Kseniya Rappoport’s territory of art and life

Ukraine, Italy, France, and Russia consider that this Russian actress belongs to each of them. Cine-camera is extremely in love with her refined and infused face, and the hearts of the audience take a strong liking to the images she creates due to her sincerity and high professionalism. She works much and with enthusiasm, easily crossing the borders. Yesterday she hosted the opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, today she appears on the stage of the Maly Drama Theater (Theater of Europe) in St. Petersburg, and tomorrow she is going to the shooting area in France. She is raising two daughters, 19-year-old Dariya and two-year-old Sophia. She rarely gives interviews and she reads thoroughly each of them, because she feels responsible for her words.

Kseniya, how come you chose – or were chosen by – the profession that makes a personality dependent, because you always live in expectation to be chosen. From your theater and cinema roles I can see that you can choose, too. How?

“I think that in our profession you can choose, too. Of course, we are mostly being chosen, but sometimes the contrary is possible.”

It is hard to imagine an actor in a repertoire theater to come to chief director saying: I want to play one role or another. At best, next time you won’t be assigned any role at all. The same thing refers to cinema: it is good when you are lucky to work with a good script. Has such thing ever occurred to you?

“No, I simply try to choose what is close to me. Not even close, but when I understand how I can work on the material. It seems to me I choose what is interesting to me and what concerns me. The same thing refers to thing I want, but don’t get. I am sure, everything that is given to you by destiny is your thing, and what is not given is not yours.”

Are you a fatalist?

“I don’t think it is called fatalism. I simply want to perceive every minute as it is and be thankful for what I have and what I don’t have, by the way.”

In all times it has been considered that an actor does not need to have any especially deep knowledge and intellect, and that the main thing is to make a face and show correct organic performance. I see you as an intellectual actress. Is this home upbringing, family traditions, or did you make yourself?

“Of course, I may be wrong, but I won’t agree with you. It seems to me, even studying in a theater institute makes you develop, even if people from small towns without quality education or people from big cities who lack good upbringing become its students. This is the place where those who are called people of natural gift, or God’s gift, receive what we call culture and academic education. Such education is given in my alma mater. Besides, I had been prepared to some extent. This profession simply gives a great impetus to progressive development.”

When people enter a theater institute, she naturally feels a heroine and he is a lover-hero. What were your feelings at that time? What did you want when you chose this profession?

“At that time I did not want anything special, I simply did not want to strain myself, speaking modern language. I thought it was very hard to prepare for the entry exams to a university or Herzen State University. On the whole that summer everything seemed hard and boring to me. Therefore the Theater Institute appeared to me as something very joyful, a place where everything was easy, simple, and relaxed. In fact, everything turned out to be quite the contrary. I understood that very quickly and… I left. Later I came back, then left again, – these things developed in a very complicated way for me.”

Apart from Lev Dodin, what directors have you worked with? How complicated was it for you to get accustomed to a different kind of aesthetics, for Dodin is a bright and very specific director?

“First of all, I came to Dodin from Veniamin Filshtinsky, who was my teacher and the first director with whom I worked. After having worked with Dodin for a long while, of course, it was quite difficult for me to perceive a different kind of directing. It will be more correct to say not directing, but the level of analysis and talking about the essence of what you want to try. I won’t discuss now the result of work, but the process itself is unique. This is true. Another director with whom we have been able to find common language so far (maybe it is because we studied together and have common blood in this sense) is Andrey Prikhotenko, we were students of the same year. I think he has become a wonderful director. We have three joint works and hopefully the fourth one will appear this year.”

I know that the most true and harmonious state is being here and now with all of your essence. But it seems to me I don’t fully correspond to our time, with its velocities and incredible amounts of information. I am trying to keep up, but I understand that I am losing something important, start fussing about, and fall apart to peaces.

From an outsider’s point it looks as if you have easily become a star of Italian cinema. Italy is not a very open country, especially for Russian-speaking actors, maybe not as strict as France. I know how everything started and how you found yourself in a country whose language you did not know. Was not there a point when you wanted to leave everything? Was it your character that stopped you from doing this or you felt that the country accepted you?

“I don’t know whether they accepted me, this question did not especially concern me. Everything went peacefully, with mutual sympathy, thank God. Italians have offered me exclusively quality screenplays. Maybe this is the reason why lately I have been working more in Italy than in Russia. But it does not mean that I want to become an Italian actress and go to live there. Above all, a great merit in this belongs to Giuseppe Tornatore, whom they like a lot. I can say that he is a classic of Italian cinema these days. It simply happened so that for the first time I appeared on Italian screens in one of his films, therefore I honestly refer this more to him than to myself.”

Does the work in Russian cinema, compared to the work in European cinema, Italian in particular, have any essential peculiarities, not in terms of organization, rather in terms of profession?

“No, I think there are hardly any differences, in this case, between Italian and Russian cinema, or to put it more correctly, between how the things go. But there are differences between the peculiarities of directors and the amount of money spent on the movie, because if funding is scarce it is hard to work in both cases. Above all, the level of professionalism, the personality of the director is what matters, maybe even not the budget, because with the help of a variety of modern digital tools you can shoot an absolutely amazing thing for a mere three pennies. The level of professionalism and personality is what matters.”

What about the everyday life during the shooting, personal comfort, etc.?

