WE AND THE CAR
/ GUEST SP
LEV DUROV RID QUICKLY
TEXT / LEONID FOOTWEAR
Everyone loves this man … Well, almost everything! And even traffic police inspectors, which he shamelessly uses. Our guest is the actor and director of the Moscow Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, People's Artist of the USSR Lev Durov.
- Lev Konstantinovich, judging by your memoirs book “Sinful notes”, you are an ugly driver. In the afterword to her, artist Vladimir Kachan compared your Zhiguli with a dirty soap dish that hit an air bomb. Having traveled with you, he felt like a stuntman, who at that time was very lucky …
- I remember, I drove an American actress around Moscow, so she then wrote to the director of our theater: “Bow to Mr. Durov and tell him, please: next time I would like to see this actor as a whole piece” (laughs). I really drive sloppy - always in a hurry. Anyway, I love a fast ride. I understand that this is dangerous, I myself have witnessed several terrible accidents, but lessons do not go for the future.
“I wonder how you make excuses to the inspector?”
- But in any way. The main thing is not to utter vulgar phrases such as: “Do you feel ashamed to rob an artist?” Usually they ask with a sigh: “Well, Durov, what will we do?” I reply: “Inspector, let's hug!” It works without fail: “Go to hell!” (Laughs)
- Really no one resisted such impudence?
- There was a case. Once the inspector beat me very beautifully, he said: "I love you and respect you as a professional, let me be a professional." And then I blushed with shame. And he, returning the “rights” with a penalty receipt, added: “Take care of yourself, you are very dear to us!..”
- How long have you been driving?
“Twenty years.” And all the time on VAZs: “penny”, “nine”, now “five” … And my first car was “Oldsmobile” in the film “All the Royal Army”. I never sat behind a bagel, and the driver of the candidate for presidency was to play. Well, I was trained for an hour and a half before the start of filming - all that was needed was to drive up to Zhzhenov and Kozakov, who were standing and talking. “Motor!” - I pull up and string the entire camera crew along with the camera on the door handle. Fortunately, she did not crash.
- For 47 years of work in the cinema, you have made an excellent career: first you played an assistant excavator operator, then a combine operator …
- That's right. The policeman …
- And recently, in the film “Kazan Orphan” they have grown to the astronaut. There is nowhere to go above.
- Do not tell. I in the picture of Misha Varfolomeev "Holy and Sinful", which has not yet come out, played God. Not formidable, such a home … (Laughs)
- You were also a literary god - Leo Tolstoy …
- Yes. Canadians shot a serial film about Russia from the book of Peter Ustinov, and one series was dedicated to Tolstoy. Peter offered this role to me. And then one day he and I, on a rented ZIL, decommissioned from the Kremlin garage, returned after filming from Yasnaya Polyana. I really wanted to eat, the driver slowed down at the selmag. And next to the traffic police post. The inspector ran to us: the "member" was traveling, but he was not warned! I was in makeup, with a gray beard. He glanced - and was speechless. Then they said that he called his superiors: “We’ve gone crazy! Leo Tolstoy rides without protection!”- and he, having taken away a pistol, was sent to the hospital …
- An English theater critic called you a "tragic clown." And hit the nail on the head. After all, are you from a circus dynasty?