Incredible Women. Incredible Lifestyle.

KASAA LIFE

C O V E R S T O R Y

WITH

ANNA YAKUNINA

ONE MORNING

KASAA editorial team visited one of the leading actresses of the legendary, world-famous LENCOM Theater, a graduate of the Igor Moiseev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble, once a student of the world's most demanded Vaganova Russian Ballet Academy, Anna Yakunina. We talked to Anna and her charming talented daughters Anastasia Yakunina and Maria Svirid. Our conversation turned out to be very lively and interesting. About ballet, cinematography, theatrical behind-the-scenes stories and much more.

We are publishing the first part of the interview, in which Anna is telling us about how she starts the day, shares the secret of the perfect breakfast, the books she loves to read, the cities she loves to visit, secrets of beauty and love for the Motherland - find out in our April COVER STORY.

Art Direction JULIA KAPITONOVA SAADA / Photography JULIA BUSYATSKAYA

Videography EVAN SEGA / MUAH VALERIYA LAZUCHENKOVA, LIANA AMIRHANYAN

Producer MILA PROST / PR VICTORIYA MIROSHNICHENKO

KASAA LIFE: Anna, please tell us how you usually start your day?

ANNA YAKUNINA: My ideal day is directly related to its beginning, starting with a perfect breakfast, with a good coffee in my favorite porcelain cups, which says "October", month of my birth. Breakfast is very austere: either with eggs or porridge, an orange juice, a green or herbal tea. Depending on whether I have a movie shooting in the morning or rehearsal, my day starts either very early or very late, sometimes on free days I can get up and about 12 days.

KASAA LIFE: Please tell us about your daily sports and beauty rituals, if any.

ANNA YAKUNINA: Every morning I perform a small workout. I have a rather problematic back (since my youth years, when I trained for ballet) they showed me a few mandatory exercises that are required before breakfast. Daily gym visits in my life are not present, because there is simply not enough time for it, but as soon as I have the right time, I swim at the pool or perform pilates, this is perfect for me. Pumping and building muscles is a forgotten story for me, I stopped liking it. I am at such a wonderful age when you just want to look decent and there is absolutely no goal to be too young. I have a goal to look good. As for beauticians, jars with creams, which I always have in abundance, I just adore! Everything related to beauty, even devices and cosmetics for home care - I love and do everything. So whatever associated with beauty, visiting beauty specialists is for me, real happiness. In my opinion, without moderate exercises combined with a competent beautician, a woman should not exist. I think it's an absolute part of her normal day. You can't really ignore this.

KL: You are in amazing shape!

AY: In what shape I am I don't know. Probably, it is more visible from aside, but I am taking care of my shape, because at the age of 20 It was easy not to think about it, but now you have to apply some efforts and sometimes limit yourself. I tend to gain easily, so you have to watch your diet. When I allow myself absolutely everything - I immediately pick up a couple kilograms (so I walk back and forth). I eat meat with vegetables. I don't eat potatoes with meat. My favorite dish is buckwheat porridge and cabbage salad. As soon as I overeat, then the next day I have buckwheat and cabbage or turkey cauliflower soup.

This set me in the right direction. But since I'm a Libra, according to the sign of the zodiac, and my weight goes up and down. (Smiling). When I get bored I don’t eat much for a week, I take and eat what I'm crazy about, for example, an eclair patisserie! Therefore, being in good shape also requires a lot of work. Our human nature is always to want something: and eat deliciously, and drink, and smoke, so here you need to work, and exclude something in return. Well, as I already said - I do sports, and not necessarily in the gym, I love to do some exercises at home. It is important to love life, meet with friends, everything should be harmonious and fun.

KL: Tell us about your ballet past. Why did you choose ballet?

