Vasily Lanovoy: "I am a peasant son, period"

Angelica Zaozerskaya

The actor played many roles in the cinema and in the theater, but his most favorite film, according to him, is “How the Steel Was Tempered” based on the novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky. Today, young people have no idea who Pashka Korchagin is, while many generations of Soviet people were brought up on this hero.

Lanovoy himself, with his enormous social work, including the Immortal Regiment movement, was not limited to the role of an actor. To paraphrase the poet, Lanovoy was more a citizen than an artist.

"NI" publishes the statements of Vasily Lanovoy about life, work, heroes, love, with whom he shared in personal interviews taken at the Shchukin Theater School, at the Vakhtangov Theater, at the Vivat Cinema, Russia festival, with Angelica Zaozerskaya.

About the play "Last Moons" at the Vakhtangov Theater:

- My hero has a unique and endless love for his wife. He loves a son, an adopted son, whom he sometimes mocks at, but when the son leaves, he realizes that only love has the only meaning in this life. It's hard for me to play this role, because my hero is going through difficult shocks - his deceased wife comes to him and asks about life, and then he is forced to say goodbye to her again. I am very worried, I suffer when this role. Despite the fact that the Vakhtangov school is a school of performance, I take each role to heart.

Note that I play only in those performances where global issues of the human spirit and life are raised ... We have been playing the play "Dedication to Eve" for 23 years at the Vakhtangov Theater, where the eternal problems of men and women are touched upon, and I really love this performance. Man has nothing more powerful than love.

War as the main test in life:

- I recorded five discs with military poems and songs. The theme of war is the most important for me. For three and a half years I was in the occupation, and for me the war does not go away with age, but remains as the main memory and the main test. My parents became disabled working during the war in a chemical plant that produced anti-tank fluid. The war entered my blood, and I could not do anything about it. My favorite poets are frontline poets: Semyon Gudzenko, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Tvardovsky.

My home is a theater:

- The artistic director of the Vakhtangov Theater Rimas Tuminas calls me a “knight of the theater”, and I consider myself a “soldier of the theater”. For me, theater is the main thing, and I have always been and will be a soldier of the Vakhtangov stage. I was invited to other theaters, but I never considered these proposals. For me, losing the Vakhtangov Theater meant losing the House. I accepted everything that was happening in the theater and defended it as my fortress. I never asked for roles, but waited patiently. My home is the Vakhtangov Theater.

Peasant roots:

- It is disgusting to listen when people come up with titles and boast of "blue blood". I played in the cinema and in the theater of counts, princes, but this is just a game. I myself am a peasant son. My parents finished three classes of school. I was born in a peasant family, ate potatoes in uniforms, and what kind of aristocrat I am? My teacher, Tseselia Lvovna Mansurova, was an aristocrat, she taught us secular manners, and I know them well, but in my heart I was and remain a peasant son. I will note that my parents are ordinary workers, they gave me a good upbringing.

The secret of youth:

- The war took away my parents - very beautiful people - health. I have been thinking about my health since my youth. I always went in for sports, did and do exercises, do not smoke, do not drink (only a glass of wine), I run in the morning, and most importantly - I love life. Next to me are young people, with whom it is always interesting and fun.

About fame and copper pipes:

- I repeat that I was very lucky with teachers in my life. I played a major role in a movie when I was young, and I could have been dizzy with success. But my teacher Sergei Stein talked to me very strictly: “Vasya, if you don’t want your brains to go crazy, don’t listen to compliments, and don’t think that you are as wonderful as they say about you.” Sergei Lvovich was an ironic person, and said that "only fools are happy with themselves." I am a representative of the old Russian acting school, which melted into roles, and did not engage in self-PR. Moreover, I believe that a real actor should keep quiet about his life, not shout, because this interferes with the roles.

I hate it when actors begin to tell in detail about themselves, how they did it, but how - this is ... Actors of the Imperial Maly Theater used to say: “the acting profession should be a little secret, the viewer should not know about the artist's everyday life, about his stupidity, mistakes , an actor must be a mystery. " And today everyone wants to be "stars" and "stars", and for this we are ready for “anything”. By the way, in the Soviet theater and in the Soviet cinema there was not even the concept of "star". Although our Mikhail Ulyanov is no worse than Marlon Brando, in my opinion.

Dream of becoming a pilot:

- More than anything else I dreamed of becoming a pilot. He entered the flight school, but did not pass the selection for health. It seemed to me that I was in good health, I did a lot of sports, but for some reason the commission rejected me. I was very upset. He entered Moscow State University, and then at the Shchukinskoye Theater. I think that I would not have turned out to be the best pilot in the world, because I am a very impulsive, emotional person.

Not a word about personal:

- Irina Petrovna Kupchenko and I never talk about each other for the press. Those who meddle in our family affairs I'm sending away. Once I've "sent" someone very far away straight at the television studio. Irina Kupchenko is a brilliant actress, and this is a fact. Irina Petrovna believes that an actor has no age if he is a real artist and she is right. At least in the theater, an actor has no age (if everything is in order with physics). We have been living together with Irina Petrovna for over 40 years, thank God. And dear God for this “thank you” - all that I can tell you about our family life. The viewer does not need to know the rest. The artist must remain a mystery.

Favorite movie role:

- I am very sorry that I played little in comedies. It seems to me that I have everything in order with a sense of humor.

Of the 80 roles I single out - episodic in the comedy "Striped Flight". Yes, yes, at sea ... And I am talking about this quite seriously, but they do not believe me. There was no time for error in this tiny role. The most accurate work of mine. And the most dear to my heart is the role of Pavel Korchagin in the film by Alov and Naumov. Why? Yes, because I am a child of war, and everything that is connected with the tragic past of our country, with the disinterestedness of man, and about this - Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" is dear to me. Korchagin is my first civilian role, my first real role. I think I played it ok. I agree that I am not the best Pashka Korchagin in the world, but also not the worst.

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