Inter(off)view 4: Oleg Tabakov

Dear Oleg Pavlovich! In your acting life (exceptionally rich, fruitful and - thank God - far from complete) you had to change your role several times. When did you feel most at ease? Chopping up bourgeois furniture with a saber? Stretching from sleep in a black SS uniform? Stretching out of sleep towards the careless faithful Zakhar? Or maybe stretching out of sleep with Matroskin? (For my part, thank you so much for everything and happy belated birthday. God bless you with health and strength!)

I am a character actor and have never identified or united myself with the characters I embody. Don't confuse me with the heroes. I have three grandchildren - and I love them all equally. It’s the same here: it’s difficult to single out where it was more comfortable. Probably, after all, in Oblomov.

Is an actor someone who lies all the time? Isn't it hard? Isn't it destructive for the individual?

This question should be addressed to those actors who lie. After a heart attack at 29, I only take on characters that are interesting and dear to me. In this case, you won’t lie.

Oleg Pavlovich, what do you think about the future of our theater? I'm talking about actors who are now being trained in our theater universities. How do you assess the quality of current theater education?

Good quality! If talented people, such as Fomenko, Pokrovskaya, Lobanov, Droznin, Leontyev and others, are doing this.

Oleg Tabakov said in an interview that he had destroyed all corruption, it seems. Or - the theft that happened before his arrival. Will he change the director of the theater in this case, or has corruption and theft flourished in the Moscow Art Theater from below?

The director of the theater, as you probably already know, is new - Marina Evseevna Revyakina, former director of the Globus Theater in Novosibirsk.

Do you act as the Provisional Government at the Moscow Art Theater? Don’t you think that the situation with the leadership of the Moscow Art Theater has begun to resemble the situation with the leadership of the USSR from 82 to 85?

In September 2001, I firmly declare that I will definitely stay at the Moscow Art Theater for four years.

God grant you long life and good health, but, nevertheless, what kind of “fresh stream”, “young blood”, etc. and so on. can we talk? Or is this in the tradition of the theater? I remember when Efremov came there, he was still a young man. His arrival shook up and revived the theater, which was already on its last legs. What if that place had been taken by one of the Moscow Art Theater “old men”, talented, loved by the people, etc., etc.? The theater would die... Maybe you are preparing some young people for this place? Or will everything be like in the Politburo? Please forgive me for some political incorrectness, I love you very much as an actor, but age is an inexorable thing, unfortunately.

Oddly enough, I began to study pedagogy while being the director of Sovremennik. He started teaching children at the age of 39. Then, at the age of 52, he was able to open a theater on Chaplygina Street. At the age of 50 he began to manage the Studio School. All this went quite successfully. I believe that my latest decision - to head the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater - will benefit the theater.

What is your relationship with O. Efremov’s son?

I have a certain relationship with Oleg Nikolaevich’s children, because they were the same age as my children and they have their own relationships. In general, the logic of human relationships is determined not by words, but by actions.

Don't you feel partly to blame for the tragedy that happened to Natalya Gundareva? Sorry for the question - it arose not only for me. Thanks for your candid answer.

I don't feel guilty. Since trouble befell Natasha a few weeks after she left our performance, by the way - by her will. And most importantly - God bless her!

Are you going to combine the compositions of Tabakerka and the Moscow Art Theater in the future? After all, you are already attracting your “Tabakerkovsky” actors to the Moscow Art Theater performances.

This question is for the distant future. I prefer to first organize a creative community of actors from these theaters, and then draw organizational conclusions from this.

I would like to know if O. Tabakov is going to come on tour to Yerevan with “Tabakerka”?

I would like to, but this problem is purely material. If there is a structure that will solve economic problems, then we will happily find ourselves in this kind and gentle city.

Oleg Pavlovich, who do you think will take the place of the main Troll in “Tabakerka” after you leave?

To do this, the old Troll needs to leave his home, which I am not going to do yet.

Dear Oleg Pavlovich. I am glad to have the opportunity to contact you. And here's the question. I somehow lost my spirituality. Nothing in this life attracts me, nothing makes me tremble. I don’t have faith, and I’m already 37. It’s not necessarily faith in God, maybe you can advise me of something of your own, how does this happen for you, do such moments happen in your life...

Anything has happened in my life, but I almost always helped out, saved a few things - doing what I loved, “love for my father’s coffins” and, finally, the understanding that life does not end with me, the silver cord will continue to last.

Russia has just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the August 1991 coup. She noted it shamefully - NOTHING. What were those three days like for you personally?

The latest and very dangerous surge of the immorality of “Bolshevism” in Russia.

Is it true that YOU keep friendship with the dark forces of EVIL, and in this case, with whom do you communicate with them do misfortunes happen? In 1993, YOU drank champagne for the shooting of the House of Soviets, isn’t it a shame? Don't you dream about bloody devils? And how do you now support in the country NARCOLAG, SPIDOLAG, SIFLAG, BESPIRAZORLAG, worse than the GULAG a million times, the country is dying out at the rate of 1 million a year voluntarily and with SONGS-CLIPS, ARE YOU FOR THIEVES?

I am extremely surprised where such strange and untrue information comes from. Firstly, I don’t like champagne, and if I would drink it, I’d drink vodka for the success of other people who are diametrically opposed to those for whom you attribute sympathy to me.

Dear Oleg Pavlovich! Let me congratulate you on your birthday, which strangely coincided with the day of the nation's entry into the global economy through default. What feelings did you experience on this day three years ago and did you try to save your money in any way?

That year, 1998, like a large number of my fellow citizens, I lost a significant amount of my savings. But I don’t consider this a disaster. May God bless you and I will earn money again.

Happy Birthday, Oleg Pavlovich! By the way (or inappropriately) - how do you celebrate it?

Celebrating with family and friends.

What does actor Tabakov have for breakfast? What does he drink for dinner?

For breakfast - buckwheat or oatmeal. At night I drink Wimm-Bill-Dan fruit drink with ice.

What foreign languages ​​do you speak? And with whom?

With students of the Summer School in Boston - in English. Sometimes quite a lot of words come up from the German I studied... And when I’m fooling around, I can speak Finnish, and Georgian, and in general all languages.

You have lived a long, incredibly fruitful and vibrant life. Based on this, what do you now think is the most important thing in life?

The main thing is to do what you love. "A person should be happy with what he does."