She is absolutely natural both in life and on the screen. She insists that by nature she is not an actress at all, and after filming she dives into her family with pleasure. He hates to change something in life, but sometimes he does desperately bold things. Just like her character in the film by Anna Parmas «Let’s Get Divorced!».
Ten in the morning. Anna Mikhalkova is sitting opposite, drinking a latte, and it seems to me that this is not an interview — we are just chatting like friends. Not an ounce of makeup on her face, not a hint of tension in her movements, her eyes, her voice. She tells the world: everything is fine … Just being around is already therapy.
Anna has successful projects one after another, and each one is a new step, higher and higher: “Ordinary woman”, “Storm”, “Let’s get divorced!” … Everyone wants to shoot her.
“This is some strange credibility. Apparently, my psychotype allows people to associate themselves with me, ”she suggests. Or maybe the fact is that Anna broadcasts love. And she herself admits: “I need to be loved. At work, this is my breeding ground. It inspires me.» And they love her.
At the «Kinotavr» at the premiere of the film «Let’s get divorced!» she was introduced: «Anya-I-I-save-everyone.» No wonder. “I am a godsend for any person who begins to die, to suffer. Perhaps the whole thing is in the complex of the older sister, ”explains Anna. And I think not only.
Psychologies: Many of us are trying to «restart» our lives. They decide to change everything from tomorrow, from Monday, from the New Year. Does it happen to you?
Anna Mikhalkova: Sometimes a restart is simply necessary. But I’m not a man of passions. I do nothing abruptly and on the move. I understand responsibility. Because you automatically restart not only your life, but also the life of all your satellites and space stations flying around you…
I make a decision for a very long time, formulate it, live with it. And only when I understand that I am comfortable and I have emotionally accepted the need to part with someone or, on the contrary, start communicating, do I do it …
Every year you release more and more films. Do you enjoy being so in demand?
Yes, I’m already worried that soon everyone will be sick of the fact that there are a lot of me on the screen. But I wouldn’t want to … (Laughs.) True, in the film industry everything is spontaneous. Today they offer everything, but tomorrow they can forget. But I’ve always taken it easy.
Roles are not the only thing I live by. I don’t consider myself an actress at all. For me, it’s just one of the forms of existence where I enjoy. At some point it became a way of studying yourself.
Akojọ ayẹwo: Awọn igbesẹ 5 lati ṣe ṣaaju ikọsilẹ
And just recently, I realized that all the moments of growing up and understanding life for me come not with my experience, but with what I experience with my characters … All the comedies in which I work are therapy for me. With the fact that it is much more difficult to exist in comedy than in drama …
I can’t believe that I’m starring in the movie «About Love. Adults Only” was harder for you than in the tragic “Storm”!
Storm is another story altogether. If I had been offered the role earlier, I would not have accepted. And now I realized: my acting tools are enough to tell the story of a person who is going through a breakdown of his personality. And I put this experience of extreme screen experiences into my life piggy bank.
For me, work is a vacation from my family, and family is a vacation from emotional heating on the set.
Some artists have great difficulty getting out of the role, and the whole family lives and suffers while the shooting is going on …
It’s not about me. My sons, in my opinion, did not watch anything I starred in … Maybe, with rare exceptions … We have everything divided. There is family life and my creative life, and they do not intersect with each other.
And no one cares whether I’m tired, not tired, whether I had shootings or not. But it suits me. This is just my territory. I enjoy this state of affairs.
For me, work is a vacation from my family, and family is a vacation from emotional heating on the set … Naturally, the family is proud of the prizes. They are on the closet. The youngest daughter Lida believes that these are her awards.
The third child after a long break, is he almost like the first?
No, he’s like a grandson. (Smiles.) You watch him so a little from the outside … I am much calmer with my daughter than with my sons. I already understand that it is impossible to change a lot in a child. Here, my elders have a difference of a year and one day, one zodiac sign, I read the same books to them, and they generally seem to be from different parents.
Everything is programmed in advance, and even if you beat your head against the wall, there will be no serious changes. You can instill some things, teach how to behave, and everything else is laid down. For example, the middle son, Sergei, has no causal relationships at all.
And at the same time, his adaptation to life is much better than that of the eldest, Andrei, whose logic goes ahead. And most importantly, it does not affect at all whether they are happy or not. So many things affect this, even metabolism and blood chemistry.
Much, of course, is shaped by the environment. If parents are happy, then children perceive it as a kind of natural background of life. Notations don’t work. Parenting is about what and how you talk on the phone with other people.
I don’t get depressed, I live in the illusion that I have an easy character
There is a story about the Mikhalkovs. Like, they don’t raise children and don’t pay attention to them at all until a certain age …
Very close to the truth. We have no one rushed like crazy with the organization of a happy childhood. I didn’t worry: if the child was bored, if he had damaged his psyche when he was punished and given in the ass. And I got spanked for something…
But that was the case in other families as well. There is no correct model of education, everything changes with the change of the world. Now the first unwhipped generation has come — the Centennials — who have no conflict with their parents. They are friends with us.
On the one hand, it’s great. On the other hand, it is an indicator of the infantilism of the older generation… Modern children have changed a lot. They have everything that a member of the Politburo could dream of before. You need to be born in an absolutely marginal environment so that you have the desire to rush forward. It is a rarity.
Modern children have no ambitions, but there is a demand for happiness… And I also notice that the new generation is asexual. They have blunted this instinct. It scares me. There is nothing like it was before, when you enter a room and see: a boy and a girl, and they cannot breathe from the discharge between them. But today’s children are much less aggressive than we are at their hellish age.
