— Sophia, do you like to cook?
- Hate! In principle, I don’t like standing at the stove. And I can hardly stand. I'm terrible in this regard! Although no, it’s not like that: I’m wonderful, I just don’t like to cook! And even more so for myself! Only when necessary. For example, I’ll cook breakfast. By the way, I know how to make delicious coffee and create the ideal proportions of cereal and milk. And this, I think, is quite enough! (Smiles.)
- And if friends come to the house, what will you treat them to?
- My friends are my friends. They know me very well and accept me for who I am. However, no one will remain hungry; there will always be a snack! Most likely, it will be a selection of cheese, sausage, cucumbers and fruit. I’ll also treat you to olives, olives, nuts and honey. In addition, in my house there is always good wine for my friends... Just if I cook something, my friends, I think, will be terribly surprised and will not believe that I did it! You know, it’s like in the movie “Desperate Housewives”, where one of the main characters pretended that she baked cookies herself, taking them out of the oven, and then a package of these same cookies was found in the trash can!
— By the way, you made a very delicious appetizer. You don’t even need to prepare anything for it!
“That’s the thing: I have good taste.” But I don’t want to stand at the stove. At least for now.
— How is your relationship with food?
— I really like to eat delicious food, because food is a part of our life. And here I don’t deny myself anything - I eat whatever I want!
— So diets and veganism are not about you?
- No, this is not about me at all! I don't go on diets and eat meat easily. I always loved him and now I never stop loving him. Although there was a time period in my biography when I abandoned it. As a schoolgirl, I saw an absolutely terrible film about how cattle are slaughtered. It made such a shocking impression on me that for nine whole months I couldn’t even look at meat, let alone eat it! Also, all meat broths and even fish were prohibited for me! But, I’ll say right away, this had nothing to do with veganism, I calmly continued to eat eggs and dairy products. The funny thing is that I even gave up my favorite chips with bacon, although I knew that there was no bacon in them, but just pure chemicals! But after some time, meat somehow quietly returned to my diet.
- But there are still foods that you don’t eat?
— Like most people, I have some stomach problems. As a result, I practically gave up chips and fast food, and I don’t eat heavy foods, including fried ones.
— Do you follow any diet regimen?
— I try not to skip breakfast. If I know that I have a shoot today, I will get up two hours earlier to drink water, do exercises, take a shower and have breakfast. In my profession, breakfast is extremely important, because it is not known when during the day I will be able to have a snack.
— And what kind of breakfasts do you like?
— I really like porridge, especially oatmeal. This love stretches from childhood, because my mother (actress Anna Ardova - author's note) prepared amazing porridge. I also really love scrambled eggs, bread, cheese, and I just love cheesecakes! My ideal breakfast is porridge and a sandwich with cheese.
— Tell me, how do you cook porridge?
— I cook porridge in water, but I always add milk, cinnamon, banana and honey to it.
— What other mom’s food do you like?
— I love my mother’s pilaf, achma (a Georgian dish similar to khachapuri. — Author’s note)... No matter what food my mother cooks, everything turns out very tasty!
I try not to skip breakfast. My ideal one is porridge and a sandwich with cheese.
— How often do you manage to travel, and what world cuisine is closest to you?
— I try to go somewhere more often, and try new dishes there. Among others, I would highlight Mediterranean and Georgian cuisines. I like Mediterranean for its lightness and simplicity. Lunch of fish and vegetable salad - what could be better? In Georgia, in general, everything can be called tasty. But I wouldn’t risk eating like this all the time; after all, Georgian cuisine contains a lot of fatty and heavy foods. What I remember most is the dish of beef, which is first boiled, then, once cooked, torn by hand and served with cheese... In Malta, I tried one local dish, which I really liked, and now I am preparing something similar at home.
— Is it complicated?
- No, on the contrary - very simple. This is toast with salt and honey.
— What products are always in your house?
— These are eggs, buckwheat and grain cottage cheese. By the way, I recently came up with an excellent dish: we put buckwheat on a plate, next to it there is grain cottage cheese and avocado. I can always eat this dish!
— Do you like to go to cafes and restaurants?
- If I have a day off, I will never leave the house for anything in my life. Only if someone forcibly pulls me out by the hand. On my day off, I love being at home, walking around in pajamas all day... The most I can do is brush my teeth. And if there is no food at all in the house, I can always go to my mother. But to show off and go out to the store - no, I’d rather lie down.
- What will mom cook, knowing that you are coming?
