Why Bezrukov’s new lover refuses to comment on his personal life

A film in which the surnames of director Anna Matison and actor Sergei Bezrukov will appear side by side in the credits for the first time, Sergei and Anna told 7 Days magazine about their first meeting, about their trip to Baikal to film the film “Milky Way,” about the appearance of a young actress with the surname Bezrukova in Russian cinema, and also shared their plans for the future.

- Sergey, you played in Anna Matison’s film “The Milky Way” main role. How did you meet?

Bezrukov: In February of this year, my long-time friend, producer Alexey Kublitsky, with whom we worked together on the film “Vysotsky. Thank you for being alive,” he suggested reading Anna Matison’s script. I liked it, very sincere, unlike the standard ones New Year films. There was something from the auteur cinema that I always wanted to act in. But for some reason I had never been offered this before. Maybe they're afraid of me. They probably think Sergey Bezrukov, then he only stars in blockbusters. “Okay,” I said to Alexei. “Let’s meet with the director, get to know each other, and discuss.”

- Were you surprised when you found out that the scriptwriter and director was a young woman?

Bezrukov: My very first director in 1993 in the film “Nocturne for Drum and Motorcycle” was Karine Foliyants. I have no prejudices in this regard at all; I don’t think that films should be made exclusively by men.

- Does the age of the director matter?

Bezrukov: None! I starred with Alyosha Sidorov in “Brigade”. This was his first film work. It would seem that, complicated story, a gangster saga can only be completed by an experienced person who has already gone through fire and water. But Lesha is from Severodvinsk; by that time, despite his very young age, he had probably experienced a lot in life. And he made an amazing big movie. And Anya, in comparison with him then, is already an experienced director, she has several documentaries and the film “Satisfaction” with Evgeniy Grishkovets. This picture made a very strong impression on me at the time.

- Anna, did it help that Bezrukov liked your first film?

Mathison: I didn’t know whether Sergei had seen “Satisfaction” or not. Therefore, there was some uncertainty. Whatever they say, at the first meeting there is almost always some bias towards the female director. Therefore, I always prefer that they first look at my work, and then get acquainted with it in person. I remember well - on the day when Sergei made an appointment for us in Moscow Provincial Theater, the same producer Alexey Kublitsky and I were at first in other negotiations. And between these meetings, I asked Alexey to take me home to change clothes. He asked: “Why? You look good". And I just wanted to avoid attracting attention as much as possible.

In a previous interview with TN, you said that your wife surprised you for your birthday: she invited craftsmen, and they renovated your dressing room at the Provincial Theater overnight. That story happened three years ago. What other surprises have there been since then on October 18?

I can’t imagine a bigger surprise than the one I’m giving myself and my fans now! I sing with my group at the Crocus City Hall! If someone had told me a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.

- True, it looks a little like april fools prank. How did you get the idea to get into rock music?

Perhaps the filming of the film “Reserve” based on Sergei Dovlatov influenced it - it will be released this year. While vacationing in France, Anechka and I (Sergei’s wife is director Anna Matison - TN note) one evening decided to read Dovlatov aloud. Usually you read it silently and for yourself - you conduct your own dialogue with the writer. And we tried to see how convincing Dovlatov’s word would be when the artist pronounced it. Will it still remain funny and poignant, like Dovlatov’s? Anya listened and liked it. That's when the idea for a film adaptation arose. But we decided, preserving the Dovlatov spirit, to move the action to the present day, and make the hero not a writer, but a musician. Here it would have been better to ask Anya, but I think they decided to do it this way, because showing a writer’s inspiration in film is much more difficult than the inspiration of, say, a musician. After all, cinema is a visual art. My hero became a rock musician, and I think this just added to the image modern sound. And the hero was named not Boris, as in the book, but Kostya: Anya believes that the name Borya does not really suit him. Naturally, we approved the script from the heirs of the work of Sergei Donatovich Dovlatov - everything is legal with us.

With his wife Anna Matison (2018). Photo: Timur Artamonov

While filming, did you listen to a lot of rock to tune in to the right wavelength? Have you talked to musicians to perhaps borrow some traits?

