Maxim Averin: “I’m used to living without a relationship with my brother”

Maxim Averin

In his free time from creativity, Averin tries to visit the construction site of his future home. Today, large-scale work is underway here: the artist is building a house that he has long dreamed of. But for now he plans to live and move into a huge mansion here alone. Averin never started a family and children, but does not consider himself a lonely person.

“I'm surrounded by people all the time. This is part of my work, my profession. Coming to the set, I find myself surrounded by people, partners, make-up artists, all the workshops, cameramen - it’s all work! And work on yourself too. You never know what I don’t like today! But I am among people and must take into account their freedom, their right. Previously, I was more categorical, and if I didn’t like something, I stated it. And now I understand perfectly well that not everyone can match your temperament, your temperature at work,” shares Maxim.

The actor was born into the family of a decorative artist and a dressmaker. The actor remembers his mother, who passed away in April 2020, with deep respect and admiration.

“Everything was wonderful with mom. And she was such a beauty... One midwife told my grandmother that his name (mine, that is) would be known... And everyone liked it so much! Dad wanted to name me Valya because he liked Valentin Kataev. And my mother said: “What does Valya mean? The man will be great, and you are Valya! No way! Let it be better Maxim!” — the actor spoke about his parent.

Maxim Averin revealed the reason for the family drama: “My brother doesn’t understand me”

...And the prickly one came to work. Routine. And Anna Yakunina - his constant partner - rushed towards him. And the joyful smile on her face immediately indicates sympathy: “What’s wrong with your mood? Is it because of this?..” - “Yes!” And it’s clear from the intonations that this is about some kind of get-together, about something professional, apparently someone’s shortcoming, which now he will have to correct himself. Because he is a perfectionist - a quality without which not a single talent has ever succeeded.

And time is written down in minutes. Now - an interview, then he will set the lights on the stage himself for forty minutes, then - a performance. And tomorrow we’ll be on the road. And then there’s his birthday: on November 26 he will turn 44.

For now, we sit down in an empty dressing room and just start talking. And I, as always when communicating with him, am amazed: how emotional he is, how open and sincere! And trusting. So defenseless in his frankness...

Good. Simply very good Maxim Averin.

- Maxim, since today is an evening of misrecognition, will you be rich or already rich?

- It depends in what terms we talk about wealth... I already have everything I need in life, the maximum that I dreamed of. But talking about monetary wealth in a country where people barely make ends meet is indecent. You can't insult people, so I never took pictures on toilets, in bathtubs or among furniture. What I would like to talk about is dreams, that they are achievable. When they say: “No, Max, you can’t…” - I answer: “No! I feel it will happen!” And this happened.

A dream can be achieved. But you must not only believe in it, but go towards it. Many people simply think: “Oh, I made a wish, and it will happen!” But dreams are a capricious lady. So wealth should be inside a person: in his dreams, in his desire to change this world for the better. So that they would say: “Damn, he was rich! Rich in soul!

“Everything in a person should be beautiful: both soul and thoughts... When we last met, you said that you would like to build a house.” A house is not such a special wealth, after all, everyone needs it. Are you building?

- Yes, I’m just building it now.

— Will this be the abode of an esthete? Are you an esthete?

“I’m not that much of an esthete, but it’s nice for me to make some things beautiful for myself and others.” But good behavior in life does not negate the moral component! For example, when in childhood I ate something from the frying pan and ran on, it was feasible. And now I even break a soft-boiled egg with a spoon. Not because I have become such an esthete, but simply because there are things that a person should make even for himself graceful.

— Do you go about this meaningfully or do you have an innate sense of beauty?

- Well, I'm working on myself.

- So, you won’t have any expensive bells and whistles in your house? Will there be such a sophisticated den?

- That's what will happen. My dream was to make a library. Collect all the books together, because they are scattered in different places. Mom left a lot of books... I recently filmed in the Yusupov Palace, and I was given a night tour through it. And I, wandering around this palace, saw a library. How it's done! How incredibly thoughtful, how functional, how cool, how beautiful! In general, my aesthetics, in my opinion, lies in truly striving to be a beautiful person in everything: not externally, but internally. Not only to quote Pushkin, but also not to give a damn about the asphalt.

— Do you like the time in which you exist?

- Difficult time. I understand why many people are going crazy now; the information attack is so colossal that it is very difficult for a person to withstand it. The world is becoming accessible thanks to technology, the Internet, and the ability to order everything you want from your couch: from food to a plane. But the person becomes more and more lonely. Despite all these benefits, he still ends up stuck in his absolute loneliness.

- Do you have this too? Do you feel lonely?

- No, I won't say that. I can't feel lonely because I'm surrounded by people all the time. This is part of my work, my profession. Coming to the set, I find myself surrounded by people, partners, make-up artists, all the workshops, cameramen - it’s all work! And in this sense, there is also work on oneself. You never know what I don’t like today! But I am among people, and I must take into account their freedom and their right. I used to be more categorical, and if I didn’t like something, I said so. And now I understand perfectly well that not everyone can match your temperament, your temperature at work. Everyone can't be 100 percent intense, and not everyone can be a leader. We must take into account that there are weak people, and there are stronger ones. And that it is very difficult for a person in this world.

“To take into account someone else’s weakness, you have to be doubly strong.” How are you coping?

— A good mood is like underwear, you need to put it on in the morning.

- Do you yearn for your youth?

“I even thought who was luckier: me, whose best years, my youth, fell in the 90s, or a person who is now entering the profession, but not for the profession. We were burning. We were the first release after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when there was no distribution, it was not at all clear what would happen next, especially with the theater! But nevertheless, our course, all 19 people, are all in the profession.

— Did you go hungry while you were a student?

— There were empty shelves, but the presence of Snickers changed everything! You go, eat and think: “Wonderful, wonderful!” We somehow survived without these riches that we are talking about today. I remember, you are late for somewhere - there is no money for a taxi, the metro is already closed, and you don’t have to suffer, you walk. And home, too, on foot, although it was decent to walk. I remember that I walked a lot then and didn’t get tired. I took some difficult exam and from an overabundance of some emotions, I remember walking from Kalininsky to Vorobyovy Gory, and some thoughts were born and swarming in my head... I still do this. Unfortunately, it’s rare, because you have a lot of work to do: filming in the morning, then rehearsals, the performance. But sometimes I really love it: getting into the car, driving to Vorobyovy Gory and standing there looking at the city, which, of course, has become incredibly beautiful. And then it was a strange time, troubled...

— Troubled times give birth to talents...

- In general, I... Sometimes I think like that, anything could have happened, life would have gone differently, what would have happened? I can't even imagine. I probably wouldn't be here by now...

- Well, why didn’t it happen right away? They would write, for example. You have good poems.

- Poetry is not my bread. It comes from inspiration, and where I work, sometimes inspiration can be replaced by professionalism. I haven’t even handed in the book for three years now; I always feel like I need to rewrite it, redo it. Because an artist is here and now, I can’t write - and “this is forever!” Because in my profession tomorrow there will be a performance, and there will still be an opportunity to move forward. That's why I don't like premieres. I do not like! These are the most monstrous performances, when you are still testing yourself, and the audience is already coming. And if this is also a professional audience who comes out and says (pretends to arrogantly light a cigarette and exhale): “It didn’t work out!”

- Is this difficult for you? Are you dependent on other people's opinions?

— From the opinion of the public? Yes, I'm addicted.

— From the opinions of colleagues?

- This is different. Depends on what. The audience is my direct opponent, and I don’t understand how it is to stage a play and think: “The audience doesn’t understand? And to hell with it!” Then who is this all for? I am convinced that the viewer is an accomplice. It’s impossible for him to sit and think: “So, tomorrow I need to do this, go there...” I want him to forget for these two hours that he has a mobile phone, that he needs to look at traffic jams, that he needs to call someone. I want him to have tears, to have laughter, but that’s all now... And regarding the opinions of his colleagues, well... There are people whose opinions are certainly important to me. But it’s up to me to go on stage! This also applies to life. I can listen to your opinion, and even somewhere I’ll even say: “Damn! Maybe I was mistaken! But it’s up to me to live! It's up to me to decide! I must answer before the Lord God! There are a million opinions - someone may not perceive me point-blank. It's become a joke here. I often said in interviews that Mikhalkov doesn’t call me every day. And when I met Nikita Sergeevich, he said: “What are you all doing there... Where should you call?”

But I have already educated myself - just not to pay attention, not to get involved, not to enter into any discussions when they write something nasty about you. For example: “He smiles all the time...” Excuse me, but when was it or did it become bad form to smile at people? They write: “He is an artist of one role!” Have you seen my other works? Well, if you don’t like it, don’t. But I would be too lazy to write a libel... Well, I would just be too lazy! First of all, I respect myself. I will never write something nasty about an enemy in my life, because it seems to me that it belittles you! But, in principle, there are other tasks and goals. And there are other people who don’t read this, but love my work, come to the theater with pleasure, more than once, and today’s sold-out and tomorrow’s, and the new premieres that are coming out, they confirm this. And the lampoons... Today I wrote it, and tomorrow it’s already in the toilet on a nail. But what you imagine yourself to be, what’s ahead of you—that’s what’s important!

