Julia, how did it all start?
It began with the fact that I was expecting a second child, I did not have a job and I cooked from morning to evening. My husband watched me talk to chickens and ducks in the oven, how I swear at the dough when it doesn’t rise, and how I praise it when everything works out, and once said that it should be shown for money, because it’s fun to watch. ... Then he talked with the management of NTV, we made a pilot, and it all somehow went well. There were no grandiose plans, I just wanted to do something, and not die of boredom. But then it dragged on, because I really love to cook, I really love food and everything connected with it, I understand this, and, of course, I'm not a professional, but I'm one of those amateurs who will plug any professional into their belt with their passion.
Remember what you cooked on the first shoot?
I remember well, of course. It was scrambled eggs "in Konchalov style" - a dish that was cooked by Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya and which Andrei Sergeevich taught me.
This is actually scrambled eggs with rye croutons, grated with garlic, with a lot of fried onions, tomatoes and sweet peppers, with herbs and grated cheese - a complete lunch in fact.
The project is filmed at home, the director usually comes the night before and stays with me overnight. Irena Matskevich is probably my closest friend, we have known each other for 27 years, we studied together at the theater institute. She arrives, I write a step-by-step map of each recipe, together we determine the scheme - which recipe we will shoot first, which next.
Then we prepare the kitchen, remove all unnecessary things, put on the necessary ones, take home products out of the refrigerator, put the products that are needed for shooting, and so on - in general, routine.
At the same time, when a loved one is nearby, all this is accompanied by tea, coffee, conversations, sometimes we begin to write recipes, then chatted, looked - my God, it's already two in the morning. And I also definitely run before shooting to feel toned.
Having a hard time filming culinary programs?
This, of course, is a lot of physical activity. I used to carry a pedometer with me and saw that during a shooting day in the kitchen you can wind from 8 to 12 kilometers. Now we shoot 2-3 programs a day, sometimes 4 and 5, and when we filmed "Breakfasts", we had a record - 20 breakfasts in one day.
It's hard, but it's still a thrill. Because you always have the result before your eyes, and this is the main thing. In the cinema, it sometimes seems to you that you played brilliantly, and then you look at the result in the edited picture and you realize that it was an illusion. Or, on the contrary, he played well, and the director cut it so that nothing remained of it.
And here it is different: here you had flour and water, but I take out the lush fragrant focaccia from the oven, the film crew eats with pleasure - this very much energizes.
I have been working with my team for 14 years. This also helps - we understand each other perfectly. When we first started out, when filming overseas, the first thing my cameramen would do was to look for McDonald's because it was familiar food. And now they know how to fry meat, know what aldente pasta is and prefer dark chocolate to milk.
How did you find your driving style, your speed? How did you learn to work in the frame?
It is easier for me to work in the frame than for chefs, who, perhaps, can perfectly cut onions, but are so afraid of the camera that their hands are shaking, or, on the contrary, they forget so much about the distance between the presenter and the audience that it looks on the screen cheeky.
I have an acting education, and it, first of all, implies an organic existence in the proposed circumstances.
The kitchen is just the proposed circumstance. And I exist in them, trying to be interesting, exciting and at the same time, as much as possible, to remain myself.
As for the speed - it seems to me that this is not fast enough. I am not worried about the criticism that, they say, I rush about the kitchen. I do not rush, this is the pace of my life, and in life, believe me, I do everything faster. In the frame, I can’t afford it, the camera just doesn’t have time behind me, so I have to take this into account. I really value time, I have few hours in the day, I don't sleep much, I want more time. But I was not always like that, my mother, until I was sixteen, constantly urged me on: "Yulia, well, can you move faster?" I was a normal kid living at my own pace.
Isn't it difficult not to repeat the recipes for so many years?
No, it’s not difficult. Cooking is constantly developing, plus now there is a great interest in this type of leisure all over the world, people began to devote a lot of time to this, and here the most important thing is to keep abreast and be a curious person.
I sometimes wonder when I talk to young chefs that I know more than they do - although this is the profession that feeds them. It amazes me.
Maybe, of course, they get tired of cooking in a working day, maybe the routine tires them, but I just have the opportunity to switch from one activity to another, leaving this spark of interest burning ... Or this is already another generation - information is so available that you have no desire to get it? Do not know. It seems to me that this is one of the advantages of my perfectionism - in everything I want to get to the very essence.
How have the product market, audience, program objectives changed during this time? Have your competitors changed?
In fact, I would like to have as many interesting culinary programs as possible, because in order to develop, there must be a development of the entire environment. Of course, the product market has changed: 14 years ago, oddly enough, it was easier for me. Maybe there was no such assortment, but you could buy fresh sardines, good cheese, you could buy cream that was made from natural milk, and not from a powder product. I did not go to the market with a device that checks the amount of nitrates in vegetables and fruits.
I have never entered into a discussion about the fact that we have supposedly expensive products. In our country, apparently, people react to names. Now no one remembers, but for the first time on the Russian screen, arugula appeared in my program, and then there were reproaches for being exotic, but now it is grown in the suburbs and everyone can afford it.
Or polenta made from corn grits - everyone thinks that it is expensive because it sounds Italian, but call it hominy and it will be immediately treated with contempt.
But not a single culinary program has shown as many buckwheat dishes as I have prepared over these 14 years! But the indignation of the audience is like with the weather: it is pointless to argue - what is, that is.
What do you remember from the kitchen of your own childhood - what did your mother cook, what did you like?
My parents worked a lot, and, like all Soviet people, they did not have much time to prepare food. But still, on Saturdays, my mother always had a cabbage pie, in the winter there was a vinaigrette, and in the summer - eggplant baked in the oven almost to coal with herbs, tomato and butter, it was terribly tasty. Since then, I have never met a recipe for eggplant with butter - apparently, this is some kind of my mother's invention.
My grandmother, Polina Aleksandrovna, cooked more, and I adored her cuisine: dumplings with cherries (I could eat a lot of them), green borscht, amazing pumpkin porridge with rice (as I understand today, almost risotto, only sweet), and all sorts of pies - with apricots, plums, apples.
This is southern, Don cuisine, therefore, there are a lot of vegetables, fruits, few cereals - I first tried buckwheat at the age of 18 in Minsk. And then I found out that dumplings are frozen, for me it was a shock: and how are people not afraid to buy it? How do they know what they put in the dough?
In general, the preparation of dough by my grandmother was a sacred rite. I remember that someone from a relative died, my grandmother had to break loose and go to the village for the funeral, and she put the dough the day before. I was six years old, and I was left alone with this dough, which was coming out of the pan, I kneaded it first with my hands, then I got into this pan with my feet, and the dough kept growing and growing, like in a comedy ...
The apogee of despair for mothers: what to cook for breakfast so that the children can eat quickly? What, by the way, do your homemakers prefer as breakfast?
