Actor Gorevoy about cop serials and earnings: “I have already recovered from whims”

In the series “Puzzle” of the NTV channel, Mikhail Gorevoy played both a diplomatic and tough police general. Without a doubt, both the form and the image of a security official who has connections on both sides of the law suit the actor. Sometimes it seems that he played a lot of such characters, but his great acting experience just allows him to turn even the expected roles into piece works.

Filming in movies and TV shows does not take all the time of Mikhail Gorevoy. The actor plays a lot in the theater and also teaches acting. Nevertheless, Mikhail’s filmography is really impressive. In addition to Russian projects, it contains about three dozen foreign films, including Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies and the Bond series Die Another Day. Probably, after such heights, the actor could well be capricious when choosing scripts, but Gorevoy clearly prefers to be busy with work.

– Artists, of course, sometimes they are capricious, but it has already hurt me, – the actor notes with irony in an interview with MK. — When choosing a material, I am primarily interested in its quality. What kind of role is it, is it well written, will I have the opportunity to suffer the theme and make the audience react with tears or laughter. Of course, the salary that is offered for this work is also of interest. But now the ringing around is no longer interested. It’s very funny to see how some variety artists, as a rule, grumble in order to become the main wah in their swamp.

– Your colleagues sometimes say in interviews that you need to find something positive and justifying in any character. What’s good about General Vlasov from “Puzzle”?

There are no positive or negative characters for me. It’s all for viewers and critics. My task is to make sure that the most fierce villain and scoundrel in my performance, and I am often used in such images, would be alive, logical and motivated. To make the audience feel something for him. If we are talking about Vlasov, then he survived the tragedy, his daughter died. He only stumbled once, and it ended with everything around him collapsing. Vlasov is an ambiguous person, like all of us.

– Critics sometimes lament the fact that in crime series, police officers are created as if by a template. Do you think there is such a problem?

– Most critics, unfortunately, are busy only with themselves, and their main task is to show the public how smart and extraordinary they are. The shows are all different. Fischer recently passed. I don’t know if it’s a cop or not, but it’s just a great series. And a lot is really done according to the pattern. I am often asked how the film industry works in America, where I worked. So, everything is calculated there. And here, too, they begin to calculate and remove the product for different groups of the population. Compare Zhvanetsky, Petrosyan, KVN and Comedy Club. It’s a completely different kind of humor for a different audience. So it is with series. Simpler people like one thing, those who are more prepared prefer something completely different. And the comments of critics are unlikely to change this.

What genres of films and series do you personally like?

– I’m a cinephile. In my house there is no sauna, no billiards, no swimming pool, but there is a small cinema. More precisely, a room with a screen, and I spend almost all my free time there. I am not interested in individual genres, but in cinema as a whole. And I act in films of various genres. The most interesting thing in my life is to conduct laboratory work on myself, to explore myself by the method of acting.

– Sometimes your colleagues note that they try to choose roles and projects based on whether this film or series can then be shown to their own children and grandchildren. Is it important to you?

— Of course, it is important. I try not to take part in some kind of savagery or vileness, which are now blooming in full bloom both in the cinema and in the theater. At the same time, my children and grandchildren still eat. I am a craftsman and have already developed to the point that I can live on what my profession brings. It is common to think that we are paid a lot, but this applies to a tiny percentage of artists. I was very lucky. I don’t know how and don’t want to do anything other than act in films and play in the theater, but I can feed my family with my work.

— You have a busy theatrical life, and on stage you usually play slightly different characters than on the set. Where is more interesting and difficult for you: in the theater or in the cinema?

– These are different professions, and the main difference is that in the theater everything happens here and now. You have a live audience in front of you, and if you are a good artist, you can establish a spiritual connection with the audience and get an instant response from people. That is why the theater is, of course, more difficult.

— Given the fact that you also teach, you probably have a lot of reasons to grumble at today’s creative youth. Is it possible to say that young actors and students have a completely different attitude towards the profession than actors of your generation?

“Young people are, of course, better than us. They can do more. In order to get some rare play, I once had to go to the theater library. Now everything can be obtained within a few seconds, without going anywhere. In fact, a person remains a person with his basic feelings: love, hate, fear, and so on. But it is frustrating that there is a substitution of concepts. Studying the Stanislavsky system at the Moscow Art Theater, we were engaged in science, learning about the life of the human spirit. And then this knowledge was applied to those very human souls that came to the theater. Now the spirit is somewhere in the area of ​​the solar plexus. The current gentlemen have slightly shifted their sights and are exploring the life of the human belly, groin and bzdeha. This is how performances and films are obtained that destroy the human soul. My mother is eighty-two years old, she is very active and educated in everything related to the theater, one might say, a professional spectator. But now I can’t send my mother and my eleven-year-old granddaughter even to the Little Humpbacked Horse, I’m not sure that the Little Humpbacked Horse will not suddenly turn out to be some kind of pervert. This substitution of the essence and meaning of what we profess can deprive us of our sacred knowledge and unique skill in the profession. And this is my main current sadness.

– If you decide to write a memoir, then the chapter on filming abroad will be very exciting. You’ve starred in Spielberg’s, played in big Hollywood films, appeared in the frame with international stars. Have you thought about switching entirely to filming abroad and living where the international film scene takes place? Where do you feel most comfortable working?

– I really was lucky to work with great masters and even get used to it quite well. It’s incredibly interesting and very difficult. It is not enough to know the language well, you need to understand the structure of their human relationships. There everything is more precise and more accurate, but here it is as if on delays. There, the preparatory period is the most important moment, they just harass the details. And with us, on the contrary, for some reason we are so confident in ourselves that we think that we will succeed. With us, every day is a heroic hell, and there it’s just the work of professionals under normal conditions. But I’m better off here anyway. It is easier to work in your native language, in your native social environment. In addition, in Russian, I can dive into my profession much deeper. I lived for some time abroad and I understand well that here I am like a phone that works from the network. And there I am on batteries that sit down.