—Are you satisfied with yourself when you mentally sum up the results?

— When a year passes, I always sum it up, reflect on what has been done during the year. Where I screwed up, where I made a mistake, and what happened. And I think: “You had a good year! Good!" And I list: “So, great - filming in two amazingly interesting projects, super! It's great that I wrote this down and did that! I’ll go there with The Nutcracker, I played 90 performances.” But the bottom line is, what next? It’s impossible to sit with this acquisition and think: “Everything is great!”

- What's next?

— Next year I have to make two premieres, one of them at the Satire Theater, and I dream about it. Want! I sleep and see! Next, I hope that the films that are planned to be filmed will be made. We are planning trips all over the world, because I will be 45, and we don’t really want an anniversary - God forbid! - but let’s draw some conclusions. After all, 45 is an interesting age for a man! And I'm looking forward to the premiere of the film I'm currently starring in. This is also a turn. My whole fate is a vivid example when chance plays a role. All my life - suddenly once and a chance! And he throws me onto some new level! And when everyone around says: “Well, everything is clear!” - I don’t understand at all: what will tomorrow bring me? So it's interesting.

- What was the last incident?

— I came to the store: I needed to buy something for the tour, something light, some clothes comfortable for traveling 400 kilometers. And I suddenly realized that for a 40-year-old man, clothes suddenly disappear! And you should already dress in gray and black... And we were with my friend Yulia Ivanova - she is a talented artist, fashion designer. I tell her: “Let’s think...” She interrupts: “I am a women’s master!” I tell her: “Wait, female master! You don't know what else could happen! But what if we do it this way or that way?” No, why does everyone think that a 40-year-old man shouldn’t be bright?! Why do they think that a man should wear some kind of leggings on vacation? Why can’t he be in something more extravagant in the summer... This is also the mood! Monochrome clothing is wonderful, it is the basis of a wardrobe, but you can play up your own mood and state of freedom with prints and shapes!

And now we have already done two shows - at Fashion Week in Sochi and at the international exhibition in Moscow - CPM: I not only took part in the creation of men's clothes, but also walked the catwalk as a model. Sometimes I think: “Damn it, what is this? Sit quietly! Calm down!" But I can not! My mood is a suitcase mood. I have suits hanging in a row at home, I look: “So, this is there, this is here.” Everything is already clear. And there are several alarming suitcases. I arrive, exchange one for another and leave.

— Weekends aren’t your days?

“Everything doesn’t always go smoothly, and if there is some setback, say, the cancellation of filming, then I won’t do anything that day.” Because there was a failure. And when the day is busy, I have time to do this and that. And I can say that I really like it.

— You don’t give the impression of a person who abuses some kind of doping, where does the energy for such a life come from?

- It’s like heat exchange here. It still happens. Let's start with the fact that over the years you have developed your bio-clock, and at seven in the evening you start to take off. When the performance is at six in the evening, you’re like: “Wait, wait, it hasn’t arrived yet!” And at seven - that's what you need! And after the performance... It happens, of course, that I can’t sleep for a long time. So what am I doing? I'll take a ride around Moscow. And then, it often turns out that after the performance you rush on, move to another city: at night, planes, trains, and cars are much more convenient. Or you just fall off because you have no strength. There are two types of performances: either you are dissatisfied, and this is all torment for the whole night... or you are so happy that your joints ache. And you all want to stretch out, get out. And there is something else you want to do. Previously, after the performance, I also played sports. And he ran for five kilometers.

Photo: Igor Strazhin.

— How do you include an artist?

“This is a still unknown thing to me that lives its own life.” Recently we were filming and filming, and then the final scene, and suddenly the mood went wrong. Akin to something nostalgic, close to some kind of separation, and tears are somehow nearby... And I think: “So! Not that! What's the matter?" And suddenly it dawns on me that in the scene that will now be filmed, all this is laid out in the background: the hero is swept away, crushed, but had to go out to the people and thank them. And I think: “How is this possible? The body inside me has prepared itself for this scene!” And I played without any rehearsals. This means there is something there that does not belong to me.

— Aren’t you afraid that one day you might confuse your stage and real selves?

— Ranevskaya was very cool when answering the question: “When you play, do you forget yourself in the role?” - answered: “If I forgot myself, I would fall into the orchestra pit!” So, I think no, in principle I have not had schizophrenic thoughts and, I hope, will not. But overall it's interesting.

“It always seemed to me that the more empty a person is inside, the easier it is for him to put on someone else’s mask. You can’t be called empty...

“You’ll never understand how you’ll do it.” Never! It happens, once, that you appropriate it. And sometimes, on the contrary, you think: “Yes, this is absolutely mine, I’ll do this for once!” And it doesn't work. There are no rules here! Searching for associations within myself always helps me. If you play a killer, it doesn’t mean that you have to go and kill, but all people still have the same nerve endings. Everyone has their own workshop, some people think that it’s easier to be empty, but for me it helps to look through myself - for me it’s an easier path when the viewer feels: there is some kind of pain point there. Someone comes running fifteen minutes before the start and masterfully jumps onto the stage. Yes, and on some sets I need some kind of joke, but for others I leave, sit alone, concentrated. And I never sleep before a performance because you wake up kind of bloated. Sometimes I rehearse for two hours, tormenting people because I need to test everything and come out hot. To be in good shape, like in a bathhouse, when you run out into the cold and steam comes from your body.

— Who is depicted on your T-shirt, what a charming little guy?

- I!

- You?

- Yes. The wonderful audience gave this to me. I really like him.

- Like?

- In my opinion, the eyes have not changed. They are still also wide open.

- Yes, good photo...

- This was done by the famous Evgeniy Khaldei, the great military correspondent. He was our neighbor, and my mother asked to take a photo. By the way, in all my childhood photos I have had this gesture all my life (shows separated thumb and forefinger), where does it come from?

- Did your mother love you very much?

“I understand that all parents think best about their children. But mom, she was a unique person in her love. And she always said: “I gave birth to you for myself!”

— Were you a late child?

- No. Everything was early and wonderful for mom. And she was such a beauty... And one of the grandmothers, some kind of midwife, said something to my grandmother, they say, his name will be known... And everyone liked it so much! And dad wanted to name me Valya because he liked Valentin Kataev. And my mother said: “What does Valya mean? The man will be great, and you are Valya! No way! Let it be better Maxim!” ...This is where my greatness ended. (Laughs.) But mom was actually a unique woman, only she could say so...

- Tell me, tell me!

-...When I was little, I asked my mother: “Why are these two points above my knees?” Mom says: “These are moles.” I say upset: “Mom, why are they?” And she: “If I lose you, then I can find you using these moles!” And so, when my mother passed away, one mole disappeared... I remember this conversation so well...

- Amazing story...

- Yes. This is how I will finish the book. A mole is kind of like a farewell to that life. In general, she is curious in her turns and turns...

- Were you an affectionate boy?

- Yes, somehow we didn’t have that... We were very independent. My father had endless film expeditions that lasted five years, my mother worked around the clock - the sewing machine was my lullaby. And there was no veal tenderness. They talked to me like an adult. Since childhood, I was put on a train without any escort. Well, it was a different country then! I can't say that I was some kind of excellent student. But I didn't cause problems for my parents!

- And in adolescence?

- No, there was nothing like that, I only began to allow myself something in the tenth grade. There were rules! It was forbidden to skip school, and I didn’t skip school. I never got sick because my father toughened me up. No, I was not deprived of tenderness! There were some grandmothers... My grandmother was named - our neighbor, she raised me. It was just instilled in me that it’s not nice to let down, and it’s still alive in me. No matter how hard it is sometimes. Sometimes I want to sleep there for an extra hour, but if I gave my word, then I will do it. Because it’s awkward to let someone down. And I suffer terribly when they let me down. And so I do everything myself to do it well. (Laughs.)

Photo: Olga Ponomareva.

“You told me that you have a difficult relationship with your brother.” Like now?

— Relationships are when they exist, and when they are not, they are not relationships.

- Nothing changed?

- We are too different.

-Are you suffering from this?

“I’m used to living without these relationships. They suffer for what they lack. But they simply don’t exist. It happened. Everyone has their own life, and God forbid you judge! He doesn't understand me, I won't understand him. And it is not at all necessary to shout at the same time: “How can this be! You are from the same mother! It is absolutely his right not to accept my life, just as it is mine not to accept his. But since we have not understood each other for so long, we must rather admit that they simply do not exist, these relationships. Moreover, my mother was always sure of our breakup, she said that “I won’t exist, you won’t communicate.” For some reason she was so sure of this, and in principle she was right.

