From "Plumbum" to films for adults: Where did the movie idol of perestroika teenagers disappear Anton Androsov

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

In the second half of the 1980s. this young actor became one of the most recognizable and popular teenagers in the country after the movie "Plumbum, or Dangerous Game" was released. After the triumphant film debut, there were the main roles in 4 more films, and then Anton Androsov disappeared from the screens for a long time. He left the acting profession, but did not leave the world of cinema. At one time he was remembered as a producer of documentaries, and later rumors appeared that he was making films for adults …

Anton Androsov was born in 1970 in Moscow into a family that has nothing to do with the world of cinema: his father was a refrigeration engineer, and his mother was a history teacher. When he was 10 years old, Mosfilm employees came to their school and invited the students to audition for the film Vitya Glushakov - a friend of the Apaches. At that time, he was not approved, but Androsov's photos remained in the filing cabinet of the film studio, and he himself began to regularly take part in castings. 4 years later, he got the role of a street child in the short film "Dyb", which became his film debut. And the first major role in a feature film, which brought him all-Union popularity, was the role of Ruslan Chutko, nicknamed Plumbum (in Latin for "lead") in the film "Plumbum, or Dangerous Game".

15-year-old Anton Androsov came to the casting, which was attended by 6,000 teenagers, and got this role due to his expressive, unusual and memorable appearance. Director Vadim Abdrashitov said: "". This is how the main character of the picture should have looked - an egocentric 15-year-old teenager who, once faced with hooliganism, decides to become a "society orderly" and eradicate evil in a provincial city. Ruslan undertakes to help the police in detecting violations, but at the same time his youthful maximalism and cruelty lead to dramatic consequences. He oversteps the boundaries of what is permissible and turns into a provocateur and a judge at the same time - administering justice according to the laws established by him. Ruslan hands over to the police "parasites" - homeless people who find themselves in a difficult situation and live in a boiler room, participates in the capture of fishermen-poachers, one of which is his father. What he himself seems to be a gamble turns into tragic consequences for those around him.

The idea of the film "Plumbum, or a Dangerous Game" was suggested to director Vadim Abdrashitov by a newspaper publication, which, at first glance, had nothing to do with the theme of the film. He told: "". It can hardly be said that the director was inspired by some real people or events in their lives - his attention was attracted by the idea itself. Abdrashitov has repeatedly said that every feature film has its own conventionality nature, and in his "Plumbum" it was as high as possible: all the main characters are conventional - and the boy himself, who is 15 years old, and he feels at all 40 and not feels neither pain nor love, and his parents, and the school teacher. The result is a film about the relevance of childhood evil and about the life of "white crows" in society.

The choice of a location for filming is also the creation of a cinematic convention. “”, - explained the director.

The film was released in 1987 and had a very large resonance in society. It was watched by more than 17 million viewers in the USSR, at the Venice International Film Festival Plumbum received the gold medal of the Italian Republic, a year later it was awarded the Nika Prize in the Best Film and Best Screenplay nominations. After this role, Anton Androsov woke up famous. He told: "".

Glory came to him at a very young age, and he was not ready for it. Later, Anton Androsov admitted that in his youth he could not avoid star fever: he allowed himself to raise his voice to adults and make trouble on the set. There really was a reason for the "dizziness of success": in the late 1980s. after "Plumbum" the main roles followed one after another: "Remember me like this", "About love, friendship and destiny", "Lawlessness", "I wish you health!" Nevertheless, after school, he never went to a theater university - simply because he did not want to join the army. He went through a competition to the Schepkinskoe School, but chose the Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology due to the fact that there was a military department there. Later he transferred to VGIK at the Faculty of Economics, and then regretted that he had not chosen the operator.

In parallel with his studies, Androsov continued to act in films, opened his own studio, released television programs, worked as an administrator for clips, commercials and television programs. The means that the acting profession always seemed to him insufficient, and he tried to find more profitable occupations. He twice tried to build his own business and lost it twice. He sold jewelry, and later actually shot adult films and video programs with performances by nightclub artists for two years. A few years later, Androsov also tried his hand as a producer of documentaries on history, archeology and anthropology. In this he was helped by his wife, a historian by profession.

Because of the contradictions between what he really wanted to do and what was profitable, unresolved internal conflicts arose, which eventually led to alcohol addiction. Once he drank more than two liters of alcohol and almost died. Fortunately, the realization that this leads to self-destruction came in time, and Androsov managed to stop. Later, he admitted that he regretted the time spent on entertainment and drinking.

Now he is rarely recognized as the boy from the 1980s who became the idol of many Soviet teenagers, but some acquaintances still call him Plumbum. For a long time he signed himself in this way - put his autograph, and next to it was the Pb badge in a circle. Anton Androsov did not lose interest in the acting profession. And although the last time he flashed on the screens 19 years ago in the detective series "Season of the Hunt-2", does not exclude the possibility that one day he will again appear on the set.

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