The late and unexpected success of Dmitry Nazarov: Why the actor has been living in the kitchen for 20 years

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Dmitry Nazarov, who recently celebrated his 64th birthday, is already accustomed to the fact that he is called a chef more often than an actor, because of all the roles he played, the main character of the TV series "Kitchen" brought him nationwide popularity. At that time he was already 55 years old, he played about 40 roles in films, but none of them brought him such success. However, the audience is unlikely to know that not only this project connects the actor with the culinary theme. Why for the last 20 years he literally lives in the kitchen and why does not appear on screens without a mustache - further in the review.

The artist climbs

No one in Dmitry Nazarov's family had anything to do with the world of art - his father was an electrical engineer, his mother worked as a doctor, but both were very artistic and musical: his father sang in an amateur ensemble, and his mother graduated from the evening department of Gnesinka. And their son was the first to predict the acting future of the midwife at the time of his birth. He shouted so loudly that she exclaimed: "The artist is climbing!" She probably would be very surprised if she found out that her joke was prophetic.

Dima showed his first sketches to his mother. They had such a game: she asked him to portray some animal, and he willingly did it. But my father did not like these games at all. He was categorically against the fact that his son chose the acting profession and only a few days before his departure admitted that Dmitry has interesting roles that he can be proud of.

Although Dmitry dreamed of an acting future since school age, he did not come to this profession right away: at first he worked as an electrical fitter's apprentice at the Mosenergoremont enterprise, as a projectionist, as a furniture maker at the Moscow Art Theater branch, and as a set maker at the Theater for Young Spectators. "Kitchen" was not his first culinary experience - in his youth he managed to work as a pastry chef at a bakery.

Nazarov moved to bakers after an unsuccessful attempt to enter drama school and, perhaps, he really would have become a chef, if not for his stubbornness and desire at all costs to achieve what he wanted. After 2 years he was admitted to the "Sliver". In 1980, Dmitry graduated from his studies and came to the Maly Theater, to which he gave 16 years of his life.

Glory after 55

In the theater, Nazarov got a lot of roles, but almost all of them were secondary. Realizing that he would never get the opportunity to realize his full creative potential here, the actor decided to leave. After that, he performed on the stage of the Army Theater and the Moscow Art Theater. A. Chekhov. At first, Nazarov appeared on the screens only in television plays, and the audience hardly paid attention to these episodes.

Dmitry Nazarov played his first major role in cinema only at the age of 45 in the series "Law". At the same time, at the beginning of the 2000s, viewers could see him in the TV series Turetsky's March, Angel on the Roads, Vokzal, Kamenskaya-3, Red Capella, Penal Battalion, Citizen Chief-2 "," Challenge ", etc. And although the actor finally began to trust the main roles, they did not bring him much popularity.

Probably, he himself did not expect that someday the whole country would find out about him, but then he was offered the role of the chef Viktor Barinov in the TV series "Kitchen". Nazarov did not count on such an incredible success of this project and was very surprised when, at the age of 55, fame suddenly fell upon him. He was already a People's Artist of the Russian Federation and a star of the Moscow Art Theater, but he never had such recognition. But it was thanks to "Kitchen" that the actor grew in demand both in the theater and in the cinema, he was actively invited to entertainer performances, on tour and on shooting.

Before filming, he, along with his colleagues on the series, was even sent to cooking classes so that they looked more confident and believable in the on-screen kitchen. And if the other characters in the close-ups in the frame showed the hands of professional chefs, then Nazarov coped with this task on his own - he turned out to be left-handed, and they did not find a replacement for him, moreover, the actor skillfully wielded at the stove.

In the image of Viktor Barinov, the actor appeared on the screens for 4 years in all seasons of the series, and then also starred in the sequels - "Kitchen in Paris", "Kitchen. The last battle”and“Kitchen. War for the hotel ". In total, he devoted 8 years of his life to this project. When he was again and again offered to return to this role, Nazarov doubted, as he was already oversaturated with "Kitchen", but nevertheless agreed, explaining it this way: "". "Kitchen" demanded certain sacrifices from him: the fact is that the mustache, which became the hallmark of his Viktor Barinov, was real, and the actor all these years had to abandon projects where he would need to shave off his mustache.

Culinary maestro

In fact, not only the bakery in his youth connected him with cooking, and he found himself in the "kitchen" 10 years before filming in the series. The fact is that back in 2002, Nazarov was invited to host the TV show "Culinary Duel", and he appeared on screens in this capacity for 6 years, and then returned there again in 2015-2016. In 2013, the actor became the host of another culinary television project "The Hunger Games", and then the show "Recipe for a Million". So he has not parted with the "kitchen" for 20 years already.

Now in the production stage is a project in which viewers will see Dmitry Nazarov in a very unexpected and unusual way - Kisa Vorobyaninov from "12 Chairs", and his colleague on "Kitchen" Dmitry Nagiyev will play the role of Ostap Bender in it.

This movie star believes that Dmitry Nazarov played a significant role in her fate: How Maria Poroshina became an actress thanks to the star of the TV series "Kitchen".