Actress Elena Zakharova is sure that adoption can become the meaning of life and a way out for many parents. The ideal Russian society for her is a society where there are no orphanages.
– I’m finishing shooting with Olga Subbotina in a 16-episode film called “Remorse”. This is a very interesting story of a large family. I also star with Karine Foliyants in the project “Where You Are”. This is the story of a fisherman who has a deaf-mute adopted daughter. To embody this image, I had to learn the language of the deaf and dumb. And in the theater, we are preparing to release the play “Dangerous Connections” soon.
– The family theme is present in your work quite actively. In the film “God has His Own Plans”, you played the role of a surrogate mother. How did you feel in this image? What is your attitude to surrogacy in principle?
– The work was very difficult, but we had a very talented director Dmitry Tyurin with us. Communication with him helped and inspired. He talked to us a lot about surrogacy, about who uses it. And it seems to me that this is a good way out for some people. My heroine did not have children of her own, she was forced to become a surrogate mother by need. At some point, she realized that she could not live without these children. She wanted to have children of her own, but she could no longer have them. The whole drama and tragedy of the film was this.
And it ended well: a woman finds one of the children born to her in an orphanage and takes it for herself. I really like this job. It was hard, but, despite everything, full of positive emotions.
– What is the meaning of life for you: in your work or in your family?
– In youth, a person is more focused on the profession, and, in my opinion, this is correct. Especially since my profession is very interesting. If I were a cook or an accountant, I’d be home with my kids by now. In addition, my profession requires a lot of effort: people have a weekend, and I went to shoot. Or I can’t afford to go to a bar on Friday because I have a shoot on Saturday.
But the meaning of a person’s life is in the family. Of course, work is very important to me, but family is the foundation of a person’s life. You can be an excellent worker in a particular field and be left alone in your old age. You can play many roles, but it will not replace your loved ones and children. Previously, actresses did not have children to give their whole life to their career. But I don’t agree with that.
– Would it be possible for you to adopt a child?
– I treat people who adopt children with great gratitude. This is a very strong human step that raises them in my eyes. It seems to me that it is difficult to predict whether you will be able to love a child taken by you, who may have living parents.
This is a very serious step that needs to be considered. After all, you can’t take a child and then return it, although there are such cases. As for me, I understand that I am not ready for this yet and I want to become a mother myself, then maybe I will return to this topic.
– How do you feel about parents who leave their children in orphanages?
– You need to understand whether they leave the children themselves or they are deprived of their parental rights. Whether it is always legal to deprive parents of their rights and whether it is always necessary to do so – this question now concerns me most of all. I am deeply convinced that whatever the mother is, the child is better off with her than without her. My opinion is that people should be deprived of parental rights only in extreme situations.
But it is very difficult for me to understand how a person can voluntarily leave a child. After all, even cats that give birth once every 2-3 months, so take care of their kittens! I can’t get my head around it, and I think it’s done by mentally deranged people. If they realize what they have done, then they will probably repent for the rest of their lives.
– Why is the adoption of children so important for Russian society?
– I want to believe that we have a normal, healthy society in Russia. And in such a society, in principle, there should be no orphanages, and children should live in families. For me, the ideal situation in the country is that we have no orphanages, no children without parents. If something happens to the parents, let the children be raised by their grandparents, sisters, and brothers. The caregivers of orphanages simply can not cope with so many children and give everyone love and care.
It seems to me that for many parents, the adoption of children becomes the meaning of their life. Especially for those who do not have their own children or have one or two children, and they want more. I’ve heard that they take the fifth, and the sixth, and the seventh, and the eighth. And that’s fine! And in general, there is nothing better than children in the world!