I or the audience is disgusted, I'll feel it. Being scattered is less stressful for me because I've always been scattered. I was once told how you can also be an actor And also a singer? To do both cinema and a festival? It's always been there. It's probably my desire and need to do many things. Regarding overexposure, we're in a period where I don't know if such a thing exists. There are so many platforms and even when I sometimes feel like I've been interviewed for a lot of places and everyone They saw me, I understand that many people were not exposed and did not see.
אז הקמפיינים והדוגמנות הם עניין כלכלי נטו?
"זה לא שיקול כלכלי נטו, אבל כן, יש שיקול כלכלי ואני לא מתבייש בו. לגבי נספרסו, אני שתיין קפה הארד קור, וגם האנשים שאני עובד מולם שם עושים לי טוב, וזרמתי על זה. סלקום מאפשרים לי כרגע להביא המון הומור. מצד אחד זה חיבור מסחרי אבל הוא בתוך עולם שנעים לי איתו, ושאני מבין מה אני נותן בו. לגבי רנואר, אופנה תמיד דיברה אלי, כיף לי נורא להצטלם ולהיראות חתיך", הוא צוחק, "זה נכון שיש הרבה דברים. אני מכה בברזל בעודו חם מהבחינה המסחרית. פעם הייתי מתבייש בזה, היום פחות. אולי בגלל שאני עובד נורא קשה ומשקיע באמנות שלי ומרגיש שיש איזון עם האמנות".
תגלית בשם איתי לוי
חרף הסוגיה השחוקה, נדמה שאין בחירה נכונה יותר מללהק אותו לשולחן השופטים ב"הכוכב הבא", כשהוא משתף פעולה גם עם הקאמבק הטלוויזיוני המדומיין עם האקסית המיתולוגית, נינט. "נורא שמחתי שפנו אלי, זו סגירת מעגל עם יואב צפיר ועם 'טדי', שלא קיבלו אותי ל'כוכב' אבל גילו אותי ב'השיר שלנו'. אני חושב ש'אקס פקטור' (שבו דנקר שפט לפני ההצטרפות ל'כוכב הבא'; מ"כ) לא תפסה מספיק כי מוזיקה היום לא מספיקה, תוכנית כזאת צריכה לשלב מוזיקה ובידור. אתה בסוף לא צופה רק כי המתמודדים מצוינים או כי השופטים מקסימים, אלא גם בזכות אסי ורותם וגם כי מצד אחד זה מוליד כוכבים ומצד שני לא לוקח את עצמו ברצינות יתרה ומכניס הומור וכיף".
והיה לך ברור שחלק מהחבילה זה גם הסיפור שיבנו מהמפגש שלך עם נינט.
"ידעתי שזה חלק מהחבילה, וזה מצחיק אותי. מובנת לי ההתעסקות בזה. היום, כשאני צופה בפרקים של 'השיר שלנו' או נתקל בהם באיזו פיצוצייה, זה נורא מתוק בעיניי, נוסטלגי ומחמם את הלב. אני יכול להסתכל עלינו מהצד ולהתמוגג. לכן אני מבין גם את העיסוק בזה היום".
אנשים מסתכלים עליכם וזה גורם להם להתרפק על מה ומי שהם היו כשצפו ב"השיר שלנו".
"בדיוק. אני חושב שדייקת את זה. זה לא אנחנו. נינט ואני מבינים את זה, אנשים נזכרים בעצמם ברגע הזה. בסופו של דבר, היינו זוג שמאוד אהב ועכשיו אנחנו פרודים שמאוד אוהבים, ואני חושב שזה גם נראה על המסך. הזמן עשה לשנינו טוב ובסך הכל המפגש בינינו יכול היה בקלות להיות מפגן קיטשי מבאס, אבל אני חושב שזה יוצא מקסים, ובמינון נכון. אז בפרק הראשון קצת הגזימו, אבל עכשיו זה כבר זורם בתוך התוכנית".
