“Van Helsing” fans welcome actor Raresh DiMofte to the fifth and final season of the celebrated SyFy Channel series.
DiMofte’s filmography is simply exploding with projects, and one of them is playing Captain Rasto in the highly anticipated season five of “Van Helsing.” He was born in Romania and grew up playing sports. Once he discovered acting, he was hooked and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Drama. This talented actor has been seen in such hot projects as “Wu Assassins,” “The Man in The High Castle,” “The Crossing,” “Polymorphia,” and “Kingspin.” Along with the final season of “Van Helsing,” fans will see DiMofte in “Come to Daddy” with Elijah Wood, and “Swamper” where he gets the chance to play play Vladimir Dobrolyubov. Get to know Raresh DiMofte in Nerd Alert News’ exclusive interview.
Colleen Bement: Let’s dive right into “Van Helsing.” What a ride it has been for fans of this creative and cool series that is entering its final season. Two questions for you:
1.) What can you share about your character, Captain Rasto.
Raresh DiMofte: It was a real pleasure bringing to life Captain Rasto, the personal guard and confidant of Count Dalibor (Kim Coates). I can’t tell much else, but I believe it will be worth the wait. 😉
2.) Tell us about your experience on the set.
Raresh DiMofte: This was one of the best experiences I had shooting on location. My episodes were shot in Orava, Slovakia, in a beautiful ancient castle/fortress. (Right before the pandemic shut down the whole world). The location made diving into the story and building my character way easier. I enjoyed some beautiful sunsets and starry nights, we got to “play” inside eerie rooms, on squeaky floors, within moist walls, and stared at by scary old paintings. It felt like we traveled back in time.
Also, both the Canadian/American and Slovakian teams were awesome offering us a smooth “sailing” and a time to remember.
CB: What was it like to work with such amazing wardrobe and make-up artists for “Van Helsing”?
RD: I was so happy to see familiar faces whom I worked with before, in “Wu Assassins” for instance, and I immediately knew I was in good hands. It was a joy to be dressed in such an intricate costume and play with that complex make-up. Let’s just say the fans of the show will be very pleased with the result.
CB: By chance were you allowed to keep anything from the “Van Helsing” set?
RD: A lot of great memories and all the new friends I made on set. 🙂
CB: Your filmography is amazing and you have an insane amount of projects in the works! Which projects can you share with your fans?
RD: Thank you kindly. To those interested, they can see me now in “Wu Assassins” as Grisha Babinov and in “Come to Daddy” sharing the screen with Elijah Wood. Coming attractions are “Swamper” in which I play Vladimir Dobrolyubov and in “Las Fierbinti” as Locotenent Paulescu (a Romanian TV series). Meanwhile, my wife Nadia DiMofte and I are writing the pilot for a new TV show for the Romanian market, plus some other interesting projects we are working on that I cannot talk about just yet.
CB: Take your fans through a brief story about how you started out in sports, went to college, and became an actor.
RD: Well, my father Costel Dimofte was always a source of inspiration as a weightlifting athlete, then he became a very successful coach and international referee with, not kidding, hundreds of international and national medals and multiple records with his teams throughout his over 30 years of activity. As you can imagine I grew up surrounded by athletes of various sports and I practiced myself some (swimming, kayak, rugby). That life teaches you a certain discipline, routine which turned out to be very useful in my chosen career as an actor.
My love for film and TV shows was intense and still is. I used to skip school and go watch Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, or Stallone’s movies. Or I watched TV series, trying to decipher shows like David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”, “The Outer Limits” or “Tales from The Crypt”. My fascination for storytelling grew exponentially year by year until the last high school year when I had to asked myself what would be there for me and the answer came naturally, directing or acting. What do you think I chose?
CB: When you have some spare time, how do you like to spend it?
RD: With my wife and daughter, watch more films and TV shows, read a book or two. I love to travel too, however that has now become a real challenge. My favorite relaxing activity is taking photos of the world around me as I see it. You can see them on my Insta.
Written by Colleen Bement
