Family secrets and creative principles of Liya Akhedzhakova: Why the actress refused an apartment from Ernst

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

July 9 marks 83 years of the famous theater and film actress, People's Artist of Russia Liya Akhedzhakova. She is called one of the most important stars, because she without hesitation refused not only from fees, but even from an apartment, if she considered the role uninteresting. Nowadays she is the prima of the Sovremennik theater, on the stage of which she has been performing for almost 45 years, and after all, she was once offered only the roles of little boys and girls. Even her own father did not believe that she would be able to go beyond the role of drag queen. Rather, the same person close to her, whom everyone considered her own father.

The mystery of origin

Leah never mentioned her own father, and therefore her nationality remains a mystery to many. She got her last name from her stepfather, director Majid Akhedzhakov. Her mother-actress met him in evacuation in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, when her daughter was already 3 years old. Before that, she lived in Dnepropetrovsk, where Leah was born. The actress performed there on the stage of the Theater. M. Gorky, and her colleagues talked about the fact that she had an affair with the stage worker Semyon Nychem. But whether he was the father of her daughter, she never said.

Leah herself all her life called the man who raised her, adopted her, and gave her her last name and patronymic as her own father. She always considered him a role model and one of the closest people. Therefore, the actress never refuted what comes from the old Adyghe family, as they often wrote about her in biographical articles.

After the war, Majid Akhedzhakov with his wife Yulia and daughter Leah returned to their hometown of Maykop and founded a drama theater there. He was a director there, and his wife was a leading actress. Of course, since childhood, Leah spent a lot of time in the theater, but at first she did not seriously think about the acting profession - her parents urged her to get a more serious and reliable profession. After school, she entered the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, but after a year and a half she realized that she had chosen the wrong path and applied to GITIS. Parents were categorically against Leah following in their footsteps, as they knew how many difficulties awaited her along the way. Her stepfather directly told her that she would be doomed to perform only in the role of travesty all her life, but Leah stood firm. Fortunately, Majid Akhedzhakov was only half right.

From bunnies to movie stars

While still a student, Leah began performing on the stage of the Youth Theater. Small, puny and nimble, at first she really could not count on any other role, except for drag queen. For 16 years Akhedzhakova appeared on the stage of the Theater of the Young Spectator in the images of boys and girls, bunnies and squirrels, and once even played Rust on the New Year tree! But just like many young actresses, she secretly dreamed of Juliet.

Perhaps she would never have gone beyond this role, but a sharp turn took place in her creative destiny thanks to Galina Volchek, who invited her to Sovremennik. When she asked the actress why she wanted to leave the Theater for Young Spectators, Leah replied: “” In Sovremennik her stage repertoire has significantly expanded, and after Roman Viktyuk's play “Columbine's Apartment”, where Akhedzhakova performed 4 roles at once, she turned into a real theater star …

But all-Union popularity came to her thanks to cinema, not theater. At first, viewers saw her on screens only in television plays, and only at the age of 35, Leah got her first role in the film "Looking for a Man", after which the directors drew attention to her. And 2 years later, her name thundered throughout the Union after she played the girlfriend of the main character in Eldar Ryazanov's film "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!"

After that, film critics started talking about the birth of a new talent and that Ryazanov lit a new star, which has no equal in grotesque and tragicomic roles. After 2 years, the actress reincarnated as the secretary Vera in Ryazanov's film "Office Romance", and the lines of her heroine became aphorisms that everyone still cites. One of the best in her creative biography was her role in the film "Garage", which was written specifically for her in the script. Akhedzhakova was called Ryazanov's muse, because it was this director who was able to reveal all the facets of her acting talent.

Ryazanov always spoke about this actress with great warmth: "".

Principled and irreconcilable

Although "Irony of Fate" became a landmark film for the actress, she flatly refused to star in its sequel, unlike most of her colleagues. No matter how persuaded she was, Akhedzhakova remained adamant and true to her principles. Konstantin Ernst even offered her an apartment for 2 shooting days, but she refused. When they tried to convince her that our century is the era of remakes, that they win in cinema, television and theater, the actress just shrugged her shoulders: ""

All that is now left in her from the travesty is childlike spontaneity and responsiveness. Akhedzhakova is one of the most not indifferent stars to other people's troubles. Together with Chulpan Khamatova, she is involved in fundraising for core children, and also helps provincial actors. Eldar Ryazanov compared her to Chaplin in her hatred of the cruel and sympathy for the weak and wrote about her: "".

For many years she went not only to the heights of her acting career, but also to personal happiness: Three love marriages and mature happiness of Leah Akhedzhakova.