- First of all, tell us about the filming of Closed Season.

What are your impressions of them?

- Filming took place from mid-August to late October in Crimea.

It's a great time in a great location.

And the main bonus was a great team, with which we are doing this is not the first project together.

Therefore, the relationship within the group, and the work were well-coordinated, everyone understood each other perfectly.

In general, when everything around is harmonious, it helps the actors to do their job without being distracted by external factors.

Plus, of course, I really liked the story itself.

Even when I was reading the script, I was hooked on a dramatic move with a virus.

And the personal story was also florid, interesting.

- And this is already your fifth joint project with Daria Poltoratskaya.

Are you so comfortable working with her?

What is she like as a director?

- With Dasha Poltoratskaya, the director of the "Closed Season" project, we really meet more than once on the set.

We have a rather funny beginning of our relationship ... When we met at the site "Don't be born beautiful", she took a dislike to me, was not happy that the artist was approved by Uvarova.

- Why?

- Because there was a joint episode in our life back in the walls of VGIK (we studied in the same period. She is at the directing department, I am at the acting department), when Dasha filmed her educational work and invited me to participate, and I refused her - and quite directly hard.

Now I don't remember how it was all - only from her words.

But at that moment I refused everything, because I respected the will of the master of the course.

For the first two years, Georgy Georgievich Taratorkin forbade us to act in films at all.

Then we had to coordinate the shooting, and we could only talk about some big films and directors.

And then we were almost never released.

Georgy Georgievich was convinced that first we need to get a profession in hand, and only then go to other directors who can break our fragile creative souls.

And there could be no talk of student work at all!

I once broke the master's covenant, starred with Ani Melikyan, and for a long time it reverberated to me ... Therefore, to all the other directors, I already said harshly: "No!"

So that it was immediately clear.

But then I either did not voice the reason for Dasha, or she did not believe it.

Because she remembered something else, a certain arrogant "No!"

from some third year student.

And when I met her at “Don't be born beautiful,” I didn't remember anything of this, but she somehow looked at me unkindly.

- But after?..

- And then, of course, in the process of work, everything fell into place.

And later there was a personal contact.

Now we are already on friendly terms.

It doesn't matter if we work together or not, communication does not stop.

In my work, it quickly became clear that we speak the same professional language.

The value system is also largely the same.

There is a feeling that now, years later, on the site we understand each other perfectly.

We understand intentions.

She still comes to me from her playback, and I can already assume what she wants.

On the other hand, there is some moral right to argue and say: "No, I see differently."

Dasha may or may not agree.

In any case, this is an open professional relationship in which there is no fear.

Sometimes on the set, excitement, the fear to offer something very much interferes - some directors do not like acting proposals.

  • © Shot from the series "Closed season" (2020)

- I know that when choosing projects, the team is important to you, history is very important.

As for the roles - what role should be in order to hook you?

- Of course, I want a role where it would be possible to reveal the hero as fully as possible: not to paint him with any one paint, with a bold stroke.

A bright episode is also not bad.

Sometimes I agree to do some micro-things, because I want to play a role of a certain quality in good people.

- What role was the most interesting and strange for you to try on?

Here, in the play "Lada, or Joy" you play a dog ...

- I remember reading Timur Kibirov's story, based on which this performance was staged, and I understand that the story is gorgeous, but I have nothing to play here!

I came to a meeting with the director Marina Brusnikina, and she said to me: "I just wanted to offer you a dog."

I don't know what my face expressed at that moment, but inside myself I was very surprised.

We have performances for children with the characters Spoon and Chamber Pot.

But for an adult, where all the other heroes are people, and you alone are a dog, this is rather strange.

And the point is not even that you need to look for some kind of external characteristics.

It's just a role without words ...

- "What can she do?"

- Yes.

If you don't play the dog physically, then what to do?

You have no text, you lack history as such.

At first I thought it was crazy, and exactly the next second I interrupted myself: this is the coolest thing when you do not understand how to be!

You are in such a minus that the task becomes as interesting and difficult as possible.

I said, “A dog?

Let's".

- And now Lada is the center of the production.

- I love such states when at the first moment you are very scared, it seems impossible to you, and the next moment you start doing something, trying to debunk the feeling of the impossible in yourself: “What if you try?”.

This moment is very reckless.

From fear, it seems to me, people sometimes turn back such cases! .. The same thing happened with the play "Rules of Conduct in Modern Society."

I was very scared and angry when I read the material.

These are all good emotions.

- What did you dislike about the Rules of Conduct?