“Yes. First of all, they simply have a different climate, so, it is impossible to find yourself in an open field when the temperature is 30 degrees below zero. It is even more unlikely to find yourself in an open field, when the temperature is 30 degrees below zero, and you came there first, there are no trailers, or camera dollies – nothing, everything comes later. At least I have never gotten into a situation of this kind in Italy. One day I came two minutes prior to the make-up artist to a make-up trailer, he rushed into immediately after me and made excuses for being late till the end of the day”

You have more than successfully worked in cinema with Kirill Serebrennikov, whom I consider one of the most interesting contemporary directors not only in cinema, but also in theater. You have an absolutely amazing movie with him Saint George’s Day. Has not he invited you to work in his theater, for you are apparently his type of actress?

“He has invited me, but nothing has come out of it yet, because we reside in different places.”

You don’t want to leave St. Petersburg for the capital for long?

“Yes.”

Do borders impede you? Do you feel them?

“The thing is there are no borders inside me. When I work in Italy I don’t feel as a Russian actress. I mean, I naturally feel some kind of responsibility, but those are few seconds, then I start working and forget about this, for art is a territory which, I think, has no national or territorial boundaries.”

We know from the history of theater that every theater cannot exist evenly in time. There is even a popular definition that theater is born, rises to the height, and vanishes in 10-15 years. In our life we have already witnessed how bright theaters – and disappeared. Have you ever thought about this in relation to Dodin’s theater? In my opinion some changes have taken place there. Being an actress of the theater, do you feel this? What prospects of the theater and your prospects in this theater can you see?

“Of course, there have been some changes, both in me and the theater. You know, I won’t comment on this.”

You are a young mother again, the difference between the ages of your daughters is 17 years, but still you continue to be actively engaged in theater, cinema, and even the festival. A year and a half ago you were a juror at the Vologda Festival VOICES, and a newly-born daughter, whom you were feeding by the clock, was waiting for you in the hotel room. How do you manage to do everything, without taking a timeout even after giving birth to your second child?

“I try to accept all kinds of proposals that are interesting for me, in Russia, Italy, and France. First of all, the organizers of the Vologda Festival had invited me long before that, but I did not managed to come, although I promised them, so I owed them. I nearly failed, but I came. First and foremost, it is simply a huge delight to watch movies on a big screen, because in everyday life it is not so easy to make yourself go out somewhere, because you know: you have the movie on a disc, and you can watch it during the flight or in a car, etc. Of course, this is totally wrong, because movies should be watched in a big hall, on a big screen, namely for this aim they are being made. First, I am thankful for this, besides, the festival’s program, I mean not only competition, is very good. It is versatile and illogical, but for this reason it is enchanting, too. And Vologda! I have come here with a play seven years ago, the city has changed a lot, which is pleasant to observe. They have restored St. Sophia’s Cathedral, you can visit it, and the museums are absolutely wonderful. What was especially gratifying for me is that those are absolutely European museums.”

Are you telling this as a museum-lover or a character of Dunia Smirnova’s film?

“I am not a character of the film, but of course I always try to visit all museums I can. Besides, my grandmother loved museums, so I know this sphere not from rumors.”

Do museums help you to keep the state of inner harmony?

“I know that the most true and harmonious state is being here and now with all of your essence. But it seems to me I don’t fully correspond to our time, with its velocities and incredible amounts of information. I am trying to keep up, but I understand that I am losing something important, start fussing about, and fall apart to peaces. I think the previous century would have been more appropriate for me. The quality of spending time and life at that time was absolutely different. It was impossible to get in touch with a person who was a great distance away from you in a matter of a second. You could think about them, write letters, and wait for response. Now you can check everything upon the Internet, whereas at that time the measure of trust among people was absolutely different. And trust in God. I liked the notion formulated by our contemporary, St.Petersburg philosopher Aleksandr Sekatsky, ‘transcendental easy-mindedness.’ Namely the feeling of easy-mindedness is what we are losing now. It becomes ever harder for us to rely on God without feeling anxious about tomorrow. We rely on all kinds of things, our cars, phones, money, and government. It seems to me a hundred or two hundred years ago there was more space for faith, thoughts, and life.”

Your schedule is very tight. This is not only a prerogative of an actor, but a prerogative of today’s realities, a prerogative of a woman on the whole. How do you force yourself or allow yourself to rest in this very much loaded rhythm? To you manage to preserve your spiritual self?

“In fact, the greatest problem today is that the world has gone absolutely mad. I don’t understand how to live in this rhythm, and it seems to me that it is getting even more fervent. This is the feeling everyone is discussing and writing about, it exists, and it seems to me it emerges due to some acceleration, when you lose touch with the ground and with reality. In fact, for woman it is much harder than for a man, because she has to stand both her feet on the ground. Therefore, unfortunately, I don’t have any formula for this. I am trying to find it. If I had one, I would share it. But nothing helps already.”

What do you read?

“Scripts.”

Is that all?

“Unfortunately. And special literature. Sometimes philosophical literature, or someone’s correspondence. And very rarely – poetry. For some reason it wounds me. I read screenplays for the most part.”

What can one tell one’s children today to make them want to live and have faith in the future?

“I think you should listen to them. They know much better than us. We simply need to be near them.”