In this sense, I am a rather tough person, I am categorically against quick breakfasts. I understand that a variety of cereals is a way out for a mother who is in a hurry to work, but these are carbohydrates that do not give the child any energy, firstly, and secondly, here you need to think about the future: you need to raise a healthy person, and on such breakfasts it will not work. How is the way out? You can cook something in advance, freeze and reheat. For example, I make pancakes, stuff them with cottage cheese, or minced chicken, or vegetables, I freeze them ready-made, and in the morning I need a few minutes to warm them up.
If there is no time at all, it is better for the child to fry or boil an egg, or put a piece of whole grain bread in a toaster and grease it with butter, because butter is absolutely necessary for children, it is tasty, healthy, satisfying, and the child will have enough energy until the next snack.
You can make a sandwich quickly: two slices of bread, between them pieces of cucumber, boiled chicken, a quick dressing of yogurt and mustard - this is juicy, tasty and absolutely healthy food. Now I do porridge like this: I soak whole oats or whole rye, then I cook it, and such porridge also stands quietly for a couple of days in the refrigerator, it only needs to be reheated. I cook, by the way, in oat milk, or rice, or soy - I rarely use cow milk.
Unfortunately, only my husband and I love syrniki, the rest of the household are indifferent to them - as I understand it, I just overfed them in due time. In my childhood, cottage cheese was in short supply, I remember how I stood in line in Tbilisi for a pack of cottage cheese and then counted each cheese pan - my mother made them very tasty, it seemed like there was nothing tastier in life. And I, it seems, with all these cheesecakes, cottage cheese, casseroles and cheesecakes, overdid it so that my children refuse to eat it.
The traditional question is, how does a food handler manage to stay in such great shape?
First of all, I work as an artist, and an artist needs to support herself, this is part of the profession. And there is nothing new here - eat less, move more. I have neither a magic pill, nor a magic metabolism that burns everything up. Of course, from time to time I allow myself everything - and I love bread and butter more than anything else, and today I will make pasta with botarga for my friends and, of course, I will eat it myself. But in principle I try to control myself.
For example, I like to starve - especially when it is clear that the jeans have not sat down so well and the process of gluttony must be stopped.
I do yoga, jogging. Sometimes terribly annoying. On the other hand, I don’t run for two days - and the body begins to demand this sports endorphin, so that seven sweats come off you, so that you will start to respect yourself. Such a drug.
My husband put me on a run, and we ran for a long time together. But then he underwent spinal surgery and stopped running and switched to a bicycle. And at that moment my friend persuaded me to try walking sticks. At first, the stereotype worked for me: something for the elderly, I'm not interested in it. And then I realized that this is a very serious load, and it is correctly distributed - not only on the legs, but also on other muscle groups: the back, arms - everything works. And my husband and I began to walk together, we can walk 20 kilometers, or even more. A bicycle is also good, you can see a lot, enjoy many impressions, but sticks are communication. And if I go alone, then I listen to books, lectures. We just need to change the load, because our cunning body gets used to everything.
Have you received any offers for so many years of your culinary career to take part in the filming of a "restaurant" TV series or something like that?
Proposals were received. But here a lot depends on the script, director, partners - many factors that could convince me. While this topic is, in principle, filled for me, maybe, if I finish doing this, I will agree to an interesting culinary plot.
Yulia, why are you - a beautiful, bright actress - acting so little? Is this your own choice or, perhaps, the dictates of your husband?
If it were my husband's dictate, I would never dare to say directly, on the contrary, I would deny: what are you, what are you, he even wants me to act! Nobody ever admits in life that there is a diktat. I don’t know, this is my fate. This is how my road goes.
I am a happy theatrical actress. In the Mossovet Theater, in the trilogy of Andrei Sergeevich Konchalovsky based on Chekhov's plays, I play the roles that a student could only dream of.
As for the cinema, the material that I receive does not evoke an internal response in me, and, probably, the shadow of my husband makes a certain impression on the directors - no one is interested in filming someone else's artist, everyone wants to work with their own. I don't do much, but I don't have acting despair. I have quite an interesting, favorite work.
You are on the jury of the Heroine of Our Time competition as a trustee of the Change One Life Foundation, which is looking for parents for orphans. Why this particular fund?
The theme of a child without a family is ... If there are things for which there should be national responsibility and national shame, then these are definitely old people and children. When the guys came up with a proposal to become a trustee of the fund - what other options could there be? Of course I agreed.
When a child enters a family, of course, it is joyful and wonderful, but it is also very difficult - for both the child and the family, and the Change One Life Foundation - it is not just about adopting, it is about how to help a child and parents to continue to live together. Build relationships.
And I also think that we all need to work not only on the fact of the tragedy, but also on its prevention, we need to change something in the system so that children do not become orphans. And the very mechanism of taking a child into a family is still not very simple in our country. Adoption was very difficult for one of my close friends. And the person is a rather successful professional, and the wife is wonderful, and the house is big, everything is there, but there are no children. And the foundation helped. Seeing with your own eyes this human pain on both sides - the pain of people who want to become parents, but cannot, and the pain of children, left orphans by the will of fate - you, of course, want to help as much as you can.
Foundation and kitchen furniture workshop "Let's eat at home!" established a special prize for adoptive mothers in our competition - one of the participants will receive a certificate as a gift and will be able to choose almost any cuisine she likes. How will you determine the winner?
To be honest, I have no idea how we will choose, a very difficult question. We will have to unite with the foundation, with the editorial jury - this is very responsible, and I think it will be difficult to decide.
Our participants are women who change the life around them for the better. Who are the heroes of our time for you today?
There are people whom everyone knows: actress Yulia Peresild with the Galchonok Foundation, Chulpan Khamatova with Give Life, Khabensky with his foundation helping children with severe brain diseases.
Now many famous people are trying to use their name to help those in need, and this is very correct.
On the other hand, I have wonderful friends, their names will not tell anyone, but they have been helping stray animals for more than twenty years, they have 30 or 40 dogs at home, and they actually support 2 more shelters with their own money. There is a wonderful person, a family friend, Petkin's godfather - he is a dentist and helps a lot both hospices and those people who simply cannot afford to have their teeth treated.
How, in your opinion, has the role of women changed in modern society?
I am convinced that the role of a woman is always more important than the role of a man, this is how it is and how it will be - family, children, home. The famous Dior call "We must all be feminists" is good, but still - why everyone? Or did I live in such an environment that I never felt that women were somehow oppressed and not given the opportunity to express themselves?
So that in Soviet times a woman sat in a corner and kept quiet - I have never seen such a thing.
Women should be able to earn no less than men, their opinion should mean something, the feminist movement raises many really important questions. But we still must not forget about nature, about things without which humanity cannot survive. I know that we should all love each other, and I'm not sure that we should all be feminists.
Is it hard to be a modern woman?
It is generally difficult to be a woman, at all times.
Our doctor friend says: if a man is made like a bicycle, then a woman is like a spaceship.
