"Now we have a long intermission": Ekaterina Guseva about new projects, unusual acting skills and the "Brigade"

- What impression did “Broken Mirror” make on you when you first saw the script?

- I saw an intrigue, an interestingly twisted unpredictable plot. You are always looking for the culprit of what is happening, you suspect the characters, try to build your own version of the development of events and ... fail, because everything is very subtle and cunningly arranged. He carried me away with this intrigue.

In general, I have not starred in detective stories of this kind for a long time. And this is not just a horror story, an adventure detective story, but also a serious family drama. Characters - with a very subtle, interesting psychological pattern. They are not flat, as is usually the case with detectives: a man with a gun, a blonde around the corner. There is a depth there.

“Did you immediately read the whole script?”

- Yes, progressively. I wanted to read only my scenes for samples, but it didn’t work out: I failed in the whole script, this story twisted me into a funnel.

- The events of the series span several decades. How did you have to transform to play your heroine in different periods of her life?

- I, apparently, have already outgrown twenty-year-old girls (laughs. - RT ). There were films where I played a woman in one role, conditionally, both twenty and forty years old. But not in this project. Here the roles of our characters in their youth were played by other actors - including relatives. The daughter of Katya Volkova was played by the daughter of her heroine, the son of Sasha Lazarev - his hero 20 years ago, and the actress Daria Beloded played “me” in her youth.

Unfortunately, we did not come across young actors, we just watched the material. They were interested in looking at us, us - at them. We constantly beg for frames to be shown to us.

- I saw a photograph, you are in front of a mirror in the surroundings of the 1970s. Then you were still asked where it is ... Is it from the movie?

- This is a photo from the shooting of the film "Lyalin House", an adaptation of the novel by Lyudmila Ulitskaya. The premiere will be next season - not earlier.

And from the set of Broken Mirror, I posted a lot of photos. The nature was of amazing beauty! This is the first time I have visited Karelia and Valaam (we didn’t take pictures there, we went on weekends with my family).

Karelia made a strong impression on me: such a cold, impregnable, proud, of extraordinary beauty amazing nature.

These are lakes, in windless hours they are mirror-like, reflecting bright white, downy cumulus clouds in the blue sky; tree roots embracing mountains with a dense net so that they do not lose stones. And elastic stones cover these stones, turning them into green pillows. Protected forests. You step on this beauty and your heart contracts: you want to hug and cry! The complete absence of mosquitoes - in August, which is surprising. And silence. And completely calm. Amazing and very beautiful. We were only there for two weeks, probably. And now it’s worth closing your eyes, and again I’m returning mentally ...

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- Still, in my opinion, part of the filming took place in Belarus.

- Yes, we shot in Nesvizh, in Nesvizh castle. This is such a mysterious place ...

In the story, my heroine is managing a small hotel, which is located in this castle. In one part of the building there really is a hotel! Honestly, it’s scary there. Legends go about this castle are different: for example, about the black widow, who was last seen in it in 2001. Around the castle there is a moat flooded with water, bridges, a forested area with centuries-old trees, ravens walk around during the day, and bats fly at night. At dusk, at the full moon, it was creepy.

“I just wanted to ask you.” In the trailer, and the title, there is a hint of mysticism ...

- Yes.

- How do you feel about such things? Believe in the supernatural?

“No, I'm not superstitious.”

- And how do you feel about signs? I know there are professional signs. For example, a fallen script ...

- I don’t attach importance to black cats or broken mirrors, but if the role falls, I sit on it before picking it up (laughs. - RT ). There is, after all, an exception.

- You had filming in the water, for another scene you had to create the appearance of a fire. Have you taken part in such technically challenging scenes?

- On underwater filming stuntmen from a cliff fell directly into the icy lake water. But Katya Volkova and Lesha Makarov were lucky, they were shot in the pool. I didn’t perform any tricks, quite calmly, without extreme, I went about this role.

We often shot on a quadrocopter. And once he flew off at the beginning of the shift - the settings went wrong. We already said goodbye to him, the producers began to calculate losses, everyone was upset. And when the shift is over, we suddenly hear: "Trrrr." Is back! And he took ten hours of material. Panoramas of Karelia.

