Being one of the brightest Russian movie stars, she is absolutely devoid of ambition. Accepts roles only if he does not understand how to play them. And he believes that every person has his own talent – the main thing is to go your own way.
Sorry, I’m a little late … ” Oksana Fandera sits down at the table, laying out the essentials on it: car keys, a phone, a pack of cigarettes. “I just got back from filming, give me a couple of minutes, okay?” She hides her face in her hands, ruthlessly ruffling her hair with her fingers. And suddenly she becomes almost miniature: it always seemed to me that she was somehow larger and, in any case, taller. While I, with the intelligence inherent in men, come to the conclusion that in my life I have only seen Fandera in heels, and the cinema and television screen always work like magnifying glasses, she straightens up and takes her hands away from her face. Thin, impeccably defined, almost dry and almost too regular, if it weren’t for the lively and funny brown eyes. Then he settles comfortably on a restaurant sofa with legs (confirming my brilliant guess about heels, that is, their absence!) and smiles: “Well, I’m ready.”
Psychologies: You are very rarely seen at crowded social events. Oksana, do you like people at all?
Oksana Fandera: Hmm… Yes, I do. They can sometimes interfere or annoy, but after all, behind each of them is … love. Everyone loves someone, you know? Man, woman, children, parents. You just need to be able to see this love behind each person.
The film you are currently filming is not about love by any chance?
O.F.: Oh no! (Laughs) I’m doing a movie about spies. This is my first such experience. 12 episodes, but there is hope that a quality movie will turn out. Not a series, but a multi-part television feature film. I like director Dmitry Cherkasov, I have already worked with him in the film “Valley of Roses”. He responds well to my suggestions.
Is it important to you? They say a lot of directors don’t like it.
O.F.: I don’t know, it seems to me that if I were the directors, I would be happy about this. After all, creativity is better than performance. This is what I love about my profession. I like to bring paper stories to life, make them from flat 3D. As in childhood, when you read a book and bring its characters to life in your imagination.
But, you see, at the same time, film adaptations are rarely successful.
O.F.: I agree. Everyone represents the characters in their own way. But I’m not talking about film adaptations, I’m talking about cinema in general. There is a fictional character in the script. And my task is to make it alive. And by the way, I still love film adaptations – just because I know how difficult it is. I always wonder how the director and the actors will cope, what they will come up with. And sometimes it works! For example, I really like the English series Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumberbatch. I think it’s just an outstanding adaptation. Of course, there can be no better Livanov than Sherlock Holmes, but this fresh look, this ability to so flawlessly introduce the history of a century and even more ago into our time is an amazing work. And great actors, of course.
And from the film adaptations with your participation, which one do you like? Probably, “Stash Lights”?
O.F.: Yes, I have a special relationship with this film, I love it very much. And not only the film itself, but everything connected with it. Although it is interesting: when the director Alexander Gordon was first offered to try me for the role, he, who had been trying to find an actress for two years, waved his hands: “No, no, she is very glamorous!” But in general, to be honest, I still have not seen the film in its entirety, to the end. And not only his – it happens with almost all of my films.
“CREATIVITY IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN PERFORMANCE, THIS IS WHAT I LOVE MY PROFESSION”
Why?
O.F.: Maybe I’m afraid. The actor never knows what will happen as a result. He knows the plot, knows the story, he can catch his own note during the filming. But it is by no means certain that it will be preserved in the montage, that the director will play on this note. But in fact, this is not even the main thing. It’s just that I am a person of the process, not the result, what is happening now is important to me. The rest is no longer interesting.
Do you know yourself well?
O.F.: Perhaps … But I would be curious to learn something about myself from the outside: from someone who would carefully observe me, listen to what I say, follow my gestures – and then tell me who I am and why.
Have you ever thought of turning, for example, to psychoanalysis for this purpose?