I myself want more, higher, faster, but at the same time I am not interested in separation by gender - neither for myself, nor for others. I wonder if this artist plays well or badly, whether this chef has cooked well or badly, and whether he is a man or a woman is not important.
What inspires you today?
I like my work, I love my Mossovet theater, my partners, my few friends who help me a lot. A cup of coffee still inspires me, but not every day.
My first thought this morning ... I'll run now. I didn’t even start drinking water today, I got up and ran. I realized that it was worth delaying a little, and I would find a lot of excuses. But I ran and now I am pleased with myself.
Interview: Natalia Rodikova
Photo: Mikhail Korolev; from the personal archive of the heroine
April 6, 2013 10:16 amThe life of the actress and TV presenter Yulia Vysotskaya is replete with events, her energy and enthusiasm can only be envied!
In her numerous interviews, Julia has always emphasized and does not get tired of repeating that the main thing in her life is family, and work, career are secondary things. However, her irrepressible energy is enough to be not only an exemplary keeper of the "home", but also an enterprising business woman. TV project "Let's eat at home!" with her participation, over the 10 years of its existence, it has turned into a real culinary corporation. Under the auspices of the project, the “Culinary Studio of Julia Vysotskaya” was opened, the direction of gastronomic tourism is developing, two years ago, Julia decided to open her own restaurant with the original name “Yornik” and no less original cuisine.
In between her numerous business trips and travels around the world, Yulia enjoys spending time at home - in a mansion on Nikolina Gora, where she lives with her husband, famous film director Andrei Konchalovsky, and two children, 14-year-old daughter Masha and 10-year-old son Petya. Julia loves to receive guests, cheerful feasts, and, the best way to relieve stress, for her, is ... a thorough cleaning of her own kitchen.
Julia, has a cult of delicious food been present in your family since childhood?
I come from the south, and in the south people generally treat food a little differently than in more northern countries. For them, food is a pleasure that they can afford almost all year round, the seasonality of products plays a special role, since everything from the garden-garden-dacha: strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, dill, parsley ... In such conditions, it is difficult not grow up a hedonist. This environment has shaped my love for delicious food!
You mentioned the benefits of having fresh produce from the garden ... However, few residents of the capital can afford such a luxury. How and where do you buy products, for example, for classes in the cooking studio?
If we talk about a culinary studio, we work there with suppliers, people who do it professionally. In Russia today, the history of farming is rather weak, and, unfortunately, little is being done to support the agro-industrial complex. Rather, on the contrary, a lot is being done so that all undertakings collapse, as quickly as possible in tartar. Therefore, it is rather difficult with good products in Russia. But there are worthy supplier partners with whom we are trying to work. We are looking for partners, focusing on the quality of the goods, and partners are looking for us, as we can give them greater recognition. When we find each other and are satisfied, it develops into long-term cooperation.
The fact is that cooking is not only a chef's talent, skill, ingenuity and special art. Most important, as Italians say "Materia prima", this is a product, and then all the manipulations. If you don't have a product, then nothing will work.
It is difficult for the culinary business to develop in Russia, not because there are no talented chefs or people do not want to learn. With this, everything is fine, there are both talents and desire, but the problem is with the most important thing - it is difficult to get a high-quality product.
And what about this main thing in the Yornik restaurant?
At Yernik we closely monitor the seasonality, the menu changes at least 6 times a year, or even more often, because our invited chef Daniel Fippard, who plays the main role in the kitchen, does not understand at all how you can eat strawberries or cherries. January. If in summer "Yo-martini" in a restaurant is made with cherries, then in winter only with an apple. Compliance with the seasonality of products is one of the important rules of good cuisine.
What products do you usually buy home?
To be honest, we eat very simple food at home. Only when we collect guests, then I invent something like that. Every day there is something that is shown once a week in the program "Eating at home", of course it is impossible - not without reason this program is released once a week. A special case is needed, requiring the preparation of three to four dishes. And every day we eat salads, vinaigrettes, cereals - buckwheat, oatmeal, yoghurts. Products can be bought at a regular Moscow supermarket. Plus, I bring a lot of products from my trips abroad - I am a completely crazy person in this regard: I bring cheese, ham, sausages, I even manage to bring bread from abroad (laughs).
Do your children and your husband cook at home?
Marusya cooks from children, and she does it well, she already has several of her signature recipes. Petya and Andrey Sergeevich have, rather, a consumer approach to food. Andrei Sergeevich generally believes that he knows perfectly well how and what should be prepared, but he is not very interested in doing this. Sometimes he still cooks, but this happens extremely rarely.
In 2011, you opened the Yornik gastronomic restaurant in Moscow and founded the Julia Vysotskaya culinary studio. Have the goals that were originally set for these projects already justified? What new goals are you setting?
As for the culinary studio, the results not only met, but exceeded all expectations. I never thought that such an interesting, modern and even avant-garde project would turn out from this idea. I am very grateful to the team that worked on this project and, first of all, to Evgeny Stepanov, General Director of the Konchalovsky Foundation, who convinced me to launch the project. I could not imagine that there are so many people in Moscow who love to cook and who will need this site. How we managed to design our studio aesthetically, when our partners listened to our every word and wish - from the color of the walls to the quality of the surfaces. Nolte has made us stunning interiors, Bosch has provided first-class technology - we have such a real alliance, and an advanced and at the same time cozy atmosphere that it is no coincidence that people who come to us come back again and again. I am very proud of this project and our team! As for further goals, there are thoughts about creating a whole network of culinary studios. It would be interesting to turn into social clubs, a format where parents can be engaged, for example, in cooking, and at this time the children are busy with drawing or some other creativity. It is no coincidence that it is believed that the kitchen is the heart of the house, everyone always gathers there, communicates, the smells that are born there fill the house and make it cozy. The task of such family centers, I see, is so that people can exchange experiences there, recharge with energy, and then bring this into their home, which would make it more comfortable and kinder.
When I decided to open the Yornik restaurant, everyone tried to dissuade me, including the restaurateurs I knew, including Arkady Novikov, and the cooks. Especially considering that I wanted a restaurant with modern and new cuisine. They said: “Don't get involved in this business, this is a nightmare and there will be nothing but losses. Everyone wants pasta and pizza, not innovation. Open an Italian pizzeria and everything will be fine with you! " But now I’m glad I didn’t turn off the path, no matter what. I was lucky to find a wonderful chef Daniel Fippard, very talented and creative, I can say with confidence that he is my like-minded person and, like me, he experiments, is not afraid to stuff cones, and even in our difficult conditions continues to make his own kitchen, his own cooking which is very close to me.
What kind of audience is the restaurant designed for? How do you imagine a regular visitor to this establishment?
Our regular customers are people who do not have any well-established conservative views on food, who want to try something new, who are attracted by the aesthetics as well as the content of the dishes, and for whom going to a restaurant is, first of all, a way to get pleasure. Sometimes, in criticism of our restaurant, they write that we need to go to us with girls who do not eat anything, since the portions are very small. For me, it’s more of a compliment, since I don’t think you should leave a restaurant with a feeling of a full stomach. Likewise, at home, I never strive for guests to leave me sick, overeating, and curse me for the next three days that they cannot digest my treat. The Yornik restaurant was originally conceived as a place “about food”, a place for those who understand food and want to discover something new.