I always listen to rock, regardless of whether it sounds in a film or a play where I play. One of my favorite bands is Muse. Regarding the musicians, I know Yura Shevchuk, Slava Butusov, Volodya Shakhrin, and Lenya Agutin, who, by the way, starred in our “Reserve”. I know a lot of people, but I haven’t played anyone in particular, Kostya is a completely fictitious character. Like the ballet dancer Alexey Temnikov, whom I played in another Anya film - “After You”. Everyone thought that I played another historical character, but in fact Alexey Temnikov was invented from start to finish. Everyone is also trying to look for analogies with Kostya, to compare him with one of the rockers, but in fact this is Dovlatov’s hero, only not the writer Boris, but the musician Kostya. And besides their names and occupations, they have everything in common: creative unfulfillment for ten years, depression, family problems - his wife is leaving for Canada, and a great desire to start all over again...

With Leonid Agutin on the set of the film “Reserve” (2018). Photo: instagram.com

-Have you learned to play the electric guitar?

I had to relearn it a little. I have a classic hand position, I'm done music school in guitar class, but I have a six-string guitar, and an electric guitar is different. This was my first time playing with a pick. Of course, playing the electric guitar is an incomparable pleasure. The instrument is loud, but you can turn it on so that only you can hear it with headphones. I often played like this at home without disturbing others.

So you liked playing a new instrument - and from this it was one step to creating your own group?

I don’t know what prompted this step. Maybe it really is a role. Maybe I just tried to sing one thing, then another, and that’s how I ended up with rock. These were mainly, of course, songs for films and performances. I have a play “Hooligan. Confession” - in it I sing my songs based on Yesenin’s poems. There is a play “Vysotsky. The Birth of a Legend” - there is a whole block in the finale where I sing Vysotsky’s songs in a rock arrangement, and it sounds quite convincing. So I tried myself a little in this area, searched for my timbre, tested my vocal abilities for the ability to strain - and in the end I became so bold that I decided to record songs not for performances! He put together a group, called it “The Godfather”...

I remember one heroine of your and our beloved Dovlatov, who asked what the name of the river was. They answered her that it was Neva, and she was surprised: “Neva? What suddenly? So, “The Godfather”? What suddenly?

I won't say this secret information! But I can say that my musicians are really wonderful, good groups play and tour all over the world. We released three singles in the summer, the first - “Not about us” - was released on June 1, on the same day it entered the Russian “Top 5” of music iTunes chart, and then entered the European “Top 100”! Next was the song “What Planet Are We From”, and now they have released “Hard Day”, which opens my first solo album. They are also popular, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube!

It must be so great to rejoice at the first achievements in a new business! After all, as an actor you achieved success very early - at the age of 23 you became a laureate State Prize, at 35 years old - People's Artist. What other awards can surprise you in this area? But with rock music it’s different: you excitedly monitor the number of views on YouTube, like a 20-year-old student, although you are soon 45 years old.

Yes, 45 - so what? I look, for example, at U2 - they are elderly people, I am a boy compared to them, but they perform so powerfully. Robbie Williams is my age, and he brings such drive from the stage! I am in no way comparing our achievements. I'm just saying that in rock there is no age as such. If you have an inner fire, no matter how old you are, you can play rock.

Anna wasn’t surprised by this turn of events? After all, she married an actor and artistic director of the theater...

She was the first to see a rock musician in me! She gave me a role in “The Reserve” - she believed that I could play this. She saw how I sing and exist in a song on stage, and said: “You have the makings! You are an absolute rock musician in your behavior, in your voice - you just need to develop it.” And I gradually, step by step, began to move in this direction. By the way, she gave me an electric guitar when we were filming “Reserve” - I just worked with it. Of course, I had an understudy: to become an electric guitarist, you still have to work and work. But I studied all the scores so that both at the intermediate level and at the close-up it was like I was playing by myself.

Still from the film “Reserve” (2018). Photo: Press service of the Sergei Bezrukov Film Company

- Didn’t you want to become a rocker in your youth? Many guys dream of this, but you have been passionate about theater since childhood.