— Do you have a person who can move the furniture in your house?

- Yes, I... myself (laughs) can... move...

- You - it’s clear, can anyone besides you afford this?

- I am doing well! I have someone to talk to. But I don't know how to cry. It’s not that I’m embarrassed in front of someone... No! I just don't need to cry. Once I had... Some kind of night... Something bad... And I said to myself: “Lord! Don't anger God! You should cry! About what?! Whatever you want, you do! You don't have to run for the ruble! You don't do work you don't like. And not the kind of work that then: “Conscience! Conscience!!" Are you in love! You have close friends who are always there. And that doesn't mean you have to cry with them. They already know when you...” Anya Vaughn knows me just thoroughly: she’ll take a look, and she understands everything about my mood. Well, she knows everything about me...

-Are you very close to her?

- Yes. This is my spinal cord. She knows me like no one else, and she is for me. It is important! She trusts me, is sure that I won’t do anything wrong. This is not blind love: “Oh, he’s still good!” And she is sure that I will not do anything bad. When it was her holiday, we had to do a concert, I came up and said: “Just be an artist and listen to me.” Another would say: “Why should I listen to you? That’s what I think too...” And she trusted me, she was absolutely sure that I would do everything right. It’s like now: it will be six o’clock, and I will go to rehearsal, because today we have a different lighting designer, and I will have to set the light myself.

- Are you thinking about children?

- I don't think about children.

— Don’t you still need to feel fatherhood?

- I don’t have that feeling right now... Children are wonderful, wonderful, but I can’t say: I want! For this to happen, a lot needs to happen...

- Of course, I think like a woman, but women just want a child, that’s all...

“Unfortunately, someone will probably say now: “Well, what is this?” - but all my plans and dreams so far come down only to the profession. And I don’t yet see fatherhood in this list of my current needs and requirements. I don’t want to artificially create - I don’t mean IVF now, but some kind of excitement in this matter. It seems to me that there is some kind of destiny in this, in the birth of a child. On the list of my needs and necessities so far there is a profession... Someone will probably say: “Ah! You don’t think about the fact that it might disappear!” In the sense that tomorrow I may suddenly become simply uninteresting, or, let’s say, have some kind of illness, or simply go into circulation. That's probably true. But I don't think about it. Because then it would probably be worth questioning life itself. And even more so planning for children. What does it mean: “What if I’m not here tomorrow”? Everyone constantly lives with the syndrome of lost happiness. Let’s take out a loan now, pay it back in 10–15 years and be happy. And people are so sure that nothing will happen in these 10–15 years. My God! What confidence! What optimists we are!

— Several years ago I saw you at a press conference, where not theater journalists gathered, but secular ones. They bombarded you with provocative phrases, but you held on until the end, without even sending anyone away. Remember?

- Yes, I remember, of course.

“Then I got the impression that you are defenseless against rudeness.” Which was recently confirmed again. (The yellow press accused Averin of allegedly causing a scandal on the plane - author)

— Question about the plane? You are the first person to whom I give my answer about this. I don’t want to condemn the people who made a big deal out of this and created a circus. I wish this wonderful stewardess that everything goes well for her, I wish her happiness. I didn’t get involved in the proceedings because I’m embarrassed to get into arguments with women. Moreover, well, why would she then lose her job? And most importantly, I am grateful to the public who did not take part in this circus! And when I started receiving letters, when people started saying: “Max, we know that you couldn’t do that!” - it was a relaxation for me. But if I climbed back, I would question myself. Because it wasn't like that. And the people who love me know that this is not so. And the people who hate me picked up this farce and carried it further. That's all. And regarding my vulnerability, listen, I don’t have to prove to anyone that I’m not such a wood grouse, that I’m completely different. I won't do this because I don't want to humiliate myself. I don’t want to prove where it’s not expected. I have my audience, my viewer who doesn’t read any of this, doesn’t believe it and goes to the theater. And I am grateful to the audience, who the next day and all subsequent performances stood up at the end and gave a standing ovation. I knew, I felt that at that moment they were referring to this situation.

Photo: SFW press service.

- Did you support it?

- Yes, they supported me. And it costs a lot. That's why I can't betray them. They believe in me. Can you imagine what kind of action was carried out, that I was kept at the airport police station for two hours, and when I came out, there were eight cameras around.

- But even then you could not say: “Go ...”

- No, I said: “Fuck you...” Eight cameras! Tell me guys, did you spend the night at the airport? And I realized that I had to go out now and not say anything to a single person! Because I was wound up, irritated. Why do I spend time at the police station every day? And the policemen who were taking pictures with me there: “Max, we understand everything...” I actually thought it was some kind of misunderstanding... And when I came out and saw eight cameras! I thought: “So! Calmly!" And they have nothing to cling to. There is no sensation. I'm absolutely sober. I'm walking straight. I tell them: “Listen, guys, where do you go when we play premieres? I’m not even talking about charity...” God, they’re not interested. But I know how news is made! I work in television, and I already know how much a person gets for good, positive news, and how much for scandalous news. I know that these are different fees! Well, why would I take away their bread? I do not need it! They, too, when they dreamed of being journalists, they thought that everyone would be like Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, but they were forced to run around airports, get into this mud. And even more so, if they buy something for their children with this money, I will only be happy. That's all I can say about this situation. And you can't take anything from me. As Lyusya Gurchenko said, this is the rule of my life: “You can’t break me, but you can kill me!” But it’s impossible to kill.

“It still seems to me personally that you basically can’t swear.”

- What are you talking about? I can, I can! By the way, I may have become tougher, but that’s when I see injustice...

- And in relation to yourself?

- In relation to myself, yes, sometimes, it seems to put me in a dead end... This happens, it happens...

—Are you becoming more closed over the years?

— Recently, I somehow began to try not to give interviews. Not because I close myself off, but because I see a lot of indifference. It’s just that you have known me for many years, we have known each other and this is not the first time we have been together... But when I see indifference, meaninglessness, when you give, and there is some kind of block there, then I don’t want to. And why yell to yourself? Do your job, do it well. If you gather 15 people around, you will raise more. And this background that is happening now is impossible! I'm even a little scared. That's why I have a den? When everyone starts yelling about their personal lives, about divorces, about births, relationships, inheritance - I get scared because you can hang your life out like that. And I would like to ask: “What are you known for by profession? Do you manage to do anything by profession?” You turn on the TV, and there they are sawing into pieces a long-gone great artist. This is the extent to which one should not be afraid of the future... As they say: those who do not believe in the meaning of the boomerang, do not worry: it simply did not reach. This cannot go unpunished, it will come back. And I think: “God, save these people so that they don’t get hit more and worse...”

Hence my loneliness, because this is impossible. Well, you can't! It already feels like everyone around me is donating DNA; I sometimes joke that I have all my relatives in the room today. But among my friends there are no people who would be interested in this...

- Do you believe in God?

- (Long exhale.) This is such a question... (Long pause.) Because I... I believe in God. That he is watching over us all. I believe that he helps me a lot. But I never ask him for anything. Every day I lie down and say: “Lord, thank you!” Whenever I get up, I always say this... “God, everyone is asking you, asking you... rest on me! Just relax! Because you give me everything so generously!” Is it true. He has gifted me so generously in this life: with my parents, teachers, friends, love, profession... Sometimes I also anger him: “So, what’s next?” And sometimes I think: “Lord, any person in my life would love it!” Well, he is generous to me, generous...

- Do you have love now?

- Yes, I have.

“I was walking and thinking, now I’ll say: “Max, what are you doing after the performance? Let's go to the restaurant! I invite you!” And you are standing at the entrance to the theater in a black jacket, a hood pulled down, smoking, tense... I thought: “This won’t work...”

- (Laughs.) I would go, but in the evening there’s work again... As for the mood... I went out into the street, walked around the theater, took a breath... It would have been easier to disrupt Polkan. Easier! But I myself would be destroyed. Myself. There are artists who need to do something drastic, have a fight with someone, and they, charged, go on stage... I can’t do that. It takes me a long time to come to my senses after this.

Photo: Olga Ponomareva.

- You are not a destroyer...

