Interview by Oleg Kusov, Moscow. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Interesting people are always welcome in the studio of Vestnik Kavkaza. Oleg Kusov gives every guest in the studio an opportunity to speak their minds. Conversations are not centered only on the Caucasus. A half-hour conversation over tea flies quickly. The show "Take My Word" films and records its conversations as well as offering them in the form of a text.
See Part 1 Zarina Kairova: “Drama school is my life milestone”
- Zarina, I would like to speak about your roles. You have many roles, but the special one is in the TV-show of “The Voronins.”
- Probably you want to ask me how I got there.
- Of course, but also I would like to ask you whether you will come back to “The Voronins”, as they are still being shot.
- I don’t know. It depends on screenwriters.
- Alexander Zhigalkin is a director with good taste. He was right about casting in “Six Episodes,” “The Voronins,” “Exchange Brothers,” and other shows. And he was right about you. But the fact is that you played Karina from Sochi.
- Yes, an Armenian girl from Sochi.
- There are more than a million Armenians in Russia.
- It is interesting why so.
- And there are theaters in Armenia. And Zhigalkin needed to pick up the phone only and he would have plenty of Armenian actors.
- There are Armenian theaters in Moscow as well.
- But he chose you. What does it mean? Why did an Ossetian girl play a pretty Armenian?
- It was an accident. I didn’t know that I would play in “The Voronins.” I was invited to a casting of “Just Married” TV-show to a leading party. I went to the casting. There was a young man from the Satire Theatre; now I cannot remember his name. We worked together. I think that we did well. Three days later I got a call from the casting director who said: “Hello! There is a TV-show, your salary will be as much. There will be as many shooting days. Do you want it? We chose you.” So, I even hadn’t been casted. They saw me at other casting.
- They distinguished you.
- Yes. So, when I came there, I knew my role and knew what would happen. The only thing the director told me was: “Zarina, you should speak Armenian as fluently as you are real Armenian.” I said: “It is impossible. I have never spoken Armenian. The language is specific.” There are some sounds which you cannot hear at first. A specific melody of the language.
- Plangent “r.” “Gorrrrrgeous!”
- Exactly. So, it was a stress for me. But they helped me. I spoke Armenian well. I still remember my phrases. When the show began to gain momentum, the episodes were repeated at TV, they were very popular; everybody liked them. I couldn’t imagine such a tiny role would make me popular.
- Quality is much more important than quantity.
- The most interesting thing is that “University” TV-show was before that. I played Alina there, a girl with unibrow. An episode with my participation was released. Once I walked to my students and got lost. I saw a young man with a girl and a baby. I asked them: “Excuse me, couldn’t you tell me where the Dekabrists Street is?” They looked at me and like: “This is Alina! Alina from “University.” They showed her yesterday!” I was surprised. I said that it was really me.
Later I had a story in a shopping center. I went to a shop and was looking for something. Then I noticed some guys followed me. I went to another shop, but they still followed me. What did they want from me? I went to a cash-desk and thought that there was something wrong. And suddenly one of them came to me and said: “Excuse me, we cannot decide whether it is you or not. Please tell us.”
That’s how people got to recognize me. It was amazing.
Then, I arrived to Beslan. “The Voronins” wee broadcasted. And I was on the way from Vladikavkaz to Beslan. I was on a station, waiting for a vehicle. I wished anything would have come, at least taxi. A girl came to me: “I was looking at you for 30 minutes. Are you Karina from “The voronins”?” I said: “Yes, I am.” “What are you doing here?” “I live here,” I said. She like: “Are you an Ossetian?” She was amazed. A taxi appeared suddenly and said: “Can I drive you for free?”
- What is “The Vornonins” for you? There are outstanding actors: Boris Klyuyev, Anna Frolovtseva, Georgy Dronov, Yekaterina Volkova, Stanislav Duzhnikov.