Of course, I sang songs by the groups “Nautilus Pompilius” and “Kino”! And there was one fantasy about the rocker, which is funny to remember now. At school on last call We staged in the assembly hall what is called a skit in the theater. In it we presented our alumni meeting ten years later. Then it seemed that in these ten years will pass life and we will already be old people. One decided that he would become a professor, another - a physicist, a third - a coach, someone even imagined himself artistic director theater But, imagine, I didn’t dream about the theater then. I came out looking like a rock star who had just returned from a tour of America. I arrived at the meeting a little late, so tired and a little arrogant. The whole school greeted me, but I hardly recognized anyone. He sang a song and said: “Sorry, I can’t stay, I have work to do.” Parodied an artist infected with star fever. Everyone laughed heartily, and who would have imagined that I would one day really touch this direction!

True, at 17 years old, 27 already seems like deep maturity. At that age, you had thoughts: I’m already so old, but I haven’t achieved anything yet! “But it’s sad to think that youth was given to us in vain”?

This was not the case, but I always thought that I worked too little. It seemed to me that I didn’t have time to do much. Although the volume was always colossal, it seemed to me that much more needed to be done! This is the impatience of the heart - I wanted everything at once, a lot, now! But this is typical for all young people gambling people. And over time, I realized that everything happens for a reason and the timing when something happens to you is also not accidental - it just means that your path is exactly like this.

- Can you believe that it’s already 45? How much is in the shower?

That’s right - 45. This is already maturity, when a lot has been passed, a lot has already been experienced, but at the same time there is a wonderful spiritual drive. I am truly absolutely happy now. I have a feeling that now everything is the way I wanted. There is a job, a home, a family and a great desire to create. I don't stop - this is also one of the very important points. If at 45 you still have a lot of plans ahead of you and you have not yet fully realized yourself, this is a big plus. Life is still interesting to me.

- Now you will have a huge concert at Crocus. Have there been birthdays when you ran away from everyone?

Perhaps it wasn’t, although every time my family and friends insist that I should stop working on my own birthday! It always seemed to me that either filming or solo concert, or - for the last five years - a solo one-man show “Life. Theater. Movie". And this time I have a solo concert again! But I gave my word that next year I will definitely not work on October 18, but will relax with my family. And if I do a concert, a one-man show or anything else, I won’t go on stage and rock it right on that day. But I’ll light it up brightly and work my ass off, because I don’t know how to do otherwise.

“Crazy Birthday” Sergei Bezrukov and the group “Godfather” October 18 at 20:00 | KZ "Crocus City Hall"

Sergey Bezrukov

Family: wife - Anna Matison, director; daughter - Maria (2 years old)

Education: graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School

Career: since 1994 he served in O. Tabakov’s “Tabakerka” theater, in 1995 he became a laureate of the Moscow Debuts theater award, in 1996 - the “Chaika” award and the State Prize, in 1997 - the Moscow City Hall award and the “Idol” award " He starred in films and TV series: “Brigade”, “Azazel”, “Plot”, “Reserve”, etc. In 2014 he became artistic director of the Moscow Provincial Theater

Write it like this: I just found my director - that’s all. It happens that an actor lives his whole life and, unfortunately, never finds him. That’s what happened to me at the age of 42... Moreover, Anya is not just a director, she is also a screenwriter - she combines everything! An amazing sense of proportion, taste and an absolute sense of truth.

The new joint film was not just magic, connecting the creative and personal paths of Anna and Sergei, it also revealed their attitude to divorce and to love in general. As Mathieson admitted, sometimes divorce is what is needed to save a relationship and not traumatize children, if any. But Bezrukov expressed a slightly different point of view, especially.

I'll just keep quiet here. Because everyone has their own experience. It's different for everyone. Our picture is about finding happiness. Whether it will work out or not. Everyone wants love. Someone, it turns out, has it. And for some, it happens that they no longer have it. And then we need to look for it. The film is really about finding love. And for everyone, I think, there will be their own answer in this picture.

And if, without hiding herself behind seven locks, then Anna Matison admitted that for her relationships are purely personal, which in no case is brought into the public sphere. The director hopes that fans will be interested in her work first and foremost, and not in her personal life.

Irina Bezrukova: “I found the strength to forgive. And let go...”

Actress Irina Bezrukova told HELLO! about the loss of his son, separation from Sergei Bezrukov and a new round of life - with clean slate. About how this conversation became possible, we already written. The time has come to introduce the interview itself.

Irina Bezrukova in a photo shoot for HELLO!

