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- "I don't drink the blood of screenwriters, directors, costumers, but I pour out my own in liters"
"I don't drink the blood of screenwriters, directors, costumers, but I pour out my own in liters"
Trying to play something that you don't have is idiotic, says actor Dmitry Chebotarev. He finds himself in a variety of characters, from Vronsky in Danil Chashchin's acclaimed "Karenina" to antagonist Oleg Volkov in the "Major Thunder" franchise. Chebotarev is also familiar to a wide audience from "Vampires of the Middle Lane", which got into the fresh top 100 of the Russian rating of TV series. Unlike his toothy character, Dmitry prefers not to drink blood, but to "pour it out" — on the set and while working on the role. In an exclusive interview with Izvestia, he told how the meeting with the Hollywood coach of Jim Carrey and Sylvester Stallone became a turning point in his career, why he hung a photo of Vincent Cassel in the trailer during the filming of Prints, and what plans he has for the foreign market.
"I'm a fan of the prep period. This is my bread"
— You said that you are ready to pay for every role. How did the "Prints" and your character get hooked?
— I am ready to defend my every role, I am ready to answer for it. That's probably what I meant. People often ask which role is their favorite or which project is closest. I always answer that I can't single one out because I love every role and agree to them for different reasons, sometimes only understandable to me.
Several factors coincided in the "Prints" at once. First, the story. Secondly, the director Sergey Filatov, with whom we have already worked. I knew that he was preparing this project, and when the material reached me, I realized that I wanted to participate. Thirdly, of course, the partners. When I read and auditioned, it was not yet known that Oksana Akinshina and Anya Bogomolova would become them. I'll mark them separately because my character is associated with them. Oksana and I have already had our fifth or sixth joint project. Everything turned into a feeling that this was fate.
A shot from the TV series "Fingerprints"
— How are you similar to the hero?
— One of the big artists said that trying to play something that you don't have is idiotic. I agree with that. There's a big part of you in every role. The actor's task is to determine what the character wants. That's the main thing. His motives, his ultimate goal. This is what the actor has in common with the hero. We all want clear things: love, recognition, power, justice, revenge. When you understand what a character wants, you ask yourself if it resonates with you. And everything he does to achieve his goal is already the work of a screenwriter.
— You are meticulously preparing for the role.
— Yes, but I don't bother anyone with it. I don't drink the blood of screenwriters, directors, costumers and make-up artists and everyone who works tirelessly for the benefit of the project, but I pour out my own in liters. My "Prints" were covered with scene analysis sheets all over the car. Completely. The scenes are shot randomly, but I had the whole picture in front of my eyes: where I came from, in what condition, where it leads. And there was a picture of Vincent Cassel from the movie "Hate" at the entrance. It's a black and white French cult film. It seemed to me that Denis is very similar to Cassel's character in terms of energy and some kind of animal motives.
A shot from the TV series "Fingerprints"
— Apparently, you feel better when everything is under control. Is there a place for improvisation in this format?
— I'm just so used to it. I'm a fan of the prep period. This is my bread. I really love creating a character. Any hero must become a living person. And he becomes alive when you understand his assessment system, biography, profession, manner of speech, behavior, appearance, and immediate environment. All this accumulates like a snowball, and ideally turns into a real person on the screen. I really hope that I have managed to create such a person in the person of Denis Simonov.
This format of work helps me a lot. When I get to the set, I no longer have any questions: why is the character here, what does he want, where did he come from, how should he feel in the next scene. This kind of preparatory homework saves time. You don't torment the poor director with questions.
"Actually, I have a feeling that I've lived several different lives."
— Yes, you're an excellent actor.
— Not always, but in this regard, I constantly try to keep myself in good shape. And that's what gives space for improvisation. You know the character so well that you freely exist in it.
An image from the movie "Major Thunder: The Plague Doctor"
I had a case at the Shchukin Institute. I have been working on Gogol's "Portrait" for a very long time based on artistic reading. He literally lived by this work. And when I had to read in front of the teachers, I forgot the text. At that moment, Vasily Semenovich Lanov, a great artist and an excellent teacher at the Shchukin Institute's stage speech Department, was listening to me. And knowing Gogol's language and the plot of the work, I retold one or two paragraphs using Nikolai Vasilyevich's speech. And then I remembered and followed the text.
