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MOSCOW, March 26, Anastasia Silkina. As part of the exhibition-forum “Russia” at VDNKh on March 26, the premiere of the play “The First and Second Lives of Galina Ivanovna” of the project “Voices of the Country” will take place. The main character is played by Alexandra Ursulyak. The actress spoke about whether internal and external resemblance to a character is important or not, the reasons for the popularity of fairy tales and TV series, as well as future premieres.
— Alexandra, Who do you play in the cycle of documentary one-man performances “Voices of the Country”?
– Galina Ivanovna Yakovleva from the city of Nyagan, she is 76. She has an interesting fate: she had two husbands with whom she lived for 26 and 25 years, and it so happened that both turned out to be paralyzed. She looked after first one bedridden person, then another. The play is based on her thoughts about life and memories of her husbands. Hence the title: “The first and second lives of Galina Ivanovna.”
I hope to meet her in person if Galina Ivanovna flies to us for the show.
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— The author of the project idea, Konstantin Bogomolov, said that the actors themselves decided whether to imitate the prototype of their character. How was it with you?
— At first I thought that I wanted maximum similarity. Then director Philip Gurevich convinced me that it was interesting to indicate the similarities with a hint. Without special makeup, in neutral clothes, but her voice and speech structure are like Galina Ivanovna’s. It is very important that the audience uses their imagination during the performance.
— I’ll quote the director: “The heroine hasn’t given herself the opportunity to slow down for a while or say “no” all her life. Do you think it’s important to make some kind of stops in life?
— All people are different, and Everyone has their own circumstances, upbringing, priorities. I don’t compare Galina Ivanovna and myself.
The offer to participate in the project was a surprise for me, but it was as if someone had guessed what I wanted. Some time ago, I formulated for myself that I was interested in doing verbatim (documentary theater – editor's note) and that the character be as far away from me as possible, not tied to age, situation, maybe even gender. Galina Ivanovna is a completely different hero from me: she has a different way of thinking, she is in a different situation, she had a different choice.
— Another project of yours that arose from real history is the film “Look at Me” by Vladimir Grammatikov, which is based on a fragment of his own biography. Is it difficult to play a woman whose prototype is the director’s mother?
— Of course, this is a responsible matter. On the other hand, when this woman’s son, a wonderful director, calls and assures us that everything will work out, that he was only waiting for me to play this role, you cast aside all indecision.
And then, here, too, there was no condition that I should be like someone. The screenwriter was Andrei Sergeevich Konchalovsky and, as I understand it, he added something of his own. Vladimir Aleksandrovich (Grammatikov – Ed.) agreed that, after all, life is one thing, but the script is another, and chose the author’s idea.
— We are waiting for you this year in the sequel to the “The Last Hero” franchise. What was your impression of filming in a “fairytale” project?
—I’m terribly glad that my works are so different. I like to change the atmosphere, genres. “The Last Hero” was an incredible step for me. I learned a lot of new things about myself and about the filming process.
— Why do you think fairy tales are becoming more and more popular?
— I think people would like to escape reality.
— In April you have concerts planned at the capital’s House of Actors. Is this a one-time story?
— This story arose quite naturally. I used to sing in the musicals “Night of Cabiria”, “Chicago”, and now in “Cabaret”. Impresarios from other cities often asked if I had my own program that I could come with. I threw up my hands. And so my friend, producer Linar Sharipov, said: “Let’s do it!”
I have long had a repertoire ready for such a concert – songs that have literally haunted me all my life: from “It was recently, it was a long time ago” and “Everything turned blue and green around” to numbers from musicals and pop shows. Songs from the past, let's say so.
— Is there any unclosed professional gestalt left – a role, a director or a partner with whom I would like to work?
— I don’t dream of anything, but I hope for the best, and it happens to me. From the unclosed: I understand that I have always moved well and, if I had spent more time dancing, I could have done something in this area.
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