- No. I walk onto the set, and the atmosphere is important to me, who is there on the other side of the camera, the cameraman, the make-up artist - it’s important! I will never sit with another makeup artist unless he guided me through the entire project. Because it just seems like it doesn’t matter! The wonderful artist Valeria Nikulina did my makeup, she’s simply a master! I tell her: “No, stop, I’ll wait for you. Are you a psychologist". Because not only is she a great master, it’s also a moment of attitude. Because I wasn't sure if I could handle this role. And on the first day of shooting she says: “You had such energy! As if from the heart!” Because I was worried, I was afraid, this is a very difficult role. The first day is always hell. Because you haven’t been assigned anything yet... And there are large-scale scenes, and I imagine how now the whole group is probably sitting and thinking: they shouldn’t have approved him! And I felt that somehow he was trying to smooth it out. Well, can you imagine: playing Peter the Great? Well, it’s simple... I was supposed to play a different role, and suddenly I got a call: Max, we’re trying on Peter. I say: “Stop doing nonsense! What kind of Peter the Great am I?” And to me: “No, Max, please come!” I say: “Guys! Well, why? It’s all the nerves I have at Platonov’s graduation.” - “No, come…” I arrived. The entire makeup took two minutes: the wig and mustache. And suddenly I look in the mirror: “So...” How could it have occurred to the director that he tried me on Peter? And then - tests. They took the most complex, most large-scale stage - in front of Poltava. And the king is not like that... On horseback! But he is a man, and he is also scared. And he also doesn’t understand how this fight will go. And he walks among the soldiers, sees a child and asks: “Are you scared?” - "Scary!" - “And I’m scared!” I liked that Ginzburg makes Peter the Great exactly like this, that he is not only a tsar-tsar, but a doubting, sick person, because he is an emperor, he is a leader and he is an exception to the rule. And this is his genius, Pyotr Alekseevich.

- You speak so passionately, as if it’s the first role in your life...

- I'm enjoying myself! I work 14 hours a day, and I don’t get tired, because I like the cameraman and make-up artist. A director is happiness, a gift! He speaks to me, Lord! At the end of filming, he told me: “You know what you’re good at, Max? That you’re not one of those artists who knows everything!” And I think: “High! So you can still be a neophyte!” And I am immensely glad that by some chance this role was given to me. I don't know the result, but I had a blast. And I felt during the auditions that I was nervous. Usually I come: yes, yes, I know everything... But then I got nervous! And I liked it...

That's it, I kiss you, I'm off to work!

Maxim Averin: “I melt into dough when I love”

The stage saves you from panic attacks

We meet in a cafe, and he immediately, without question, begins to say:

“If the sun doesn’t rise in the morning, then be that sun yourself.” No one can invent this life for you. Therefore, I am always very surprised by people, especially young guys, students - how many claims they have to the world: give it, bring it... Nobody gave me anything. I took. I rushed into places where I understood that I could communicate interestingly, I could discover something new for myself. If there is an opportunity to live this life interestingly, then this is for me. But the sofa is not going anywhere. It is my deep conviction that furniture may even outlive you.

— Today you are hosting a concert at the Olimpiysky, but what did you do last night?

— Yesterday I had a chef’s concert, as I call them, a subbotnik, when it’s completely free for someone. I do not refuse such meetings, because I do not separate myself from those for whom this is all being done - from the public. Yesterday I had such a concert for doctors of one of the large Moscow clinics. And for me it was such a good exam. After all, what is “viewer’s love”? You go on stage - you are welcome. Two minutes. That's all. So what is next? And yesterday, after this meeting, which lasted more than two hours and we parted as friends, I was happy, because you can’t fool doctors, they’ll give you an MRI!..

- In emergency situations, don’t you think: if something happens - just not in Sklif, they will operate as in life, and not as in the movies?

— Yesterday at a meeting with doctors I said: “Do you know what a role is? It’s impossible to start with the phrase: “well, let’s operate now” - you won’t believe it, right?” And I continue: “I am a catcher. I try to talk to everyone all the time. Because one stroke can overcome everything. One surgeon suggested this detail to me, and I use it - when you enter the operating room, you must, like surgeons do, look at who your assistants are today, what kind of girls they are.” At this moment the audience suddenly begins to applaud. And I think: “Oops! Got it!” This is where the role is made. Therefore, I am against actresses with evening makeup waking up in bed in the morning in silk underwear. One small lie gives rise to a big one. This makes the screen look alien. The scene is alien. We are losing viewers. Today is Ryazanov’s 90th birthday. I remember how we sat and talked for three and a half hours when I interviewed him, and how I thought then: what is the phenomenon of Ryazanov? In hope! Why is there still “The Irony of Fate”? We know this film by heart. And the country is already different. The baths are different. Other Nadechki. But we will still watch - why? Because we want to believe in miracles! I want to wake up and understand that I woke up for a reason. Why did this common global problem of panic attacks arise? We lived before, and there was nothing like this.

— Do you have panic attacks?

- I have no. But, you see, I’m lucky in my profession - I have a moment of energy reset. I went on stage and can give this energy, say, in the role of Shakespeare's Othello. I have a moment of emotional release. And someone lives with it. Someone gets up and goes to bed every day with the thought: “Oh, Lord, something will happen!” We are afraid to enter the subway, we are afraid of some common misfortune. And endless bad news: something was mined here, this here, that there... We live in a state of psychosis all the time. And because of this, the person’s psyche cannot stand it, panic attacks begin, I have seen them - it’s scary.

— You work a lot and, apparently, not only for money. And if tomorrow you suddenly find yourself without a job, what will happen to you then?

— I work every evening. I do something for the soul, something to earn money. I don't feel like I'm resting. It’s so strange to me when they reproach me: “Well, you don’t rest at all.” I don’t know, I’m so comfortable in this state that I can’t even imagine... if suddenly... Although no, sometimes there is some kind of insight... And I say to myself: “What if suddenly, God forbid, there is some kind of illness, an illness that won’t let you go on stage, what will happen to you?” Just recently I even asked myself this question out loud on set. Well, somehow it turned out that I was the only one there... And I imagined that all of this would suddenly disappear and there would be nothing more.. And I answered out loud to myself: “No, no, no, I’ll find where to generate this energy! I can stand on the other side of the camera, I can sit down to write books, I can teach - I must definitely give all my energy without reserve.”

—Are you an extrovert?

- Maybe. I really like everything to be of the highest standard. This probably comes from an extrovert. But I—and this, apparently, also came with experience—now admit that not everyone can be like that.

— They weren’t allowed before?

- No... I was very categorical. Very! And this was very disturbing. Because the freedom of one ends where the freedom of another begins.

— Does it interfere with relationships or work?

- In everything. And in work, and even more so in relationships. Because it seemed to me: this is how it should be! To the maximum! And now I already admit: no, it’s impossible, people, let’s say, are not ready to be the same at work. Some people allow themselves to tense up a little, while others go into work or relationships with an open visor. But I understand perfectly well that this is not because the first one is bad, but because he is different. I just started to realize some things. And, you see, I started working on myself in terms of forgiveness. This is also one of the stages in life - you begin to understand that you need to forgive.

— You couldn’t do this before?

“I probably had some grievances, but... what’s the point in them?” This was a discovery for me - what’s the point? Resentment throws you two steps back, it does not move forward. Doesn't do it in a relationship. Is it easier to be offended? Easier. Such a natural way out of the current situation. It’s more difficult to find an excuse for what happened, to overcome it, and if you care about a person, the job is to put an appropriate price on it.

- So it hurts because of the insults...

- And it will hurt more. You know, as my favorite song says: “It’s hard to love, it’s even harder to lose.” Love is generally a colossal work.

- But this is how you can put someone on your neck - you will forgive, the person will take advantage of it, grievances will begin to grow, problems will get worse.

— This is the next stage of life, when you begin to evaluate the limits of what is acceptable. You see, you can endure it for a very long time. In general, in this sense, I am a very resilient person. I can withstand cold and hunger for a very long time, I can endure it for a long time. For a very long time... Even when you get tired, I will still endure at this moment.

“I doubt I’ll give up sooner...

- Well, we won't experiment. (Laughs.)

— We could check, it’s a pity that you have a concert in the evening. But still, someday all patience comes to an end. When?

- If, let’s say, we finally break up... I’ll say this: I will fight for a person until some stage when this is still possible at some human level. But if I understand that I have you, but you don’t need me, then I will leave. But it seems to me that it’s still more important... if you love... and love is work... colossal in everything... then it’s more important to endure and forgive.

Photo: Olga Ponomareva

- But they say: if you love, let go... Although, go ahead and let go if you love!

- If you exist, but you are not needed, then this is not love. On your part, maybe there is love, but if they don’t want you, they don’t need you, but you are present... No, I can’t do that. I will, of course, let you go. It's hard, but it will be for the good. To be intrusive... I don’t like it... Otherwise it becomes selfishness.

- Aren’t you an egoist?

- To some extent, an egoist. But what is my egoism? Yes, I want the best for myself. But this is my cleanliness in everything - in relationships, in work. My selfishness does not allow me to be content with the hack-work that flourishes around me simply in terry color. My selfishness is that I respect my profession. Although I can do a lot for the sake of my profession...

- A lot, for example, what?

- Now you see a lot of cardboard on the screen... Everything is cardboard - relationships, acting, everything is random, unfinished. Like in that joke: “It’s so awkward in front of Don Pedro,” you know? So I won’t enter the frame until I’m one hundred percent sure of what I’m doing. I could make mistakes, I could do something unsuccessfully - that's normal. But nowhere and never have I allowed myself to act simply for the sake of appearing on screen. If I do my job, then I do it 100 percent - inside and out. If I get down to business, I will do it, if I give my word, I will keep it.

