Grigory Dobrygin: A Sloppy Superhero

2023 Author: Vanessa Dutton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 16:02

In the new year Grigory Dobrygin should wake up famous already on January 1: the day before the movie is released "Black Lightning"where he played Dima Maikova, the first Russian superhero. The irony of fate is that he was approved for the role just after the New Year: after a long, long search, they auditioned, where they made him play the most difficult final scene, and a few days later they called and said that the role was his. At that time Grisha was standing in the store, and like a proper student, he bought himself kefir and a loaf. As he himself says, after the call, "jumping began near the cash register with shouts of" hurray ", hugs with women-sellers …"

The team of the film and Dobrygin himself faced the most difficult task: to create a new image for our cinema - a charming guy from a neighboring yard, but in which there is nobility and a willingness to help people, even to the detriment of himself. Producer Alexander Voitinskihe says that Grisha is an extraordinary person, which is why he chose him for the main role. And the producer of the picture Timur Bekmambetov assures that "Dobrygin surprisingly combines simplicity and reliability, routine and some kind of mystery, openness and the ability to perform miracles."

Grisha himself is very sober about everything that is happening around him now, and tries to keep himself simple and open. I have already learned how to answer the same type of questions from journalists, although he still tries to say something different to everyone. In communication, he terribly disposes to himself: in the interview he impressed me as an interesting person with a head on his shoulders, who knows how to work and keep a distance between himself and the character. Somehow I immediately wanted to switch to "you" - with which Grisha easily agreed.

Grisha and Ivan Zhidkov at a press conference

My name is Olga Belik, StarsLife portal …

- Star life, huh? I'm just very tight in English, so I translate everything for myself. I am studying the language now.

What for?

- Timur said.

Soooo - is there a project?

- No, there is just a wish of the producer and directors that I know English. Because it can be useful either in Timur's projects, or in others - Universal is still a big company, there can be many opportunities. And if you don’t know English, you can set yourself up like that! And in general, I and personally for myself need it. I was in Paris and realized that my French was not enough - I once studied it, but I forgot everything. And English is even more lacking. Although everyone understands me, I feel like an inferior person.

Great, because not all of our artists think that you need to know English. But let's talk about the film: there is a creature that has superpowers - not a man, but a machine. The hero himself has no superpowers. What makes him a hero?

- Immediacy. Never thought it was a superhero quality?

Somehow no

- And the will? The degree of these qualities is also important here. Immediacy in degree, openness to everything, to incoming waves, negative, positive - Dima is open to everything. Will and desire make him a hero. He is always so serious because he is constantly at a crossroads and must make a choice. A person cannot be a fool in one place and a hero in another. We are not two different people: during the day he is alone, and at night he jumps in latex. We have one hero who moves along with the plot, with his car, and grows - turns into a strong person. The whole film is the hero's path. He's not fully matured yet, it seems to me. If the plot had gone further, then somewhere Dima would have broken, I think, because his path is such a thorny path. As well as the thorny path for the young actors who are now at the top. Because there are many different temptations and temptations around. Any trash, parties - all this you want to avoid.

Have you encountered this already?

- Yes, I did - a long time ago, even before the first experience in cinema. On the examples of acquaintances who, I saw, started out for health and ended up … Drugs and just idleness, in fact. If you are always and everywhere, you will get tired, exhausted, you will not have strength, you will not have eyes, face, ears - you will not hear anything, you will not be sensitive. After all, an actor is sensitivity, perseverance, here all the most subtle receptors work. I don't see - I notice, I don't hear - but I listen. The actor is a gamut of highly developed feelings. And feelings are dulled at parties, at constant wear and tear, when there is no sleep, when drugs, cigarettes, grass. And then such an actor becomes, like everyone else: I just watch, listen, reproduce.

Now everyone says: you are the first Russian superhero in cinema …

- I - no, this is Dima Maikov.

Are you ready for everyone's attention to fall on you? The same to Vasya Stepanov's syndrome - when will they tear you apart and associate with your hero?

- It seems to me that, firstly, I am not as beautiful as Vasya Stepanov. I do not stand out from the crowd, my height is not under two meters, I am only 186 cm. I am not a blond guy with an angel's face. And I am very different from the hero. It seems to me that if Vasya was still himself - which is good in "Inhabited Island", in my opinion, I still managed to create a distance between me and the hero. Now you are communicating with me - do you not have so many similarities with the hero?