AY: Well, my parents chose first. My aunt was a ballerina of Bolshoi Theatre, now she is a retired teacher . Therefore, everyone really wanted me to become a ballerina, and this was part of the family model. Finally, I started a world legendary ballet academy named after A.Ya. Vaganova. Everyone was happy, but, apparently, my character deteriorated very much in adolescence and after studying for three years, I expressed that I didn’t want to do anymore and I wanted to go back home (I studied at St. Petersburg), and at home in Moscow, teenage affairs awaited me and friends. And of course, it was a shame that everyone was having childhood, and me, damn, I worked and worked. Of course, this did not meant that this was what my parents aimed at. I did ballet with love, just at some point it stopped being interesting for me. Nevertheless, when I returned to Moscow, almost immediately i started the ensemble named after I.A. Moiseev. As a result my background - two legendary dance schools - folk and classical. Ballet gave me temper, form, posture, and an ability to work and discipline. Today, I am regretting that I did not graduate from Vaganova Academy, but all this is forever left. Ballet professional school, like the alphabet, stays with you forever and it is visible.

KL: A must for a successful work day?

AY: The mood of the day depends on the people around me, importance that family and friends are in health and in a good mood, and then I will also have a good day.

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KL: Tell us about your favorite route through the center of Moscow / St. Petersburg (if any).

AY: In the center of Moscow, I can walk endlessly. This is my city, I was born on Herzen Street (now Nikitskaya Street), so I'm the real "center" Moscow girl. I really love Nikitskaya street, lanes overlooking the Garden Ring, Krasnaya Presnya, where the Barrikadny cinema used to be, where as a child I was watching all the cartoons, used to go to zoo with my dad ... So my favorite route is from Red Square to Barrikadnaya, these are places of my childhood. And in St. Petersburg when I arrive there, I always go along Nevsky Prospekt to Ekaterininsky and turn to Alexandrinsky Theater, I pass by "my" windows, where I studied ballet at Vaganova Academy (on Rossi Street), I look into the windows and see the shades of the future ballerinas, and at that time I always have tears in my eyes - when I was a little girl, and all life was ahead, and now there is a lot behind. I realize that time is running out fast. Never forget your childhood roots, return to play where you were happy - there is something in it, something immediately aches in the soul...

KL: Your formula for the perfect weekend.

AY: Nowadays it is ideal for me to go out of the city and just relax at countryside. Before, you always had to go somewhere, watch something in the city. My weekends are precious. When free in the evening time, I meet someone, engage with guests. I can’t say that I am very happy when everything is constantly at home and rest, it is important for me to be alone, I love solitude.

Therefore, when you manage to spend such a day in the countryside, it might sound crazy for someone; for me it’s a great escape. However if I can dedicate three days to myself, take care of myself only, do massages, visit a spa and a beautician, go through a detox program, then it's also the best for me!

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Describe your image

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Describe your image

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KL: What kind of music do you listen to?

AY: I love arrangements! I have a favorite musician Roma Melikyan, I'm just going crazy when listening to his execution. I don't really understand modern music. While driving the car, I'm listening to jazz and Bach.

KL: What is your the happiest childhood memory?

AY: I am a theatrical child. My childhood was spent in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya, where my grandmother worked, who could tell “Anka, don’t go to school, let’s go to the theater today,” and there she led me by the hand, the smell of the theater, the smell of the backstage, this is happiness when you are between artists and you are allowed to access backstage, they give touch the spotlights, they give you props boxes, everyone loves you, me runing to the buffet, then me seating with grandmother in the theater ... This is probably my "infection" with those times. The happiest memory ... Grandmother is alive, young, I am among the artists, I go on tour with her everywhere, and now she is gone ... Sometimes when I go out to play on the stage of this very theater (now under renovation) and kiss its stage, because I "was born" on it, as an artist.

KL: What are you most proud of? Who do you admire? What inspires you?