- Let's go from the other side: they love you, but you don't need it. What then?

- That is, a situation when a person loves you, but you don’t seem to expect it, right? You see, the position should be this: do not kill, because you can kill even with a word. I’ll try to do this somehow gently, so as not to disturb the psyche, so that a person does not fall from the 12th floor of his soul.

- So it won’t work out tenderly...

— I sometimes say: oh-oh-oh, wrong way, wrong way... (Laughs.) You don’t need that. (Laughs.)

- I think you have a lot of problems with this.

- Well, when the girls are little... I say: girls, are you crazy, I’m already too old for you.

- And they answered: “No, no, no...”

- The main thing is with humor and very insinuatingly: honey, you don’t need... you don’t need.

- Darling, not me...

- No, you can, of course, say: better from me than from hooligans on the street.

- This is where they will be trampled! Does unexpected love and the imposition of feelings irritate you? You feel guilty, you don’t have enough time and energy, you understand that it’s pointless...

- Let's start with the fact that those who, perhaps, love me, do not live with me.

- But they plan it all the time...

- It doesn’t bother me. Other things bother me. The fact that there are a lot of people in life who are used to destroying. So you just try, create, create, but someone comes from their inexperience... No, inexperience is not scary. It's not scary not to know something, it's scary not to want to know. And there was a lot of this around. Because some random people who don’t understand a damn thing about anything and put ignorance at the forefront, they judge something and make verdicts.

And also the fact that our news feed is updated too quickly. People do not have time to fully understand what is happening. Every day I wake up with the thought: God, I hope nothing bad happens. Because something goes away all the time. Already, Lord, you hope not beyond that. My circle of friends has developed, thank God. And if before I was open to some new communication, now I’m not. Because there was a moment when everyone really wanted to be friends with me, they started to be brothers. And then one... And the phone went silent.

— Is this when you left Satyricon?

- It doesn’t matter... You see, then I started to think: yeah... that means it wasn’t friendship, that means the Rospotrebsoyuz is not asleep, and I don’t want this to happen to me, I don’t want to get on this register. And now I'm fine. Work, work... Do you want a relationship with me? I am increasingly convinced that where there is friendship, there can be no business, no affairs, or anything else. Because in friendship, as in love, there can be no benefit. And when I stumbled once. Second. Wait, where are you all? It turned out that there was no one nearby. How is this possible? What then is friendship?

- Do you need pity or are you running away from it?

- In pity? Why does she need it?

- Well, you never know the reasons. For example, a person is in love. Unhappy love…

- Don't know. I've never been unhappy.

- Oh oh oh!

- Never. I'll tell you one secret. Firstly, I am one of those people who are completely unfamiliar with depressive states, I never get depressed, I don’t have that feeling of hopelessness - looking into the bottom of a glass or thinking about a noose. I have one rule - just act. Thoughts, of course, are different when life itself throws me such situations, when with bated breath you feverishly search for how to get out of it. But I have never been on the verge of suicide or gone crazy. I had a situation when life suddenly, you know, as in the poem, “stopped and started again.” When it’s over... But the next day I was already standing on the set and singing a funny song. I think I saved myself with this stupid song that I sang to the audience, who were completely unaware of what had happened to me.

— Was it something completely personal?

- Yes. My mother left... But I couldn’t, you know, stop, immerse myself in it. I understood that grief still remains with me. But I have to kill him by any means necessary in order to somehow survive. And at that moment, singing a stupid song, I realized that I would survive! And no one should know about this. I don’t need anyone to sympathize with me, I don’t need it! I'm not the kind of person to feel sorry for. I came into this world to make people smile. Therefore, when they ask me: tell me something sad - I won’t! Because I don't carry sadness with me. Despite the fact that life at my age is already starting to go towards subtraction...

- Come on!

- For subtraction! Mom leaving is the first... What is childhood? This is when you only see young people. When you don't notice the tragedy, the pain. And now there is not a day that this does not coexist with me, that I at least somehow let it go... But on the other hand, I cannot isolate myself in my great sadness, I have to give. I just started talking about this now. Previously, we kept her departure a secret on principle, so that no one would even guess and there wouldn’t be a swarm of sympathetic pilgrims. And now I can already talk about it. I’m telling you this in an interview. And I want to think that by doing so I am extending my mother’s earthly life.

— Was she the closest person to you?

- It's not about proximity. The point is that she is a mother.

— Do you have a close relationship with your brother?

- Complex. We are so different. I don't understand him, he doesn't understand me.

— Is there a big age difference?

- Five years. You see, I never had strong blood ties with any of my relatives, so: “Hello! How are you?"

- How about spending a vacation together?

- God forbid! No, they are wonderful people! But so much time has just passed during which I got used to living without them. And I have no desire for this. No contact! Did not happen. And if I have a panic attack in the night, I will call, but not them. Maybe someday something will happen and something will change...

— Has it happened since childhood or now?

- Well, first of all, all my grandmothers have already left. Our neighbor, who raised me and whom I also considered a grandmother, has been gone for a very long time, 20 years. And I also remember her, if not every day, then very often. She raised me, my parents worked, my mother worked around the clock. I had a lullaby: a sewing machine and trams under the window. Therefore, I never had a desire to get any information about my family. Several times I was offered to find out something special, but since my grandparents left without telling me anything, why should I now, at forty years old, start to worry about this? True, when I was born, someone told my mother’s mother—a gypsy or a fortune teller, history no longer remembers: “His name will be known!” And dad wanted to name me Valya...

- What, excuse me, should I call it? Valya?

— Thank God, there was a conflict: “How is it Valya? They told you “he will be a great man”! And you say - Valya! No, it’s better to be Maxim!” You know, I’m not Valya at all... imagine, someone would say “Valek” to me! So my future greatness saved me. True, that’s where it all ended, because for the rest of my life all I do is plow.

— Your childhood, especially your youth, was a difficult time, did you live hungry?

- Not that word. That’s why I never make fun of the nineties, when there were lines for food and the stench was from empty iron baskets for milk bottles. I remember how in the middle of these lines - here for butter, there for meat - a man became ill. He collapsed in an epileptic fit. I was a child and I remember how shocked I was! He was lying on the floor, having a seizure, and no one came. Everyone was so devastated. This was the first time I encountered this, but they protected me from everything! I didn't know that my mother survived cancer when I was still a teenager in school. For me, my mother just ended up in the hospital. And then suddenly - and I saw life. But somehow it happened that when I saw her, I was not at a loss.

With actress Maria Kulikova. Photo: Olga Ponomareva

I think my classmates are ashamed now...

-What are you really afraid of?

“I’m scared to suddenly stop hearing what’s happening around me.” Why do many directors and masters today cease to be interesting in their work? Because they are there, and life is here. And there are endless, as I call them, “pissing in the ears” - this is when you are endlessly admired. You can't get used to this! The ear loves oil! Well, it’s nice... Of course, it’s a thousand times more difficult to admit a mistake. Especially when over time you already have such protection! You think: oh-oh-oh, I don’t want any more pain. To experience at least one offensive, boorish review is terrible! How can I go on stage with this? What if you are a young artist? How to survive this insult in one direction? However, a review is also kindergarten. To insult, destroy, dismember a person - for this you do not need to go to where the maniac is operating. Dismemberment happens on TV every day. It's not scary to die anymore, it's scary to live. And these comrades, as they are called there, will come - experts... And they will begin to talk about something like that about you. Scary! Scary! Sometimes you find yourself in this nightmare and think: Lord, I need to write a will now so that they don’t discuss it. One very famous woman - they say, I didn’t hear this personally - leaving the cinema after a film about one very famous person, said: yes, you need to think in advance about what they will film about you later. Horror!

—Are you a vulnerable person?

(Long pause.)

- I don’t know how to answer. Now I will say: he is vulnerable - there is some kind of claim in this, they will say: he is pushing his own worth!

- Why does he immediately “increase the price”? It’s just a quality - there are people who are more vulnerable, and others who are less so.

(Pause.)

- Okay, were you vulnerable as a child?

- Yes.

— Hyper-emotional?

- Very. I'm still very emotional. But this is also work on yourself. Excessive emotionality can also interfere.

— Did she bother you?

- Certainly. I can say a lot in my heart and then regret it. Because again: don’t measure everyone by yourself! It is forbidden!

— Were there any conflicts with classmates?

“I can’t say that there were conflicts; I had other interests.” I studied theater, went to the studio at the House of Cinema.

— Did your peers beat you for having other interests, for being different from them?

“I remember only one thing: how I was registered at a new school, I remember this very well.”

- How?

- I do not want to talk about it. Pushkin also said that only fools and children are evil. Children are very sweet by nature, they are angels, but when there are many of them, it is just a yoke. I have no grudge against them; I think they are embarrassed to remember this now. We're not dating. That's so far! And I'm so used to living without it.