“Mom is the person who can cook a gorgeous dish out of nothing.” Or rather, from what he finds in the refrigerator. Mom doesn’t have the same dishes; she always comes up with something new.
— How do you feel about sweets?
— Although I love healthy food, I still have a terrible sweet tooth, and I rarely deny myself sweets.
- Chocolates?
— No, I rarely buy chocolates for myself, but I can’t resist pastries, ice cream or cake. I also always have a dried fruit bar in my bag or backpack.
- Aren't you afraid to gain weight?
— Any normal hedgehog gains 200 grams before winter. So I, like this hedgehog, somehow can also gain too much. Therefore, I try not to eat at night, so that the food has time to digest and the body rests at night, and does not work, digesting food. I’ve never counted calories, but at the same time, unfortunately, I’m not one of those lucky people who eats a lot and doesn’t gain weight. But I know how to negotiate with my body. For example, if I ate a lot of sweets, in the next two days I will give up sweets - I will sit on buckwheat, for example. But not to the point of fainting from hunger, otherwise I become angry. I can’t imagine how people go on diets! And it also seems to me that if you don’t know about calories, they won’t know about you either and will just pass by!
Toast with salt and honey
Toast the bread in a toaster and spread with butter. Then sprinkle with salt and spread honey on top. The combination of sweet and salty gives an unusual but very pleasant taste.
- Elena Sokolova
Anna Ardova's son refused to live with her
Anna Ardova // Photo: frame from the “Once Upon a Time” program / NTV
Anna Ardova says she is comfortable being alone and admits how good it is to belong to herself. In addition to work, filming and performances, Ardova has many hobbies - she cooks well, collects and tries to paint pictures herself, and grows flowers. The actress, who turned 48 in September, repeats that there are a lot of the most beautiful things in the world - books, films, theater, yoga, girlfriends and children.
The sought-after actress, TEFI Award winner Anna Ardova has two children – a 21-year-old daughter, Sonya, whose father’s name the actress still doesn’t even want to remember, and a son, Anton, from Alexander Shavrin. As friends say, and judging by joint photos on social networks, the former spouses continue to maintain friendly relations. But the actress now lives alone. A year ago, already an adult, Sofia Ardova, having graduated from theater school and received a place in the Moscow Art Theater troupe. A.P. Chekhov, moved. And the son, 16-year-old Anton, as Ardova first admitted in the NTV program “Once Upon a Time,” upon learning that his parents had decided to divorce, said that he would live with his father.
“I immediately sounded the trumpet to all psychologists - what should I do? What to do? “If a boy wants to stay with his father,” they told me, he must stay with his father. And you will be patient." And I left,” Ardova said in an interview.
But after some time, seeing that her son began to gain weight, Ardova decided that she had to return. “I thought it was because of his nerves. He was very worried,” said the artist. So she lived for another five months under the same roof with her then official husband, Alexander Shavrin.
It is not known how long such a strange life of spouses wanting a divorce would have lasted if not for their son. It was he, as Anna now says, who “let go” of her.
“Anton himself two years ago, he was 14 years old, told me in the evening: “Mom, I can no longer sleep in the same room with dad. Well, in general, go to your apartment, live there. And I'm a grown boy, 20 minutes from you. If anything happens, I’ll get there.” That's when he sent me and I left. At first I really missed and suffered from Anton. Now I’m used to the fact that I rarely see Tokha, but I miss her desperately,” the actress frankly said.
By the way, Anna Ardova’s son, like his sister, decided to continue the dynasty. As a teenager, he starred in his mother’s sketch comedy “One for All” and “Women’s League”, and later deliberately chose acting as a profession. Now Anton Shavrin is a student at Oleg Tabakov’s theater college.
Igor Khripunov: “Sonya Ardova and I parted as friends”
Igor Khripunov has long been pleasing his fans in the theater, although in the cinema some of his works attracted attention, as in “Cold Shores” or “Icebreaker”, but the role of a sophisticated sommelier in the new season of “Grand” has become a fresh stream in the series beloved by many. Little is known about Igor himself, only his serious affair with his Moscow Art Theater colleague Sonya Ardova became public knowledge, and therefore it is crazy to understand what he is like, whether he is like any of his screen and theater heroes (and among them there is even Bulgakov’s Yeshua). Interesting. Details are in the interview with Atmosfera magazine.
— Igor, I was surprised to discover that you have left the Moscow Art Theater for two years now, and are playing only a few performances...
