Alexandra Cherkasova-Servant about explicit scenes with Stychkin, personal taboos and stereotypes about women

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Sasha, this year began fruitfully for you both professionally and personally – you got married, and the series “Patient Zero” with your participation appeared on the screens …

There is a very funny story connecting both of these events. During the filming of “Zero” we had such a scene where I pose naked for a photographer played by Stychkin. According to the script, he himself was supposed to be in a dressing gown over his naked body – an intimate moment. And so that nothing extra would get into the frame, the costume designers gave him a ballet shell. It looked so funny that at the moment when Zhenya lifted his leg, I shot up all the time – I started laughing along with the whole film crew. Stychkin blushed: “Stop laughing, I’m a director!” And he started laughing too. It took away all the discomfort. So, from those shootings, I still have a lot of photos of a near-erotic persuasion. Their remnants evaporated when Evgen and I (husband of actress Yevgeny Mandelstam – ed.) moved out of the rented apartment. Apparently, the gruzki were interested. I felt so uncomfortable. And Evgen said: “But it’s beautiful!”

So he doesn’t mind scenes like that at all?

He is super-adequate and loves to neigh. And we have the same level of self-irony. He can jokingly ask: “Well, who kisses better?” But he will not have nodules if I am on the screen with a bare booty. Moreover, I even consult with him when they invite me to audition for the role of some sex woman: “What is better to wear, tell me, like a man?” – “So, let’s change this jacket for that one, with a neckline and be sure to put on heels,” he advises. And he got wiser to write down self-tests for me. I understand that he gets tired at his job, he has 33 projects … And I don’t poke him when he comes home late. I think he will sleep and write tomorrow. And he at 12 at night: “Send samples to write to you! Let’s take another take.” He always asks to give him a script to read – he is interested, he is included in me, in my work. This is very cool.

After all, cinema was not always in your life and you started as a model …

Scout found me at 11 when I was walking from school. The first red stars modeling agency in Russia was located in Sechenovsky lane, where we lived with our parents. And there were always huge queues of girls – tall, tanned blondes. I did not understand then what was there. I was just walking from school, and a guy of about 25 approached me, as it seemed to me then, an adult uncle. And he said: “Hello, I’m a scout of a modeling agency. You come to us, let’s go.” I didn’t understand anything at all, I said: “I won’t go without my mother.” I took his business card and went home. We had a family council. And two days later we came with my mother, she calmed down that everything was fine. They took the first snaps for me, took measurements, height and so on. Then there was the first model shooting at the age of 14 – the first issue of L’Officiel magazine. But she always refused most of the modeling shoots, then a lot of Russian girls were invited to Asia, to Japan – but all this seemed terribly suspicious to me, or I just had to give up my studies. And I loved to study, and where has it been seen that a girl from a decent Moscow family gave up everything for the sake of some kind of filming ?! So I did not shoot for fame and some covers, but if there was some interesting story, style, a team with which it would be interesting to make a beautiful project together. It’s more of a work of art than a day job.

I really liked some projects and I am still proud of them – I was the face of Saint Laurent perfumes in Russia, starred for TSUM campaigns, was in the windows of many other brands. And yet, always treated it as a fan. Then I had to stop for a while after entering GITIS, my teacher said: “So, you will run, redhead, with a bare booty hanging on posters?” When I advertised underwear for the Central Department Store – it was screens for the whole building, I remembered the words of the teacher, of course. It just wasn’t serious for me. I returned to modeling, already when I left the theater, then I started acting in films. I thought, they say, what kind of nonsense is to be ashamed of a modeling career.

How did you get into cinema?

It was the first course and my first “skid” of photographs at Mosfilm. Now they don’t do that anymore. Few people know, but before the actors compiled their portfolio, glued the photo on the back onto a piece of paper with a biography: who you are, how old you are, the color of your eyes, where you studied and worked, and simply carried them to different film studios at Mosfilm. We went with a classmate, and I had never been to Mosfilm before. I remember that we popped into all the offices, somewhere they took photos from us, somewhere they sent us. And so I went into some office, they told me – that’s it, go out, we don’t take any photos. And then I heard Nikolai Nikolaevich Dostal (director) say: “So, redbone. Come on in.” I was hip then, there was such a period. I had long hair, a silver bauble on my forehead, a vintage sundress. And this is just a happy accident – in general, accidents influence a lot in my career.

