Mikhail Efremov: “The Aesopian language will also return”

According to Russian Newsweek, in 2007, 12 films were released with the participation of Mikhail Efremov and at least 6 more were filmed, coming out in 2008. It seems that not a single significant picture of the season could do without Efremov: “12”, “Election Day”, “Irony of Fate. Continuation”, “Leningrad”, “Indigo” – as usual, this actor has all the roles of the second plan, but very memorable. Efremov, however, refuses the title "actor of the year", and in an interview with Leonid Parfyonov he insisted on wordings like "screen drummer".

18 films in a year - out and out - that's a lot! Is acting like this now – filming all the time, moving from set to set?

Work, in general, has always been like this. Well, my diploma says: "actor of theater and cinema." It's just that there is a movie boom in the country and there is a lot of work. Capitalism - our craft for the first time became part of a real industry.

That is pure technology? What is the purpose of creativity?

And the goal of creativity is self-giving, as you know ( laughs ). Nothing has changed here.

And not hype, not success - but this is not about actors, but about poets. Actors need success.

The opportunist Bernstein, arguing "the movement is everything, the goal is nothing," repeated John the Theologian. So simple actors can play without a great goal.

Even so, why is it always supporting roles? And if there were main ones, each would become a milestone.

Lead roles are too big a responsibility. It was in the theater that the actor took the stage - and then he is the master of the situation. And in the cinema, I am dependent on the operator, editing, voice acting, and the master of the situation is the director.

I feel you put theater much higher than cinema?

Why, there is also a cinema that, in a theatrical way, sets itself the task of comprehending character. Here I am now filming in the film "Belyaev" with Nikolai Khomeriki - very seriously. In such work, the director should be interesting to me, which is rare, of course.

But in general, cinema in a professional environment is still considered a matter below the theater?

I'm the son of theater actors. Mom and dad treated the cinema as a hack, which, of course, must be done with high quality, but the real service is theater. Cinema is like a vacation: I went to another city, to other people.

Is that why you are putting on a theater play after so many films?

Yes, I filmed so much in order to earn more money and calmly stage Andrei Platonov's Barrel Organ in Sovremennik - a performance that I dreamed about for 20 years. And filmmakers know: until April I have time only in Moscow and only from 15.30, because rehearsals are up to 15 o'clock every day.

Most of your roles are a middle-aged post-Soviet man who drinks hard and is crafty. This, of course, is a type rich in manifestations, but still - is this your role?

And I myself am a middle-aged post-Soviet person, drinking and crafty. And filmmakers go from the expected, and therefore invite me. You are right - the type is rich. I can play others, but I myself am a restless person, and although I know how to portray a very calm one, this is not really my thing.

I have not met non-drinking Russian actors, but why are you the only one who turned this inclination into your banner and proudly carries it?

How do you not know non-drinkers? Galina Borisovna Volchek or Oleg Palych Tabakov are not inclined people at all, although they worked so much with my father, who respected this business. And where did you get the idea that I carry proudly? Maybe I'm ashamed? (Laughs.)

You are honored at the Comedy club, asked to repeat after the host "I am the most outstanding supporting actor." You stand up and say: "I'm the most drunk supporting actor."

Again, going from the expected, I said this. They wanted to hear it from me - that's what they heard. The usual acting understanding of the public.

Don't you find that not only in the public behavior of the actors, but also in their performance, there is too much desire to give what they want to see and hear?

Of course, there are many non-repertory performances. A strong social order for the theater show, for the theater as a rest after work. It's OK. There is also an interest in serious theatre, which, by the way, is more persistent.

And the type of actor - in terms of work, in terms of internal state - has changed a lot since, for example, your father?

No, I'm currently working with very young guys - I don't see much difference. Of course, the computer and mobile phones have changed us all, time goes faster, the internal rhythm has become higher. But there is no change in human essence.

So, nothing prevents the theatrical boom from starting as well?

Certainly! As in any era, let's say, stability. And the theater will again raise the main public questions and give rise to fundamental disputes. You wait, and the Aesopian language will return.

HEREDITARY ACTOR

Mikhail Efremov was born in 1963 in the family of people's artists Oleg Efremov and Alla Pokrovskaya. In 1987 he graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, until 1991 he directed the Sovremennik-2 Theater Studio, then worked at the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. He has been acting in films since the age of 13 - the first film "Days of Surgeon Myshkin" (1976).