The son of Leonid Kuravlev revealed the story of his love: “Dad was 16, mom 13”

“Of course, my father taught me a lot, and it’s difficult to single out something,” Vasily Leonidovich began a conversation with me. – And my father’s words, which I remember more often than others, are perhaps the following: “So we will live.” This phrase, which has worldly wisdom and deep meaning, ends the film “Such a guy lives.”

– Vasily, what did you take over from your father? Are you similar in character to him?

– From my father I have a lot in appearance. The nature? I don’t think so, they are not the same. Outstanding people generally go their own way.

What traits do you miss?

– I am self-sufficient, and I have a completely different life. Perhaps even his remarks, which elderly parents make to their already adult children, are not enough. Father was not too categorical, but we, like all people, could disagree, argue, swear sometimes.

– Were you really named after Vasily Shukshin?

— To some extent, yes. In addition, my mother’s father, my grandfather, was Vasily Ivanovich, so my parents very quickly agreed on this name.

– When you were growing up, Leonid Kuravlev had already become famous throughout the country as an artist. Did it interfere with your perception of him as a father? Did it affect your childhood life?

— Yes, it somehow affected, certainly. But it would be wrong to think that today, on a certain day, the father is an actor, and then he turns into just a dad. It was all connected anyway. At home, the father could not be the same as on the screen. On the set, he played different characters, in one picture some, in another – others. But in such a way that he completely played himself, it is unlikely.

– Was Leonid Vyacheslavovich really unsociable in life, did not like hype, chaos?

– Partly it is. And the older he got, the more reserved he became. Probably, this is not his trait by nature – to be constantly in public, in plain sight. His profession, which he certainly loved, was in some contradiction with his character traits. For others, it was in many ways surprising, of course.

– This solitude, closeness … Maybe it was somehow connected with his childhood? (At the beginning of the war, when Kuravlev was little, his mother was sent into exile on an anonymous denunciation; she was able to return to Moscow only in 1951. — Approx. ed.)

“Obviously, it all had an effect. And then, when he entered VGIK for the first time, he did not succeed. The next year he succeeded, but then he had a serious threat of expulsion from his second year. But, fortunately, classmates stood up for him, went to the dean’s office and asked that he not be expelled. And only after that he believed in himself, and his business went uphill.

Did he tell you why he decided to become an actor?

— My father was not the most diligent student in the school, but he had an ardent desire to be a student. Why did he choose the acting profession? His cousin once said: they say, Len, since you are bad at mathematics and physics, go to a theater university to do it, you don’t need to take these subjects there! He immediately said that he would try. Relatives laughed, thought that all this would remain at the level of a joke, but he really showed perseverance. But in his youth, he did not show any special acting abilities. My father himself often said: I would not have entered another institute, but there were at least some chances at the theater.

– Did famous actors and friends often visit your house?

— Yes, we had guests at our house on a regular basis. I remember a lot of people from filmmakers. Just recently, with special warmth, I recalled the director Mikhail Abramovich Schweitzer, who shot The Golden Calf. As a child, I met him and his wife Sofya Abramovna Milkina several times. By the way, initially it was they who gave impetus to dad as an actor, one of the first to believe in me. Yes, and they loved him and our whole family, were senior comrades for many years.

– In life, Kuravlev knew how to joke?

– Yes, of course, I loved and appreciated the sense of humor. Here, too, it must be said that an artist cannot be too closed. Dad was different! One day he might come across as a very open person, but the next time he met, the opposite was true. He had such interweaving in character. It depended on a lot of things, including the roles he played.

– When you yourself were a teenager, it didn’t bother you that everyone asked if you were Kuravlev’s son?

— It was, of course. On the other hand, people generally reacted kindly to it.

– Do you know why he agreed to the role in the film “All This Jam”? (This is the last role of Kuravlev, where he played a priest. — Approx. ed.)

— No, I don’t know for sure, because I don’t know what this film is about. This is a must see, of course. In one of his few interviews, my father said that he draws strength from the Orthodox faith. It probably started after my mother died. After her departure, he became very homesick, and faith helped him somehow overcome this.