This year became a year of losses for her - life offered Irina tests that not everyone can withstand. She endured. And she returned to work in the theater, acted in films, and released her own television program. The actress speaks for the first time about the changes and events of recent times, with the hope that her words can help people who are faced with losses. interview HELLO!

Last summer, Irina Bezrukova’s television program “Conversation on Stage” started on the Moscow region channel 360. The news was unexpected in every sense: the role of the interviewer in which the actress decided to perform, the choice of a little-known Moscow region television channel for this debut, the swiftness with which Irina began new job and made the first passes. But what is very important, the television program became a kind of statement about her return to the forefront of life after a tragic event - the loss of her son.

The answer to the question “What will happen to Irina now?”, which has been haunting me for several months now yellow press and was discussed there, as usual, blindly. And one more significant nuance- the hero of Irina’s first program was Sergei Bezrukov. Their friendly, professional, partner-like conversation looked like a real challenge to the tense informational context in which both have existed in recent months and which concerns the crisis in their personal relationships.

With your interview HELLO! Irina breaks the long silence. Her appearance to the public is by no means a confession or comments; Irina says this right away: “I’m not one of those people who comments on rumors.” This is a thoughtful and responsible step by a person who, due to his profession and position, is involuntarily in the spotlight. And this is also a very brave act by a woman who hopes that “some of my answers, maybe, will somehow help people who are faced with losses.” In conversation she is sincere, friendly, and reserved. She is still very beautiful with some special, warm and light beauty. There is not a shadow of resentment or irritation in her words and intonations, and this is the ability to control her emotions exclusively - given the exceptionally dramatic circumstances that life offered Irina.

Irina, how did your TV program “Conversation on Stage” come about? You are not a journalist, and you have no experience as an interviewer.

Yes, for me it was quite a bold decision, but not at all accidental. For two years now I have been participating in the construction of the Provincial Theater, which was organized by Sergei Bezrukov, I literally live there, like our other actors, all the people involved in this work. During this time, it was possible to do almost unthinkable things - both in terms of the number of performances, and in their quality, and in creating a troupe and all the theater services. It was not an easy task, virtually around the clock. And it is very pleasant that the audience likes the results so much that the Provincial Theater quickly and confidently took its place on the theater map of Moscow. And since the founder of our theater is the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region, its governor, the Moscow region TV channel 360 most often spoke about our activities. The channel is young, energetic, passionate, very professional, they make excellent documentaries, they think about new programs and formats - for he's off to a very good start. I am a recognizable person, and the channel needs famous faces.

And you were offered to become the host of the program? Or was it your idea?

It was a mutual process. At first I was offered to do ten-minute interviews with artists in recording mode. The channel wanted to see in the program people of the level of Konstantin Khabensky, Yegor Konchalovsky, Maxim Dunaevsky, Chulpan Khamatova. I liked the idea, but what is ten minutes of air time? Invite famous and super-busy people to do such short blitzes? Therefore, I responded by offering an hour-long broadcast, and my offer was accepted.

With what feeling did you set off on this voyage?

With positive! Well, of course, it was a little scary: whether it would work or not, how it would be judged. An interview is an interview, everything has already been invented - two people are sitting opposite each other, like you and me now. But how to make an interesting conversation? Not everyday, not empty chatter about this and that, without yellowness, which, it’s no secret, is what gives the channels ratings. The most difficult thing for me in preparing the first programs was to find a new approach to this or that person, to ask questions that had not yet been asked to him. What can you ask Denis Matsuev, who gives interviews all over the world?

Something about his passion for football, for example.

They asked too. (Smiles.) But trouble has begun. I refused the services of an editor and said: “If the program is called author’s, I’ll do it myself.”

Do you really come up with your own questions?

Yes exactly. I am an active Internet user; in addition to general sources, I have three more resources: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Are you looking for news and biographies of heroes?

Roy. I also do direct interviews. I just listen to direct speech, for hours. I came to an interview with Dima Dyuzhev and told him: “Dima, I actually spent two days with you. I’m preparing myself a salad, doing something else, and I have a laptop next to me and in the background is: Dyuzhev, Dyuzhev...”

Matsuev told you right on air that he hasn’t had something like this for a long time interesting conversation. And this was after his anniversary, then he gave out interviews in large quantities.