— Yes, it was dictated by my desire to study film directing. And although this has not yet materialized, then I decided that the most reasonable thing was to leave the state. At the moment I am collaborating with four theaters: Moscow Art Theater, Nations, Tabakov and Pushkin. At the Theater of Nations I play the most interesting thing that I have had in principle during my entire life on stage - the “Iranian Conference” according to Vyrypaev. So, probably, my version of training is a “short film” that I will film myself. Anna Simakova, a graduate of the MSK from Alexey Popogrebsky’s course, and I are already working on a very interesting “short” about an anesthesiologist who deliberately lies, trying to justify his people at the medical commission for the death of a patient, and at this time is going through a serious drama in the family. Here I will play the main role. This will be a story about the total power of lies. I hope that the situation in the country will improve soon and we will enter an active phase. I play in the Moscow Art Theater from time to time, unfortunately, rarely in “Master”, there is already a different line-up there.
— Was it difficult to agree to such a role?
- Yes. I'll tell you a funny story. One day I suddenly noticed that if the script contains the remark “something is wheezing” or “someone” (laughs), then the person reading it immediately remembers an artist with the last name Khripunov. As in the case of the appointment to the role of Yeshua. Jesus Christ is I.H., as is Igor Khripunov... Such funny things suddenly become decisive. Maybe all this is just my speculation, but now I pay attention to it all the time.
— Don’t you miss the Moscow Art Theater and the house theater in general? And you are not offered to return?
— Almost every month I receive offers to return, and I think that with Zhenovach everything would work out well for me too. But I am satisfied with my current status. Therefore, I’m not in a hurry to go back to bondage; I go to the theater only for the most exciting offers. I have to be honest, I’m no longer interested in engaging in creative pursuits if it doesn’t bring in money - the times have passed, and they were the best when I rehearsed with Kirill Serebrennikov, Konstantin Bogomolov, Yuri Butusov.
“One part of me died and turned into armor. A process of hardening is underway, and a share of healthy cynicism has appeared. Otherwise I would just go crazy"
Photo: Ksenia BUBENETS
— I don’t believe that you put material incentives at the forefront. And the “short film” does not promise big money...
— Absolutely right, and the short film is entirely my brainchild. But, of course, I’m not such a mercantile person, although I can’t imagine myself apart from earning money, because I help my relatives who remained in Saratov and the Saratov region. You have to be there once to understand the level of poverty these people live behind. I understand that for them I am not a stranger, and I cannot exist calmly, knowing that the sole of my aunt’s boot has come off. Therefore, I can no longer afford to do just art, unless it’s something that directly “explodes” me. Sometimes this is possible out of sympathy for the person with whom I will work.
— Your mother said that it would be better for you to learn to be a driver or a nurse. Do you have a fairly simple family or is this a joke?
- No, really the simplest family. Dad is an engineer by training, now retired, works part-time so as not to sit at home, at the Klin wastewater treatment plant, and mom was both a teacher and an accountant. She has been gone, unfortunately, for three years. Everything happened like a classic - unexpectedly, and, in fact, this was the main reason why I did not study, because I completely dropped out of life. Her words were sincere, because she saw how exhausted, frayed, and dissatisfied with myself I came to Saratov on vacation while studying at the Moscow Art Theater School and in the first years of working in the theater. She really believed that it would be better to find a profession that would not wear me down so emotionally.
“I really sympathize with your grief and, alas, I understand.” But your family is still intelligent, it turns out that your mother spoke not without irony...
- But my mother is from a remote village, in her family, in general, all are peasants. My dad is different in this sense: both my sister and my mother are mathematicians, and my father was a big boss.
— But I can’t help but feel that you are a hereditary intellectual, even an aristocrat: a little out of date, soft, very delicate...
- Thank you. (Smiles.) And these are all the features of small societies. I remember how we came to my grandmother, my mother’s mother, and amazing feasts gathered there. It seems to me that all this comes from there, even from those songs that I know a lot thanks to my mother. I enjoyed it when I stood in front of these kind drunk people and sang a song I learned with my mother or told some story. As a teenager, I no longer had any difficulties in choosing a profession. They kept me at school only because I prepared all the holidays there and performed in the club. And at the age of sixteen I followed in Tabakov’s footsteps: I studied at the Saratov Youth Theater.
“Oleg Tabakov had an incredibly developed sense of community. He even called me, which was a shock, I was not ready for this. Realized its size"
Photo: Ksenia BUBENETS
— Were there any problems in childhood with your peers because of your gentleness?