As far as we know, one of your main projects now is Culinary tours to Italy with Yulia Vysotskaya. Share the details - what is the essence of the tours, how long do they last, where the participants live, what is needed to take part in them?
Yes, we are actively developing this area now, and I see great prospects in this. We have already talked about the seasonality of many dishes. In order for me to prepare a fennel soufflé in my culinary studio, it is necessary either to bring here five kilograms of fennel and much more from Italy, or, which is much better, to prepare such dishes in Italy itself, where everything you need is available and at the same time of the best quality. ... When many of these products come to us, they go through many necessary services and controls and end up on the store counter at the price of a gold bar. In fact, in Italy, fennel costs no more than an onion. Therefore, many Russians who find themselves in a market or supermarket in another country simply blow their heads. When I travel abroad myself, if I stay not in a hotel, but in an apartment or at a friend's house, I always run to the market first and start cooking. Such an abundance of products of excellent quality and at such ridiculous prices - it is simply impossible to resist!
What is the ultimate goal of the tours?
The super task is to spend a delicious, interesting, exciting week with like-minded people. Not only relax, taste everything, smell, but also learn - learn how to cook, learn to understand wine, cheese, olive oil, see Italy not tourist, but real, alive, visit the hidden treasures of Tuscany, Venice and not only. Our ideology is "to comprehend the art of living", art de vivre - as the French say.
What areas are you currently developing within the framework of the project?
The most active destination is Tuscany, a region of Italy. We have tours to Venice. Venice turned out to be magical not only in terms of architecture and the special magic of this place, it turned out to be incredibly rich in gastronomy, chefs, secret restaurants, bars hidden from the ordinary tourist, enoteca. Yes, one market is worth a lot at 6 in the morning - especially if your guide is the right chef!
Now we are developing Provence, Bordeaux, Burgundy - these are also very interesting destinations in which you can combine cognitive wine tours with culinary destinations. In general, Europe, not only the Mediterranean, but also North, if we talk about Holland, Sweden and Denmark, is very rich in culinary traditions. I am convinced that such "trips of taste" enrich, bring a large number of positive emotions, this is an alternative vacation, a vacation, when you comprehend the worlds that were previously closed to you.
Gastro-tourism in the world has existed for a long time and is popular, but in our country it is just beginning to develop and it is very interesting and, I think, promising!
Is it obligatory for your participation in each round, communication with the members of each group? Or are the tours planned to be put on stream in the near future?
It seems to me that the meaning of these tours is communication. I myself want to communicate with each group. Moreover, when it turned out that I did not spend so much time with the group as I would like, I would die of envy and jealousy. Imagine, they see so many interesting things there, cook, try, learn, and I have to play a performance in Moscow! I wanted to go back to Italy as soon as possible.
I'm kidding, of course. Performances are another and integral part of my life. But now I have organized trips so that I can spend a lot of time with each group.
In addition, given that people come to visit me, naturally, as a hostess, I want everything to be well organized. And in this sense I am an absolute freak, everything should be under my personal control. As for conducting all master classes, here it is not at all necessary that I lead them. I myself get high when I learn from Italians. I believe that there can be two or three of my workshops per tour, but everything else should come first-hand. When I do my homework, I introduce you to my home cooking. But I think it's right when a handsome Italian shows how to cook lasagna correctly, how to make homemade pasta.
What are your main principles as a cook? Is it generally possible to talk about the concept of principles and immutable rules in cooking?
We have already touched upon this topic at the beginning of our conversation: the main thing for me is the product, its quality! The second principle is not to be blinkered, to experiment, to be ready for something new. As soon as a person says that, for example, borscht is just this set of products and nothing else, then he is no longer a culinary specialist, he just has staked out skills that do not lead to development. And it seems to me that cooking, like any other area of creativity, includes a willingness to change, break the old framework, habitual forms and try something new. I also think it's very important to cook only when you feel like it. In any case, I’m not a cook, I’m not a chef, this is not my job, I don’t have a duty to go out at 7 am every day and stand at the stove. Therefore, I can afford such a thrill - to cook only at will. And if he's not there, I go to a restaurant or don't eat at all. I believe that mood and inspiration are also essential for the right process!
You are a model of a successful and enterprising woman! What are the life principles that help you to achieve success, to achieve your goals?
Success is a very relative concept and you can talk for a very long time about who actually achieved it in life. As for myself, I believe that I have not yet implemented many projects and ideas that I really want to bring to life and see the result. Even if some ideas turn out to be wrong, then I want to be convinced of this while you are full of strength, so as not to remember later: "Oh, I didn't try, but something could have come of it!" It seems to me that two things help in moving forward. First, the energy of delusion - that is, regardless of whether your belief in what you are doing is wrong or not, you still move forward and try to achieve full success in this movement. In order not to remember later: oh, I didn't try, but something could have come of it. And the second is healthy self-doubt. Once a person is absolutely sure that he is the best and does something better than everyone else, this is a wrong and dead end state. There is always someone who does something better than you. And, for example, it gives me an incentive to develop. And also healthy humility before the dignity and superiority of other people. Such humility is a necessary quality in all areas of life, in love, in a family, with children.
You love food, know how to cook deliciously ... Have there been moments in your life when you were dissatisfied with your shape?
I am constantly, sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy with my form - this is a normal state of a woman (laughs)! You let yourself go for three or four days, then you’re not satisfied, you start to keep yourself in check for a while. But I haven't been on diets for a long time. In general, I think that diet is a sad word, which means that sooner or later it will end, and then what? Walking around the buffet again? And it turns out a vicious circle! It is much wiser to understand that a little bit of everything is possible, but not always. It is important that taking care of the figure does not turn into a corral, in everything it is important to observe the norms and health. As the French say: in everything there should be a sense of proportion and in a sense of proportion too.
Now you mainly live in Italy. And who is in charge of your Moscow house on Nikolina Gora?
In general, a woman should take care of the house - this is organic, it is logical. Naturally, I do not mop the floors myself, I have an assistant whom I try to teach absolutely everything. This is a very young girl, when she came to work with us, she did not know much. And so we study together: I study to teach, and she learns to help me. But on the other hand, I myself really love everything related to home. For example, it really clears my mind when I do the cleaning. Of course, I don’t do it every day, physically there is no time for it. But when I have such a state that my soul is hard, I am very tired, or I feel sad, in addition to any other physical activity, it helps to put things in order everywhere - on the desk, in papers, in the kitchen, to tear the floors, cabinets, wipe cups , glasses, cans, flasks. Sometimes it happens that I wash the kitchen until four or five in the morning, every corner, every jar. And not because it is very dirty, but because it calms me down and helps me to tune in the right way. Of course, if I don't do it, there is someone to do it in my absence. And it is very great that there is an opportunity now to have such assistants. Because if you do everything that I do, plus come home and put things in order there, scrub sinks and showers - you can go crazy!