Yes, and I was very amused by his phrase in the middle of the conversation: “Well, I told you that there is something human in you!” Incredible sense of humor. We both just hung on this phrase and laughed... It’s good that we are recording, otherwise we would have ended up on the live broadcast. But seriously, it’s probably good that I’m not a journalist, I don’t have clichés, extensions, or repetitions of myself. I'm trying to make the conversation feel like a friendly conversation, but one that not only the two of us will be interested in.

The first programs showed that you can do it.

I really hope so. The show begins to take on a life of its own, and I like it. Chulpan Khamatova has already confirmed her participation, it is a great honor for me. I know how busy she is, how rarely she gives interviews. The same can be said about my other heroes.

The hero of your first program was Sergei Bezrukov. IN Lately there were a lot of rumors around your family, but you both did not comment on anything, as before when it came to your privacy. At the end of the interview there was this moment: you handed Sergei an envelope with a blank sheet of paper. It was clear that he was surprised...

It was a symbolic gesture. A blank slate arose because I know: at the current period of his life, this is exactly what Sergei really needs. I gave him the opportunity to start life from scratch. Yes, we separated as spouses, but we continue to work together. In 15 years life together We have become truly close people and comrades-in-arms, and our separation cannot cancel this. We are still united by a common cause - the Moscow Provincial Theater, the Foundation for the Support and Development of Sociocultural Projects, which we created together. I am grateful to Sergei for supporting my television project, for the fact that he found the time to come to my first program and voiced a promotional video for it - this was his proposal. But I would like to put an end to this and, taking this opportunity, ask for funds mass media Don’t bother me with questions on this topic, don’t think about anything and don’t compose anything.

Irina, it so happened that this year has become very difficult for you personally. In the spring, you lost your son, your Andrei, and the mere fact that you did not isolate yourself from the world, did not withdraw into yourself, evokes incredible respect and admiration. If only these words are appropriate here...

We can talk about this. Of course, I thought about our interview, but I couldn’t help but think about it. And it seems to me that some of my answers will at least somehow help people who are suddenly faced with losses.

There are so many different rumors surrounding Andrei's death...

Let's be clear. I am not one of those people who comment on rumors, and I will not do so. But as for Andryusha, I can say a few things, and they will not be comments. He had an accident. This was a completely sudden tragedy and should not have happened. He was alone in the apartment, hit his temple, and death occurred instantly. I was on tour in Irkutsk, Andryusha didn’t contact me for about a day, and I asked my friend to come to my home. She is a doctor. It was decided to open the apartment because no one had spare keys. A local police officer, two people from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, emergency doctors and another friend of mine, the director of our theater, came in with her. The conclusions are clear - this is an accident.

Not everyone has the strength to survive such a loss.

You know, I’m not sure that I survived this and that I will survive it again. I had moments - now I can already talk about it - when I would not mind if my life ended on its own. But it doesn't end.

Irina Bezrukova with her son Andrei Livanov, archive

Where do you find sources - I can’t say “comfort”, because that’s an imprecise word... But the strength to look and talk the way you look and talk, not to feel offended by the whole world, not to torment yourself with the question “Why did this happen?” with me?"

I don't take them from anywhere. I have already said that I had moments of such despair - and I think that they are familiar to all people whose children have died - that at some point you don’t want to live. This doesn’t mean that you’re thinking of stepping off the balcony, but, in principle, if I just fell asleep and didn’t wake up, that would be fine with me. Despair and heartache. If physical pain, even unbearable, can be extinguished - there are drugs, then mental pain simply does not go away. It hurts just as much as it hurts.

But it seems to me that there is something that you can already identify and give it a name that allows you to just live, get up in the morning, do your thing...

Eat. What I used to see in science fiction films or read in some amazing books and novels, after Andryusha left, things actually began to happen to me. Or maybe I just wanted to believe in it, that it was happening?.. But I received information. Friends told dreams that before last word coincided with the words that Andrei told me. He once said: “I would like there to be more joy and love on Earth.” Friends came to me with these words and with others - also about joy... One day a friend took me to a cafe - in public I felt a little better. We are sitting at the table, and I keep asking Andryusha: “How can I continue without you? What should I do?” - I look up and see in front of me a black slate board - you know the ones on which menus are written in chalk in cafes? And there in English: “Enjoy every minute of your life!” One time I accidentally pressed a key on my laptop, I have hundreds of different music recordings there, and suddenly the song Woman Don’t Cry started playing. Another time I turned on the song “Mom” at random. I felt the presence of my son...