Your sons are already students. Do you feel that they have become adult independent people who are building their own destiny?
I initially perceived them as adults and always said: «Decide for yourself.» For example: «Of course, you can not go to this class, but remember, you have an exam.» The eldest son always chose what was right from the point of view of common sense.
And the middle one was the opposite, and, seeing my disappointment, he said: “Well, you yourself said that I can choose. So I didn’t go to class!” I thought that the middle son was more vulnerable and would need my support for a long time.
But now he is studying directing at VGIK, and his student life is so interesting that there is almost no place for me in it … You never know which of the sons will need support and at what point. There are many disappointments ahead.
And the nature of their generation is to worry that they might choose the wrong path. For them, this becomes a confirmation of failure, it seems to them that their whole life has gone downhill once and for all. But they need to know that no matter what decision they make, I will always be on their side.
They have a great example next to them that you can make the wrong choice, and then change everything. You did not immediately enter the acting class, you first studied art history. Even after VGIK, you were looking for yourself, getting a law degree …
In no family do personal examples work. I’ll tell you a story. Once a man named Suleiman approached Seryozha on the street and began to predict his future. He told everything about everyone: when Seryozha gets married, where Andrei will work, something about their dad.
At the end, the son asked: “And mom?” Suleiman thought about it and said: “And your mother is already doing well.” Suleiman was right! Because even in the most difficult situation I say: “Nothing, now it’s like that. Then it will be different.»
It sits in our subcortex that it is necessary to compare with those who have worse, not better. On the one hand, it’s cool, because you can withstand a huge amount of difficulties.
On the other hand, Andrey told me this: “Due to the fact that you are “and so good,” we do not strive to make this “good” better, we do not strive for more.” And this is also true. Everything has two sides.
My cocktail of life consists of very different things. Humor is an important ingredient. This is an incredibly powerful therapy!
What has your youngest daughter Lida brought into your life? She is already six, and under the photo in social networks you write with tenderness: “Mouse, don’t grow up longer!”
She is a despot in our lives. (Laughs) I am writing this because I think with horror about the time when she will grow up and the transition period will begin. There and now everything is seething. She is funny. By nature, she is a mixture of Serezha and Andrey, and outwardly she is very similar to my sister Nadia.
Lida does not like to be caressed. All Nadia’s children are affectionate. My children cannot be petted at all, they look like wild cats. Here the cat has calved in the summer under the terrace, it seems that it comes out to eat, but it is impossible to bring them home and stroke them.
So are my children, they seem to be at home, but none of them are affectionate. They don’t need it. «Let me kiss you.» “You already kissed.” And Lida simply says: “You know, don’t kiss me, I don’t like it.” And I directly make her come up to hug. I teach her this.
Independence is good, but you need to be able to convey your tenderness through physical actions … Lida is a late child, she is «daddy’s daughter.» Albert simply adores her and does not allow her to be punished.
Lida doesn’t even have a thought that something might not be according to her scenario. With experience, you understand that, probably, such qualities and such an attitude to life are not bad at all. She will feel better…
Do you have your own system of how to be happy?
My experience, unfortunately, is completely meaningless for others. I was just lucky because of the set that was issued at birth. I don’t get depressed and bad mood rarely happens, I’m not irritable.
I live in the illusion that I have an easy character … I like one parable. A young man comes to the sage and asks: “Shall I marry or not?” The sage replies, «No matter what you do, you will regret it.» I have it the other way around. I believe that no matter what I do, I will NOT regret it.
What gives you the most pleasure? What are the ingredients in this favorite life cocktail of yours?
So, thirty grams of Bacardi … (Laughs.) My cocktail of life consists of very different things. Humor is an important ingredient. This is an incredibly powerful therapy! If I have difficult moments, I try to live them through laughter … I am happy if I meet people with whom the sense of humor coincides. I also care about intelligence. For me, this is absolutely the seduction factor …
Is it true that your husband Albert read Japanese poetry to you during the first meeting, and won you over with this?
No, he never read any poetry in his life. Albert has nothing to do with art at all, and it’s hard to come up with more different people than he and I.
He is an analyst. From that rare breed of people who believe that art is secondary for humanity. From the series «Poppy did not give birth for seven years, and they did not know hunger.»
In family life it is impossible without points of contact, in what way do you coincide?
Nothing, probably … (Laughs.) Well, no, after so many years lived together, other mechanisms work. It becomes important that you coincide in some basic things, in your outlook on life, in what is decent and dishonorable.
Naturally, the youthful desire to breathe the same air and be one is an illusion. At first you are disappointed and sometimes even break up with this person. And then you realize that everyone else is even worse than him. This is a pendulum.
After the release of the film «The Connection», one of the spectators whispered in your ear: «Every decent woman should have such a story.» Do you think every decent woman should at least once in her life say the phrase «Let’s get divorced!», Like in the new movie?
I really like the ending of the story. Because at the point of despair, when you realize that the world is destroyed, it is important that someone tells you: this is not the end. I am very fond of the idea that it is not scary, and perhaps even wonderful, to be alone.
This film has a therapeutic effect. After watching, the feeling that I went to a psychologist, well, or talked with a smart, understanding girlfriend …
It’s true. A win-win for a female audience, especially for people my age, most of whom already have a history of some kind of family drama, divorce …
You yourself divorced your husband, and then married him a second time. What did divorce give you?
The feeling that no decision in life is final.