Tutta Larsen: "New people on MTV did not understand that they had trampled the fire that was burning"

She talked about working on television and in the press in the 1990s, how and why she turned from Tatiana Romanenko to Tutta Larsen, about the MTV phenomenon and her departure from the channel.

About the similarity of MTV to YouTube

We couldn't use foul language and show genitals, everything else in the frame was possible. Express yourself as you want, it's like now on YouTube, when you stand exactly what you are.

And no producers are hanging over you, you are not measured by any nasty ratings, they are not trying to stick you in some kind of box that you have to match.

You are trusted, and you do what you can, and the viewer votes for you if he likes it. In that sense, it was very similar to YouTube.

About the phenomenon MTV Russia

I think the MTV phenomenon was, firstly, in the novelty and in the fact that it was part of the huge machine of international music television.

It turns out that we just opened a grandiose information channel for young people.

And all these amazing videos that we had available, and all the interviews with the musicians, and all kinds of trips to the ceremony - it was then so inconceivable, it's as if you flew to Mars and suddenly Mars flew to you. It was cool!

About alcohol and drugs in the lives of MTV Russia presenters

There was a lot of alcohol, to be honest, but never at work, and apart from ******* I have never tasted anything stronger than *****. And, frankly, I was always frightened in general by people who flirt with their minds with the help of all kinds of psychedelics and so on.

It all passed me by, although I spent a lot of time in nightclubs as a correspondent, filming all kinds of crazy parties in the Hermitage, Penthouse and Titanic, but in my life I have never eaten a single pill, not a single one. I don't like states that I have no control over.

All our other guys were really just as far away as possible (from drugs - ed.). Komolov is a teetotaler, Anatolyevich never took a drop in his mouth at all, Shelest is a vegan and an extreme athlete, everything that is green and healthy rushes her. We had fun corporate parties, parties where someone got drunk, but the hosts, as a rule, did not. It's amazing, I am now listing this to you, I myself understand that we were all terribly boring in this regard. And apparently, that is why we were so vividly expressed in the frame, we had another drug, we had other stimulants - this is our job.

On leaving MTV Russia

Finally, some weird man came to run MTV, who refused to meet with us. I went to the secretariat for two months and said: "Hello, I'm Tutta Larsen, can I meet my new boss?" They said to me: "Not today". I said: "Write me down, I just want..." I don't even know what he looks like, I don't know by sight.

You see, a person runs my TV channel, I am the face of the TV channel he runs, and he not only has no desire to talk to me, but he seems to be avoiding me. I never met him. I walked around for two months and realized that it was time to leave here.

About the collapse of MTV

Zosimov left, television functionaries came, they did not understand at all what they got. That this is a fire, which must be constantly maintained in this burning.

This cannot be measured by the usual stereotyped standards that measure television. They started looking for ways to make more money, they started, therefore, figuring out the utility of each employee. They started poking us with ratings. Well, the people just started to creep apart.

The first to leave, in my opinion, were Olya and Anton, then the cool people began to leave from behind the scenes. We had such a completely brilliant designer who did all the graphics Gleb Orlov, he left. Directors and cameramen began to leave. The new people did not realize that they were dealing with unique personalities.

In an attempt to bring MTV to a common TV denominator, they simply stomped on the fire that was burning. Like elephants in a china shop ruined everything. Our general producers began to rotate very quickly. New faces came, brought in a new team, and began revenge in a new way. Some other part of the people fell off, and new people did not appear much. It is impossible that we are all diamonds.

About why it is impossible to create such a team, which was in the "golden period" of MTV Russia

They still tell me: "Why can't you create such a team of leaders as you had then?" There were such unique people, they were drawn exactly to the light of this fire.

Even the young people who came later - Ira Ponaroshku, Timur Rodriguez, Vanya Urgant - did not appreciate them.

They did not give an opportunity to express themselves and show themselves as they are. In fact, they also lost Rodriguez, he is there, poor, running errands for some correspondents, and he is super, just a superstar. It was all very sad.

How the pseudonym "Tutta Larsen" appeared

I have a beautiful name Tanya Romanenko, I love him, but how many Tanya Romanenko is there in the world? Before MTV was launched in Russia, they watched it on VHS tapes, passed it on to each other, gathered at home and watched the top twenty, there the European Top 20, or "120 minutes", or the Headbangers Ball.

And there were such presenters with such beautiful names ... There was Huke Dicampus, Marien Vandervockt, Katharina Lolipolli, and I was Tanya Romanenko, do you understand? Well, no hello at all!

And somehow we sat down with my colleague and today's partner Petro Sheksheev, and I say: “We need to come up with some beautiful pseudonym.”

For some reason, I don’t know, I was immediately carried away to Scandinavian fairy tales, there was some kind of intuitive impulse. And I say: "Well, look, Fröken Bock." He says: “Well, what kind of Fröken Bock are you? Look at you: you are a boy with earrings in your ears, and Fröken Bok is a big fat aunt. You are definitely not Fröken Bock. " And the second option was "Tutta Carlson". He says: “Cool, Tutta Carlson! But in our country, Carlson is associated with Carlson, who lives on the roof. " I say: "Well, there is also Ludwig Larsen ... And how is Tutta Larsen?" And he says: "Cool, Tutta Larsen, sounds cool!"

I went on the air once and that's it, it stuck to me. And it immediately became clear that Tutta Larsen had crawled out of me, that is, somehow she was born as a character in this very name.

You know, after all, “in the beginning was the Word,” and as an extremely religious person, a Christian, I believe that the word is sacred, holy and has material power. And here is the story with the pseudonym - it is absolutely like that.

I, of course, separate Tanya from Tutta. I think you can safely say that I work as Tutta Larsen, Tutta Larsen is the name of my profession. Here is someone a janitor, someone is a trolleybus driver, someone is a miner, an operator, and I am Tutta Larsen.

And at home, of course, they call me "Tanyusha" and "mama", but my friends call me Larsik very often, "Tuttik" or "Larsik", and my children are called "Larsiks", and it is already quite clear that this is more, than just a name.