How often do you meet with friends, relatives living in the neighborhood?
We meet as often as possible, mostly at home. Home is better, more comfortable, meetings and communication are warmer. When we are in Moscow, we often have guests. It is good at home that you can sit for a long time without thinking that you still need to get somewhere, go, and then at home it is still tastier.
What are your favorite places nearby?
At one time we went to the "Veranda at the dacha" ... Recently, I rarely go somewhere. By the way, I recently discovered the excellent La Colline restaurant nearby. ... There is a French cook and it is very tasty there! Very pleasant atmosphere, interior, fireplace, smells like wood. The restaurant looks like a French house, with huge French windows to the floor. They bake their own bread there, a very good wine list. We arrived there after the performance, got there at 11 pm and got to a wonderful dinner. I was impressed, for me this is such a discovery of an excellent institution within the framework of Moscow in general, not just Rublyovka. A very worthy European level!
Your sites are signed - A. Konchalovsky's Production Center. What is his role in your studies, is it part of the family business? Who runs the Culinary Studio, the restaurant?
When everything was just beginning, Andrei Sergeevich already had his own production center, he was engaged in documentary films and all sorts of other projects - theatrical performances, cinema. The Eat at Home program was a small television add-on to all this tumultuous activity. Gradually, we have grown a lot and now we fully support each other. We have one general director, Evgeny Stepanov, who oversees all projects.
Updated 06/04/13 10:27:
Afterword.
Dear editors!
Please be merciful and do something with the post feature! Because at the present time it is simply impossible to do anything decent. Everything falls off, disappears and is published when not needed! It's not possible to edit the post's font or copy it and fit the entire font in the text so that everything is readable and the eyes don't roll out!
Do, I beg you, as it was before! Otherwise, there will be fewer and fewer posts, and then there will be no posts at all. A lot of people complain about problems with the publication of posts.
I am writing this after I tried to edit the preview, and I had a post published when it was NOT asked for! This is my second time.
I have long wanted to interview this amazing woman who combines different talents.
Photo: Olga Tuponogova-Volkova
But it so happened that Julia Vysotskaya got ahead of me - she invited me to her morning program on the NTV channel. Vysotskaya the journalist aroused my admiration, and from this high note I decided to start our conversation with her for OK!
V frame, Julia, you are so thoughtful, interested and very positive. It's nice.
Thank you, Vadim, for your kind words. In fact, you know better than me that everything depends on the interlocutor. Ideally, this should be a mutual story, not just a question and answer.
Let's talk this way today. All the time you are surrounded by the attributes of cuisine: you record the morning program in the “Culinary Studio of Julia Vysotskaya”, and now we are in one of your restaurants. I've always wondered, where did you get such, excuse me, manic love for everything edible?
So I'm from the south. They take their vegetables, fruits, fish and meat very seriously. And there is also such an expression: "He is from a good nursery."
Yes Yes.
So here I am from good cuisine. From that kitchen, where not only those who cook, but also those who eat are attentive to food. All the women in our family cooked well and deliciously: mother, grandmother, great-uncles and grandmothers who lived on the farm. My grandmother went to the market every other day at five in the morning. Nobody forced me to cook, but if I wanted to make dumplings, they let me "spoil" as much dough as I wanted!
Did you grow up free, without frames? Sorry to suddenly say "you".
We can go to you.
With pleasure!
I grew up like all normal Soviet children: a key on my neck - and forward. She warmed up food for herself, followed her sister to kindergarten, and when she went to school, she did her homework with her. I was reliable and responsible, you could rely on me.
What about hobby groups?
Since my stepfather was in the military, we often moved. I went to a music school in Tbilisi for two years, and that was all over: in Baku, there was no such school next to my house.
Did you have any other options besides the acting path?
No, I wanted to be an actress, and I clearly knew that I wanted to work in the theater. I was afraid to go to Moscow. Stopped in Minsk. True, when I had already graduated from the institute and started working at the Yanka Kupala Theater, I realized that I had to move on. We came to the theater with two of our institute's performances, but no one really needed it there. And I always wanted to be close to a strong director. I began to think that I would go to Lithuania to see Nyakrosius, even if I first have to wash the floors in his theater, or I ask Lev Dodin: I’ll sit at the entrance to the Maly Drama Theater in St. Petersburg and wait until he agrees to listen to me, I can whether I be his actress or not.
But dreams have remained dreams. Why?
I didn’t have time to go anywhere, I really didn’t have time. Andrey Sergeevich appeared.
That is, the “strong director” came from an unexpected direction.
Yes, we met at Kinotavr. There were three films with my participation: one in the competition program and two out of competition. Perhaps it was fate.
Was the age difference acutely felt at first?
I didn't feel it at all. This, Vadim, is amazing. There were people much younger than Andrei Sergeevich, and with them I really felt the age distance. And with him from the first moment there was no brakes at all - this, probably, happened for the first time in my life.
That is?
Well, what is "that is"? We met and three days later flew to Turkey together. Everyone said to me: “Wasn't it scary? Someone else's man ... "No, it was not scary. My roof just blew off. Looking at him, I forgot everything, I had no taboos. I often think people have new opportunities when everything else is cut off. At that moment, I was just getting out of a serious relationship.
You've already been married.
I was married fictitiously, to my classmate Tolya Kot, now he is successfully filming and playing in the Armen Dzhigarkhanyan Theater. Since I worked in Minsk, I needed Belarusian citizenship. I remember that we came to the registry office with a vobla instead of flowers.
Effectively!
Do you know how you got divorced? I flew in from London, put a hundred dollars in my passport and handed it to the registry office clerk with the words: "We no longer love each other." She replied: "It happens" - and immediately divorced us without a trial.
And with Konchalovsky, how quickly did you get to the registry office?
At first, the question was posed as follows: “We are free people. You can say to me "Chao", I to you - "Fly, birdie." Let's see how it goes. " And then it suited me, because at first I did not want a serious relationship. Then there was a moment when he said to me: “Don't you understand? But I love you". And only a year and a half later, in December 97th, he proposed to me.
Was your mom against your relationship with such a grown man?
Mom didn't know anything. I left Baku when I was sixteen years old. Mom somehow supported me financially until I was eighteen, and then everything collapsed, she was left alone and had to return to Novocherkassk to her parents. And I was already living my own independent life.
It's clear. You have two wonderful men - Andrei Sergeevich and a son. How old is Pete now?
Twelve.
Whose character is he?