– Your mother and father knew each other almost from childhood, and then they got married and carried their love through their whole lives …

– It’s true! Dad is only three years older than mom, and when they met, he was 16, and mom was 13. Some kind of sympathy, of course, immediately appeared. And then the older they got, the more time they spent together. They got married when their father was already 24 years old. They carried their love throughout their lives, for which I am very grateful to my parents. It is very important for children that their parents are together. Father often told us after the death of my mother that she was for the most beautiful and incredible.

Was his mother jealous? After all, Leonid had so many fans, everyone loved him, adored him.

“They probably discussed this issue at some point. But they didn’t let me into it. Yes, I am a rather late child, too.

Are you friends with your older sister?

– Oh sure. We talk and see each other a couple of times a month. Although she, like dad, is also a rather closed person. They wrote a lot here that she did not come to his funeral. Yes it’s true. But after the death of her father, she had a very strong stress, she could not cope with it and simply could not come.

– The last months of Kuravlev were very difficult …

– This is true. It’s hard to talk about it. We saw that the strength of the pope was leaving, and he was taken to the hospital, where he died. He did not have Covid, as many said. In fact, I would not like to touch on his last months of life.

But I remember well that before his death, he wanted his children, grandchildren, and closest relatives to be healthy and happy, so that everything would be fine with them. Everything is just like that!

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“Leonid Kuravlev took place as an actor, as a person. He played many wonderful images that remained in the memory, he is like the face of our time! – said “MK” famous actress, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Elena Drapeko. – In every house he is his own, dear. He is not physically on earth, but he is still with us. Every day, on some channel, films with his participation and his smile are shown. And while we watch it, it will stay with us!”

– How did you meet Kuravlev for the first time?

– We starred in the film “Live in Joy” (1978), where he played an inventor, and I played his wife Ulyana, who forbids her husband to invent. His hero lived in the village and all the time came up with all sorts of machines to make life easier. He came up with a machine that kneads dough for mother-in-law, machines for plowing. But since he worked at home, rattled and made noise, his wife told him – either I will divorce you, or you will stop! I was quite young then. And Kuravlev’s son Vasily was just born. I remember that Leonid was very worried about his son, he talked about him all the time. One day we were driving along the road with a driver from the set, it was raining heavily, and the driver began to overtake large trucks. Kuravlev suddenly screams: “Stop, stop! I have to get home, my wife and son are there!” Filming took place in the city of Kalinin (now Tver). There are still many great artists filmed there. Kuravlyov came for two or three days, only to his stages. I didn’t live in the hotel for a long time, so we didn’t communicate closely with him. But then I had one impression – he always took his work seriously, prepared, knew the text by heart, put on make-up for a long time (they made a “forelock” on his bald head). He was always such a serious person, taciturn painfully.

Was it scary to shoot with him, with such a professional?

– Not. After all, by this time I also had quite a few films, and I had already become a well-known artist. In this film, a not very simple situation happened with the director, he was changed. Edited by another director. But, in my opinion, the film turned out to be strong and interesting. It is still shown on television to this day. And then we hardly saw each other with Leonid Kuravlev, only at general events in the Union of Cinematographers. Together they starred in other films, but the common scenes no longer happened. I lived in Petersburg, and he lived in Moscow. He never engaged in public life, so we met very rarely.

I remember and know that Leonid Vyacheslavovich was a reserved person. And with the film crew, and with colleagues. A serious, correct person with a deep inner life. He does not need popularity in the cinema company, he did not need everyone around him to admire and be the center of attention. Kuravlev is a man in himself. He always thought about his family, and for him it was the main thing in life. The last time I was at his anniversary evening at the Cinema House, and then, as far as I understood, he was persuaded to come there with great difficulty.

What is your favorite film with his participation?

– Probably, “There is such a guy.” Yes, he has a lot of good serious roles. He is an artist and always sculpted his character from his own features and from what he observed in life.