- This is a good question, because there really were problems, since I grew up like this... my mother’s son, a very gentle and affectionate boy, but a little cowardly. Any manifestation of rudeness, rudeness and aggression put me into a stupor, and I often gave in under the pressure of some larger and more arrogant boy and was repeatedly humiliated. I ran to my mother. And one day she didn’t like my cowardice. We had a conflict with an Armenian, the most terrible bandit in the area, and his uncle had a store, and once again, when he humiliated me and my friends, I came to my mother and squealed that I would set fire to his store. And she suddenly said: “Well, set it on fire!” In this way she tried to make me think in a slightly different direction, bolder or something. It was strange, I was waiting for support, some kind of persuasion, and suddenly - these cold words of hers. She was an exceptionally brave woman. None of my relatives have such inner strength!
“You can feel your attitude towards your mother.” Have you changed since she left?
“I had one life before and it became completely different after.” Mom is, of course, my everything. And gentleness, and decency, and all those qualities that I consider the best in myself, were instilled in her in completely different ways. This is a catastrophic loss for me. I just felt in my stomach that she had passed away. I suddenly felt wildly twisted, and then I realized that this was that very moment. That's the kind of connection we had. And now THIS is the starting point to which everything relates. Now one part of me has died and turned into armor. There is a process of hardening going on, a share of healthy cynicism has appeared, otherwise I would simply go crazy. On the other hand, this tragedy forced me to be more attentive to others, the level of empathy has risen - although it seemed to me to be high before, but now I have become even more sensitive, I understand that life is tragically short.
— What did you dream about while studying in Saratov? What did you see in the future as a measure of success, happiness, did you think about cinema?
— I didn’t think about cinema at all, filming seemed like something fantastic. The ultimate dream was to work at the Moscow Art Theater: Tabakov and other great artists were there. Just before moving to Moscow, I remember going out into the street at night or early in the morning, climbing a high-rise building and looking at the city. I've never done anything like this before. I think it had to do with making a decision. It was as if I couldn’t find a place for myself or, on the contrary, I was looking for something new. When I found out that I was accepted into the Moscow Art Theater School, I flew over Kamergersky Lane and shouted to my mother on the phone: “Mom, I entered the Moscow Art Theater, now everything will be fine with us!” This was in 2003. Life later showed how naive my exclamation was...
— What exactly did life show and when? After all, you were accepted into the Moscow Art Theater immediately after graduation, and now you are doing very well in your profession.
— Now yes, but in my fourth year it became clear to me that my dream of working at the Moscow Art Theater would not come true. We all ended up in the Pushkin Theater automatically, because Roman Efimovich Kozak was our master, and at that time I had already played in several performances there.
— So how did you end up at the Moscow Art Theater?
— At the suggestion of Marina Brusnikina, for which I am very grateful to her. She put in a good word for me. And Oleg Palych had an incredibly developed sense of community. But I won’t say that incredible bonuses were immediately revealed at the Moscow Art Theater. Tabakov once said to Mironov, when he saw himself in the distribution for “The Inspector General” and was far from being in the first roles: “Yes, Zhen, well, you didn’t ride into the theater on a white horse.” So, I crawled through some hole in the Moscow Art Theater, under a horse. (Laughs.) For six months I played a tiny role in “The Last Sacrifice” - Zolotovitsky told me: “Bring me vodka!”, and I brought it. And then Pisarev appeared with “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” But the explosion of my activity happened later. This happened after one day I was introduced to the role of Yura Chursin, the main villain in the Pickwick Club... And, apparently, as an encouragement, a sign with my name appeared in one of the dressing rooms closest to the stage. (Laughs.) It was very pleasant. Probably Oleg Pavlovich is the most important person with whom fate brought me together: I owe him everything. It’s a pity that, due to my closed nature, I did not take advantage of all the opportunities to communicate with him - and he even called me, which was just a shock, I was not ready for this, because I realized his magnitude and my insignificance. At first everyone called me “Nadya Tabakova” with a laugh, because he said: “This is my hope - Khripunov,” but, apparently, I did not live up to his hopes, I disappointed him. A story happened, after which he thought that I had become a star or had lost interest in the profession. Although it was just a misunderstanding. Once we showed a skit party for the Old New Year, and the most successful number - it can still be seen on YouTube - was about entry into the Moscow Art Theater. We fooled around, and literally a day later I received an offer to play instead of Mironov in “No. 13D”. At the same time, we were rehearsing “The Master and Margarita”, Mashkov was not there, instead of him Sergei Belyaev was in charge of us, who constantly hit me on the hands: “But Zhenya is wrong... Zhenya is not so...” - and I, let’s say, rehearsed at full capacity, thinking , that now I’ll hold back my strength, distribute myself, and at the premiere I’ll give it a blast! And, apparently, I was mistaken: I had to immediately show all my worth, but I thought that there was still time to build up, but then my rehearsals ended. I started to find out what was going on, I got to Oleg Palych himself, and he told me: “And they reported to me that you don’t want to play there.” And I no longer had hope, and the sign stopped hanging on one of the first dressing rooms, that is, I had such a high-speed elevator up and down. At that moment, Oleg Pavlovich’s loyalty ended. So it was all sad.