O.F.: I would definitely apply, but I don’t consider this attitude to life a problem. On the contrary, I like it. Wait, I think I found the keyword! It’s still great to give an interview to a psychological magazine: you learn something new about yourself! (Laughs.) So, the key word is “ambition”. I don’t seem to have them at all, I don’t understand what they are. And it would be interesting to know: how do people live with them? What do they feel? Perhaps I could figure it out if I was offered the role of a careerist. Then, having plunged into this role with my head, I would have known everything. But so far I have not been offered this role. And I do not understand what, by and large, we should strive for. Lots of money, lots of fame? So what? Well, here we are sitting in a good restaurant. And we can, if we want, order all the dishes that are on the menu. And probably, if we try, we can eat at least a part, at least the most delicious ones. And the rest – let’s try. But then we still get up and leave! Do you understand what I’m talking about?
Dates
- 1964 Born in Odessa.
- 1979 She starred in a cameo role in the TV movie “The Adventures of Electronics”.
- 1984 After graduating from school, she entered GITIS, but did not pass the competition.
- 1987 Took part in the country’s first beauty contest “Moscow Beauty”.
- 1988 Starred in the film Morning Highway. In the same year, she married Philip Yankovsky and received an invitation from Anatoly Vasilyev to his course at GITIS.
- 2011 For her role in the film “Lights of the Den” she received a special diploma from the jury of the Kinotavr festival, was nominated for the Golden Eagle and Nika awards.
Seems to be yes. If you were ambitious, you would shoot many times more, you would not leave the TV screen and the pages of gossip columns …
O.F.: As for gossip columns: it’s not about ambition. I’m just bored at all these events. Philip (Yankovsky, the husband of the actress. – Ed.) and I do not go to premieres for this reason. Well, if only very close friends and ask for support. But usually if we are waiting for a movie, then we go the next day after the premiere.
That is, you do not have an internal need to appear in a new dress or take a good pose in front of the lenses …
O.F.: Not! Just understand correctly: I recognize the right of others to feel and behave differently. My irony is precisely in relation to myself, to the way I perceive all this. And you are right about filming. I have already spoken about this in various interviews, although I did not think about ambitions. There are several points on which I check myself. If I get scared, if I don’t know how to play the role, if the heroine is very far from the real me, then such a project has a lot of chances to hear my “yes”. And more often it just turns out to be author’s, not very commercial projects. I’m so much more interested.
You are a beautiful, successful woman, you have a wonderful family, you live in abundance. Perhaps many will be tempted to assume that you just can afford it – do only what you want, play only those roles that are interesting …
O.F.: Do you know what I will answer? That I live the way you described, precisely because I perceive life the way I described it. If a person is forced to fight and fight forever, then perhaps he is not busy with his own business? Or suffers from those very big ambitions? I believe that each of us is endowed with his own talent – this is just my reinforced concrete conviction. And the talent needs to be realized. Discover the ability to create in ourselves, no matter what we do: creativity is possible in any business. Otherwise, there will be no money, and we will not become happy. This is how I see it, I believe in it. After all, if there is no money, then they are not there for some reason? And perhaps this is just a test, a sign that it’s time to stop rushing about and beating at the closed door, and instead sit down in front of the open window and think: what do I really want? And one more thing: if a person is angry, if it seems to him that he is the only one so unhappy, and everyone around is happy, then it will not get better. So it only attracts negativity.
Have there been any situations in your life when you still had to fight, gritting your teeth, to overcome something?
“IF A PERSON IS FORCED TO FIGHT ALL THE TIME, IS IT POSSIBLE HE IS JUST BUSY WITH NON-ONE’S BUSINESS?”
O.F.: It’s strange, I don’t remember. Maybe my memory is so helpful that it erases these moments like an eraser … But it seems to me that it is not. I guess I’m just not one of those who move boulders out of the way, but of those who flow around them like a stream. I didn’t get into acting at the time. And she said to herself: it means that it is not necessary. It will be necessary – it will come. And the profession really came by itself. First – filming, and then an offer from director Anatoly Vasiliev, who invited me to his course at GITIS. And I never dreamed of getting married. I fell in love with Philip and left. Somehow it turns out that my homegrown philosophy works.
