Sorrowful Interview

Lia Akhedjakova:

Anniversary interview

Liya Akhedzhakova – People’s Artist of Russia, three times winner of the “Nika” award, one of the favorite actresses, whose theatrical and film roles are remembered from the first time – and forever.

Liya Medzhidovna, I would not like to start our conversation With a sad note, but still the first question is about the recently departed Igor Kvash. Who was he to you?

- Who was he? I'm not used to talking about it in the past tense. Igor is my friend, like-minded and eternal partner throughout his work at Sovremennik. It may sound strange, but I have never met many of our cast members on stage at all, or very rarely. And in general, in the theater “Contemporary” I did not have so many performances, but it coincided so much that Igor always played in them. You know, there is such a mutual sympathy once and for all. Of course, I knew his shortcomings and advantages, but we always understood each other, respected and valued. Igor had a young soul, in it to the end burned the fire of asceticism, characteristic of Oleg Efremov and those who created “Contemporary”. He is a citizen in the true, not the pathetic meaning of the word. Even when Igor was no longer able to come to Bolotnaya Square, he called Echo of Moscow to ask if there was anything he could do to help and recorded an amazing text in support of the rally, which was later shown. He did not want to be silent when he heard about the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the authorities. I remember calling me: “I can’t stand this bullying anymore – I want to sign a letter in defense of Aleksanyan” and immediately contacted the human rights center. Sometimes before the performances we discussed some painful, controversial things, and always agreed. There is another third person with whom we have always coincided in our views on what is happening – Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov.

- Still, from what Igor Kvasha died; on the Internet - a variety of reasons?

- He had a long-standing lung problem, but I don't know what exactly happened, because when it happened, I wasn't in Moscow.

I just came back yesterday and didn't know the details yet. I know about long-term asthma. I remember our last joint performance “Difficult People”, when Igor ran backstage with an inhaler, and when he returned he said: “This is the end” and looked at me like this.

You see, Igor is the conscience and decency of the theater, a person who lived the life of a worthy person and a great artist. For me, he is a great artist also because he was one of the best partners with whom fate brought me. He was not at all concerned with how he looked, what angle he had, how to present himself to the audience. He did not think about how to distance himself from everyone in order to "sing the main aria." Few people know how to work for a partner as he did, and this is a manifestation of not only skill, but again, decency.

– Why does politics attract artists so much?

- There are two categories of people. Some have a certain “color” of anxiety, when a person experiences everything and everyone, suffers from injustice, rooting for those who are unjustly humiliated, destroyed, kept in prison as criminals. In such people, a very strong note of compassion, it drowns out the notes of indifference. And there are people who are attracted by politics for mercantile reasons. Do you remember when you joined the party? So now it is done in order to be afloat, to get some benefit in order to remind yourself, to raise your authority. You know, proximity to power is a big weight, it gives weight in society, significance, confidence in the future.

- I can understand people who have behind them a children’s center, a theater, something that affects the life or fate of other people, although it is not clear why theaters and hospitals should depend on the will or mood of a politician. But here, for example, a well-known actor, previously abstracting himself from politics, suddenly expresses his readiness to work in the Putin campaign. Is this an application for a awakened civil position or a thoughtful step in support of its own art center and several dry cleaners? Why does the People’s Artist, the “chief wizard of the country” need this “weight”, especially at such an honorable age?

- I told you, there are people like that. For example, Nadezhda Babkin, who increases her weight due to her proximity to power.

- In my opinion, she is struggling with excess weight, and successfully.

- Well, if that's the way it is, yes. And if in another, then someone likes to be in the ruling clip or at least closer to it, and someone not only does it. leave outbut also disgusting.

- Well, let’s say that a person who, with his charisma or fame, helped gain power by a famous actor (writer, musician, sportsman) finally sat on the throne. Should at least then this artist step aside, or, on the contrary, remain in the shadow of the celestial, continuing to serve him?

- It depends on what kind of artist he is. One does not need it because, firstly, he does not need it, and secondly, any licking of power causes nausea. And others do it quietly because they like to use their friendship with that power.

- You regret to state that the time of signatories, dissidents, hard-hearted people is running out, that they are not even needed. Maybe their time is running out because the signatures do not change anything, and Khodorkovsky has been sitting and sitting, and for lying, meanness and cowardice get a promotion?