It was a big shock for me how you learned all this, remembered it.

- By the way, learning the text is not the most difficult task.

It is difficult to make this text lively, interesting for yourself and for the audience.

I was angered by the inarticulateness of the heroine, the structure of her speech: she repeats the same thing all the time.

And I was scared at the moment when it became clear that it would be in the play.

This is an initiative from within, the case when I was not chosen, but the director Alexander Nazarov and I came to the artistic director and proposed a play.

The artistic director somehow quickly agreed.

And when they hung up the distribution ("Preparing for staging, the premiere in October ..."), I almost fainted: "Why did I get involved in this?

How scary it is.

I will disgrace myself!

I am alone, no one will help me. "

And this was only my second season in the theater.

I felt that I would sign myself a verdict if I failed.

Either you show what you are capable of, or ...

This is a big dangerous idea for me.

It was scary.

And all 16 years that I played the play, it was scary.

  • Scene from the play "Rules of Conduct in Modern Society"

  • © ramt.ru

- What projects are you currently working on?

- Recently one director called me (no last name) and said: “I would like to work with you.

Curious, what role do you dream of? "

- This is a favorite question of journalists - "What role do you dream about?"

It turns out that the directors ask him.

- This is the first time I hear this from a director for many years of theatrical activity.

And I was greatly amazed that such a question was raised precisely during this period of my life ...

He says: "Maybe you have been dreaming about something for a long time?"

I, of course, almost exploded with laughter.

I answer: “You called me at the moment when I was already rehearsing the piece I had dreamed of for a long time”.

In general, I believe that if you really want something (not on the “Oh, this is curious” level, but on some other, deep level), it comes into your life.

- You recently told that you are filming in some American project.

Everything is in place, is the shooting over?

- The shooting was in full swing - we just got a taste of how they had to be stopped due to the pandemic.

The creative group, almost in full force, could not fly home.

The shooting took place in Armenia, and the entire quarantine group was in Armenia ... I and another actor managed to fly away - it was easier to send us to Russia.

In June, the remaining scenes were filmed.

This film is shot by an American actor and director.

He also wrote the script.

This person is Armenian by nationality, but was born in America in the second or third generation of emigrants.

He knows neither the language nor the culture, but is still very interested in the roots.

So he wrote a story about a young American who wants to know the history of his family.

The script was based on the story of his grandfather, who came to America as a child - he was saved during the genocide in Armenia.

The hero grows up, goes home to find at least some traces of his family, and ends up in Soviet Armenia.

- And your mother is Armenian?

Did you also agree to this project in order to research your history?

- You are right, it was one of the main reasons to say "Yes".

It somehow warmed me that I would go to Armenia to film, and that I was again faced with a difficult task: I was playing an Armenian woman who was married to a Russian.

In the family, she speaks Russian, with her relatives in Armenian, and with the main character in English.

And now I'm worried.

I learned Armenian from the text, and spent a month studying with an Armenian actress.

My heroine does not speak English very well, but must speak Armenian well.

I tried to hone my skill, but I could not fully assess whether I achieved the result.

And the director could not track this, since he does not speak Armenian.

- But there were probably consultants on the set?

- There were.

They all clapped their hands loudly: “This is incredible!

The Armenian language is as complicated as you are ... ”.

I listened to all this, but I myself think: "The premiere will take place in Armenia, what will the locals say?"

I guess I set myself up by fantasizing about the heroine.

Her native language is Armenian, she knows Russian well - she and her husband have been living in Moscow for some time, but the accent is difficult to destroy.

Therefore, I decided to speak Russian with a touch of an Armenian accent, to change the melody of speech.

In the end, it seems to me that I drove myself into a trap.

I think critics will write that the actress does not speak any language, not even her own!

In general, there was such an experiment.

Successful or not - we'll see.

From an emotional point of view, I received a lot and managed to love the language.

- I'm very glad that you finished filming the film, despite the quarantine, and we can see the result.

But I wonder, when the pandemic began, did you have the feeling that this whole story with the "Closed Season" turned out to be in a sense prophetic?

- There was, of course, such a feeling.

It even caused such hysterical laughter a little: "Wait, wait ..."

- "... somewhere we've seen it."

- Yes.

You know, this happens when you see a dream so real that it seems as if it has already happened.

And when it then happens again in reality, you think: “How so?

I do not want".

It was rather strange to roll so quickly from virtual reality to real reality.

We finished at the end of October, and three months later, when the aftertaste had not disappeared, the dubbing had just passed - bang!

- this story flows into reality.

- What did you feel when self-isolation began?