Are you a believer?

Yes, a believer, although not religious. And, you know, now I think that if they see us from there, from above, it must be unbearably painful for them to watch us suffer. And they try to console us, but we can’t cope. Because the tears never end.

This only happens when people were really very close.

Shortly before what happened, Andryusha and I went to Vietnam for ten days; he always wanted to go there. I had other plans - they invited me to a festival in Belgrade, but Andrei himself suggested: “Mom, I have a few days for vacation, would you like to go with me?” And I'm so happy that I went! Probably, this was the closest communication in my life, the closest humanly... Andrei was not just a son for me, but spiritually and mentally a very dear person to me. The most unconditional love in my life. Love for a man can be enormous, all-consuming, but it is never unconditional.

Andrey was going to become an actor, like you and his father, but he didn’t become one.

He was unlike the acting children. He was a philosopher, a wise boy, gifted in various ways, but he never wanted to concentrate attention on himself. That’s why he didn’t choose this profession, although everything was going well for him: he was already invited to play Romeo in a professional theater. He left the second year of theater, became interested in Japanese studies, he had dreams of working for UNICEF, his motivation since childhood was to help everyone - peoples, countries, individuals. Of his small salary, he always gave ten percent to charity or to me with the words: “Mom, donate it to someone.” He worked with us at the Provincial Theater as an administrator, helped everyone, did not divide the work into his own and others, literally lived in the theater. When Andryusha passed away, when despair, fear, and guilt went off scale - what would have happened if I hadn’t gone on tour? Maybe the trouble wouldn't have happened? - the theater gave me an incredible gift. They handed over a flash drive on which our actors recorded their stories about Andrey. They simply bathed me in love. I learned so many new things about my son! How he found a special kind word for everyone. How supportive you were at a difficult moment. One actor said that when his mother arrived from the provinces, Andryusha came up to her and said: “Is everyone in your family as beautiful and talented as your son?” And mom cried with happiness. When I listened to this, I cried too - it warmed my soul.

Did your friends support you during this difficult time?

Yes, they just passed me from hand to hand. At some point I stopped eating. I just forgot for a day or two. But when someone was next to me, talking, I sat down and ate. My sister was always with me at the dacha. My friend would knock on the bathroom if I didn't come out for a long time. My close friend and his family, who were in France, literally pulled me out to them, and so carefully, cautiously, as if by chance, brought me back to life. Friends. Those who are patient, who are with you, and not in moments of your strength and success, but in moments of despair - are nearby and listen. They are silent. They just hug you. They distract you and take you for a walk.

Irina, how much power does the past have over you? Or does it one day sink into the soil, from which the future then grows - whatever it may be?

This can only be discussed from the point of view of today. Since it so happened that this particular spring brought incredible events and changes in my life, I will now try to express this somehow figuratively, because words are sometimes very poor. There was a feeling that not only did I have no ground under my feet, there was nothing around me at all. This happens to people who dive for the first time
scuba diving 

You go deep and stop understanding where is up, down, right, left, and panic sets in. Around you, in all directions, there is one deep abyss, and there is no support. People probably experienced this in revolutions, wars, earthquakes, when life just happened, and in one minute it ended. And it is no longer clear where the past, present and future are.

Where can we get guidelines again?

They are there, you just need to see them. One day I sat down at Andryusha’s computer, asked his permission, told him: “I’m sorry, but now I really want to talk to you, as if you were alive, to find out what you were thinking about, what interested you.” And so I began to read. His correspondence with a friend who fell in love, and Andrei told him how to take a girl to the theater, what bouquet to buy, how to look after her. He was just helping a guy who didn't know how to behave and was also poor. And Andrei writes to him that he will arrange for our theater buffet to make cakes at local prices, set a table on the balcony, and a friend can invite his girlfriend for a romantic evening. I read and heard Andryusha, his intonation in every word... I felt his kindness. And I realized that all this simply cannot dissolve, disappear, that this is what remains forever. The letters encouraged me, they even discovered a new Andryusha - I did not imagine that my son had literary talent, but he did.

