There could be more evidence of greatness. But what is there is enough. Marina Neyolova conquers everyone and effortlessly. One of the best dramatic actresses of the time — and an outstanding clown. Intellectual — and diva. A recluse, but one of the most popular in the country. We're talking on the eve of a round date, but it doesn't mean anything to her talent. Great actress Marina Neyolova is waiting for Roles.
Photo: Yuri Rost /» Novaya «
— We are talking between New Year and Christmas. And the first question is not professional. If you felt like a sorceress not only on stage, but in life, what would you change in the world?
— I lack the naivety, warmth, vivid desires that previously accompanied us in life. I would like to go back in time and step forward at the same time. Humanism is what I miss the most.
— What still makes you love what you do?
— When I think that I need to go to a play, my mood always spoils. As if I am not ready, as if I do not want, as if I do not want, as if I am not in the mood, as if I am not able, as if I cannot take this step there, on the stage. Then I slowly, languidly, sadly, bored, irritably approaching, approaching, I understand that this is inevitable, but I am approaching this hour, to this moment, I keep looking at the clock and know that it will be anyway.
— Such a painful transformation? Love-hate?
— Nearly. It sounds pompous, but, nevertheless, step by step, something happens to you, to your body, regardless of yourself, some changes. You go in, sit on your makeup, they add something to your face, remove something, put on a «wig», then a suit … But you are still annoyed, you are still you, and she this is she that didn't connect with you. But you are approaching this, you go out there with this mood, open the door to the stage, and the actors have already gathered there, and you think: my God, my God, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t! Then you take a step — and you already feel good there, even for moments it is beautiful. You don’t know, in general, you’re ready for what you came up with, what you built, what you created, what you decided to do, but when you take a step there, you still don’t know how it will be. And it's always a step into something unknown. And when the action ends, and you cease to be her and have not yet become yourself, this intermediate moment is also strange. And then you become yourself and think: «My God, actually it was happiness.» Some other stars lit up, some twist of your partner's game delighted you, or you felt something different, and this gave you a new round of life, a new sensation.
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— How does the new role begin?
— From fear. This is the absolute feeling of a first date. I always catch myself on the fact that if I am offered a new role, I take on this play, I walk around it for a long time and I can’t start reading it for a long, long time, because I’m afraid.
— What?
— What if something like that doesn't connect with me, what if it doesn't excite me, doesn't open up something new. And you postpone this date.
— You can still escape from the first date, but no more from the distribution of roles.
— No, of course you can escape if it doesn't match at all. Neither with feelings, nor with reflections, nor with desire — in all respects! But then you think: why does it not coincide to such an extent, and you begin to decipher it all. And this is very, oddly enough, like a detective plot.
— Do you like detective stories?
— Very much! You unravel the mystery of the person, the starting points, the sensations. You walk, examining every centimeter, relying only on the lines addressed to the character. You start to unwind, unwind, move to the original sources.
— What in human nature is most attractive to you?
— Everything that is unfamiliar, everything that you do not understand. Why did she do it, said so, and why did she have such a feeling, such a thought? First you draw an outline, then you start painting it over.
— Is there a personal technology, a secret recipe, «cock's word» by Marina Neyolova, how to master a role?
— No.
— Always fresh?
— Of course. You don't know anything about this person.
— You don't know anything about this person, but you know a lot about yourself.
— No, and it has nothing to do! These are only my tears, only my pulse beating, only my physiology, but this has nothing to do with the person you are approaching and whom you try.
— What helped to become, say, Bashmachkin?
— Well, Valery Fokin and I began to rehearse with etudes in order to understand what kind of nature this person is. And here is the very first sketch, I remember, he said: «Well, write this phrase:» dear sir … «, for example.» I squatted down and began to write these letters for myself on the floor. And when the sketch was over, Fokin asked me: «How long do you think it lasted?» I say, «Well, maybe three or four minutes.» He says, «Twenty-five.» I have not noticed! I wrote one phrase: I got in touch with these letters — one touched me, the other made me laugh, the third was funny, the fourth was witty, the fifth irritated me. I just swam in this water, with such delight …
In the role of Akaki Bashmachkin. Photo: Yuri Rost
— Bashmachkin — the most distant character from you today?
— No, I would not say … For me, this is a kind of soul that everyone has, the World soul in each of us, to one degree or another, to one degree or another.