Yes, you are generally different

- Do you understand? I'm glad that it turned out and how it turned out - for better or worse, but I managed to come up with another person. Take something old from yourself, from there, from here, and then walk around the city, see billboards and understand that this is not you. You are - and he is. And no one will recognize you unless you do a bunch of interviews with a beard. Well, you know, if I were now short-haired and shaved, and then overgrown in two months, no one would recognize me. The other day there was a funny incident: my friend was sitting in a cafe, showing the girls a movie clip, I was sitting opposite - and they did not recognize me! A friend says to them: "This is it." And they are like: “Why are you bred us! It is similar, but very vague!"

The best compliment, I think

- Yes! Not like, not him - great!

Grisha in the film

Not similar, definitely

Why is this hero more than yours and not yours?

- He, again, is more direct. I somehow manage to see people more. He is more discerning, and I am smarter. We are both maximalists, it is similar, but our maximalism is different. He has maximalism for good and for life. It's like in Soviet films - when there is sadness, but all the same, your eyes shine with joy. Even when Dima is sad, his eyes shine with some kind of hope. Maybe I'm now enriching the character with some qualities that do not exist, but my opinion about him is. I don’t know how I got it: I’m looking at the picture and cannot soberly assess it. Whether you want to imitate, whether the hero is good, whether you like him, or is he a boring bore, or a nerd - I don't understand.

You don't have much experience in Russian cinema yet …

- In Russian - no. In "Lightning" the scheme of work is not at all Russian. Popogrebsky - also not Russian cinema, it is generally an alternative to how a movie is made. This is such an experience on oneself, a completely different process (Grisha talks about Alexei Popogrebsky's film "The Last Day", where he played the main role in a pair with Sergei Puskepalis).

What is the difference?

- First, on "The last day" there was a film crew of 16 people. We shot 20 hours a day. Popogrebsky works with actors like this … I don't know what to compare with. "Black Lightning" - here everything is different: it is scale, power, but Popogrebsky's - analysis of the role, many, many takes, a search for some kind. These two films have different tasks and genres, even different acting professions. Usually, different actors play in these films. It is not often that you see someone playing in both blockbuster and independent films. I was lucky enough to play like that, and I hope that I will still have good projects ahead of me, both there and there. Do you know what a pleasure it is when you can do something in a blockbuster and in an arthouse? Be different? Probably, this is the joy of the profession - so that directors from there and from there trust you. Let's see what happens next - because before the release of the picture, I was called to many places. There were invitations to two arthouse paintings - despite the blockbuster and a media person who is not liked in the arthouse. They also called me into mass cinema.

They write that you have the main role in "Pyrammmida"

- No, I refused, although, indeed, it is written everywhere: "Pyrammmida", the main role, Anton. I'm glad to be played by a talented actor Petya Fedorov … I was offered this role, I thought about it and even gave confirmation in advance that I would like to play. For a long time I had a doubt - I don't know what it was connected with, well, such an inner feeling. I knew for sure about Black Lightning: I will, yes. At Popogrebsky - too: I will, yes. War cinema four-part - I will, yes. And then - I thought: yes, no, yes, no. Still, it is interesting - this is the newest history of Russia, the character is developing - there were many moments there, but after all, I’m studying - I study at GITIS, and my master Oleg Lvovich Kudryashov allowed me to leave the 4th year for "Lightning", despite the large number of filming. So I just couldn't go to Pyrammmida.

You're studying to be a director now?

- No, again they write incorrectly: this is the acting group of the directing department of GITIS. Let them, of course, write that I'm studying to be a director, it's even funny for me to read this: they say, the director began to act in films. I just joked that I myself shot one scene in "Black Lightning" - the pursuit of a red or black bicycle, I forgot which one.

But this new image of yours - is it also for some film, or is it just like that?

- No, I’m like this all the time, I guess. I also have shoulder-length hair, but I cut it bald for two winters in a row. I don’t know, in fact, what I am … these are the most terrible words, probably … well, in general, I am like this - everything is careless with me.

In the evening on the way to the cinema "October", where the premiere of "Black Lightning" took place, I observed this very carelessness: the future star Grigory Dobrygin rushed to the cinema in full sail, late for his own big evening in life. A huge poster with Dima Maikov towered above him, but no one would have thought of identifying in this running man a resemblance to that big poster face. It was very funny.