“I opened my wallet and held out”: Averyushkin told about an unusual gift Efremov

- Nikolai Vladimirovich, how did you get invited to the film "We Are from Jazz"?

I was always interested in the work of Leonid Utyosov, and I dreamed of acting in a musical film. When I was finishing my second year of music school, I was invited to participate in the alumni play Every Woman Wants to Be Dulcinea, where I played Dulcinea's dad. The girl, who played Dulcinea, reported that a director would come to her for the play, from whom she would star. The name was then unknown to anyone. After the performance, I was informed that the director left his coordinates and was waiting for me at Mosfilm. First, Karen Shakhnazarov offered me the role of Samsonov, who was later played by Leonid Kuravlev. When we started rehearsing, Karen Georgievich suddenly asked me: can you play the drums? I realized that this is the key question. I didn’t know how to play, but I appreciated the situation. If I say no, I don’t want to be in this picture. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ve noticed that I’m pretty good at drumming. When I was cast, each of us had a tutor, and I had two tutors. They would show me an imitation of the game to make it look like I was really playing. I approach all the acting work very scrupulously, trying to reconcile everything. So I sat there, rehearsed, without getting out of the drums. I ended up being called the most musical actor. It was a pleasure.

- How did you work with Karen Shakhnazarov?

- All right! Karen's manner of directing, I think, is one of the best in our cinema. He didn't impose his point of view. At least I didn't feel it on myself. “When I start working on the film, I pay a lot of attention to the actors,” Shakhnazarov said in an interview. It is.

- What was the impression left of the shooting?

- The most wonderful thing! We spent a whole month on a film expedition in Odessa. After the day we went swimming in the sea. We used to get together with our whole company. Lena Tsyplakova once arranged for all of us wonderful gatherings. “You know, guys, I went swimming, I look, and there on the breakwater mussels hanging clusters,” Lenochka admired. What if we get these mussels, I bake them, and we have a great evening? And it was beautiful! Elena in life is a cheerful and sociable person. I have a warm relationship with Peter Ivanovich Shcherbakov. I never felt the age difference we had, but I always had respect for Peter Ivanovich because I knew who I was talking to. At that time I was renting a room in one of the old districts of Moscow. From Mosfilm I was not very comfortable. “Kolya, I constantly drive from Mosfilm past your house, let me give you a ride,” Peter Ivanovich suggested to me. I was very happy with the offer. If I was in a dressing room or dressing room, he was always waiting for me. We went around talking about everything. He gave advice not only on profession, but also on life. I am very grateful for this example of humanity. He was a true People's Artist without pathos and stardom, which distinguishes the actors of the old formation from subsequent generations of their colleagues. These people were easy to communicate and accessible, but at the same time they knew their worth. You gotta do that.

- What do you remember when you filmed "Winter Evening" in Gagra, where Karen Shakhnazarov invited you?

- Communicating with Evstigneev! One of the scenes we shot in a furniture store on the Frunzenskaya embankment. At the time, I was running my first theater studio. In the evening, my guys had to play a show that I had to attend. Evstigneev noticed that I was nervous, asked what had happened. “Evgeny Alexandrovich, my studios will play without me today,” I complained to Evstigneeva. “You will miss an important case. We need to get to the guys, said Yevgeny Alexandrovich in a strict voice. He was so convincing that I did everything that night to get off the court early. Evstigneev’s advice: students come first, because you tamed them, and then I remember the work for life. I know that Yevstigneev’s students loved their master. Yevstigneev always knew what he was saying. At the time when we met, he taught at the School - the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, which was led by Oleg Efremov. By the way, with Oleg Nikolaevich, I also met fate on the set.

- Can you tell me what it was like?