- Meetings of classmates are not for you...

- I do not go! I generally don’t like it when it starts: oh, let’s meet, guys! I immediately: “Where have you been for twenty years? Somehow I didn’t see you...” We just graduated from the institute - twenty years old. And it started: “Oh, hello! Come!” - “Stop, stop, stop, where were you when you weren’t there?” Emotionally, I’m open to them, I’m glad to see everyone! Moreover, we never parted, we are all in the profession, we had a very good acting course, a powerful one. But what are trips to the bathhouse like if you’ve never had one?

- What then is friendship for you? Love?

— Friendship... In general, for me, love and friendship are such colossal work. Love is like in a Soviet film, when you are understood. They understand! If they love me, then this person, I hope, should understand that he cannot make claims like “where am I in your place,” because he is well aware that without everything that I have created and create every day, and without I cannot live without him, without this person. Love is when you don’t kill with your egoism and desire to possess. It's the same with friendship. But in friendship I still admit that I may not want, for example, to work together.

- And in love? Should we work together?

- Now I’ll think... Did I love when I worked? (Laughs.) You know, there’s something else going on there, there’s no time for that anymore. “Why aren’t you looking at me?” I don't have this. I’m very tough at work, some screws get stuck in my head. Because you need to lead, drag, in order to “get to the very essence of the work, in the search, in the turmoil of the heart.” You have to exist there very powerfully. But in life - yes, I am very blurry, just into the dough when I love. I really want to... Yes, in life I am a little different.

- There is a cherished line in the closeness of people, love and passion cannot cross it... Do you have such a line?

- Now I’ll tell you, I have to think... It’s a beautiful line, that’s understandable, but how can I apply it to life? Damn it, don’t go beyond love and passion? (Pause.) This is a woman's position. A man cannot be weaker than the devil. Woman, she is amazing in love. I have sometimes seen this happen! No, no, this is a very feminine line.

- Of course, this is Akhmatova.

- Well, naturally...

—Have you met this amazing female love?

- And in general, and in relation to yourself.

— Appreciated?

- Appreciated... But, I'm afraid, eternal love is a beautiful song, nothing more. Because it is reborn into something else, reborn into some... If these are two smart people, again respecting each other, then it will develop into something big, but there is no eternal love.

- This is a man's position...

“She must already be somehow reborn, like some kind of image that can no longer be touched or hugged. This, probably, is eternal love, but even then it is unreal.

— In poetry, by the way, the difference between male and female logic is very clearly visible.

— Yes, only a few poets managed to get into female psychology.

- No one.

- Not true. Robert Rozhdestvensky.

- No, he doesn’t feel like a woman.

“I’m not saying that he feels like a woman, God forbid... But he was able to get into female psychology.” His work, which is written from the point of view of a woman, contains absolute feminine logic. It’s not even logic, it’s a woman’s feeling: “Tell me something good.” Absolutely! "Pay for kissing." And he also has an amazing work, which was written as if “in response”: a poem for March 8th. In general, he dedicated all his poetry to a single woman. He could write “Alena”, but it was Alla Kireeva, Alla was everywhere in his life. You read his love lyrics - how complicated everything is there, what conflicts, but it’s wonderful! As a result, he still leaves light and hope. I love his “I Left Spring”, there is such a conflict there! “I left you. I left for the first time from your huge eyes...” And as a result she: “In boots, in an old coat... And she said: “You know what? You don't have to run away! You won’t get anything out of this anyway...” I get such a buzz from him! Because that's how it is. You think: “Fuck it all, I don’t want to see you anymore!” And... “Hello!” And that's what love is all about. It’s just how “high” it is for me to love!

—You don’t write poetry?

“I lost this enthusiasm when I realized that there are better poems in this world.”

- This is not an argument: maybe there are greater artists in this world.

- You raised doubts in me. I'll go hang myself!

- It's too much! You can still become great, open your own theater school.

- Maybe I’ll open it. As for poetry: I write sometimes, but very poorly. I can write an epigram. Although I once wrote four lines, it seems to me that they are sensible. “What can I say, words are nonsense, I don’t believe words - I believe in silence. In silence, hearts beat louder, looks, hands, and breathing are louder.” Here it was born...

Photo: Olga Ponomareva

The only thing, probably, is that I can’t determine pneumothorax, like Bragin

— What is more important to you: cinema or theater?

- These are two different professions.

- I understand. What's more important?

“I don’t know: I can’t live without one and I can’t live without the other either.” With my poetic one-man show, I have traveled all over Russia several times, now I’m going to America for the fourth time, I perform in Germany every spring, and in Israel. I arrived in Tbilisi - as a result, there were two full houses at the famous Shota Rustaveli Theater! My country is huge: Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and I see that people are hungry for it. In the theater it is still energy and law: here and now. And in the cinema these are long, long shifts. I, like no one else, know how to work on a close-up; for me, all this chemistry that happens on set is precious, I can’t do it without it. And then I was born at Mosfilm. Yes, as they say, he was doomed. And at the same time, at the age of nine he was already playing in the theater. I didn't see anything else.

- That's how it is! If we hadn’t been born there, we might have become a mathematician or physicist...

- Hardly! I had to have had some kind of meningitis to suddenly realize that I would be a good mathematician. No, I always knew, as much as I heard and perceived myself, that I would be an artist and no one else. You know, sometimes I get asked such primitive questions: do you ever have star fever? Morons! You would know what star fever is! I would be glad to be sick even for a day, but this has never happened! I was brought up in the profession. I saw how great artists went through their journey: some fell, some took off, some went crazy, and some became an alcoholic. And suddenly I’m a star, motherfucker! First of all, I hate this expression. We have stars, as Galina Borisovna Volchek says, like hotels in Turkey: someone is already, completely stunned, called seven-star! Young people go into the profession and dream that they will become stars, but this cannot be the goal! The result may be, and even then it is highly doubtful.

— Do you like your Bragin?

— I was in Novosibirsk on a big tour and performed in Akademgorodok - a wonderful city that lives completely independently from its large Siberian capital. And suddenly my teammates come backstage, and we have already performed the performance, and say: “Max, you’re going to laugh now.” I say, “What?” - “Here’s a bouquet for you.” Well, I say: “Thank you, there are already a lot of them here.” They say: “No, look at the business card.” And there - “Bragin, surgeon.” (Laughs.)

-Have you met him?

- Yes. A man came to the theater for the first time in his life. And his eyes are so wide open. He is also my age and so big! I say: well, this is happiness! Something happened to the man...

- You play yourself in this role, don’t you?

- How to answer correctly? I think that artists in any role play themselves in some way. Any artist, even if he plays a notorious scoundrel, is looking for this certain state in himself. In general, I think: bad, good - it doesn’t happen. There is a bad good person, and this is the synthesis of everything that happens. Because we wake up every day, and in principle we want to be decent, good people, but then circumstances act that throw us in one direction or the other. No, the only thing that maybe I won’t do is that I probably won’t be able to detect pneumothorax like Bragin.

— He is a great professional at his work. But in life, everything doesn’t matter to him. He doesn’t really understand where to go next...

- What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Hello!

- Doesn't matter…

- He’s doing very well...

— There is no family, the child lives separately.

— You just didn’t watch the sixth season. (Apparently, Maxim still means the fifth. - T.F.)

— I’ll watch the sixth season, but it’s torn and unsettled within itself.

- Everything is fine with him! He likes!

“He loves all the time, but he just can’t cope with it.”

“I’ll tell you: he has one problem - by the standards of our normal life, as we would say, “oh, how is it possible, he’s a person without an apartment?” And he gave it to his ex-wife. He is simply not burdened by conventions. Do you know how this happens? So we think there’s stability in this: we’ll put a cabinet here. And we are sure that this closet is our stability. But Bragin doesn’t live by this - he doesn’t seem to need this closet at all, that’s all. And why would he do it differently? If all this furniture is more important to him, that he truly loves and is loved, that’s what he needs.

— The man has one job on his mind. He loves and runs away at the same time. Unsettled because in the soul. Too often he doesn't know what he wants. What do you want now?

- I have everything, everything I need. But I recently surprised myself. For example, I never thought that I would have my own office. But he appeared, and all my books gathered in one place. This is what I want? I’m a non-urban person, there are garden beds and all that... I’m an urbanist. But when I come to my friend’s dacha... She built a beautiful house, not in the sense of rich, but she made just a house, and it’s somehow cozy and nice there. And then I think: “I also want a house!” Small house! Literally a one-story chalet!” Then I think: “Well, who will do this? When? To whom? Because even children, they still move on. I didn’t need anything from my parents, except maybe books. And I already have my own huge library created. Because the next generation, as in the film “Courier,” they no longer need anything from ours! They move life forward. And that’s normal... But I’ll still build a house.

- Do you need solitude?