“We met ten years later. She has changed a lot, and now I have fallen deeply in love. But I was deceived - and it hit me hard."
Photo: Ksenia BUBENETS
— Cinema has existed in your life for a long time, but now bright works have appeared. One of them is in “Grand”...
“Grand” is my favorite story. A brilliant project in all respects. The funniest scenario is that sometimes you have to pull yourself together so as not to “split” in the frame. And how much I learned about wine! Now I can carry on any conversation at a sommelier party. (Laughs.) Now we are already filming the fourth season - the second with my participation. Of course, I still don’t have as much cinema as I would like, because I have desire, strength, interest, and already some experience, but I hope that over time this will only increase.
— Do you miss the main roles? In my opinion, having such a bright external individuality is fraught with insidious disadvantages...
- Agree. The main roles are given first of all to the heroes, and these are strong, handsome, tall people, pleasing to the female eye. I would like to play something tragicomic in a movie. And here, most often, everything happens according to patterns.
— Among your roles there are quite a lot of people in uniform and gangsters. Both of them, in my opinion, are very far from the personality of Igor Khripunov...
- Yes, although I play them, which means there is something of me in them. I had an amazing experience back at the Moscow Art Theater School. I was a second-year student, went out to Kamergersky Lane and caught my gaze. I turned around and saw my teacher, who, as they say, “scanned” me. After that, he suggested that I read “Notes from Underground,” and I was amazed how much it was all about me. Someone says that all of Dostoevsky’s heroes are fictitious, but I am a living refutation of that. You can imagine my shock when what was happening in life and in the work was one hundred percent correlated, I threw the book down and thought: “How did they see this?!” I, one-on-one, like a hero, communicated with people. Only the emotional intensity was not the same, of course. And now I have changed, stopped being afraid of anything, loved myself and, most importantly, accepted. If earlier I was deeply touched by criticism addressed to me, now I have a strong armor.
— At what stage is your relationship with Sonya Ardova?
“We haven’t been together for a whole year, but we parted as friends, we communicate with both her and her wonderful mother. I respect them very much, they are talented people. But at some point I realized that Sonya is only twenty-three years old, let her develop herself and make a career. She strives for this, and she will succeed. Sonya is open to the diversity of the world, she probably just needs to take a walk for now. But, most importantly, I was not for her what she was for me: a potential wife, and the mother of my children, everything. After two years of living together, I suddenly realized this with clarity.
- Maybe I should have just waited - or has the love passed?
— Common sense says that sometimes it is better to love from a distance. I don't want to go back to that story. I imagine a family a little differently.
— How was your relationship with the fair sex before that?
“I have always been very captivated by feelings.” This was the case in Saratov and Moscow. Falling in love bursts into your life, and you turn into a happy madman. I have been happy and acutely unhappy more than once when everything ended for various reasons. But love is wonderful, even if it is such a bitter story as the one that began in Saratov. Then the girl loved me, and ten years later we met in Moscow, she changed a lot, and I already fell deeply in love. As it turned out later, I was deceived, it hit me hard. Of course, this cannot be compared with the pain of losing my mother. But then it seemed that the world had collapsed. After the breakup, I came to my friend and fellow countryman Dima Kulichkov, and he, trying to get me out of a depressed state with a song, put on Magomayev: “How are you living now, my dear?..”, and I began to sob! (Laughs.) A year later I was still worried, but now I remember and laugh. How amazingly time changes everything...
— Some time ago you said that the most important thing is to love and be loved. After a difficult loss for you and parting with Sonya, is this desire still valid?
- Nothing changed. I don’t know: for whom is love not a driving force? What else can warm you up? Of course, there is devastation due to the loss, and the separation did not add rosy feelings and thoughts, but still the desire has not disappeared. I can just say now that it is currently closed for renovations. (Smiles.)
