Why did the daughter of Simonova and Kaidanovsky refuse to bear her father's surname, and for which she disliked Abdulov

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

June 1 marks 66 years of the famous actress, favorite of millions of viewers, People's Artist of Russia Evgenia Simonova. Today she has many reasons for pride: she has played more than 70 roles in films and remains one of the most sought-after actresses for almost a quarter of a century, for more than 40 years she has been happily married to director Andrei Eshpay, their daughter Maria became a famous pianist, and her daughter from the first marriage with Alexander Kaidanovsky continued the acting dynasty. True, for a long time she refused to bear the surname of her famous father, and although in the cinema and in the theater she is known as Zoya Kaidanovskaya, according to her passport, she remains Simonova.

Famous parents

Probably, her fate was predetermined from the very birth: she was born into a talented artistic family - actor and director Alexander Kaidanovsky and actress Evgenia Simonova, and from childhood she grew up in a creative atmosphere. Their whole family life was spent on the set: they met while working together on the film "The Lost Expedition", signed in the city registry office of Beloretsk - right where the shooting took place. For him it was already his second marriage, for young Simonova - the first.

Evgenia sincerely admired the scale of her husband's creative talent and was ready to follow him everywhere. At the same time, she herself sacrificed her own acting career for the sake of her family and without hesitation refused roles. Simonova even missed the opportunity to play with Nikita Mikhalkov in "An Unfinished Piece for a Mechanical Piano", because then she was expecting a child and did not want to risk her health - and never regretted it. In 1976, their daughter Zoya was born, and a year later the actress went with her little daughter after Kaidanovsky to shoot the film "Stalker", which became his calling card.

The filming of "Stalker" lasted quite a long time, and all this time Evgenia and her daughter were next to her husband. Like many young mothers, she was then fond of Benjamin Spock's technique, and, following his advice, she decided to close the girl in the room so that she could fall asleep on her own. The pedagogical experiments lasted only three evenings and ended in success: in the first Zoya cried for an hour and a half, in the second - 20 minutes, and on the third she stopped screaming.

There were legends about the complex character of Kaidanovsky, and it was very difficult to live with him: he had frequent mood swings, he arranged groundless scenes of jealousy and conflicts from scratch. Simonova tried to put up with his shortcomings for 4 years, explaining that it is always difficult with geniuses in everyday life, but in the end she could not stand it and left, because her husband categorically did not want to make concessions and change anything in himself.

"Family Fad" by Zoya Kaidanovskaya

With the divorce of the parents, the life of their daughter did not change much - even before that she spent most of the time with her grandmother, the mother of the actress, an English teacher Olga Vyazemskaya, whom her grandchildren affectionately called Lyalya. She, in fact, replaced Zoya's parents, both when they disappeared on the set, and after they divorced. From the age of 3, the girl began to learn English under her guidance, studied painting and music, went to a ballet school. As a child, in her understanding, there were two mothers - on-screen and home. And she had complaints about the first: on the screen she kissed Alexander Abdulov, and Zoya felt negative emotions for the actor because of this. But when I grew up, I watched The Ordinary Miracle dozens of times.

Perhaps due to the fact that her father did not live with them, Zoya did not like her last name at school age and was ready to crawl under the desk when the teacher pronounced it aloud. Once she even insisted that Evgenia Simonova go to the teachers of the ballet school and personally asked them to call her daughter by her last name. When the actress got married again, the situation worsened. In a second marriage with director Andrei Eshpay, they soon had a daughter, Maria. "", - explained Zoya.

Zoya even wanted to take her stepfather's surname, but her mother explained to her that this was legally impossible. In addition, after the divorce, Simonova continued to call Kaidanovsky the most talented artist and wanted her daughter to continue his family line. Nevertheless, Zoya stood firm and at the age of 11 took the name of her mother. Now it seemed to her that justice was restored: she and her mother - the Simonovs, stepfather and sister Maria - Eshpai.

But when Zoya decided to continue the acting dynasty and came to the theater and to the cinema, new inconveniences with her last name were discovered: both on the stage and on the screens there was already a star by the name of Simonova, and by that time her father was no longer alive - he left at 49 years old, after the third heart attack. Zoya did not want to be called Simonova Jr., and she decided to take her father's surname as a creative pseudonym, while remaining Simonova according to her passport, even after marriage. Zoya herself calls all this leapfrog with the change of surnames her "family fad".

Dynasty successor

At first, the father often visited his daughter, and then there was a long break in their communication. When she was 15 years old, she called Kaidanovsky and said: "". He was dumbfounded: "" After that, they began to communicate again. At the same time, her relationship with her stepfather was very warm - she immediately accepted him and always felt his love and care, so it was much easier for her to communicate with him than with her own father.

Eshpai helped her cope with children's complexes, convinced her that she was a beauty when Zoya was worried about her own appearance, which was far from the standards of beauty. He convinced her to enter GITIS. And Zoya was prepared for admission by her own father. But as soon as their communication improved and she began to get used to him, he passed away.

Alexander Kaidanovsky did not see the success of his daughter. 4 years after his departure, she graduated from GITIS, began performing at the Variety Theater, and then at the Theater. V. Mayakovsky, starred in films and serials. The audience remembered the actress for her roles in such projects: "Children of the Arbat", "Ivan the Terrible", "Where the Motherland Begins", "Method", "Call Center", "Tell the Truth".

Of course, it was always difficult for Zoya both with the surname Simonova and with the surname Kaidanovskaya - she constantly had to prove that she was a worthy successor of the famous acting dynasty. She and her mother often went on stage together and starred in films together, and, of course, comparisons could not be avoided. They were both so tired of the questions - what is it like to play together, with all the "family in a row" that they have long ceased to answer them. And their independent and joint work, of which there are already many, speaks for them.

In the filmography of her mother there are many striking works, but there could be much more of them: The stigma of Evgenia Simonova's "walking virtue".