Vasily Semenovich has been engaged in artistic reading all his adult life. And he couldn't help but be surprised. Then he asked my teacher, "What was that? I know Gogol practically by heart. That's not what it says." And my teacher says: It was the editorial office of the Arabesque almanac. They say it's a very rare specimen, which is why it sounds unusual. At that moment, I realized that when you spend a long time with a character, you understand what motivates him, how he breathes, then in some situations you can improvise.
— And how quickly do you remove these characters from yourself?
— I try to treat acting like children treat a game. They don't have to explain the rules for a long time. They turn on at maximum per second until you say "stop". You say, "Let's play tag." They don't say, "Let me tune in." No, they fit right in. And sincerely and as much as possible. Then you invite me to play football. They say, "Oh, cool!" And they don't have to say, "Okay, guys, I just went through the tag. Now we need to change our mindset before football." No, they immediately switch to football and cut down.
I want to get to such a level in acting that I can turn on in a second. To turn your actor's body into a mechanism, to know exactly which button to press to activate this or that emotion. And then hit the brake and stop.
— Are there any "stops" in the profession? Which you definitely won't do.
— Not yet. I am against boring, hopeless, uninteresting, inanimate stories. On the contrary, I am in favor of all kinds of challenges. I'm very impressed with that.
— In "Prints" the plot is tied to an orphanage. Does this topic affect you more as a father of two children?
— I'm getting more sentimental in life — there's no getting away from that. There is nothing more beautiful than watching your children grow up and your family expand. Not in my profession, but I'm becoming more precise about the "childish" question.
A frame from the movie "Chelyuskin. The first ones"
We had a case on the set: young actors were given a child, but they did not understand how to treat him, how he affects their condition. And that's okay. When we shot the "Container" with Oksana Akinshina, there was a baby there — or rather, several, they were changed because children grow up quickly. And I was constantly messing with them. I remember the scene: I'm holding the baby in my arms, he falls asleep, mom says, "Let me rock him," and I calmly answer: "Let me do it myself." And I'm rocking you. And you realize that in a professional sense, it's also a skill, like fencing, riding, shooting, swimming, having a category B driver's license, and riding a motorcycle (laughs).
And I also have a personal history with the orphanage. I was born and raised in Khabarovsk, and I played football all my childhood. One of the fields was at the orphanage, the boarding school, and I spent a lot of time with the guys from there. That's probably why when I read Prints, it didn't bother me so much—I'd already come across it. I've seen how they live, how they fall in love, quarrel, what excites them, what pleases them.
A shot from the TV series "Vampires of the middle lane"
At that time, they themselves formulated something that I remember for the rest of my life: their difference is that they were deceived from birth and in the most important thing. They were betrayed by those who a priori shouldn't have done it — their parents. And they said, "We don't trust anyone." No matter how friendly they are, no matter how open they are, they do not believe. And they can just as easily cheat in return, because they themselves were deceived at the very beginning. Therefore, when I read the script, a lot of things in me responded and brought back those memories.
Actually, I have a feeling that I have lived several different lives. Childhood in Khabarovsk, then a more conscious age, college, moving to Moscow, life before marriage, after, before having children, after. These are different stages. They flow from each other, of course, but inside they feel like separate lives. Sometimes my wife and I try to remember what we did before we had children, but we can't. Each stage provides an experience.
"I lived in the Pushkin Museum, I knew all the halls by heart"
— Why did you need courses from Hollywood coach Ivana Chubbuck?
— I had a good base. I studied in Khabarovsk, and in two years I got a serious degree in directing, literature, and painting. Teachers Vadim Parshukov and Tatiana Yakimchuk gave me a lot — taste, sense of proportion, interest in classics. Then I entered Rodion Ovchinnikov's Shchukin Institute. He put a lot of knowledge into us and said that he was making a "superhero squad" out of us. So that we can work in any genre and with any director. We studied everything from ancient theater to clowning, music, and painting. I lived in the Pushkin Museum, I knew all the halls by heart. And at the same time, I haven't been filmed for many years after graduation.
