The actor and father of many children invited Antenna to a new apartment in the center of Moscow. Noise and din don’t stop here for a second. “We are all restless, whimsical, express emotions vividly and loudly,” the artist smiles. “A real Italian family!”
April 23 2016
The apartment was bought three years ago. Sveta’s wife was engaged in the arrangement, this year she receives a diploma in interior designer at the Moscow Art Institute. She entered the daytime when Dasha was two, and studied for six years, having given birth to two boys and not leaving for an academic one. I already came up with a redevelopment, hurried: “Call the workers!”, But something stopped me, put everything off. And now I was driving along Tverskaya street, a call: “Park your car, I have to tell you something. I’m pregnant … ”And again he takes the drawings and begins to redo everything. Thank God, they did not have time to demolish the walls. Now the children have three identical rooms. In addition, there is a living room, our bedroom and the room where the nannies live. From the very beginning, we wanted every child to have his own corner from birth. At the same time, the doors are open, they walk around the house, but they understand that they have their own space. Is order kept in it? If! (Laughs.) What’s the order? Literally two days ago, Sveta lost her diploma blueprints. Some never found it.
Children love to draw, they know where the blank paper is, and, probably, did not notice that there are important documents nearby, and they took them.
They are creative and active in our country. Dasha, she is eight, is dancing at the “Todes”. She herself expressed a desire to draw, and we took her to an art school. Danya, he is four, goes to judo, plays the flute of his choice, however, now asks for a piano. And hockey will start soon. Dasha is engaged in dancing in the building of the CSKA sports complex, where hockey players train, Danya came there, saw the athletes and said: “I want hockey!”, Not understanding what it is. They called, and there was a recruitment of children born in 2011. They brought him, and there are 20 more boys with their parents, who give instructions. And Danya didn’t even skate! The coaches came in, took the children to the gym, after 40 minutes they came out and called two names, one of them is ours. Now the son is equipped and is waiting for the start of training. Maybe he is destined for a career as a hockey player. Or maybe he will get a puck in the forehead and forget about it forever (laughs). The youngest, Andrei, goes swimming with the elders. He reaches out for them and is very developed for his age. At the age of two, he already reads poetry, quotes “Lukomorye”.
Children often repeat one after another. For example, the boys see that Dasha has put on a carnival costume, turned on the music and started dancing, and immediately run through their rooms: “Mom, put on a suit for me too!” Dress up, have fun. We arrange such performances almost every evening. On the same basis, they argue over toys. Something buried two years ago gets, and everyone needs it right away!
Our children are restless, joking. And Sveta and I are the same. We jokingly call ourselves an Italian family. Everything is loud with us, we express emotions, both joy and admiration, and discontent and disagreement.
But you are more (laughs).
Seeing our model of behavior, children also scream, brawl. We do not tolerate boredom at all. If it’s a day off, we will definitely come up with something: we go somewhere or invite friends to visit and arrange carnivals, games and dances here. We love spontaneous “adventures”. A recent example. On the day when Danya was selected for hockey, we leave the sports complex and see a poster: CSKA is playing with some team. I say: “Danya, do you want to go to the match?” “Want!” And before that, I myself was in hockey once in my life and once in football. We decided that everyone should go. And there are two hours left before the match. There were no more tickets at the box office. But on the occasion that Danya was taken to the section, they found five pieces. They put us close to the arena, the children saw a real massacre, goals, fans. So they shouted! Dasha screamed, Andrey chanted: “Washer!” And most of all they liked how the hockey players fought. Had a wonderful evening and at the end got a pizza as a bonus. Children are friendly with each other. This is an important question for us. When Sveta was pregnant with Danya, we explained this to Dasha, she came up to her stomach, talked with her brother. When they were waiting for Andrey, they talked to the elders in the same way. They tried to convey that they should help. And they help. For example, when you need to take a diaper to the basket or wash a nipple.
Dasha loves to put the boys to bed. He sits down next to him, strokes the back, tells fairy tales. And today Andrey became capricious, I myself went to pack him, I go out – and she washed all the dishes!