How to say? .. Well, let's say, fifteen years ago I had some kind of childish stubbornness. In a conflict situation, I could get into a bottle and sit there for three days without talking to anyone. This is such a train from childhood. And Petya is an absolute Konchalovsky in this respect. Today I tell him: “You upset me terribly: you said that you didn’t have one lesson, but missed two. You're late for school again. Sorry, I won't talk to you. " Three hours pass. Petya calls: “Hello, mom. How are you? How was your day? " As if nothing had happened. I still experience every word spoken in a raised voice, I do not understand how to live with it further. For me, these are all layers, like in a painting by William Turner, when there is some kind of shine, flicker. And everything was washed away from Petya, a clean sheet, they drove on! And this is a great quality. This is the breed of Konchalovsky and Mikhalkovs - they are light in energy. Have you ever seen how Nikita Sergeevich talk with Andrei Sergeevich?
It's fireworks! The feeling that one is sixteen years old, and the other is ten: “Old man, do you know? ..” And everyone who is at this moment at home just freezes for two hours. This is such an exchange of energy, love.
Fine. Yulia, once my brother Igor was on the plane with you. He told me with delight that you read the book all the way, not noticing anything around.
Well, yes, I read a lot. When I come across an interesting book, I read voraciously. It seems to me that one cannot live only on the accumulated material and worked out methods. I know that I made an impression on Andrei Sergeevich when we discussed theater directors and literature. Konchalovsky is constantly working on himself, and I endlessly learn from him. The books that I read twenty years ago can hardly interest me now; other topics, other authors arise. Probably, at this moment in my life, I am interested in literature, in which there is something that I would like to formulate myself, but it does not work out. I am now reading Murakami and, no matter how late I return home, I always read at least a few pages, I specifically try to read slowly so that the book does not end longer.
Julia, I want to say what a strong impression your new role made on me - in the premiere of the play "The Cherry Orchard" at the Mossovet Theater. Your Ranevskaya is like a bundle of nerves - sharp, uncontrollable and at the same time incredibly touching and defenseless. You are a happy actress: you played almost all Chekhov's heroines on stage. In this respect, you have a wonderful tandem with the director Konchalovsky.
Thank you, Vadim. But you yourself know that the performance can take place only after the tenth performance, this is at least. Andrei Sergeevich always builds his image in a very interesting way. He can offer some things that stand out from the usual style. It is very important for him that there is a live string everywhere.
For the sake of such, as you say, live string in the new film "Paradise" Konchalovsky made you shave bald. I personally like your new image. Stylish, laconic and suits you.
And I can't wait for my hair to grow back! I don't like pressure. It is important for me that the initiative is mine. If I cut my hair of my own free will, I would immediately forget about it and move on, not paying attention to how I look. When we were rehearsing "Uncle Vanya", it seemed to me that long hair was in the way: Sonya should have a short haircut. And now ... I understand that this is necessary for the film, but I still experience violence against myself. ( Smiling.)
It’s interesting, but when you are constantly tasting food, is this not violence against yourself?
Of course not. It's a pleasure.
Then I don’t understand how you manage to stay so thin and slender?
I go in for sports every day. This is swimming, this is running, this is yoga.
I envy you! I just can't bring myself to even start swimming.
You are in such great shape! I should start to envy you if you don’t go in for sports and look like that. By the way, when I met Konchalovsky, it was plus ten kilograms.
How did you lose weight?
Very simple. Andrei Sergeevich revealed to me what a healthy lifestyle is. He got me hooked on running and, in general, on information about what it is. Another thing is that in this sense I am a trained sectarian. I am the kind of person who can follow an idea, a leader. I could probably be a nun or go headlong into Buddhism if someone convinced me that this is necessary. ( Smiling.)
By the way, do you cook at home or only on the set?
Of course I cook. First, I cannot refuse Petya. When I hear “Mom, I want”, no matter what happens at that moment, everything stops and I cook for him. Andrei Sergeevich says: "You spoil him" - and I cannot refuse. It seems to me that only I can cook so tasty for my son.
Are there no such indulgences for Andrei Sergeevich?
Why is that? For example, during the filming of the movie "Paradise", when we came home, I could start cooking pasta - and at one in the morning, and at two.
Pasta at night ?! What kind of healthy lifestyle can we talk about then?
Honestly, I like to eat most of all at night. In the morning you will run ten kilometers - and again in shape.
I cannot but mention your amazing complexion - the skin is perfect!
Well, in the modern world, I think it's just promiscuity not to look after yourself. Because it's elementary: three days of detox a month - and the skin already feels differently. Probably, genetics also affects. But in principle, you don't need to get too hung up on how you look. We have always known that hygiene is needed, and in the same way today we need to know that it is necessary to drink clean water and so on. If you simply don’t keep an eye on your appearance, then you are simply stealing the quality of life from yourself, that's all.
Precisely stated. Is fashion your element?
I perceive fashion rather detached. I love comfortable clothes and I am very careful to ensure that the thing is not in trend - so that it is not recognizable. For example, I started wearing heavy boots from the moment I met Konchalovsky. He took me to the store and bought me men's shoes. It was 1996. I still wear these boots. For me, style is an opportunity to wear something both today and in twenty years. In general, in order to make fashion purchases, you need a certain mood. You have no idea what a thrill it is to go to the store with Andrey Sergeevich! It tastes perfect. He very cleverly knows how to put things together, and this can be seen from the way he dresses himself. And I always know that I will look best in the clothes that he chooses for me.
The Eighth of March is coming soon. Trusting your husband's taste, do you expect a special gift from him?
I must say right away that for us there is no division of holidays by calendar days: March 8, Valentine's Day ... Our holiday can come any day when we ourselves want it. And the signs of attention are informal. Each gift with a specific attitude, therefore, is even more valuable.
I look at you, Julia, and I understand how the eyes reflect the soul of a person. You have amazingly light eyes, such a clear look.
My eyes may seem light, but down there, at the bottom, they may be very dark. Even Leo Tolstoy said: "What a delusion to equate beauty with good." He probably argued with Dostoevsky ...
Who said: "Beauty will save the world." Now you smiled, and with a smile your eyes are even more beautiful. Please smile more often!
Thank you, Vadim. In general, the need to smile is not just empty words. It can be tricky, but it should be done in any condition. It's like the need for constant movement. For example, I know for sure that if I cannot run, I will go. If I can't walk, I'll crawl. If I cannot crawl, then somehow I will do exercises with my fingers. Likewise, a smile. He stretched his mouth in a smile, and then laughed at himself that he stretched, and the body responds, which means that fate responds ... It sounded somehow pathetic.
Not pretentious at all, Julia. This is a great ending for our conversation. Alive and real.
Well, fine if so. ( Smiling.)
Style: Anna Andreevna
Makeup and hairstyles: Nadezhda Knyazeva
Black and white "Paradise"
I will tell him.
Did it happen like that right away?
Style: Alexandra Podelskaya. Makeup: Alexey Molchanov / Lancom. Hairstyle: Svetlana Shaida. We thank the restaurant "Vanil" for help in organizing the shooting
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On January 19, the film "Paradise" by Andrei Konchalovsky was released in Russia, which was shortlisted for the Oscar-2017 in the nomination "Best Foreign Language Film". On the occasion of the big premiere, we present an interview with the editor-in-chief of HELLO! Svetlana Bondarchuk with the female lead in the film and the director's wife, actress Yulia Vysotskaya.