- Klyuyev was our tutor in the Schepkin School. He is a wonderful person. He teaches acting skills. There is an amazing atmosphere in “The Voronins.” I played in other shows, but in “The Voronins” it was easy and pleasant to work. Ahead of shootings we all gathered at a table. There was no separation – a popular or non-popular person. We were like a family. People talked to each other calmly. Katya who played the leading role was my group-mate in the university. And she said: “Don’t call her Zarina!” As I studied at an Ossetian course, Zarina and Zalina in Ossetia are “Zaika.” “She was Zaika in the Schepkin School!”
- Do you mean Yekaterina Volkova? Smart Vera who looks like a Caucasus woman, an Ossetian.
- In fact she has blond hair. She shot in advert videos ahead of the show: Tide, Whiskas; she was blond there. And in the show she had to dye hair. Now I have to dye myself, and I don’t know what I will look like with light hair.
- Zarina, you are Karina, and you should appear in the show again.
- If I appear, they will dye my hair back in black.
- Let’s ask authors of “The Voronins”: “We need Karina so much! At least in an episode.”
- Don’t do this. There will be other roles, interesting roles. Karina is only a small role.
- I hope “The Voronins” will be spring-board for your career, as it is a nice school, working with unique actors. They are wonderful people, a family. It seems that behind the scene Nikolai Petrovich and Galina Ivanovna talk to each other in the same manner.
- It’s a lot of fun. They come, bring food, drink tea together, talk nice to each other. Costume designers say that Sats is a person who is always in a good mood. He is an amazing partner. There was a scene when I should hold him. I didn’t know what to do. He came to me and said: “I understand that you are from the Caucasus and your father will kill me, but don’t worry.” And he explained every my step. And I calmed down and feel comfortable.
The other moment was the Armenian language. I learnt it as a text. But they told me: “No, you should say a phrase in Russian, then in Armenian, then in Russian again.” I was shocked: “How can I remember this? I don’t know how to cut the phrases. It will be a mess.” Stanislav said: “Bring me a board and a chalk.” I wrote a phrase in Russian and then in Armenian. And the board was behind my partner. When I addressed him, I saw the phrases. But it was interesting when I wrote them, I calmed down, I realized that I could do it easily. We shot the scene on the first take.
- The show has been running in Russia for five years. I have been living in the Czech Republic for all these years. I had a lot of channels, but I watched only “The Voronins” in Russian. Thank you, Duzhnikov, Dronov, Frolovtseva, Volkova for the connection with motherland. You patriot feelings became keen abroad. Zarina, is a TV-show a special kind of art?
- It is an art and a way to earn money. Actors realize that if they get into a show, it means big money. Everyday you get salary for a shooting day. But nobody treats it as a high art. I think theater is the most important thing for an actor. Theater treats an actor, cures him of cliché, as an actor has to be very different in theater. Theater is a different thing. For example, I played in Oleg Fomin’s film in November – “The Gun Dog-2” for NTV-Channel. It was in Crimea. I played an Ossetian girl in the show. Soslan Fedarov also played in it. He is my compatriot. What are shootings? I came there and was given my text. And when you work, you understand that there is a camera in front of you, not a spectator. In the drama school we were taught how to work with the audience. It was very difficult for me to work with a camera.
My first role in a TV-show was a role of a rich woman who wants to kill her husband. A detective story for the First Channel. My first shootings: I could say a couple of phrases in front of a camera. But when the first, second, fifth day passes by, you begin to work well. There is no fuzz anymore. One has to learn how to work on the stage and in front of a camera.
- I asked you the question, as many people think it is easy to play in a TV-show. I don’t think so.
- As for “The Voronins,” we discussed our parts in details. It was like staging of a play in theater. We discussed who should do what, what events should happen, and after that we went to a film set and rehearsed without a camera. Moreover, when you are shot, you should understand that if you move your head 2 cm in the left, the scene will fail and everything should be started all over again. I mean there are technical aspects. You should remember this and play well simultaneously.
- Many of the team had no experience in the beginning of the work. For example, Yekaterina Volkova hadn’t been playing in movies for years.
- Katya told me: “It was such a right decision to enter a financial university after graduation from the drama school. I realized that if I have no roles, I can deal with economics. I secured myself. And my parents told me: “What is theater? You should have a serious job.” Then she got into “The Voronins” fortunately. And all Russia loves her. She has many fans.
To be continued
