We were Taught: “Any Role is Me in the Given Circumstances”

In 2019, Chinese Director Frant Gwo created the disaster film “Wandering Earth”. This film led the world box office for several months. Russian actor Arkady Sharogradsky played the role of a Russian cosmonaut Maxim Makarov. Zhenya Kuzmina, a reporter of the project EURASIA KIDS interviewed Arkady Vladimirovich about the shooting of the most sensational science fiction blockbuster in the history of China.

- Arkady Vladimirovich, how did you get into Chinese cinema? Was there a casting or did the director invite you?

- My friend and a colleague, we’ve starred together in the series "Military Intelligence", works in China. Once he handed over my photo to a director who was looking for an actor of a Russian cosmonaut role. I found out about it after the film shooting. The director made the choice. This was not the first time when photography had played a decisive role. For eight years we have been playing the performance “Cancun”, which was staged by the famous Bulgarian director Yavor Girdev. The situation was the same - the Director approved me for a role by a photo. When I asked: “Why me?” - Yavor simply replied: “This is what I need!”

- The role of Maxim Makarov is not like your other roles. How did you work on it? What did you do to enter the character?

- Honestly, I absolutely did not understand where I was going to, what kind of movie, what about, what scale. They only explained to me that the actor with whom we would be in the frame is the highest grossing in the history of China. The film “War of the Wolves 2”, in which he was a producer, director and starring actor, have grossed $ 870 million in box office records for China.

As for the “Wandering Earth” - almost fell short. On the film set, many funny moments were invented right in the frame, for example: “It would be better to eat fubo (soup) than to go into outer space.” I felt that something interesting was going to happen. In the sense that, on the one hand, my character is a serviceman, and on the other - a person with principles who can go against accepted norms. But there wasn't much time to dive into the role. The costume, for example, was put on right before the shooting. I didn’t have time to settle down in the giant station built in the pavilion. This seemed strange, for a movie with a budget of $ 50 million. But on the whole, they clearly knew what they wanted, and that's what they got. In any case, the fees that exceeded $700 million in China alone confirm this.

- And what about the space suit? Did the “relationship” with the space suit begin  right in the frame?

-  In this case, few training sessions were held with a fantastic group of stuntmen. The suit wasn't much lighter than the real one, but it suited perfectly. I prefer to inhabit the costume and space, otherwise the viewer’s trust in the character collapses if he feels that it is not your clothes, your chair, car, etc. Although, my acting skills allowed me to play a married couple with an actress I had met 15 minutes before the filming started.

- Are you similar to your hero?

- You see, we were taught: “Any role is me in the given circumstances.” You just change and exacerbate the circumstances you are in. But Maxim is a symbiosis of humor, duty, warriors, faithfulness to friendship and principles. He is a fascinating character, but he is not similar to me, although I like to joke, but in an urgent situation, like Makarov ... I don’t know. If you ask me: “Are you similar? Yes or no?” - I would answer: “No.”

- Tell us about life on a film set. What do actors live like, how does their day go?

- I had a dressing room where I could relax. But it turned out that there were three other people there all the time - two interpreters and an assistant. In China, they are not much particular to privacy. A film set with a model of the Space station was 50 meters from the dressing room. It took forty minutes to put on the space suit, and as much time to hook us up by the ropes. The shooting day lasted 12-16 hours, and the scenes in an “open space” lasted, on average, four hours. If such shooting lasted several days in a row, it was physically difficult.  To save time we took space suits off as rarely as possible.  During breaks, we were hung on special loading hooks.

- LEGO has created a children's building kit for the film. Tell us more about it.

- LEGO or not LEGO, I don't know. I was sent this building kit without packaging. Well, what can I say - the plastic is good! The scenery is recreated quite similarly. I sent the pictures of it to the Director, and he didn't even know the toy industry was using images from the movie! He was surprised!

- Probably every person in childhood dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut at least for a moment. Have you had such a dream? Did it come true?

- There was no dream, but it came true! Flight and rotation practicing, being suspended, was creating a feeling of weightlessness. While in the scenery, you still feel like a cosmonaut. Actor’s curiosity was satisfied. In childhood I did not dream to be in a confined space with dubious nutrition for a long time. Rather, I wanted to try as many professions and destinies as possible. But I am aware that being the only Russian to play the Russian cosmonaut as a positive character in the sensational foreign film is not easier than going into outer space! China itself, the city of Qingdao, a gigantic, the largest and the most modern film studio, hundreds of people working cohesively, made a cosmic impression. Therefore, consider I traveled to space!