Konchalovsky's black and white "Paradise" is a film that everyone has been talking about since September 2016, since the director, having appeared on the Lido for the fifth time, took one of the main prizes of the Venice Film Festival.
Julia Vysotskaya - wife, muse and main character - plays Olga, a Russian aristocrat, a member of the French Resistance. The film about the intricacies of destinies against the backdrop of World War II refers to the classics of the genre - the documentary "Ordinary Fascism" by Mikhail Romm, and the fictional "Night Porter" by Liliana Cavani are also recalled. In "Paradise" the plot is driven by a passion that flares up for the heroine Vysotskaya Helmut - the head of a German concentration camp. There is also a third character - the French collaborator Jules, who is also fascinated by the mysterious Russian soul. All three perform monologues, keeping the answer in conditional purgatory. Everyone is true to himself, and it becomes clear that the most solid theory in the world is the theory of relativity.
Julia, the film "Paradise" was shortlisted for the Oscar and has already received a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Now I want you to come back to that moment and talk about your feelings. I remember very well the photo from Venice: you, Andrei Sergeevich and your son Petya are standing on the red carpet, so happy. Strong shot.
It is difficult to return to momentary sensations, but it was some kind of ecstasy. And Andrei Sergeevich is absolutely right, I do not want to misappropriate his idea that participation in the Venice Festival itself is a holiday. And Venice, the city itself, is magic, a fairy tale.
You went there two years ago with the painting White Nights of the Postman Alexei Tryapitsyn, which received the Silver Lion ...
Yes, "Postman" was also well received. But then the joy was unexpected, unexpected. When Andrei Sergeevich creates a film, he, of course, loves it and invests in it to the maximum. Naturally, when we, people close to him, looked at the picture, everyone was very impressed. But this does not mean that the jury of the international festival should be under the same impression. When in relation to the film you are subjective, biased, it is not entirely clear how it can be perceived.
"The Postman" is an author's film, "not for everyone", but it was recently shown on Channel One, and it turned out that the audience liked it and was understandable to everyone. Don't you think that this is a kind of continuation of "Asya Klyachina" of 1967? There is some kind of parallel ...
Yes, in both films, non-professional actors took part in the filming. Ordinary villagers starred in the crowd, and some even got full roles. In general, it seems to me that Andrei Sergeevich has an interesting evolution of the artist. Each of his films is not like the previous one. That is why he has such a career, as it seems to me, unrecognition. And because of this, he didn’t take root in Hollywood, he couldn’t resist. He is interested in looking for something new all the time. And the audience likes the familiar. I like the handwriting.
This is the youth of the soul. In my opinion, a director is a profession of young people. With the proviso that age is not numbers, but a state of mind. This is what a person experiences in his heart, in his head, how he feels the world, is he ready to share, to love ...
I would say - learn and seek. If a person has these needs, then everything else does not matter. The numbers are all nonsense.
It seemed to me that after Konchalovsky's film "House of Fools", where you played Zhanna, a patient of a psychiatric hospital left to fend for herself, there was no more mockery of the actress over his wife. You are a professional actress, but when such a hard film like "Paradise" is directed by your husband, is it a pleasure?
This is happiness! Absolute happiness. However, as well as work in the film "House of Fools". This film was very difficult to prepare. I spent two months in a psychiatric clinic in 2002 - it was not easy. And then the work began.
In "Paradise" you have a very difficult role, a difficult heroine. The fact that you had to part with your hair, lose ten kilograms, these are just flowers. The film has a lot of intense, to put it mildly, scenes with your participation. How was it all?
My heroine hides Jewish children. One scene was with Jewish boys. I had to bring the children to such an emotional state that they would cry in the frame. It was really difficult. Later, in Venice, after the premiere, Andrei Sergeyevich thanked me loudly for this. He said: "If Yulka hadn't shaken them like that, I wouldn't know how to bring these children." I certainly felt sorry for them. But it's even more pity to torment them with several takes. So I turned on my entire ruthless acting background to somehow cheer them up.
Julia Vysotskaya in the film by Andrei Konchalovsky "Paradise"Yulia Vysotskaya with partner in the film "Paradise" Philippe Duquesne as Gendarme JulesChristian Klaus, who played SS officer Helmut, and Julia Vysotskaya
This is not the first time Vysotskaya has played with Konchalovsky. The scripts for the films "Gloss" and "House of Fools" were written especially for her. "In the film" Paradise "hardly anyone would have played the same way as she did. Maybe Churikova, if she was of the right age," says Andrei Konchalovsky
And there were moments of doubt, fears, when you did not understand how you would cope? How uncompromising was your director about you?
There was such a scene - I had to sing. Basically, I don’t sing. The director told me about this the night before. And for me it was a shock that tomorrow I have to sing a Cossack song, being in a French prison according to the plot. I am a Cossack woman, Cossack blood is in me. And there are not many notes in the song, this is not an aria from "War and Peace" by Prokofiev. But nevertheless, it still had to be done in front of everyone, sober. (Svetlana and Yulia laugh.)
Maybe it was possible by stealth ...
No, I can't do that. I am without condemnation that some artists feel freedom only after they take a sip of brandy or something else ... For me this is out of the question. And, in principle, the director was pleased. But it was horror. I told my colleagues: "Girls, just don't laugh at me. We are in prison, if you want to laugh, cry when you hear me sing. I ask you. Do not" inject. "And as a result, this moment was not included in the film ...
Yes? Then I have a proposal! Maybe a short film will be born out of your "Cossack song"? If Andrei Sergeyevich does not have time to shoot a film for my next charity evening ACTION !, then you can collect a video from the scenes that have not been released.
I will tell him.
By the way, I will send you a collection of ACTION !. Every December we raise money for charitable foundations, we hold an evening where directors present their short films as lots. And this year I even starred in one. Although I have little acting experience, I am periodically acting, in this sense I am fearless. (Laughs.)
I saw you in Rezo's movie.
It was a full-length film "Love with an Accent". And now again with Rezo Gigineishvili, but in a short film, in the film "Widows". It's such a tragicomedy, worth seeing ...
You've been behind the scenes all your life - backstage, and now the stage is ready ...
You know, I used to be "on stage" most often when someone needed to help out. As in the case of "Love with an Accent": Masha Mironova at the last moment could not come to the shooting, and Rezo asked for help. And in the case of ACTION! the experience is very interesting, because the directors have complete creative freedom. And they demonstrate such a flight of fantasy!
Immediately I remember Nikita Sergeevich's film "Five Evenings" with Gurchenko, which was filmed between the filming of "Siberiade".
I love Five Evenings! My favorite film.
And mine! I think this is one of the best films by Nikita Sergeevich.
