His charm «goes off scale», and his appearance is phenomenally plastic — this is pure potency for any role. A lover, a «limiter», a prince, a maniac — he can do everything. Including the new role of the head of the Theater of Nations. Meeting with Yevgeny Mironov, a happy artist who continues to explore the boundaries of his human role.
An actor and an official, a leader and a performer — Yevgeny Mironov, it seems, is amusing to play with the dissonances of his current position. Arrive in a Mercedes with tinted windows and put on a carelessly unbuttoned T-shirt and a metal chain around your neck. «Keep the face» of a responsible employee — and then burst out laughing like a boy. It is equally sincere to communicate with the president of the country and an amateur theater actress. Enter into power — and remain a popularly adored artist. To change the situation around, but not to change yourself — this is, by and large, the dilemma with which he falls asleep and wakes up almost every day.
He comes to the shooting wearing black glasses, holding himself tight. He imperceptibly scans faces, poses, and surroundings with his eyes, as if trying to feel those around him, to build an adequate system of coordinates, a system of behavior. Despite all his titles and titles, he seems defenseless and — like a bare wire — unacceptably open to the world. But our conversation is not fraught with a catch, and his tension subsides. There is excitement, a desire to listen and tell. Mironov has a soft, bewitching voice and a light laugh, and he thinks through each of his answers with such seriousness, as if re-analyzing his whole life. He never stops apologizing for mentioning «pompous» things, reading about which someone might think: «Here’s a show off!» For example, about his meetings with Solzhenitsyn or about what Pushkin opened yesterday… And when he talks about his new role in the play «Shukshin’s Stories», he begins to literally glow: «Playing Shukshin is such a joy! It’s like very tasty, homemade bread, which few people can afford today: everyone is losing weight. Our heroes are open and simple people. Of those that everyone perceives with the heart.
Psychologies: For a long time you were afraid of the role of «simple guy». And now Shukshin …
Evgeny Mironov: Now I’m not afraid anymore. It’s just that at some point it was important for me to expand the scope of my roles, I’m bored all the time being in the same capacity. And I know the world described by Shukshin, because I myself am from the same town — Tatishchevo-5, Saratov Region. Around me in my childhood there were also very simple, trusting people, and the doors in the houses did not close. But I cannot say what is mine — only this: Prince Myshkin is also mine!
Does the ability to drastically change roles help you in life?
EM: Sometimes it is important, on the contrary, not to change. Here Nerzhin (the hero of the television series «In the First Circle» based on the novel by A. Solzhenitsyn. — Approx. Ed.) had to make superhuman efforts so that, despite the circumstances, not to change himself. For me, it was an absolutely fantastic story — the very role and communication with Solzhenitsyn, a man who changed the world as a result of some very serious attitude towards himself. I was incredibly amazed by this man and very proud that I had the opportunity to get to know him, communicate … In recent months, with complete physical weakness, his face and eyes remained absolutely alive — and joyful because they are still alive. They can live. The happiness that lasted for him until the last second was because he knew how to appreciate life and he had something to answer it with. It seems to me that such a happy feeling is born from a deep inner wholeness and harmony. (Sadly ironic.) Here
What do you think is stopping you?
EM: Fight with yourself. After all, each of us has a cross. Even talent is also a cross. Which is often taken away if the person did not correspond to what was assigned to him. You know, some kind of hole is formed inside, a crack, from which energy imperceptibly begins to flow out. A wormhole is a temptation, an indulgence in temptation, when a veil falls over a person’s eyes and it seems that this particular temptation is real, the main thing. I am very afraid of such changes — in view of the last, administrative changes in my life. I’m afraid for the number of cases and information not to hear my tuning fork — the heart.
Do you lack a state of inner peace, contemplation?
EM: May be. Contemplation is definitely not enough for me. I very rarely enjoy it, unless I force myself to. Just yesterday — you will laugh — I opened «Eugene Onegin». I just forced myself. I started reading and time stopped for me. I suddenly saw how great the Russian poet was not sure of himself: will I remain for centuries or not? No, I won’t think about it, let the critics, the crowd think about it … No, but I would so much like to go down in history at least a line, so that later they would say: there was such a … This discovery shocked me yesterday. Yes, I understand that some things pass me by. But while I feel that I can work, stop is beyond my strength. I am afraid of the situation when a person in life is satisfied with everything. For me, dissatisfaction (with myself and what is happening) is the engine: I want to do something, change!