I’m standing at Mosfilm, I see a man with glasses looking at me very carefully. We talked to him, I don’t even remember what I was talking about. The man with glasses went about his business, and I was about to go about my business. “Do you know who you were talking to?” a friend who was standing next to my interlocutor asked me, “No, I don’t know.” “This is the director Samson Samsonov!” I was stunned, because he made such masterpieces as “Fire mile”, “Optimistic tragedy”, by the way, much later and the wonderful film “Lonely is provided with a hostel”. A few days later, I got a call from Mosfilm and was invited to a small episode in the film The Restless, where the director was Samson Iosifovich Samsonov, and my partner in this episode was Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov. By the way, Samsonov gave my name and patronymic to my character, for which thank you. The role was quite tiny, but the meeting with Efremov made a huge impression on me. Ephraim was brought almost before the shooting. We waited until he was ready to go to the court. He appeared in the frame and pulled everyone to work with his friendliness and smile. In our scene with him, Efremov took out his personal card from his wallet, handed it to me, and I still keep it. There was no pathos in him either. With Ephraim, we laughed and joked a lot, remembering this for life. I involuntarily recalled his humor when I later worked with his son Mikhail in the film At the Bottom, directed by Vladimir Kott. Here I played the role of Bubnov, and Misha - an actor. Michael, of course, is a great laugher and a great partner.

- Nikolai Vladimirovich, you have already played about a hundred roles in movies, and you are most often remembered as Zhora-drummer. No offense?

- I don't see anything wrong here. Anatoly Kuznetsov, whom everyone remembered first of all as comrade Sukhov from The White Sun of the Desert, once invited me to his evening at the Cinema House. Kuznetsov himself, by the way, starred in many films, and he was most often called Sukhov's comrade. “There are actors,” said Anatoly Borisovich at a meeting with the audience, “who are known only for one role and there is nothing wrong here, but on the contrary, it is very good that there is a role thanks to which you have become recognizable.” Boris Babochkin played many roles, and they know him mainly from the film Chapaev. Or take the same Andrei Mironov, who starred in many films, and his calling card was Kozodoev from the “Diamond Hand”. Vasily Livanov also played many roles, and the audience remember him primarily as Sherlock Holmes. And the same Konkin has many roles, and he is eternal Volodya Sharapov. I will tell you more, my name is not even remembered, but they say - the drummer from "We are from jazz", which I am not offended. Recently, my grandfather from Univer, in which I starred for the entire third season, also stuck to me. I think the atmosphere we had on the set was the merit of Ivan Kataev, whom I consider a director from God.

You played a major role in the first Soviet horror film Touch. Was that interesting?

- That was unusual! “Touch” is the merit of the magnificent, subtle director Albert Mkrtchyan, in August he turned 100 years since his birth. The film looks tense from beginning to end. As for "Touch", then still in VGIK this picture put as an example to students how to shoot a horror film without special effects. We had our costumes and some of our attributes. The picture was restored by the Sinefog film association under the leadership of a member of the guild of film directors of Russia Ivan Kachalin. The release of the updated picture was timed to the 100th anniversary of the director. I was friends with Albert Sarkisovich until he left, we saw the master in February 2007, then I talked with his widow for a long time. Albert Sarkisovitch was a reference man, very subtle sense of humor. Therefore, Mkrtchyan all his life wanted to make a good comedy, but, unfortunately, it remained his dream. And the echo of this dream is a magnificent picture - "The Land of Sannikov", the script for which was written by Mark Zakharov, about which Mkrtchyan warmly spoke.

In Back to the USSR, you were lucky enough to play with Roman Polanski. What impression do you have of communicating with the world?

Roman did not put himself above other artists on the set, while realizing that he was a world star. He is his own, but he does not like to be pannibrat with him, like all normal people. A man of this kind was Eduard Uspensky, whom I had known for many years. Let me give you an example and you will understand. On the set of the first program "In our harbor came ships" Ouspensky approached me with an unusual request. “Kolya, I have such a piquant situation, I am in the frame to go, and my belt on my pants broke,” Eduard Nikolaevich told me. I get it. Immediately removed the belt and handed over to Ouspensky. He may have felt uncomfortable asking me that, but he couldn't let people down on the set. The writer was a very open and accessible person. People like children, they believe that no one will let anything bad happen to them.

Nikolai Vladimirovich, what movie are you in now?

I continue to shoot in a multi-part feature film called Life.