דנקר מספר שהתגלית המרכזית שלו מתוכנית הריאליטי היא איתי לוי. "אני חולה עליו, הוא גילוי מבחינתי כי לא הכרנו קודם. הוא בחור סופר אינטליגנטי, רגיש ואחד המצחיקים שפגשתי בחיי, ופגשתי המון קומיקאים. הוא הורג אותי".
כבר נתת לו טיפים לקראת הכניסה לנעליים של "קזבלן" בהבימה?
"הוא לא צריך כי הוא כבר קזבלן, הוא קזה".
"אהיה אבא מסור"
ההצלחה והזוגיות היציבה הביאו איתן גם מחשבות על הרחבת המשפחה. "אנחנו רוצים להרחיב את המשפחה ובוחנים את האופציות של פונדקאות. היום יש פונדקאות בארץ גם לגברים הומוסקסואלים וזה דבר אדיר, כי זה מוזיל את התהליך ואתה יכול ללוות את האם מקרוב. ההליך יכול להגיע לסכומים של 500-400 אלף שקלים, ובחו"ל זה כמובן יותר.
"בא לי מאוד להיות אבא, לגמרי. אני לא יודע איך נעשה את זה עם ההופעות, אבל יש לי חברות זמרות קרייריסטיות שעשו ילדים והן אמרו לי שאולי לרגע זה ירגיש כמו עצירה מתודית, אבל זה עובר ואתה ממשיך. אז חודשיים-שלושה אתה מוריד הילוך. אני משער שאהיה אבא שיחזור לעבוד מאוד מהר".
תהיה מהמשחררים או מהמודאגים?
"אני חושב שאהיה מאוד מסור, כמו שאני עם הבנות של איתי עכשיו, שפותחות לי את הלב ומרגשות אותי יותר מהכל. זה כנראה אינסטינקט שנולדתי איתו, רווחתן לפניי, לדאוג להן ולראות שהן מקבלות זרעים טובים לעולם הזה. אני חושב שככה זה יהיה עם הילד שלי, אני לא רואה הבדל גדול. אני חושב שעכשיו אני כבר מבין את האהבה הזאת שהיא בגוף. אנשים אומרים לי: 'הן לא הילדות הביולוגיות שלך', אבל אני לא חושב שזה משנה. ברגע שאתה הרבה זמן עם הדבר התמים הזה שגדל לידך בבית ומרים אליך עיניים, זו אהבה שאי אפשר לתאר אותה".
קריירה בחו"ל לא ממש מעניינת אותו, ולדבריו, "כשהסתובבתי בפסטיבלים בחו"ל זה קרץ לי כי כשאתה מגיע ורואה את השטיח האדום הכל נראה נוצץ יותר, אבל גרתי בניו יורק והבנתי שאני נורא אוהב את השפה העברית ושאני שובר שיניים באנגלית וזה התיש אותי. אני לא כותב ולא שר באנגלית, והאמת היא שאני גם לא מרגיש מחובר לזה".
לפני הפריצה הגדולה, דנקר פיתח גם קריירה קולנועית וטלוויזיונית. הוא כיכב בסרט "עיניים פקוחות" של חיים טבקמן ב־2009, שעליו קיבל מועמדות לפרס אופיר לשחקן המשנה הטוב ביותר. ב־2018 הוא כיכב בסרט "מוטלים בספק" של אלירן אליה, תפקיד שעליו היה מועמד לפרס אופיר לשחקן הראשי הטוב ביותר. ב־2020 כיכב יחד עם אביגיל הררי בסרטה של טליה לביא, "אחד בלב".
כיצד אתה תופס את העיסוק במשחק כיום?
"הרבה שנים השקעתי אנרגיה בתיאטרון, בקולנוע ובטלוויזיה והרגשתי שובע מהעולם הזה. רציתי לשים את הזרקור על המוזיקה, אבל מתחיל לדגדג לי משהו בבטן. זה עדיין לא התגבש למשהו ספציפי, אז עד שלא אתגעגע למשהו אני מעדיף לא לחזור למסך או לבמה. אני שחקן וגם על הבמה אני משחק".
