The question «Do you smoke?» started our talk with Galina Tjunina, which took place in the hall of an old building of Peter Fomenko’s theatre-workshop, where Galina plays form the day of its foundation. An elegant Vogue cigarette wanes away in slender fingers of this woman with a ballet-like stand, high elbow and clever eyes with sable-coloured brows. Meanwhile are talking about actor’s work, dreams and new works. Thó new film «20 Cigarettes» starts this Fall where Galina Tjunina, an actress who reminds us of the «Silver Age of Arts», created a capacious image of an iron business lady, a woman in whom Galina was able to see even more than that though…

There are not so many films in your career. Perhaps, there are severe criteria for choosing offers?

There are different criteria. My participation in this or that film depends on a number of reasons, particulars and details. It depends on the material, on the meeting with the film producer, on my availability… I wouldn’t have been able to do much, I just wouldn’t have enough time for that…

You are a theatre actress in the first place…

In fact I am a theatre actress. I work in repertoire theatre. And, of course, I am a theatre actress who stars in movies from time to time…

In one of your interviews you quoted Peter Fomenko and Peter Brook: theatre and cinema can enrich one another, cinema can prompt theatre, but theatre can also teach cinema in some ways…

Theatre is like our lathe, the place where we all train ourselves, learn our profession, which can be mastered a lifetime. Cinema is another type of art, deep, interesting, with its own mysteries, with non-accidental people (although it is possible to meet accidental staff both in theatre and cinema), who give their lives for it and are able to reveal very deep things in cinema. And, of course, an actor coming into cinematography, gains tremendous experience in terms of dealing with film producers, of meeting with partners and artists. Filming process is very much like a theatrical one, what is different is its time extension. The filming process is one, two or three months of condensed work, but working in theatre is a lifetime process. I think that nowadays an actor mustn’t leave theatre, because in this case he/she loses an opportunity to try, to seek and to learn. There is no other place like theatre where one can gain an experience of the kind, where an actor has the right to enter the stage every evening and start from the very beginning trying again and again. The cinema teaches a lot as well though.

Well, can you name an essential objective to accept the offer to participate in the movie?

Once I heard Maxim Sukhanov, an actor whom I respect and look up to with interst, saying that very often when he reads scripts, his imagination switchess off and just stops working. That’s the criterion for him. And this is really important, because for imagination is an essential thing for actor’s invovement. The material that lights up an actor allows to be involved and arouses interest in work.

Did your imagiantion switch on when you read the script of «20 Cigarettes»?

I have developed a complex relationship with this script as well as with the producers and with the film director Sasha Goronovsky. First I have been rejecting this offer for quite a long time, though now I don’t know, how to explain it. I seems like the first moment this story looked too modern to me and able to lose its meaningfulness in some years. These were my first thoughts. But then... It’s surprising that something guides people... At some point everything changed drammatically: I realized that people, who deal with advertising and image, have hearts beating behind the glamourous appearance, they suffer and hide it carfully, and they have a real life though it is buried under the layer of an artificial one. Then I felt my character in «20 Cigarettes» as a chance to find something real behind the artificial. It always exhists in people, but it’s not always that we are able to make it out.

I seems like in most of your films you played the characters from the past, from a different time. But you’ve managed to create a bright and very up-to-date character in «20 Cigarettes».

For an actor it is very important to try oneself in different styles and genres. When we imagined Margarita Pavlovna, we came to see a certain image at some point: the wig, the make-up, etc. A very different character came to life, not me. In the process of work with this character it was important not to use my own nature, but it was necessary to be able to play, to construct a new life. At the moment one can differentiate the character from oneself and say «It’s not me, but someone absolutely different», it becomes immensely interesting to watch the new personage, namely the way it starts to live and contact with yourself. The same happened to me when I acted in «Night…» and «Day Watch». One of the characters of the “20 Cigarettes” Margarita Pavlovna, have appeared in the air in front of me all of a sudden the very same way, I managed to make her out and accepted the offer. Then an active work on creating her image started: we were looking for the dresses, picking up make-up and the wig. All this got me totally involved in the long run.

Watching this film full of comic moments, elegant shots and ingenious videos which represent the main character’s thinking, in spite of all the lustre and glamour, one understands that this film is in fact about the new type of people, who work only for «public relations», the story of the agents’, managers’ and advertisers’ generation. It’s frightening to think: what kind of person represents our time. Have you come across such people as your film character?