— Who was the most difficult? The Queen of England?
— She was very difficult because she was completely unpredictable.
— So you behaved as you wanted?
— It was Rimas Tuminas who built it as he wanted, these are his dreams and dreams, these are his fantasies, this is his completely different outlook and knowledge of some kind, this is his look, his absolute unpredictability, originality, surprise in everything. You read the scene, you assume that it should be conducted in this way, and suddenly he comes and offers you a diametrically opposite, absolutely paradoxical solution, from nowhere. It is absent neither in the text, nor in the very course of this drama. Where did he get it from?
— Well, probably from my inner text, I can assume knowing Tuminas.
— Yes, he set completely unexpected tasks that cannot be taken from anywhere, you cannot rely on anything: neither the text, nor the plot, nor anything at all. Suddenly a strange sentence, which, you think: why? I do not know why. You do not sleep a night, you do not sleep for two nights, you do not sleep for three nights, you appropriate, you appropriate, you justify, you explain, you try to find some kind of psychological justification anyway. Well, because in order to play, you need to understand what it means, why — well, me, at least. Why did she say that, why did she behave like that, and not just because of the lantern: she went out and suddenly fell for no apparent reason, fell to the floor. So, I need to explain it with something, and I try to explain it to myself for the night, another, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and I am looking-looking-looking for different dreams, too, and dreams that would explain it to me. Suddenly I find some moves.
Leonid Kuravlev and Marina Neyolova in the film“ Ladies Invite Cavaliers ”. TASS photo chronicle
— What did you learn from the directors who worked with you?
— In Rimas — try to justify the unjustified. Try to think completely out of the ordinary. Not according to the laws of reasonable human thinking. You see, he once told me that you don't have to play, you are portraying her. As you want, understand it. What does it mean, portraying? I lived with this word for many days, until … I still cannot translate it into theatrical language, but somehow I understood.
— He wanted to say that you are portraying, but it is necessary — to be?
— Not. There are many more layers in this «portraying». Here she says that I will now ride across the fields. What fields ?! The stage is three meters in total. On the one hand, takeoff into the sky, and on the other hand, an absolute landing. On what fields, when you have a stage three meters deep. On the other hand, you are still in the clouds somewhere.
— And what about Fokine?
— Fokine has such a paradoxical nature of thinking that his selection is always interesting. He loves and has always loved this etude method, the etude approach to the material. Because sketches are unexpectedness, immediacy, spontaneity, almost animal, animal response of the body to the director's proposal. I did so many roles with him that I love.
— You've worked with Volchek all your life …
— She is an absolutely acting director, and she had absolutely brilliant works. I always obeyed her, that is, she thought that I did not obey her at all. But there were such love discoveries. Starting from «Hurry to do good» to «Steep Route». Yes, they argued madly all the time, especially in recent years.
If I doubt something, I need to be convinced. If I’m convinced, I accept it right away.
— Well, it’s not easy to convince you.
— No, I’m not stubborn at all, I’m not because of stubbornness I argue! I just — destroy my doubt.
— Are you a doubting actress?
— Awful. And it bothers me very, very much. A sense of responsibility and doubt.
as Marina Neelov from the play «Autumn Sonata» by the script of the playwright Ingmar Bergman, staged by Ekaterina Polovtseva at the Sovremennik Theater. Photo: RIA Novosti
— Have you seen “at the bottom”?
— Yes, of course, it was a great performance. Then there was a fantastic performance at Volchek's «Two on a swing», where Kozakov played with Tatyana Lavrova, these were great artists with whom I was lucky enough to just go on stage, and whom I not only admired, lost consciousness, forgot that I was playing here myself, looked at them, could not tear myself away. Nina Doroshina, Tanya Lavrova, Oleg Dal, Tabakov, Evstigneev, Nikulin, Gaft, Kvasha … This was my real school, “my universities”. And, of course, Vasily Vasilyevich Merkuryev.
— Who is not of your contemporaries who are seriously important to you?
— Mikhail Chekhov. This is everything he did, everything he said, and the way in which he existed, and the way that he made to his character, to the discovery of the character — as if he was a teacher for me.
< p> — When reporters tackle you, everyone is always concerned only with personal life. What does this concept mean for you?
— I am an absolute introvert. Man of the corner, burrow. I really want to lose my temper and enter some kind of common life. But I cannot do this.