- Yes! Sometimes you just don’t have enough time to breathe out and look somewhere into the distance. But I know how to be alone even among people. The feeling that you have been disconnected from yourself and are looking at everything around you from the outside. And you see some things differently, you see people, you begin to understand what they want from you. Who is truly sincere and who is not. This also began to happen. We had a difficult childhood, and I really loved being alone. I was never bored with myself. I always have something to work on. I have so many projects now! Christmas evening at the House of Music, on December 31st I have “The Nutcracker”. With an orchestra. I will be reading The Nutcracker, and I need to completely rewrite the fairy tale, because if you read Hoffmann, you understand that this is just a drug story. I just need to humanize it and make it understandable to the viewer, otherwise everyone will immediately go crazy, because they only remember Tchaikovsky’s wonderful music and the cartoon. But few people have read the fairy tale. Hoffmann and Andersen, they did not give up hope. (Laughs.) Then “The Queen of Spades” with a new orchestra. "Blizzard". That's why I print scripts for performances all the time...

- Yes, you don’t have time to deal with your personal life...

- No way! You know, I don’t separate by hours: here is love, here is work, here we wrapped the fish, here we played it. I do not have that. Love is when people understand that life is indivisible, when they don’t say: “Where are my two hours? And who is in your first place and who is in second?” Those who love do not say: “Oh, am I second to you? Then let me go where I will be first.” Understanding that this is indivisible is also work. But it’s so interesting to work on it!

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Vitaly Orlov

Maxim Averin’s solo performance “It All Starts with Love...Continued” was finally seen by New Yorkers: “finally” I say because with this performance the artist, as they say, has already visited 400 cities and 13 countries, and here in New York , they have been waiting for him for a long time. And for good reason!

Most viewers love Maxim Averin from the series “Capercaillie” and “Sklifosovsky”, but for me, he is, first of all, a bright and original theater actor, and all series, I am convinced, suppress the actor’s talent as a performer. For me, the actor of the Moscow theater “Satyricon” named after Arkady Raikin, in whose troupe Maxim Averin was until 2017, began with the television film “... Markovna. Reboot”, in which he showed himself to be a worthy partner of the movie star Lyudmila Gurchenko, which is generally understandable: she herself chose Maxim as a partner, seeing in him the qualities that she herself possessed: professionalism, the ability to play completely different genre roles - from tragedy to eccentric comedy, musicality, plasticity, choreographic skills and only his inherent charm.

“It all starts with love...”, Maxim Averin is convinced, and it is no coincidence that in the mosaic of the performance one of its gems is the story of his love for Lyudmila Gurchenko, which arose in childhood and influenced his choice of profession after the future actor read her book “Applause” " Averin, an actor, has been in cinema and theater for more than 30 years: Maxim played his first role as a six-year-old boy in the film “The Adventures of Count Nevzorov.” At nine he was already playing at the Theater of Miniatures, in the play “The Brandenburg Gate”, and at the same time he studied acting at the theater studio at the Moscow House of Cinema. With such a start, the choice of future path in life was predetermined: the Shchukin Theater Institute, the Vakhtangov Theater and Satyricon. Among the roles are serious, comedic, melodramatic; harsh images in action films - and all are played incredibly poignantly, touching the soul, partly even in TV series. In addition - participation in shows, filming in music videos, commercials, vocals on film soundtracks, and even voice acting for teams in computer games. All this requires from the actor not only natural talent, but also highly professional training, flexibility and plasticity, and most of all, perhaps, taste. To be convinced of this, just watch, for example, the weekly show “Three Chords” that ran on Channel One of Russian TV for several years - theatrical concerts of performers of the so-called Russian chanson...

Averin began his one-man show “It All Starts with Love...Continued” in the center of the Master Theater auditorium with the words: “Hello, my dear viewers! Thank you for being you, for the fact that thanks to you I feel the fullness of my life, for the warmth that you give me, for the sparkle of your eyes! Your recognition makes my every day happy, thanks to your support I want to create and conquer new heights! Today's pace of life forces us to rush, to be everywhere and as much as possible, and we sometimes forget in this crazy rhythm what is dear to us - that we need warmth, love and mutual understanding, we take, but do not have time to give... This is what I'm talking about in my performance, which I call a “revelation performance.” Revelation - because it contains poems, selected theatrical monologues, songs that excite me as a person today. I have something to say, and I am very glad that it resonates in your hearts! Be happy".

Averin’s new performance is based on his previous one, which featured music and songs by composer Laura Quint and poet Nikolai Denisov, but it is supplemented with poems, songs and prose by D. Samoilov, A. Vertinsky, B. Pasternak, V. Mayakovsky, Yu. Levitansky , R. Rozhdestvensky, E. Yevtushenko, V. Vysotsky, A. Kochetkov “Don’t part with your loved ones”, R. Cheblatov “Teach me to live”, excerpts from performances, songs by Soviet and Russian composers, videos from films with the participation of the artist. And this is precisely a one-man show - not a concert, not a creative meeting, but a genuine theatrical performance, a thoughtful and skillfully composed mosaic of music, poetry, prose, accompanied by a complex light and sound score. This is a performance in which the actor is left alone with the audience and opens his soul in dialogue with it.

There is no falsehood in Maxim Averin’s acting, which is why he always leads the viewer with him. The convincing energy emitted by the actor gives inspiration, a dream, penetrating into the very heart. Maxim Averin is one of those artists who leads the viewer, always finding in him a sincere listener and interlocutor.

M. Averin in New York. Photo by V. Orlov.

I met with the actor just a few minutes before he went on stage, so the interview was short.

V.O .: Is this your credo - the words from the song “Remember how many good people there are, we have many more of them...”?

M.A .: I try not to “collect evil”, not to remember bad things...

V.O .: In your performance you sing other songs from Lyudmila Gurchenko’s repertoire: “Maria”, “What does love know about love”, “My life is cinema”. I want to tell you that Lyusya Gurchenko and I knew each other from the “pioneer” age, and her first book “My Adult Childhood,” which I have with an autograph, taught me something too... My question: in your performance you read poetry Samoilov, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, other poets, and this is High poetry. How does this fit, for example, with half-baked songs from the TV show “Three Chords,” where you are not only the host, but also the performer?

M.A.: My main occupation is creative work in the theater, and all sorts of “The cherries are ripe in Uncle Misha’s garden”...

V.O .: “...at Uncle Vanya’s”...

M.A. _ ... - this is in my free time from my main job. How does this fit? I believe that an artist should constantly change and try to be able to do everything. He should not be limited to suffering alone, and if he plays, then he should be no less than Othello...

V.O .: Will this show, “Three Chords,” which is very popular among television viewers, continue?

M.A .: This question is not for me, but for the general director of Channel One, Konstantin Ernst. As for me, I would love to... And you write to Ernst...

V.O .: I don’t have any contacts with Ernst...

M.A .: Me too...

V.O .: But let’s get back to you and your performance today. If you were painting a self-portrait, what character trait would you highlight?

M.A .: (Maxim even stopped putting on makeup). I never thought about it... Probably it would be something like Marc Chagall’s, “in flight”...

V.O. _ You provoked me to the next question. If I don’t ask you this question, my readers won’t believe that I talked to Averin himself! Chagall - “in flight” with his beloved wife Bella. Who would you like to be with on the flight?

M.A. _ I usually answer this question: I am married to a profession...

V.O. _ Thank you, Maxim, I wish you good luck: today and in the New Year!

M.A. _ Thank you, this is my favorite holiday!..

I still had many questions, but the producer of Averin’s performances in New York (and Toronto), Viktor Rashkovich, had already called him on stage. To one of my questions to Averin, what he is doing today, having left Satyricon, I found the answer in one of Maxim’s many television interviews: “I’m looking for a play”...

After the performance, the artist said goodbye to the captivated audience, descending from the stage into the hall. But the audience did not want to leave, and then Maxim Averin sang for them as an encore - guess what? “I recognize a sweetheart by his gait” is a Russian chanson from the repertoire of Yuri Morfessi, famous since pre-revolutionary times.

Maxim Averin sang about Lyudmila Gurchenko. It would be better to interrogate everyone.

St. Petersburg, January 12. During the New Year holidays, the Music Hall hosted the premiere performances of the concert-play “Applause,” directed and performed by the star of police television series Maxim Averin.

In working in a new musical-dramatic format, the famous actor went against the established screen role of a shirtless guy with shoulder straps and a pistol and appeared in the image of a mentally unbalanced intellectual who is familiar with the song heritage of Alexander Vertinsky and the poetry of Sergei Yesenin.

It turned out that outside the set, the “people's capercaillie of Russia” has a heavy gait, devoid of screen prowess, and very mediocre choreographic training. And it’s possible to talk about the actor’s vocal professional abilities (or rather, about their absence) exclusively with the help of words of limited use.