But are there times when you manage to come to terms with yourself?
EM: I’m in search. Until you deserve it. No.
Have you ever thought about talking to a psychologist?
EM: No. It’s like finding your confessor — an intermediary between you and God. Unimaginably difficult. And then — I am treated with my roles. I dissect myself with them, and I am treated.
About ten years ago, to the question «Who are you?» you answered: «I am a happy artist.» Today?
EM: (Laughs.) Well, now I’m not only an artist, there are other tasks. Although the goal is actually always the same — to behave with dignity as much as possible. I lived in such a beautiful closed world for a very long time. And suddenly I began to understand that there are people nearby — also, let’s say, artists — who are very ill. Do I have the right to be just a happy artist? No I do not have. Because I have made a name for myself and I can do something to change this state of affairs. Or I don’t like the general «entreprise» that is happening today in the Russian theater. Do I have the ability to do something? I have. I’m not saying that I will definitely change the situation, but you have to try!
And how do you do it?
EM: I have already humbled my pride: it was very hard for me to go around officials. After all, they admire you at receptions, kiss and say: “You are my idol!”, But as soon as I get into their office, they forget about all this. A lot has changed in my views on people when I broke away from my family at the age of 18 and came to Moscow. And I did not think that after so many years I would be able to reconsider my views so thoroughly again. I experienced so much negativity in relation to myself and the business that I have been doing for the last year and a half! Betrayal, unprofessionalism — which is much worse for me, because betrayal is often just a weakness, and unprofessionalism is no longer treated. I had to look in myself for the qualities that alone make it possible to be a leader. Learn to make decisions, no matter how difficult they are. And most importantly, I reconsidered my life circle. I used to know only people of art. These are wonderful children compared to the monsters who are called officials. They — with rare exceptions — lie, do not keep their word. And I can’t get used to it, because I always believed people. At first I suffered a lot, but then I said to myself: “You are not doing this for yourself.” But even in this world, I found sympathetic people.
And don’t you say to yourself: «Who the hell took me to this galley»?
EM: (Laughs) Every day. I don’t want to be an administrator. It is interesting for me to be an organizer of theatrical business, a builder. Move a little away from acting — but not far. To have time to jump from the departing ship to the actor’s island and stay there. Because this is my essence — a happy artist.
Your mother, confessing that she herself dreamed of being an actress, told you in childhood: “I didn’t get there — you get there.” You made her dream come true. What do you feel?
EM: I don’t feel like I got there. This is the eternal road — acting. And I don’t know: is my mother herself satisfied that I made her dream come true? After all, as much as she is proud of me, she is so upset. She does not see me at all: the rhythm of life is frantic. Of course, I ask him: I harness and ride, and my entire convoy is with me. Once on the stage of the Saratov Drama Theater we played a graduation performance. My classmate peered through the gap in the curtain and said to me: «Your entire convoy is in place.» It means my mom, dad, sister, brothers, aunt. They came to every performance. So they jump after me through life, and I understand how uncomfortable it is for them …
Doesn’t such close family care bother you? As a teenager, didn’t you want to “break away”, oppose yourself to your parents?
EM: It happened to me — of course, when I went to study in Moscow. The parting was terribly difficult: everyone sobbed. I hung on the fence at Bykovo airport, my parents flew home, and my mother sobbed in the cabin so that all the flight attendants ran around her, and my father held a fan in front of her. But an hour later, when I got on the train and lit a cigarette in a smelly vestibule (and I had not smoked before), I looked at the everyday faces of people — and the tears dried up by themselves. I suddenly felt this fresh air of freedom: I can do whatever I want, and no one will scold me for it! And four years later we united again, here in Moscow, when I was already working in the theater. In general, home and theater are inseparable for me. Maybe because my sister Oksana is a ballerina and we cook in the same juice with her … And my mother comes to all the premieres. My relatives know about my every day, all problems are solved before their eyes.