No, I haven’t, but at some point it was interesting for me to get absorbed in this kind of life. Yes, I agree with you, it’s frightening, but if we only assume that there is emptiness inside and if we presuppose that there is pain and joy, doubts and concerns, uncertainty and defencelessness in their souls, then we’ll have to give up this superficial point of view. And all these exist for sure even in those people, who might seem the strongest to us. Everything is very unstable for them as well, they feel and doubt just like us, they also seek and can’t find the point of rest, they fail and fall as well. This was the side that captured my great interest in my character. I don’t know to what extent I managed to picture it though. The means of expression in cinematography are mysterious for me so far, here I tend to trust film producers, camera men and artists. How to express pain? Perhaps, it has to be in the eyes of an actor. How to show solitude, how to live it through… Not clear. For me it is not very clear yet, what exactly and how to achieve a certain contact with the film spectator.

I should say that for me this film is already over, we are done with the filming process and my life went on. You are now discussing «20 Cigarettes» with me, but for me it is just a memory. I don’t realize fully that nobody had seen the film so far, that the first opening will take place only in a while. Here is onó more magic effect of the cinema, because in theater you go to the stage and what you play is happening to you right now. In cinematography you have already played, but it didn’t happen yet, but is only about to happen…

Just as when you give a flash-light for a star, the light will reach it only in a few light years… Seems like there is an inner producer inside of you, very confident and in charge of every character.

The film in its whole is created by a producer, a camera man and artists. When you enter the filming site and start to work, you must totally trust them. As for the inner censor or producer… I don’t know if it really exists. There always is a vague feeling that, perhaps, you will make a mistake or it may not be important for anyone, but the main point is that as long as you yourself are interested, it will be interesting for everybody. The worst thing is to show the interest you don’t have – this is something I’d never wish to do. But I’ve been lucky so far: whatever the pilot projects are, whatever risky steps I take, there always is a lively interest in me.

A female true fragility and defencelessness are professionally shown in «20 Cigarettes» even just in one episode: the main character, who had been seeking a meeting with this «iron lady», saw some man throwing her and her suit case out of his car. But when Margarita Pavlovna gets into the main character’s car, she makes up and there she is again – in her business shell…

I wished there was humour in the film. Serious things can’t be discussed without humour. Really deep dramatic issues cannot be revealed without irony. Even maybe without self-irony. People, possessing a sense of humour are my reliable life partners. Over-loaded attitude to oneself, to situation, to life in general and to people, to my mind, is a sign of tunnel vision and one-sided views. There is no tragedy without something to laugh at in life. The more serious we treat ourselves, the funnier we seem to others. If one wants to keep uphold, the first thing he/she should do is to laugh at oneself. Perhaps, our contemporaries are missing this very trait. We are always in a hurry, we rush, we are always most serious, afraid to lose and miss something. I’m sure that we need to speculate on many things with a smile only.

How do you deal with actors’ surrounding – wigs, make up, costumes?

We use very little make up and a few wigs in our theatre, our men sometimes glue up beards and whiskers though. Perhaps, sometimes we want to change greatly for we lack other expressive means. We do it when we come to cinematography. As for me, I had a great wish to change myself in “20 Cigarettes”, so I tried to find a special wig, to create an unusual make-up. When I worked at «Night Watch», I also wanted to change my appearance, I even suggested Timur Mekmambetov that I should have mó hair cut, or wear a wig, but he said nothing has to be changed and everything should be just the way it naturally is – an open elbow and long hair. Then I realized that I came to work with not just a talented but also a very sensitive artist. The image he sees is a product of the artist’s view. But the word of an artist is the law for me. I don’t like and can’t really be persistent. I probably like to obey «the third eye», that sees the film as a whole, personally I can see only a part of it. Maybe that is why I usually deal well with film producers.

You are not a capricious star.

It’s true that I’m less capricious in work than in real life, since work itself interests me less than I interest myself in this process. I’m more involved in something that happens around me. I even prefer to watch the film I starred at in an out-of-body manner, when I understand that it’s not me already, it’s a different woman. That’s why I’m not concerned about my looks, my actions – it’s not me. Our profession saves us from ourselves in some way. It allows to take a rest and escape from ourselves.

Have you met Ilya Lubimov, who played the main character in «20 Cigarettes», on the stage?

We play in one and the same theatre, in the same plays, and we’ve known each other long.

How come that two actors of one and the same theatre play in one film?