- Wow! Did they get on the show?

- I really hope so. There the dynamics are dense, a lot of events take place, you need to think quickly. This air is necessary for the viewer to catch his breath, to rethink what he saw.

I haven’t seen the series yet. Because of this quarantine, self-isolation, the tone studio is closed, we were not even able to voice anything. I was not in Moscow at all. I had to watch a picture on one mobile phone, and record replicas on the recorder of another. In such a makeshift way, I voiced a couple of scenes and am very worried whether it has grown together or not ...

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Publication by Ekaterina Guseva. Actress. (@_ekaterinaguseva_) Aug 20, 2019 at 4:00 PDT

- In your opinion, what is more in your profession - risk or, conversely, restrictions and self-control, some kind of self-discipline?

- Well, the main thing is addiction. They will call - they will not call? Invite - not invite? Call - do not call? Approve - do not approve?

So you, say, played the role as you imagined it. And then a man comes with scissors and starts cutting. You are now dependent on him, on installation. Will they collect your role on the pasteboard, what will remain of it? Suddenly they will go to the basket of paints that are most dear to you? You don't belong to yourself anymore.

“And are you comfortable with this addiction?”

- In the cinema, I already somehow got used to this situation for many years. Now I am humble.

- Is it such that after years you look at some of your roles and think that you could play differently now, and it would turn out better?

- Since I am still a theater and film actress, I have the opportunity to do otherwise in the theater. After all, the theater is an endless path to excellence: you can change something, try, make mistakes, improve, go back to where you started, if you realized that your search has gone nowhere. In the theater, this is possible.

My first movie work was the film "Serpent Spring" by Nikolai Lebedev. Then I just graduated from a theater university, VTU named after B.V. Schukin. Then I could not hear my voice, I could not look at myself. For many years, it hurt me to see my first movie roles at all.

Gradually, I found myself on stage and realized that here it is, here you can! There is no perfection, of course, but there is a way to it. And it is possible in the theater.

- Let's talk about musicals. Why do you think there are relatively few of them in Russia? And what are the general prospects for this genre in our country?

- Now, in principle, the prospects of the theater are not clear. Some sort of natural selection has to happen. It seems to me that all the “chernukha” and the dirt will leave the theater, we will finally wash ourselves off. Because it is already impossible to bear ... In recent years, a terrible absolutely trend has appeared. Thank God, she bypassed me, but touched so many viewers.

And I think that after this difficult period (the coronavirus pandemic. -  RT ), the public will be very careful, will selectively go to the theater. People will think a hundred times where to go, to which performance and what to watch. What emotions do they want to receive? Do they want to become stronger in love, in faith for the best, so that the soul ascends, or so that a tub of slops is poured on them again?

Of course, natural selection must occur, everything that is empty, unnecessary, worthless will fall off, disappear, only the best, the most necessary, will remain. I believe in it.

If we talk about the musical theater, the musical, then this is one of the most popular genres. It is understandable, accessible to the mass, family viewer. Because music is a powerful means of expression. Not without reason many poets — let’s take the works of Vysotsky and Okudzhava — to be heard, they wrote music and sang their poems. Of course, musical theater was, is and will definitely be.

There was a period when we focused on the West, on European productions. I myself participated in such musicals and got a tremendous experience, a school. In “Sounds of Music” Maria von Trapp played, in “Beauty and the Beast” - Belle, I play Maria Magdalene in the rock opera “Jesus Christ is a superstar”. But over time, Russian productions began to appear. Not shot on patterns and translated into Russian, but ours directly, based on our literature and history, written by our authors. I am happy that I started in this genre with just such a project, the Russian musical Nord-Ost. I was lucky to play Catherine the Great in the musical “Count Orlov” and Anna in “Anna Karenina”. The music was written by composer Roman Ignatiev, the libretto was by Julius Chersanovich Kim, who very skillfully managed to put Tolstoy’s novel into poetic form.

Our performance enjoys the great love of the audience. For several seasons I walked with the already familiar customary change! The hall, like a terracotta army, after each performance applauded standing. I am a witness (laughs. - RT ). And now we have a break ... a prolonged intermission. And personally, I have a period of reflection, contemplation, accumulation.