And yet: do you think overprotection is a suitable method of education?
EM: Yes and no. I am now looking at my sister, she already has two children. And she behaves exactly like our mother: there is no question of any freedom, it is not even taken into account. But I am extremely grateful to my parents for the fact that my family and relatives are sacred to me — this is myself, we are together — one life. It seems to me that being apart is very difficult and bad. But at the same time, you must clearly understand: when you have given birth to a child, it is no longer yours. Maybe I’m saying this because I don’t have children of my own yet? In my opinion, the task of a parent is to guide, show, help. But the child is not yours. For maternal egoism, children pay with infantilism.
Do you not feel such infantilism in yourself?
EM: Now — no, I’m already a grated kalach, but when I arrived in Moscow — definitely. It was complete ignorance of people and life! But you know, maybe thanks to this I played Myshkin: I unearthed and pulled out this childishness from myself. After all, you can’t just play it like that, it’s in the eyes. But such a person is not fit for life.
Where do you see yourself in 20 years?
EM: I don’t know how to look ahead, as my aunt Valya said, “without guessing.” I can only imagine how I will look physically. Because the figure I went to dad. He was lean, thin, energetic. This is how I see myself. And another…
So you don’t care about it?
EM: All I do is take care of myself in one way or another. If I performed at corporate parties for money or went to some hundred-episode TV movie, I would hurt myself — it’s akin to a drug. My choice is my concern. How else to take care? Of course, I’m not crazy, as the yellow press writes about me, I sleep eight hours a day, sometimes I relax, ski and enjoy it, I go to a fitness club twice a week. But I do not want to become a hostage to my appearance — this is also a passion. And then, I feel like an idiot, standing in front of a mirror with this barbell! (Laughs.)
To be happy is one of your tasks, desires?
EM: Hard to say. An artist can be happy, but can a person be happy at the same time? I doubt. Too many wounds—your own—the profession requires. You have to pay for acting happiness. But I would like to find myself in another capacity — the organizer of a new business. And if I don’t find it, I want to honestly admit it to myself. Or find people who will honestly tell me about it. I wish that God would not deny me the intelligibility of feeling the truth about myself. Otherwise, I will harm myself and people, which cannot be allowed.
Private bussiness
- 1966 November 29 was born in the military town of Tatishchevo-5 in the Saratov region in the family of workers Vitaly and Tamara Mironov. Six years later, his sister Oksana was born.
- 1986 After the Saratov Theater School, he was admitted to the second year of the Moscow Art Theater School.
- 1988 Debuts in Alexander Kaidanovsky’s film The Kerosene Worker’s Wife.
- 1990 Actor of the Studio Theater under the direction of Oleg Tabakov.
- 1991 Leading role in Valery Todorovsky’s film «Love» (several film awards).
- 1994 «Nika» award for his role in «Limit» by Denis Evstigneev.
- 1995 The main role in the film by Vladimir Khotinenko «Muslim»; the role of Ivan Karamazov in Valery Fokin’s play The Karamazovs and Hell (Contemporary).
- 1998 Hamlet in a performance by Peter Stein (International Confederation of Theater Unions).
- 2003 Lopakhin in the play The Cherry Orchard by Eymuntas Nyakroshyus (Stanislavsky Foundation).
- 2004 The role of Myshkin in Vladimir Bortko’s television series The Idiot (TEFI Prize, Golden Eagle Prize, Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize); awarded the title People’s Artist of Russia. Organized with colleagues the Action to support theatrical initiatives; elected a member of the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation.
- 2005 Became one of the founders of the international festival-school TERRITORIA.
- 2006 Created the Yevgeny Mironov Theater Company, produced the play Le Figaro directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and played the title role; since December — artistic director of the Theater of Nations. The role of Nerzhin in Gleb Panfilov’s television series «In the First Circle». The role of Porfiry Golovlev (“Lord Golovlev”, Moscow Art Theater).
- 2007 Leading role in the television series «The Apostle» (released in 2008). Filming in «Burnt by the Sun-2» by Nikita Mikhalkov.
- 2008 Role in the performance of the Theater of Nations «Shukshin’s Stories» (director Alvis Hermanis, premiere November 22–24).