Did you come to this philosophy on your own, or does it include the contribution of your parents?
O.F.: You know, I last saw my father when I was 14 years old, and before that, I think, at the age of three. So his contribution is rather genes. And my mother… My mother trusted me. Maybe because I behaved in such a way that she felt: I can be trusted. But she never controlled me. She brought me to a certain age, made sure that I know how to use a fork and a knife, I know how to behave, I read a certain number of books – and … Of course, she understood that there are some character traits that can be in my life interfere, but she was very delicate. She gave me freedom and I made my own decisions. She herself got a job as a secretary at the Zaitsev Fashion House at the age of 16, lying that I was already 17, she herself decided to participate in a beauty contest. She herself entered the acting – and did not enter. Your way, everything is fine.
Have your children received the same degree of freedom? Is becoming an actor their decision?
O.F.: Yes, Ivan entered the RATI a few years ago, and Lisa entered the Moscow Art Theater School this year. Of course, it’s their decision. It’s just clear that in an acting family there are more chances that a child will become an actor – at least try to become one. Is it different in the family of doctors or journalists? Children grow up in this atmosphere. And if they think that it suits them, then they should try. The only thing I said first to Vanya, and then to Lisa: I don’t interfere. But I don’t help either. Lisa went through the competition to all theatrical universities, where she applied. I chose the Moscow Art Theater. Well, now I’ll see how she does.
When your son entered, were you ready that in case of failure he would go to the army – did you talk about this in one of the interviews?
O.F.: Yes, I did and I can confirm. It’s also your way. I wanted to enroll and knew what would happen if I didn’t. Why interfere? To be completely honest, it would probably be difficult for me. And if it all happened, but at that moment there was a war somewhere in Afghanistan or Chechnya, I would call all my friends and acquaintances and do everything so that he would not be sent there. But just go to serve – no, I would not interfere with this. Perhaps this childhood is still playing in me, but it seems to me: if you feel open and confident, it is unlikely that something very bad can happen to you. You can call it my stupid naivety, but it seems to me that what we are afraid of happens to us. Fear is as much a magnet as hate, as is envy.
Isn’t there something you’re afraid of?
O.F.: I’m afraid to fly on airplanes. And you have no idea how much I suffer from this. But it is interesting: when my children fly, I am absolutely calm. This fear program of mine applies only to me. I realized a long time ago: if you are afraid of something, the worst thing is to transfer your fear to another person. And one more thing: with all my fear, if something, God forbid, happens to one of my friends, if someone urgently needs help, I sit down and fly without hesitation.
“WE NEED TO DEVELOP, DON’T STAND STILL! I THINK THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING”
And why do children get away from you?
O.F.: It gets if I feel that they are wasted and enjoy spending time. That’s when … I do not see myself from the side, but apparently I have a very characteristic look. Because the reaction immediately follows: “So, calmly, what should I do? Go read a book, huh? Yes, read, listen, think – anything, just don’t be “stupid”! You can’t stop developing. Do not be afraid to stumble, turn the wrong way. Standing still is the worst thing. Well, before, sometimes I got it for money reasons, I fought a lot with this. I have already won, I hope, but there were battles. I remember that Vanya and his dad once returned home. In a very expensive store, they bought Vanya a bunch of clothes. And Vanya was probably twelve years old. I looked at things, looked at the price tags. And she asked: “Did you keep the check?” – “Yes”. “That’s good, now go and take everything back.” This is important, it is very important to understand, especially for a teenager: you stand out and deserve respect not with clothes.
And how did your husband feel about it?
O.F.: Philip? He grinned and said to Vanya: “Oh! And what did I tell you? Go”.