With a busy schedule, finding time for your family is, of course, not easy. But I try. First of all, in the summer. If I haven’t taken a vacation in years before, now I make sure to cut out 2-3 weeks so that everyone can go somewhere together. The rest of the time, unfortunately, they don’t see me much. It’s ridiculous: I’ll arrive on the morning train at half past six, the children wake up at seven, we have breakfast, and at nine I’m already leaving. But they understand: such a job. But they themselves are loaded, so they do not sit at the window waiting for dad.
There was a story recently. Dad was on a long tour. A week has passed, I am sending him a photo: “Look what is happening in the apartment! Children bombed the whole house! ” And what does Danya send back? “I miss you, I like everything!” And I understand his feelings. When he arrives, he is insanely happy, even if they tear off the cornices here (laughs).
Probably, because of this, I allow them more than Light. The wife says: “The clouds opened up if dad scolded.” With the advent of children, he has changed for the better. I became more organized and I do more. Children, of course, are life-changing. I remember when we realized that the next day we were going to give birth to Dasha, at night I said to Sveta: “Can you imagine that tomorrow there will be three of us?” With the boys, this feeling was no longer there, it was rolling off (laughs). I was present at the birth of Dasha and Andrey. Unfortunately, it didn’t work with Danka because of an absurd situation. Filmed in Poland, Sveta was giving birth on June 3. My last shooting day was on the 1st, but another scene was finished, and I was begged to shoot the 2nd. I agreed, I thought I would have time. But Sveta gives birth to the 2nd …
What advice can I give to fathers who are afraid to attend childbirth? First, no one forces you to look at everything. We decided that the sacrament should remain, I went out the door, was there for 5 seconds, heard the crying of a child and came back. And secondly, I assure you, this, on the contrary, only arouses additional feelings – love and desire to protect. By the way, we were very lucky with the doctor, we all gave birth three times to Elena Igorevna Spiridonova, who recently received an award from the president.
I am sure that the appearance of children cannot interfere with the life of parents. There will still be a place for romance in it. For example, we often make gifts to each other for no reason at all. Sveta can come to the theater and pass me a bouquet with a note through the ticket collector. Imagine how touching! By the way, she constantly mocks me when I bring her flowers after the performance: “Well, spend your money at least once!” I say: “Sveta, this is, on the contrary, great, I bring you honestly earned money. Your husband is thrifty! ” (Laughs.)
Of course, it is difficult to find time for two, but it turns out. Several times a month we go to the theater or restaurant. Right now we are going to tour Europe for a week, we will leave the children for grandmother and nannies, and Sveta is going with me. With the advent of Sveta, a muse came to life. Previously, he worked and lived “in general”, now there is an additional responsibility, it is important not to disappoint them. The wife, not having an acting education, is endowed with taste, understands whether the role was played well or mistakes were made. She reads all my scripts, gives precise recommendations, I listen to her opinion. By the way, she herself never ceases to amaze with professional victories. Recently, for example, she and her fellow students and teachers developed a project for the Anti-Drug Museum, which opened in Moscow, and received an award from the mayor.
Do I believe that everyone has a “half”? I don’t know if this was programmed in our case. I met Sveta when I was 36 (this happened on board the plane, the girl worked as a flight attendant. – Approx. “Antenna”), quite late. She was 18. She was born when I joined the army. Imagine: I am standing in a military uniform, and a newborn girl is carried by and they say: “She will be your wife and the mother of your children.” I would then answer: “Stop talking nonsense!” But, despite her young age, Sveta was ready to start a family. Her mother raised her like that, laid the right values. Although she did not immediately respond to my advances. I ignored calls, SMS. I had to win by persistence. And it turned out: we started dating, I invited her to my place in Moscow, on my day off I went to see her in Petersburg. And then he made an offer.
Maybe in our case everything happened so easily, because there was no serious negative experience behind us, both were open to feelings. I was not worried that there was no family, I was not specifically looking for a girl. I just saw Sveta and started courting. And then everything somehow went by itself: one child was born, the second, the third. And by the way, the public, our friends and colleagues – all prophesy a sequel …