AY: We should be proud, of course, of our country and our children. This is very important. I am a strict mom and I can’t say yet that I’m completely satisfied with everything that happened to my children. But on the other hand, I'm proud because they are, above all, good children. And I want for them more so that they achieve something that makes me not scared to leave them sometime. We all want to leave offspring after us, which can be proud and which will be proud of their mother. I admire strong, great people who have achieved something, I draw my inspiration from them. I love to work with artists, listen and read smart "great people". By their example, you grow. And the great Russian people have a lot of culture, so there is no one here, I study from their example. I will watch a good movie - I want to play, I will listen or read smart scientist. I admire every person who is greater than me and did more in his life than me.

KL: How do you fight fatigue/keep fit during long filming, long flights, are there any exercises/techniques that you could share?

AY: Now it is trendy to drink vitamins, and I am not an exception. I just think it makes sense.

KL: You have been an actress since you were 22. During this time, the work has not turned into a routine? Or is it impossible with the acting profession?

AY: In general, I am not a supporter of long-term performances and not because I get tired of playing, although to some extent you yourself are too exhausted and need something new. The performance could of course go on for 20, and 30 years, and this role might be your favorite, but you changed during this time. Therefore, it is already perceived otherwise.

KL: Which of your roles do you like the most? Which of them is the least required play?

AY: You see, the skill of an actor lies in the fact that excellently plays those roles that are diametrical to him and not at all close. Why do many people like to play negative roles - they have so many contradictions, "meat", as the artists say. I like to play bastard characters, I find something in them necessary to denounce their vices, so that the audience can see how people can be vile and bad. And what not to do. This is important to see from the outside. In "Sklifosovsky", our series, my role is quite close, there is enough of a collective female image, with a lot of me. And playing my heroine is not easy, just with great pleasure.

KL: Some performances you play for a very long time. Excitement with time goes away?

AY: The excitement never goes away. I don't know if there are such artists who are not worried at all, it is completely unfamiliar to me and in general, this is a good quality for an artist to worry and be afraid of reaction of the viewer's reaction.

KL: What do you feel when you go out to bow and the audience applaud?

AY: It is at this moment that you feel why you are doing this profession, in vain or not. You can see it in the hall. In the play "There, then ”, where I played with Maxim Averin when the 1000th got up hall, men cry, everyone applauded and did not leave for a long time - this was worth a lot! At this moment you get goosebumps and you realize that an absolutely happy person, millions of artists would dream about it, and I'm so lucky!

KL: Tell us about theatrical and cinematic signs, rituals.

AY: In general, in the cinema there is a group sign - a plate is necessarily broken for happiness, and all participants of the filming process take a fragment. And in the theater, there are signs each their own. For example, Alexander Viktorovich Zbruev, when walking along the corridor, taps all the walls, and until everyone taps, he doesn't go on stage. Here is another interesting ritual. All artists unite for a... baptized, for they gather on stage, this is called “going on the hands” - they fold hands, say “With God” three times and raise their hands up. Someone gotta kiss something and do something of my own.

KL: What performance do you recommend to start acquainting with the repertoire of the Lenkom Theatre?

AY: The repertoire of the Lenkom Theatre, of course, is quite extensive. In my opinion, it should begin with "Juno" simply because it already a brand. This performance has been going on for so many years and still with a huge crowd! It will be of interest to everyone! I highly recommend you to come to the performance of "Va-bank", this is my first, one of the favorite roles of Lenkom, and he has been going on for almost 17 years. Also dont miss "Everything is Paid", "The Lion in Winter", "Memorial Prayer", which this year has been restored and renewed, and absolutely copied, and staged by Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov. And of course, "There, then," which goes in an enterprise with my participation.

KL: What projects are you working on now?

AY: I still work at the Lenkom Theater, we are rehearsing projects that I don't want to talk about it as yet. Since they

are not officially launched, but we all hope that they will take place very soon. Filming of the 10th season of "Sklifosovsky" is underway (the audience will be able to see in a year ), I am fruitfully working on my own poetic evening, which will be in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where I read poetry "Monologue of a woman", this is my personal space. On the my website will soon have detailed information about what, where and when. (Smiling).