There was a lot of knowledge, a lot of skills, he could play anything, but he didn't know how to tell about it. There was a dissonance: internally, I was suitable for some roles, externally — for others. And then Ivana Chubbuck appeared, a Hollywood coach who worked with Charlize Theron, Halle Berry, James Franco, Jim Carrey, Sylvester Stallone. She opened her own school in Moscow and recruited teachers. My friend Volodya Motashnev and I applied for free tuition and passed the selection process. He went the first year, and I went the second.
I spent almost two months with Ivana. From morning to night. We literally lived in this process: we met for breakfast and broke up before going to bed. I had the opportunity to ask any questions and get answers to them. I got a teacher's certificate in her system, which means I passed all the knowledge through myself. I think the best way to learn is to teach others. I used to do that back at the institute.: He gathered his classmates and prepared them for the exams that he had to take himself. And it worked. Ivana gave me precise answers to the questions that tormented me.
— Everyone knows about the Stanislavsky system. And what, in a nutshell, is the peculiarity of her method?
— In fact, we often only imagine what a Russian theater school is. Ivan is sometimes roughly called "Stanislavsky in a skirt," but this is an oversimplification. She took his system, adapted it, decomposed it into 12 steps and brought it closer to modern perception. All the examples are from movies that you can watch. She explains the instrument, and then says: here's the scene, here's the actor, look how it works. You turn it on and you understand.
However, her method is not suitable for everyone. Just like any other system. There is no universal methodology. Everyone goes their own way. I found mine in this system. To simplify, it's about finding personal pain. There is consciousness and subconsciousness. Consciousness protects us: it displaces the traumatic, says — don't touch, don't go there. But Chubbuck suggests the opposite: to formulate what the character wants, and through several emotional and psychological exercises to bring this state closer to himself. It scares a lot of people.: "Why is it necessary through pain, and not through joy?" Please, through joy. No one forces you to. That's just what worked for me. Because there is a pain that controls you, and there is one that you have realized and turned into a force.
Ivana Chubbuck leads a master class
— Have you ever thought of trying your hand at Hollywood?
— You can try yourself in different markets. And Russian-speaking actors are in high demand. We see these examples: Mark Edelstein, Yura Kolokolnikov, Igor Grabuzov, Nikita Efremov, Sonya Lebedeva. Yura Borisov is generally top.
Of course, there are thoughts. But Hollywood is not an end in itself. I'm interested in different markets — China, Serbia, New Zealand. After all, everyone has their own view of cinema. I'm studying something, watching, writing samples. This is also the way to go: you need to be a member of an agency, travel to international festivals, and much, much more. Yura had a chain of specific events that led him to shoot in Anor. He has passed this path with dignity. Everyone has their own way.
"There is a daily duel with the audience in the theater"
— You worked for 14 years at the Stanislavsky Theater (now the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre), and then you took away your job. You didn't want to live without a movie, but can you live without a theater?
— I really hope that I will never have to choose between theater and cinema. I don't even want to think about it. Now there is a balance: in the cinema, I choose what is really interesting, and in the theater, too. Before, he was always in the first place. Even when there was no money, no job, he was there. The theater didn't let me go crazy, so I'm grateful to it and I'll never leave it. Now I have "Karenina," which was directed by my friend Danil Chaschin. We made "Last Summer", "District Center", "Shakespeare Street" with him.
Dmitry Chebotarev in the play "Karenina"
Theater and cinema are different worlds. There is a daily duel with the audience in the theater. Either you capture him and lead him, or you lose, and he eats you up in 5-10 minutes. There are a thousand of them, and you are alone. You work blindly in the cinema. You shoot for a long time, then someone makes a movie without you, releases it, and you don't see the reaction. You just hope that you did everything honestly. Someone said that cinema is a spit into eternity. I took it off, and it's forever. But in the theater everything is different. Something went wrong today, I ran out of energy tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow I have to go on stage again. The viewer doesn't care, and he's always right. People come to have fun. And if they don't get it, that's my problem.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