- It's leaving, but it's not gone yet. Risking their name and peace, people continue to sign letters knowing they are most likely doing so in vain.

- What's the point, then?

- And this is a sign of decency and the need to dissociate from baseness, meanness and indifference.

- Have you been asked to sign any letters or appeals contrary to personal moral principles?

- I have long distanced myself from these kinds of people and communities. No one would dare suggest that I enter the headquarters of any power-hungry man. And besides, everyone knows that I have a bad temper and they don't want to mess with me for that reason either.

- Are you saying that you are a conflicted person by nature and can say what you think?

- Oh, it is.

- What are you doing with that?

- I endure, endure, hold back—precisely because I know of my character—but at some point this spring unwinds and can no longer return to the compressed state.

- Then regret it?

- When how.

- You are not afraid to speak openly about your civic position, to criticize the powerful, but you are afraid of aliens. Is it true or is it another cost of the internet?

- It's true. Someone is afraid of ghosts, and I am aliens. It's such an eternal fear, especially when driving at night on a deserted highway. I'm also really scared of mice. When I see them, I just fall into disrepair and feel like I can go crazy with horror. Maybe it's funny to someone...

- Maybe, but not for me. It's about mice. The word itself is disgusting.

- Well, you know what I mean.

- Do you feel like living is scary?

- Yes, it does. Sometimes you don’t know if it’s better to live or not. This is because the older the person, the more sadness. And not only years add to it, but also a realistic assessment of yourself, your strengths, what has not been done and will not be done.

- But a lot has been done.

- That’s true, but life experiences are so hard that sooner or later there is inevitably a feeling of complete powerlessness. Well, diseases are added, and some old memories, when you curse yourself for what you could be in relation to your mother, how you could not feel sorry for her, how disgusting you were in your selfishness. A lot of things come to mind, and it's frustrating not being able to fix anything.

- Let's talk about your profession. There is a belief: if you stubbornly go to the goal, work, strive, then you will certainly achieve what you want. Does this apply to the acting profession?

- The acting profession requires character.

- Not talent?

- Talent, ability, desire – this is understandable. But character – first of all, and then the case, external data and of course, luck. Someone she has been accompanying since the age of twenty - and all her life, and another has not met. And it seems an interesting person, a talented actress, unlike anyone, but it did not happen: she did not revolve in the right environment, did not meet her director, did not get into a topic that would allow to open up, to prove herself. Or it happens that the youth “lit up” in the main stream, in some disgusting commercial projects, and then it turns out that the appearance is not the same, and there is no freshness, and life is lived in the wrong art. And it's late, because there's nothing going on.

- It is clear that the profession of an actor is one of the most dependent. When I watch films that are not very high quality, it seems to me that the dependence of the actor is most clearly visible in them. Explain how an artist manages to force himself to play roles that obviously contradict his taste or common sense, roles written according to incompetent or poorly staged scenarios.

- I'll explain: some people don't have to overcome themselves, because fortunately, or unfortunately, they're illegible because they don't taste. You know, like at the table, eating everything. And sometimes, the reason is quite everyday: a sick child, abandoned by her husband, you need to help parents or children, but you need to dress, in the end. No one can be judged here. It happens that there is no place to live, no human conditions, and just in order to feel human, you need to buy a house. And if at this moment you don’t get into a serious project, where you don’t have to go against your taste, upbringing and what your favorite teachers have taught, what do you do? You have to make money, not sit with your principles and wait for something. Especially knowing that the most unassuming series can provide a decent quality of life.

- Many human fates have proved that talent and success are not the same. Success often bypasses a talented person, but somehow comes to mediocrity. Have you ever helped talented people achieve well-deserved success?

- I am an actress, and my participation in the sense of career is absolutely official. Sometimes I have helped and helped young people, but in moving into the profession, not to success. And then fate.

- They say the next generation should be better than the last. What are your weaknesses and what are the advantages of a new generation?

- If we are not talking about drug addicts or criminals, then I can say a lot about the current generation. They are amazing, responsive, intelligent, energetic, and most importantly – a generation of unafraid people. They don't understand the fears of their grandmothers and mothers. And this is despite the fact that we have a lot of terrible, mentally incomprehensible things, a lot of injustice. And they calmly go to rallies and say that this is not true, this should not be so, we will not allow. And they care about other people's grief. Here, for example, students of Kirill Serebrennikov’s course, without telling anyone anything, without advertising, went as volunteers to Krymsk when this disaster happened.

