Svetlana Kolpakova spoke about the filming of the series “Alla Taxi”: “My driving is unfeminine”

The heroine of the series “Alla Taxi” on the channel “Russia 1” suddenly loses her husband, home, job and even risks losing the opportunity to raise her son. Making the right decision in such circumstances is quite difficult, but Alla, at first glance, throwing herself headlong into the pool, begins a new life for herself, which is gradually getting better.

The offer Svetlana Kolpakova received to play the main role can be called very tempting also because the actress was invited to become part of the project without any auditions. However, the actress thought for a long time before agreeing, but in the end she got the job, which she remembers with great pleasure. In a conversation with MK, Svetlana spoke about the intricacies of folk comedy, driving practice and acting calculations.

— You have a solid filmography, and you probably already roughly understand what roles they can offer you. Is the main character of “Alla Taxi” the image you expected?

— Probably, this role is close to my nature. But I have no preconceptions about the roles, and I don’t quite agree here that they are expected, they are different for me. Alla has a wide range of qualities, but the offer was made specifically to me and without testing. So maybe the script meant that I would play it.

– And you had no doubts?

— I doubted it, of course. Both at the level of reading the script, and due to my life circumstances, which took me away from filming. Then it seemed to me that the genre itself was difficult. But when I met the director and found out who the cameraman was, I not only immediately calmed down, but I understood which direction we were going, and I trusted the people with whom I went on this voyage. We have already worked with cameraman Konstantin Postnikov, and I was completely delighted. It was my first time working with director Rauf Kubaev, but when he explained that he wanted to make a folk comedy, to take a step towards the genre of the film “Love and Doves,” I became very interested in trying.

— Nowadays, the action of many TV series is deliberately removed from Moscow. How do you feel about this trend and where did you find the right character for Alla Taxi?

— If we talk specifically about our series, then I treat its non-capital nature with understanding and agreement. In addition to the provincial history, it meant colorful, powerful and summer nature in its own way. Not in terms of seas and cypress trees, but with the breadth of fields, sunflowers and so on. The artist found all this in the Voronezh region, and we filmed mostly in Pavlovsk and its environs.

“Apparently, during the work, a long-standing film tradition was violated, according to which the time of year of filming almost never coincides with the time of year in the frame. Apparently, you didn’t have to freeze in summer clothes…

— In our case, everything was according to the season. We needed two summers, that is, we were on pause for a year. It’s funny that during the year of waiting, my movie son grew by ten centimeters, so in general scenes the boy had to be placed on a chair, kneeling, squatting, and so on. This was the only way to hide the fact that there was no longer a difference in our height.

— There is nothing in the series that requires complex staging. Such projects are probably easier to shoot than those where eras change or clever special effects are used?

— I have different experiences, but in this case it was no easier for me. Probably because here the emphasis was on the internal component, after all, on camera I met such artists as Alexander Yakovlevich Mikhailov, Roman Madyanov, Olga Prokofieva, Marat Basharov. We had both scene analysis and some kind of search, that is, we were creative. It was great, I remember these shootings with joy, although for some reason I ran away from them for two years.

— In the shot you are driving a car, and it seems to me that you handled it very easily. On other film sets you got behind the wheel of much more exotic vehicles…

— There was even a motorcycle in one project, so I got an “A” in driving. In my life I drive almost all the time, I love it very much. I think I’m doing well. I would say that my driving is unfeminine, sometimes even reckless.

— Most likely, there is some kind of secret parking lot for the Moscow Art Theater employees, because it is very difficult to get a car in this area…

— There is one, we can even afford to drive along Kamergersky Lane.

— One of your first high-profile projects was the series “The Thaw.” Probably, then I had to get used to the fact that not all scenarios are like this…

“I was worried, but now I do it with humility.” Of course, the level of the “Thaw” is very rare. After that filming, for a long time I did not agree to projects that seemed very weak to me, and I already wanted to wait for the new “Thaw”. But soon I realized that I might not wait. Therefore, I decided to play not all roles in a row, but those that touch me, that contain something that I have not done before, or offer a genre in which it would be interesting to try myself. And, of course, the main roles, like in “Alla Taxi”, they allow you to do something important for yourself.

— You are busy in the theater, and in feature films, and in TV series. The latter have a much wider reach, which is probably very tempting for the artist. For you personally, can a huge television audience become a reason to compromise and agree to a project that is not the most interesting?

“I don’t count on that, because you could be very wrong.” Usually I read the script and understand: I’m interested, I want to audition. And sometimes I just feel that this is my material, I can develop it in it. It happens that I read and don’t understand why it was offered to me, and in such a situation, sometimes I also want to audition for adventurous reasons. But I don’t know how to calculate. On set, sometimes you can spit and be indignant, but the result will be very interesting. And vice versa. I decided for myself that if I go on a film journey, then I should at least have an active desire to play it.

— With the advent of platforms, new accents have emerged in the local serial industry. Projects have become tougher and more dramatic, even in comedies they are trying to offer some kind of psychoanalysis. As a consumer, what do you like more: light films to while away the evening, or exhausting dramas?

“I’m an omnivore and I try to watch everything I have time for.” Of course, like everyone else, I watched “The Boy’s Word.” I really love what Anna Parmas, Anna Melikyan, Boris Khlebnikov, Kolya Khameriki do, I worked with him and was fascinated. In general, I watch, I’m surprised, and sometimes I regret why I didn’t star in some project.

— All misfortunes befell your heroine in “Alla Taxi” at once, which, of course, is more cinematic than realistic. Have there been times in your acting career when you felt like everything was going wrong and you didn’t know how to get out of it?

— I think everyone has had them both in their careers and in life. Actors never have enough, they constantly want more and something of similar quality. But I never talk about such moments publicly, except at home in the kitchen.