He was preparing for the shooting of “Split”. And, in fact, my first film role was Princess Sophia. This is a historical movie, we filmed in the winter in the pavilions at Mosfilm, and in the summer in the wild smog – it was 2010. And when Nikolai Nikolaevich and his wife found out that this was my first shooting in my life, they gave me a wonderful cassock. Of course, not a royal one, but just a nun’s, which I altered at GITIS in the studio and wore for a very long time, like a winter coat, because it was incredibly warm.

12 years have passed since then, but have you got taboos on any roles or scenes?

I can not say that I have some kind of taboo on the role. There are just things that I want to talk to the audience about through my films and projects. And there are those where I have already played such a type, such a character. It’s not very interesting, but I never turn down trials. I always go, because, as practice shows, sometimes you just come to auditions, get acquainted with the director, cameraman, producers, for example, with whom you have not worked and are not familiar. And, perhaps, you won’t like this project, you won’t go there or they won’t take you, but then later on you will be remembered and called to some other project. Therefore, rather, there are simply topics that you want to talk about. Plus, I deliberately changed the acting type, removed my square, because, in my opinion, it played all possible roles for me at this stage. Now I have long hair and I want historical projects. Because they have not been for a long time, and I adore them.

Do you have guilty pleasure? What does Alexandra Cherkasova the Servant do when she stays at home alone?

When I was little, my parents and I went on a tour of a perfume factory. The guide talked about how perfumes are created, about the pyramid of aromas, and at the end he gave us a sniff of one of the samples – so that we could tell what it smells like. Everyone named one, maximum two smells – and I felt five. Main note, additional, revealing aromas, base. So I learned that, in addition to absolute hearing, there is an absolute sense of smell – and fragrances have become my passion. I love household chemical stores – all kinds of fabric softeners, floor cleaners, incense sticks, oils. For me, smells are a whole world, I can clean my apartment for hours, structure the space around me – this is a form of psychotherapy, an opportunity to put things in order inside my thoughts through order outside.

Tell us where you are currently filming and upcoming premieres.

This is always such a tricky question, because you are bound hand and foot by contracts. Patient Zero is now out, a very important story about the HIV epidemic among Soviet children in Elista in 1988. In the fall, “December” by Klim Shipenko comes out, which I’m incredibly looking forward to, because I saw only pieces during the dubbing and when the symphony orchestra was recording. Klim is an amazing director, I am very glad that I worked with him. I also want to try my hand at comedy. I can’t say, but for the first time in my life comedies started coming this spring. And, as my mother says: “I don’t understand why they don’t take you, you’re so awkward. Why don’t you play in comedies?”

Now I’m waiting for the start of filming several projects that are specifically with a comedic slant. And it’s very cool. Because acting in comedies, at least for me, is more difficult and unusual than, for example, in horror. And, in principle, the period has come when all the projects that come up are very cool. They are new, unusual, with such an incredible script that I ask you to send it in its entirety: all episodes, the entire interlinear. I can stay up until 6 in the morning, sit until the janitors drink pu-erh and read, read, because it’s incredibly interesting, like a story. I read scripts like books. Therefore, there will be interesting projects soon, but I cannot talk about them, because the contract.

Do you consider yourself an arthouse movie actress?

When they say “arthouse”, they usually mean something very “abstruse”, conceptual, not for everyone. As opposed to the mass – blockbusters, horror, comedies. It seems to me that such a division has not existed for a long time – films about comic book characters become the most complex philosophical parables (like “Joker”, for example), mass and deep are intertwined together. But these stereotypes, labels – they follow us. Any actress and, in principle, any woman knows this very well.

There is always some kind of “type”, some kind of “norm” that they try to fit you into. They are always waiting for something from you. You grow your hair – they say that it is good with short ones. I cut my hair – all femininity was gone, I need long ones! Red – dye it blond. Blonde – not interesting, you need more passion, make black or red. High heels, no heels. A short skirt, a long one, to hide everything, to expose everything – endlessly those around you demand that you correspond to some of their desires, their images. And as long as you follow these requirements, try to fit into these images, no one is ever happy. And first of all, you yourself. And the only way is to be yourself, the way you are, and let the whole world bend under us!