Irina, it is obvious that you have empathy, the ability not only to understand another person, but to feel him as if he were yourself. This is an excellent quality for an actress, and for a mother, but for a woman is this good?

Sometimes this is a problem - that you understand everyone too well. “Well, you’ll understand me? You know why I do this?” I really understand why not the best, not the most noble and not the most beautiful deeds are done. But in relationships with those close to you, this sometimes brings incredible pain. Therefore, maybe it’s easier not to understand and throw objects on the floor?

But you don't?

Today, when you have your own program and roles in the theater, don’t you think that in your marriage to Sergei Bezrukov you always faded a little into the background?

My opinion today - perhaps in six months I will think differently - is that in marriage a woman is always half a step behind a man, over his shoulder. If a woman gets ahead, the man develops internal aggression, and it gradually increases. This is probably fair. In general, this is a man’s business: to conquer the world, go to war, protect, make discoveries and actions. And a woman is simply a space in which a man lives. It is love that feeds him, moves him, supports him. I had a period when I complained that I could have been in a different acting category, that I had neglected my career. But at that moment I thought that I was working for a good cause, a very good one. talented person who brings joy to people. And I help him with this.

Have you ever thought that you made some mistake in the past and would like to correct it? Or are you one of those people who believe that there is no such thing in history? subjunctive mood, is it not only impossible to rewrite anything, but also unnecessary?

Since my son left, I have re-evaluated many, many things. After 15 years, I found the strength to ask for forgiveness from Andryusha’s father, Igor Livanov. I cried, we hugged. When I said goodbye to Andryusha, I found the strength to hold on and console those who were crying. Igor’s wife, so short, is a little sparrow, full of grief and tears - I saw her for the first time in my life. She clung to me and cried on my chest. I found the strength to forgive many things... And let go.

Irina Bezrukova in the play "Endless April" on the stage of the Provincial Theater

With Andrei Ilyin in "Endless April", staged by Anna Gorushkina based on the play by Yaroslava Pulinovich. Main character recalls his life - the length of the entire twentieth century. In his memories, his mother comes to him, and in this prism of the past she is present as light, absolute happiness and the only truth in his life

At the Gubernsky Theater you, together with Andrei Ilyin, play wonderfully in the play “Endless April”. He is an old man remembering his life, and in these memories, literally in seconds, he turns on stage into a child, into a youth, into an adult man.

Andrey is a unique artist.

Without a doubt. You are the hero’s mother, who comes to him in memories. But the role of the mother is very poignant, almost confessional. Will you continue to play it? I thought that it was quite possible that you would refuse.

No, I won't refuse. I only once asked another actress who works in the second cast to play for me, Lena Kirkova - one of the best in our theater. And not because I couldn’t play, but it was soon after what happened with Andryusha, and I understood that there might be tabloid journalists in the hall. They will film how I act as a mother: I play - I don’t play, I cry - I don’t cry. I didn’t want, I couldn’t allow the focus from the play to shift to how actress Irina Bezrukova plays a mother after the death of her son. But I played once. On my birthday, I decided to perform in this performance. Journalists from the yellow publication finally caught up with him. They just bought tickets. And they filmed several scenes with a hidden camera. And then they chased me in a car to take pictures. There was a chase, a real one: they cut me off, drove through a red light, and ran out with a camera right in front of my car. They took a photo of me, it was successful. I stopped - my nerves couldn’t stand it, my hands were shaking, I was just afraid that I would crash.

A monstrous story. I’m ashamed of my colleagues, although they can hardly be called journalists.

My lawyers are already dealing with this issue, but is this just a legal matter?.. I am a person who barely pulled myself together, put myself in a car and went to play such an important performance for myself... I have the right to personal integrity. Yes it will trial. Maybe not one, because I’m not at all sure that they will stop.

Will you continue to play at the Provincial Theater? You didn't even think about leaving there, did you?

Did not think. I really hope that I don’t have to. We have wonderful theater, wonderful people, and I love them, and they love me. This is my family already.

And the audience in the new season will see you again with the amazing Andrei Ilyin in “Endless April”. Do you know what this performance reminds me of? When you approach the sea, you hear the splashing of the waves and think about something of your own, but then only the waves and the sea remain - you just go in and swim without looking back.

You see... I haven’t played in the theater for 15 years, I came to this small performance, and you say such things. Am I not a happy person?..