So, going back to today, are we preparing for the Oscars?
No, we are not preparing. Two key things must coincide here. Politics and luck. The understanding of Oscar politics is not available to us. No wonder Leonardo DiCaprio has not been given an Oscar for so many years. He should have gotten it back for What's Eating Gilbert Grape? in 1993. Richard Harris did not receive an Oscar at all. So which films, who is in charge, who is listened to, which studio ... I don't know. Better not to wait for anything. Because as soon as you build some prospects for yourself, choose a dress for the ceremony ...
This should be done in general at the last moment. I wonder how are you going? You are not a very social person, but you have important exits. How long have you been preparing?
I'm not preparing at all. Recently there was an award from Glamor magazine. I flew to Moscow the day before, tried on something in the morning and roughly understood what I could wear. Red carpet outfits are so momentary. It makes no sense to make a problem out of this, or to attach importance to it. In addition, it seems to me that there should be a certain amount of frivolity and negligence in the image.
I absolutely agree with you. Today this trend - a slight negligence like "I did something at the last moment" - has come down to us. But at the same time, there are situations when you have to look perfect. On the path of the Oscar ceremony, for example. When you represent all the actresses in our country. I have great respect for actresses who cope with this task - going out - but not everyone turns to a professional stylist. We just don't have enough professionals working on the image.
There must be, indeed, special people who, from this side, think over a career, help, because there is no time for this, there is not enough effort. Not everyone understands rags. And then, even some 20 years ago, we did not have fashion as such. Well, there were Dior, Chanel and Zaitsev. Now these names are ten times more, but the situation has not fundamentally changed. The star needs to be done. Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich sculpted themselves. We also have such examples - Alla Pugacheva, Lyudmila Gurchenko. But these are units!
Please tell me, what role did your husband play in creating your style?
Huge. Since childhood, I had little interest in what I was wearing, and the period of "war paint" did not last long for me - from 14 to 16. After 16 I stopped painting. I think he likes it. In general, he loves "washed" faces.
This does not suit everyone. It suits you, objectively.
Not everyone, of course. And as for Andrei Sergeevich - he himself has a very good style of dress and the very negligence that we talked about is not obligatory. Everything doesn't have to be perfect.
Your style is very close to me. And I always understood how important it is in a couple when a man and a woman fit together. I'm not talking about the fact that he has a red tie, but that she has red shoes. Some one style, slight negligence, I always like it so much with you!
It seems to me that we are generally alike. The way he understands me, and the way I understand him. We like the same things. Our character is different, but the insides are very similar.
Did it happen like that right away?
It seems to me almost immediately. As soon as we felt that we were close to each other. This also does not happen on the first day. Falling in love is not yet intimacy. First romance, chemistry, and then love happens. When you are a friend, when you are a friend, when you are together.
Click on the photo to view the gallery Yulia Vysotskaya and Andrei Konchalovsky at the premiere of the film "Paradise" in Moscow, January 18, 2017
You are busy with such different things: you are an actress, TV presenter, you have a show that has been very successful for many years, you write books, you cook, you have a restaurant. What does each of these hypostases mean to you and what can you give up and what can you not?
In general, first of all, I am an artist. And all these activities were born from the desire to try on different roles. Probably, if I was more busy in theater and cinema, I would not do the rest. But, on the other hand, whatever is done is for the better. It seems to me that a good host must be a good artist. Why do we have so few good host cooking programs? Because someone cuts onions well, and someone knows how to speak well. And it should be "two in one". An artistic chef. I'm an artist and I can cook, so it's easy.
And he must also be a person, in principle kind. He can have any character, but kindness is required. After all, food must be cooked with love.
Of course, he must also have charisma. Each of his dishes is a performance. Each time he is given a grade. He is ready for the fact that each of his plates can be sent back. So the kitchen is a theater, an absolute theater. I'm just lucky that I love to cook, I love to eat, I love food. I was born in Novocherkassk, the cult of food in the south of Russia is normal.
Have you always cooked? Were you taught at home?
Is always. Not taught. It comes out on its own. Because when pies, dumplings, dumplings are made endlessly at home, dough is put, jellied meat is boiled, when it smells of food all the time, then, of course, you are imbued with it.
And at my house they also cooked. Moscow family, where pies, and jellied meat, and cutlets were prepared. But cooking did not fascinate me. Despite the fact that I love to eat deliciously.
You can see it. (Svetlana and Yulia laugh.)
But it's true, I love homemade food. Although, I remember, my friend at home always had melted chocolate cheese. And I felt like an unhappy child, because we never had one in our house. It seemed to me - what could be tastier than processed cheese?
Nightmare. Harmful beckons everyone. Anything tasty is harmful.
I know that Andrei Sergeevich leads a healthy lifestyle. You are probably preparing a separate meal for him.
No no. Now Moscow is experiencing a fashion for healthy lifestyles, but since Andrei Sergeevich lived in America for a very long time, and there the peak of a healthy lifestyle was in the 90s, I can say that now this hobby is no longer so relevant for him. And in general, it will soon subside with us. After all, there is even a diagnosis that is given to people who are overly keen on healthy lifestyles. It seems to me that in order to be healthy, you need to move a lot. Exercise should be as much of a daily habit as, say, brushing your teeth.
Do you do a lot of sports?
About two hours a day. Charging is a must. Running, swimming. As for food - it seems to me that everything is possible, but little by little. I love pasta. And even if I eat fries, I won't feel like a criminal. (Laughs.)
What traditions do you have with the New Year holidays? What do you usually have on your table?
The traditions are the same as everyone else's. But it doesn't have to be Olivier. We just agree on who wants what. Whoever wants a baked goose with buckwheat porridge will have a goose. If you want, I don't know, fish in salt - there will be fish. All of this is organized so spontaneously. We usually celebrate with our friends at home, then we go to congratulate Nikita Sergeevich. They always have a lot of people, tables stand with the letter P, everyone has fun.
I visited the Mikhalkovs several years ago.
Yes, it's nice that many people go there on New Year's Eve. If we talk about traditions, I really like it when under the tree there are many, many different bundles, boxes, boxes, for everyone.
I also love it very much. Do you always know who to give what to?
There are always one or two people to whom you cannot think of what to give. Sometimes rare books, prints, some works of art are saved. They do not cost a lot of money, this is a sign, especially if you know that a person is interested in it. Sometimes some cute little flicks save you. Once in Milan I found a small silver shop. There were wonderful little bicycles, ladybugs, some things. These, it seems to me, are wonderful gifts. A cyclist who has everything in the world can be presented with a small silver bicycle, which he will hang on the keys.
What do you think is the general point of the holidays?
On holidays we are visited by a wonderful state. And, more broadly, it seems to me that the meaning of life is not to enjoy the holidays. And so that this condition is present as often as possible throughout the year, regardless of the calendar. Therefore, I would like to see me, and everyone in general, the state of joy and expectation of a miracle, the fulfillment of desires, visited as often as possible.