Panic, anxiety?

Maybe, on the contrary, you were glad to slow down?

- You know, just before the filming of Closed Season, I was working on a completely frantic schedule.

Sometimes 15-17 flights a month, to all ends: Vladivostok - Moscow.

From Vladivostok to Moscow, she played a performance there, flew to the shooting in Simferopol.

There is a shift.

Filmed.

I flew to Moscow, played a play, flew to Blagoveshchensk.

Today I am shooting on the coast in Crimea, and the next series of photos on my phone is the coast in Nakhodka.

  • © Shot from the TV series "Satellites" (2015)

- The road is very exhausting.

- She's exhausting.

And in the end, at the end of the filming period, in the last two days, I still collapsed.

She fell ill and could not fly to Moscow to play the play.

Life arranged everything in such a way that it was impossible to fly further, to run.

The body said: "Now stop!"

I needed to recover in two days to complete the shooting.

On the first day I just lay in the hotel, and on the second I drove along the coast in the mode of “my own self-isolation”.

Physically, I felt very bad, but I was happy.

I realized that I needed it - a pause is not for something, but a pause for nothing.

Soon a pandemic began, during which I felt that I really needed this pause again.

With all the oppressive situation outside, inside of me, everything settled down, settled down, settled.

The unnecessary was thrown away.

I took so many bags out of my house during this period!

Self-isolation did not unsettle me, I really needed it.

I think that if this had not happened to the whole society, it would certainly have happened to me sooner or later due to the same illness.

- And you lived without a theater ...

- Since mid-March.

About six months.

- This is a record, I guess.

- Yes.

This has never happened, although I went on maternity leave twice.

- How is the theater returning to its usual course now?

The premiere of "Son" was canceled due to illness of the leading actor.

Do you manage to work as before, taking precautions?

- We have a pretty dramatic start to the season.

We went out in August, started rehearsing, and the artists fell down one by one.

Obviously, the disease was passed from one to another.

In particular, this story happened with the first premiere of the theater.

Almost the entire environment, including the director, became infected.

Precautions ... They are, of course, more for the audience.

Actors cannot follow all guidelines.

In the morning, at the rehearsals, the artists wear masks, and in the evening at the performance, the masks are removed.

And during the performance you don't have a second to think about the distance or where to rub your hands.

You are inside the story and you give yourself completely to it.

After the start of the pandemic, I managed to play only one play at the RAMT, "Fandorina".

We are talking on the phone with the actress Anya Taratorkina, with whom I am paired, and she asks how everything went: “So what, you kissed the hero of Fandorin?

Did you kiss him on the lips? "

I say yes".

She: "How could you, you have children!"

In this performance, Anya was just supposed to play.

And she says: “I thought I would talk to Misha ... and say that there will be no kiss!

In a pandemic, adjusting the scene. "

I answer: “Anh, I probably should have had a talk with you before the performance, not after.

It didn’t even occur to me that kissing someone else’s man on stage shouldn’t be another time. ”

- Nelly, at the end of our conversation I wanted to ask a question about your project “Naive?

Very".

This isn't a charity project, is it?

How did it come about?

- Yes, this is a social entrepreneurship project.

For Russia, this is still something unusual.

Initially, it was very important for us to help people with disabilities.

Then the question arose - how to help.

What exactly can I do for them?

Invite to the theater, give some impression?

It's good, yes.

What else?

Can I help them financially?

Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't.

What else can I?

Give human companionship?

Suitable.

But to be a good fairy, who sometimes, when there is time, appears ... Such one-time stories are good, necessary, but quickly become obsolete.

I have already met these guys, have already fallen in love with them.

And it turned out that among them there are very interesting original artists who cannot realize themselves.

Then I realized how to help them: organize their lives so that they see that what they like to do is in demand.

There was an idea of ​​workshops where the guys would work.

These workshops are now their outlet.

Many of our artists do not know the value of money at all, they do not feel the difference: ten rubles or one hundred, one thousand or ten thousand.

For them, money is just a piece of paper.

But they understand: "I do, and it comes back to me with such a piece of paper, and such a piece of paper makes me an adult, independent."

To some extent this is an illusion, but at the same time we see how the guys have changed during the work in the project, how confident they have become.

I am not afraid of this word - happy.

What brings happiness?

Demand.

If the business coincides with your interest and brings returns in the form of a salary and not only.

This is how I bowed in the theater, I understand if the performance went well or badly?

By the way viewers react.

So are our guys.

They read reviews - "Cool picture" and think: "How did I do it!"