Yes, I want to be needed, useful to people, I want to help. I understand that I am not a doctor, just an actress. But I want to bear the good and the bright. To help people recover, overcome fear and despondency, believe in something bright, good, real, in love. Believe each other again.

I want the world to change, purify itself, free itself from the unnecessary, so that aggression and cruelty go away. I want a lot, right? Dreaming, naive fool! Nothing teaches or heals us, you say. And I believe. I want it to be that way. I want to build my profession. In the theater, in the cinema, in music.

- You began to seriously engage in vocals just at the time of Nord-Ost. What other skills did you gain through cinema or theater?

- I learned to milk a cow. I learned how to control a boat: I can walk on a motor, and on oars, and I can moor. I can install fishing nets. I learned to ride a horse. Both the gallop and the lynx - mastered everything (once a trainer in show jumping played a movie). I’m not jumping over obstacles, I haven’t reached this point. But she made friends with horses.

- Do you continue to use any of these skills? Do you swim on a boat?

- I did not get a horse, and a motor boat, too. But if you need it on vacation, I can remember what cinema taught me.

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- I can’t help but ask you a couple of questions about the Brigade. At the time of filming in this series, did you expect him to be so successful?

- No, of course not. No one expected. Director - debutant. Artists, mostly young, not star. But Seryozha Bezrukov was known and loved even then, as a talented theater actor, the Moscow Art Theater, a student of Tabakov ... In the movie, this was one of his first bright roles. Therefore, no, nothing foreshadowed. We did not imagine how exactly this project will reflect the time and become a classic of the domestic television movie.

- There were a lot of discussions around the series. Including, on the subject of an overly attractive image of the protagonist. Well, the other side: the wife and acquaintances of Sasha Bely did not approve of his actions.

- It seems to me that this series mirrored the 90s. Many recognized themselves in the characters of this film. Including women who lived with criminal elements, closing their eyes, pretending not to understand what was happening. After all, the only way it was possible to save family and marriage. Just do not delve into.

Many years later, the audience will watch the "Brigade" and understand how and how the country lived, what it was like during this period, what happened to people. It will be enough to watch this series - and it will very truthfully show that reality.
But, again, he not only reflects time, but also speaks very honestly and accurately about fundamental things - friendship, love, even faith.

- And what do you think about the accusations that the series, due to the romanticization of the image of the bandit, could have a detrimental effect on the young audience?

- I do not think he influenced. Did everyone look and kill each other? Yes this is ridiculous ...

- You said that you did not read the full script of the series, you just got the pages with your scenes, and you did not go into the rest. Did your attitude to this story somehow change when you saw it on the screen?

- I realized that my intuition prompted me a very true path.

I remember these scenarios. I divided this burden in half, A4 printed sheets, and put them in two cellophane bags. It turned out five kilograms in one hand, five in the other. I just missed the rocker! I brought everything to the car from Mosfilm. On one bag, even pens, I remember, were torn ... I came home and began to tear out sheets.

I was looking for where it says "Olya", pulled out and glued myself into one big Talmud. And, as my heroine did not delve into what is happening with her beloved man, so I, the actress, without delving into all the vicissitudes of the script, focused on my role. All these shootings, disassemblies, did not concern me. It was intuitive, subconscious ... whatever, but true! It helped me a lot.

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- Tell us - what are you working on now?

- I have already mentioned the film “Lyalin House” directed by Oksana Degtyareva, which we managed to shoot. Literally in March we finished, before all the events.

Unfortunately, the filming of the full-length picture about the Russian-Caucasian war, which Anton Sivers makes - "Amanat" - has stopped. This is a historical tape with a very interesting scenario. In May, we had to have an expedition to Dagestan ...

- There is no idea when the shooting will resume?

- No. But in any case, we will shoot. It is not known with the theater what and how - it will last open. And we will work with small film crews. Nothing, all this will somehow work out. In any case, the Internet and television supply and continue to supply visual products. Another question is what to shoot - this is also important to understand!