And as actors, they're different. So I got into Dmitry Krymov’s play “As You Like It” based on Shakespeare’s plays and spent three weeks with this troupe on tour, first in Stratford-upon-Avon, and then in Edinburgh. I saw these guys both on vacation and at work. They earn little, but they have such dignity, such decency. Moreover, I forgot that there are actors who can do everything: drive dolls, sing jazz and classical, play tragic and comic roles equally well. These guys are respectful. I'm fine with them.

- It should be noted that the older generation rarely gives such a positive assessment of young people.

- So they've never met such wonderful guys. And I was lucky to work with them and Dima Krymov, and in the Theatre of Nations, and in our “Contemporary”.

Dmitry Krymov is the son of the legendary Anatoly Efros. The performance you are talking about received the prestigious award of the World Shakespeare Festival in September this year.

- Exactly.

- You’re in a lot of theater, so why haven’t you been on the screen for a long time?

- Apparently, cinema is a thing of the past for me, because they offer either TV shows or something that is awkward. Fortunately, as long as I don’t really need money, I can afford to refuse. What I would like to play, I have not been offered for several years.

- With all the busyness in theatrical productions, do you have time to watch any TV shows?

– Anyway, yes, but I feel that this will be followed by a continuation of the question.

That's right. Recently, Tatiana Samoilova was invited to the program Malakhov “Tonight”.

- That's the show I didn't watch, but actually, when I see Tanya in her current state, I turn off the TV; I feel sorry for her.

- So it seemed to me that the spectacle was extremely depressing: an old, sick woman who did not understand ninety percent of what she was asked and therefore answered inappropriately. At the same time, they constantly gave shots from the films “Cranes Fly” and “Anna Karenina” – apparently in order to remind about how beautiful this actress was in her youth. And the effect was the opposite - pity, awkwardness. Tell me, do actors need this kind of fame, or is it better to be remembered if not young, but at least adequate?

- Our television is always doing this. I myself have been a victim of such programs on NTV several times, and only did I not sue them. They can compile such that the actor after seeing you want to put his hands on himself. For example, they say that they invite to the anniversary program of Slava Zaitsev, and at this time on another channel they shoot another program with such a voiceover text that it is not enough to kill. That's where the libel law comes in handy, but it's just not provided for.

- Can you forgive?

- Yeah, I learned how to do that.

- What would you never forgive?

- Oh, I don't know anymore. It turns out I can forgive meanness, betrayal, and outright envy. I wonder myself.

- I can't miss the opportunity to ask a question about another TV show. Today in the news release of the First channel gave an interview with Mark Zuckerberg – the founder of the site Facebook. Perhaps the essence and tone of the questions were familiar to the Russian ear, but I was struck by that poorly concealed suspicious hatred characteristic of long Soviet times. Are you here to recruit the best Russian minds? What do you do with your website’s user database – share it with you? FBI?

It is clear that the questions were not written by the presenter, but lowered from above. But I wonder if such a hostile distrust of Americans, especially the successful and famous, is the norm in today’s Russia.

- You know, if you look at the Zuckerberg movie that my husband and I saw, it makes him look like he's literally walking on corpses and betraying his friends. If you forget about the film and judge by how this young man behaves, how he speaks and what he does, the impression is very different. Personally, I'm fascinated by the fact that at 28 you can be a millionaire who didn't steal anything, who didn't kill anyone, but achieved everything with your own brains. He behaves uninhibited, but with dignity, as a man of peace. He has no habit of shaking in front of prime ministers and presidents. He is so free and independent that he gives the prime minister of Russia, a vast country, not a bronze horse, but a T-shirt. Yeah, I admire that.

Liya Medzhidovna, since then it has become my personal tradition to ask the interlocutor about his attitude to America. You're no exception.

- I love this country. I breathe easily there, there are friendly people. I’m not saying this because I’m interviewing an American newspaper.

- I do not doubt your sincerity, because we have already found out that with your character it is impossible to deceive or flatter.

- It is. I can’t say what I like there – some customs, architecture, theaters, museums, food – just the atmosphere of this country suits me.

– Then let's hope for a quick meeting. Good luck.

- Thank you.

Interviewed by Zoe Master