18 minutes late for the start of the performance, Maxim Averin emerged from the darkness of the stage in a long overcoat. He fought, waving his arms widely, with fake snowflakes. I successively changed into two different jackets (black with sequins and white satin) and one army cap, put on makeup as a sad clown, ran up a flight of stairs, which is part of God knows what original set and... And, in fact, that’s all - in terms of the director’s solutions to the "Applause" theme. Not much, although visiting wizards performed more monstrous, more inhumane experiments with the long-patient St. Petersburg public.

The title of the project, repeating the title of the book of memoirs of the recently deceased actress and singer Lyudmila Gurchenko, as well as her photo placed on the performance poster, quite definitely directed the audience’s interest towards the most stylish woman of the Soviet and Russian stage of the second half of the 20th century. However, the first half hour of Maxim Averin’s 59-minute performance was a selection of song numbers from which it was, to put it mildly, impossible to guess the “presence” of Lyudmila Markovna in the performance. Vintage pop numbers from about 60-70 years ago, for which musical arrangements were made in a noticeably restaurant spirit, if they required anything, then, first of all, detailed author’s explanations: what exactly did Maxim Averin want to tell the audience with such a selection of numbers and so unmelodic their execution, and whether he wanted it at all. However, one song number followed another without any directorial discoveries, multiplying the audience's unrequited bewilderment.

Also, the poster for the performance quite definitely promised a profitable “two in one” spectacle - a concert and a performance, a concert and a performance. In reality there was neither one nor the other. Against the concert component is Averin’s emphasized lack of melody and ridiculously total voicelessness. Against the word “performance” is a completely absurd story, not even minimally structured from the point of view of dramaturgy (commencement - climax - denouement, dramatic conflict and other textbook axioms known to the mentor of any school drama club).

After singing his very strange repertoire for about 30 minutes without a single mention of Gurchenko, Maxim Averin finally “taxied” to the topic stated in the poster: his vocal experiments began to be accompanied by a video projection with television performances of the pop diva, as well as with excerpts from her famous film roles. It’s also impossible to talk about the selection and editing of these video clips without extreme surprise: taken out of context and edited into some kind of wild monologue, if they create a new image of Gurchenko, it’s one that you don’t want to know anything about for as long as possible.

Having sung several songs from the repertoire of the departed actress, Maxim Averin suddenly decided to take a break in his vocal experiments with the audience and launched into oral explanations of why he took on such a topic and what he wanted to say with this work. This monologue would probably take “Silver Galosh” for the most incomprehensible artistic statement (suffice it to mention that according to Averin’s idea, “Applause” should return the audience’s memory to the “Russian Madonna” Natalya Gundareva, that’s how). However, there was no longer any strength or desire to delve into such trifles - against the backdrop of the director’s grandiose impotence, the tedious voicelessness of the performer, the constantly “flying out” speakers (special thanks to the sound engineer - if there was one, of course) and some kind of bestial emotional monotony of everyone without excluding numbers, from the first to the last, it really looked like a self-evident addition to the boundless heap of Moscow unprofessionalism and bad taste.

To all of the above, it is worth adding, firstly, that the price of a ticket in the stalls that evening reached 3000 rubles, and, secondly, the St. Petersburg audience, not spoiled by good touring performances, obediently carried their bouquets towards the stage, sincerely surprised by that for some reason “Applause” ended exactly an hour later and did not reach the stated duration of the performance by a full 40 minutes.

Alexander Bystrykh

Maxim Averin: Applause, curtain. And then - silence!

Maxim Averin about cinema, medicine and why he cannot lie on the stove.

People's love for the artist Maxim Averin is enormous. Moreover, everyone loves him: housewives, brutal men, and young people. The love is deserved, because Averin is an incredibly flexible, bright, energetic artist. Still would! His talent was “polished” while working with his strict partner and teacher Konstantin Raikin, in whose theater Averin has been serving for fifteen years.

Averin does not come to Odessa often, but he is always welcome here. This time Maxim showed his new one-man show “It All Starts with Love”, in which he acted, among other things, as a director. And early Sunday morning, a few hours before the performance, he charged the “AO” journalist and photographer with his bright energy. Maxim drank a lot of coffee, smoked, joked, talked about his profession, and also about why a person has no right to become depressed.

— Maxim, you are now working less at Satyricon, where you play in only three performances, but you have more independent projects “on the side” (two one-man performances and the entreprise performance “All About Men,” AO’s note). What is the reason for your desire to go “free swimming”?

- With dissatisfaction. There is only one life, and I really want to do a lot. I’m not interested in sitting and waiting for the Satyricon to stage a play just “for me,” because the waiting time may drag on. The troupe is large, and Konstantin Arkadyevich cannot think only about Averin. I need to go on stage every day! I prefer to be an active actor, and not just go out to play in the theater once a month. In November, I only didn’t go on stage for two days - and that was because I was moving. I can't do it any other way.

— You are the main “workaholic” on the Russian theater stage...

- (Laughs.) Sounds like a reproach! Do you know what our problem is? We are taught from childhood that everything will be according to the “pike’s command”, and we should just lie on the stove. So I can’t “on the stove”, I don’t like it that way.

—Have you ever thought that there is more to life than just work? What about family?

“It seems to me that setting priorities and choosing what is important in your life and what is not is betrayal.” Profession, parents, love... There can be no numerology here. Come to harmony! Because as soon as you start arranging these very “places”, you immediately lose somewhere...

—Have you come to harmony?

- I think I'm on my way.

— Any creative person is susceptible to depression. Anyone except Maxim Averin? You are always in a great mood.

- What is depression?

- When you don’t want anything, for example.

- How?! You have one small, short life, and you allow the word “I don’t want to”? How can you waste your life on this? In my understanding, depression is some kind of internal imbalance that can push you to a new stage, to a new life, that is, depression should still be productive. And your “I don’t want anything” is not depression, it’s just a whim. Let me give you an example. I've been traveling for two months straight. I go on tour mostly by car - two thousand kilometers in Siberia, about the same in the Baltic states. In theory, it was high time to say: “Oh, I’m tired. It hurts here, it hurts there.” But this is uninteresting and unproductive! It’s better if I take something useful out of these difficulties, test myself for endurance, say.

— When you were just starting out, you loudly declared yourself with your role in the film “Magnetic Storms” by Vadim Abdrashitov (one of the key Russian directors - approx. “AO”). Now you work a lot in TV series, but there are fewer movies in your life. Why?

- Because there is no “kin”. More precisely, it exists, but you have to wait a long time for a good movie. While I'm waiting, where should I play? In front of the mirror? An artist is a perishable product. Van Gogh did not sell a single painting during his lifetime, and after his death he became famous throughout the world. But this doesn’t happen to an actor, unfortunately. Sit and wait, and then at sixty years old come to your senses and say: “Oh, Mikhalkov never called me!” Or Abdrashitov, or someone else... And he won’t call! Besides, I already had a waiting period. Before my role in Magnetic Storms, I waited six years... And it was a time of absolute “dehydration” from the fact that nothing was happening in life.

— Your name has become a kind of quality mark for the series. Your colleagues say: “If Averin stars in a series, the series is of high quality.” Do you have any special flair for TV series?

- More like a role.

— A few months ago, the series “Sklifosovsky” was released, where you play surgeon Bragin. Wasn’t it scary to dive into a medical topic after the obvious successes of Hugh Laurie in “House” and Ivan Okhlobystin in “Interns”?

— When they were filming a promotional video for the series, the director of the video told me: “Pick up a stethoscope and spin it.” I ask: “Why?” By this time, I had already been filming “Sklifosovsky” for two years, talked with real surgeons and did not understand at all why this should be done. I understood perfectly well that, firstly, a stethoscope is far from the main “tool” of a surgeon, and secondly, not a single doctor would twirl a stethoscope on his finger, knowing the price of this device and how our hospitals are now provided with instruments. And he says to me: “But Dr. House does that!” Apparently, he forgot that I am Maxim Averin, and not Hugh Laurie. Here is the answer to the question of whether it was scary...

— What did you learn while filming this series? You use a scalpel very skillfully...

“I can do mouth-to-mouth breathing.” (Laughs.) And I learned how to tie knots on surgical sutures! In general, I’m glad that the series came out realistic. After all, in many films about doctors there are such strange scenes when the surgeon says: “We’ll cut out the appendix!”, but for some reason they end up cutting out the tonsils. We don’t have this, largely thanks to the consultant who worked with us. When our consultant, a well-known surgeon in Moscow, observed me on the set, as I was later told, he said that I was born to be a surgeon. (Laughs.) You won’t believe it, but it was the best compliment of my life!

— Do you know that, according to “popular” polls, you are the favorite artist in Russia and Ukraine?

- Yes? OK then. But this is not stable! Applause, curtain... And then - silence. In the morning you wake up: “Wait, turn on the applause!” And they are no longer there! Yesterday you were loved, but in order to be loved today, you need to do something again. And the future is always unknown. Therefore, the artist has only “here” and “now”.