"היו אוכלים אותי בתוך רגע"
ב־1 בנובמבר ניגרר לעוד מערכת בחירות עתירת יצרים וריבים. במדינה מקוטבת כמו שלנו יש אמנים רבים שלא מעיזים להשמיע דעה פוליטית מחשש שזה ישפיע על הקריירה שלהם ויתייג אותם לצד כזה או אחר במפה הפוליטית. אתה חושב שיש חשיבות וצורך לנקוט עמדה פוליטית־חברתית?
"זה לא עניין של צריכים או לא, זה עניין של רצון. אני מבין שזה שוק קטן, וכשאתה מדבר על פוליטיקה או נוקט עמדה כביכול, אתה בעצם מעצבן המון אנשים במדינה שמאוד חם בה. אנשים נדלקים מאוד מהר, גם אני כזה. אני מבין את הפחד ואת הסכנה בלהביע עמדה. אני שותף למחשבה שאמן צריך לדבר על מה שמדליק ומעורר אותו. לא הסתרתי את דעותיי הפוליטיות בעבר, יצאתי להפגנות בבלפור, האינסטגרם שלי היה מלא בזה".
יש לך מושג למי תצביע?
"לא, ונורא קשה לי להאמין לפוליטיקאים, לא משנה מאיזה צד. בנט היה הרבה מאוד זמן בצד שאני לא מצביע לו, אבל התאהבתי בו. כשהוא היה ראש ממשלה, האמנתי לו. אני לא יודע בדיוק אם הוא עשה את העבודה, אבל הרגשתי שהשיח פחות מתלהם בארץ, שיש יותר חיבור בין אנשים, אז אולי אם הוא היה מתמודד שוב הייתי מצביע לו, כי לי חשוב לחיות במדינה שהשיח בה דמוקרטי וליברלי".
אבל הוא לא מתמודד. יש מישהו אחר שאתה חושב שיכול להנהיג אותנו?
"אני משער שזה יהיה יאיר לפיד, אבל זה עוד יכול להשתנות. יצא לי לראות קצת פוליטיקאים מאחורי הקלעים כשהופעתי במקומות שונים כמו בבית הנשיא ונתקלתי באנשים שמנסים להתמקם, להיות בספוט, לעשות את הדבר הנכון, עולם שאני לא יודע עליו כלום וקצת הפחיד אותי. לא הייתי נכנס לשם בחיים, היו אוכלים אותי בתוך שנייה, אני רגיש מדי".
אין ספק שעכשיו אתה חי את החלום, ובכל זאת, יש עוד חלומות? דואט מוזיקלי עם מישהו או מישהי מיוחדים?
"שלום חנוך. מבחינתי הוא לא רק אבי הרוק הישראלי, הוא יחיד במינו ובדורו, ואם היתה לי האפשרות לעשות איתו כל דבר הייתי מאוד שמח. הוא באמת מדור הנפילים, אין כאלה".
הפופ היום נוצץ, אבל גם מואשם לא מעט ברדידות יתר ובשפה עילגת.
"In my pop, it's important for me to have something beyond. I respect and love the language and it's important for me to say something in a song that doesn't remain a curiosity or a gimmick. The 'dress' could also have been a gimmick, but it started from the thought that 'it's not the rabbi's or the judge's business,' and I realized that the message It's more important to me. Something good is happening here in pop, it's a different generation with a different performance. My generation can't be Noa Kirel, Margie or Anna Zak. I come from the worlds of rock and roll and they are from other worlds, and they go to the end, work hard. Regarding the quality of the songs, It's a different generation.
"Our big girl listens on the one hand to Nega Erez, Marina Maximilian and David Bowie and also to Anna, Noa and Margie and thinks it's great. Today we are in a different place and pop brings something colorful that we may not be able to do anymore. Within this place I am interested in bringing more layers in performance as well My theatrical. I like dressing up and changing clothes."
So go back to the theater.
"I will be back".
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