It’s a coincidence. I found out that Ilya is going to play the main character only when I almost accepted an offer. I’m happy for him for I’m sure he must play big roles in movies. He has experience with big series, but I’m confident it was very important for him to star in full-screen motion picture. I thought if I’m by his side, then maybe I’d be able to help him, since we know, feel and understand each other, we are the actors of one and the same school, we have been playing on one stage for many years now, and probably this played a certain role in our work for this film together. This team-work was useful both for him and for me. But we have seen each other differently at the same time. It’s just because the usual perception of a person often impedes when you have known each other for many years and when you want to see something new in him. This is what happened at the filming site of “20 Cigarettes”. I wish Ilya good luck, and it seems to me that he has a very interesting appearance for movies – features and eyes. I think he gained a lot for his work at the theatre with this experience in a full-screen film.

Oskar Kuchera, who played the main character’s best friend, is a different type of actor…

Meeting Oskar was a complete surprise for me. I was extremely glad to feel his attention to a film partner and to see his remarkable capacity for work. Oskar’s nature is very theatre-like, he feels the necessity of a team-work, he fully understands that everything what’s going on in the scene is a product of everybody’s work. I was very nice to feel his friendly attitude. He is a merry person, though he may really have a more dramatic life than we think, but he knows how to cheer people up and to joke not for himself, but for the others. In general I have only best impressions about the «20 Cigarettes» filming process.

Now let’s talk about another sphere of your acting. This year the animation film «Snjegurochka» («The Snow Maiden») was shown within the programme of animation films Festival «Okno v Evropu» («Window To Europe»). Marina Kurchevskaya was the artist-producer who was granted a diploma of the Festival jury. Galina, you took part in voice recording for this animation film. Hollywood stars are proud of this genre and during the Soviet period our best actors gave their voices to animation characters. Are you interested in this?

Immensely interested! An actor wants to act. Acting is a game, childhood and fairy tails – are immortal things in a human soul. When there is a chance to play it always arouses feedback even in a very professional actor.

Animation films make a big story in connection with our theatre. Maria Mouate was «Snegurochka» film producer, and her son, Vladimir Mouate, works at our theatre as an actor’s troupe leader. We got aquainted several years ago and then Maria invited me, Madelene Jabrailova, Ksenya and Polina Kutepovs to make a voice record for her previous animation film «About A Little Mouse» first. It turned out to be a splash of hooliganism. We gave voices to a horse, a frog and a cat – an absolute delight! Of course, noone in theatre will let us play a cat. «About A Little Mouse» was the first try. And not that long ago all our actor’s troupe was invited to voice-record «Snegurochka». Yura Stapanov, Kirill Pirogov, Karen Badalov and almost all the troupe of Peter Fomenko’s workshop joined us in work at this cartoon.

What is going on at your theatre now? You all must be looking forward for the new building to be opened for you.

Yes. In the beginning of the season we are planning to enter a new building, but the real opening will take place no sonner than late autumn. We’ll be able to stage plays and receive spectators there. And we’ll see what happens then. I’m sure that it’s going to be more complicated than we might think, but just as Peter Naumovich says: first century it will be difficult, but then it will be even more difficult... For the reason that growing roots in a new theatre is a long process, it must take many years. Right now what we have to do is to take our stuff, costumes, wigs, make up, to walk into the new building and calmly look around.

What sort of roles must cinematofraphy have instore for you? Wht topics and scenes would capture your interest?

It must be a story of a man and, perhaps, a very simple one. The only thing that must be missing is action. Action is so tiring. All our life is like action, we don’t stay on place a single moment. Sometimes I just need to sit for a while, to think alone in scilence, to smoke a cigarette with a cup of coffe. I see that lately there has been a fear of the so called «blank scenes». They say: this or that has to be cut out, because there must be some action on the screen all the time. It seems to me that that even more is going on during these «human pauses». We can’t get each other used to an idea that the action is something external only...

What gives a person the right to act in this or that way is that he will be the one responsible for everything. «20 Cigarettes» is the story of one character, but the more detailed look at the fate of this person you take, the clearer you imagine life in its broader sense – the life of the generation, of the nation and the world. That’s why interest in one person presupposes knowledge of the world in its whole and present time, though the forms of this knowledge may be different. One can’t stick to one single form and method. Let it be this and that way. Perhaps, it a lot depends on what kind of person and how he shoots the film. There is no universal rule for everyone. Thanks Lord. Let it be so. It doesn’t really matter if you go from internal to external or vice versa, the main thing is to learn to do what you do and to love what you do. Art and artistry are very good words, but to know how to work, to enjoy your work, to know what has to be done to shoot a good movie sound easier, perhaps, but more reliable for myself. Love for deatils, for the filming process guarantees that the film will exist and find its spectator.