Two lives of the star of "Formulas of Love": Why Alexander Mikhailov left the cinema after marriage

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

In the filmography of this actor there are only 6 roles, but even one of them would have been enough to enter the history of cinema: the role of the young landowner Alexei Fedyashev in Mark Zakharov's film "Formula of Love" brought him all-Union popularity and recognition. But the most famous film work of Alexander Mikhailov was his last role. At the age of 26, the actor decided to radically change his life. His wife pushed him to this step, and since then he has never regretted his decision …

Alexander Mikhailov knew from childhood that he wanted to connect his life with creativity. At the age of 6, he told his mother that he would certainly be an artist. From the age of 12, the boy began attending a theater studio, where he took acting lessons and was engaged in fencing and plastic arts. The question of choosing a profession was not for him - after school, Alexander entered the Shchukin Theater School the first time, and after completing his studies he was accepted into the troupe of the Central Children's Theater.

While still a student, Mikhailov began acting in films and acting in television plays. At the age of 20, he made his debut in the film story "Tropinins", and two years later he got two main roles at once in the films-performances "June. Moscow. Chertanovo "and" Romeo and Juliet ". The next year he played two more main roles, which brought him all-Union popularity - in the films "Mikhailo Lomonosov" and "Formula of Love". After such a successful start, Alexander Mikhailov was called one of the most promising young actors and they predicted a brilliant future for him in cinema, but he chose a different path.

At the Central Children's Theater, Alexander Mikhailov met with the actress Elena Chernyak, about whom he said: "". They soon got married and have not parted since then.

At the age of 21, Elena decided to undergo a baptismal ceremony. She was baptized by Nikolai Vedernikov, who became her spiritual mentor. When her husband confessed to her that he was experiencing a heaviness in his soul and wanted to talk to someone about it, she advised him to turn to the priest. Alexander recalled: "". After that, Mikhailov rethought all his values and realized that his life with this meeting was divided into “before” and “after”, that he had acquired a new meaning and would no longer be able to put up with what he had to put up with before.

In the late 1980s. in theater and cinema, a situation developed that contradicted Alexander's moral and religious convictions. He was increasingly offered the roles of villains and villains, and he could no longer agree to play them. Several times in the theater, Mikhailov refused roles, which caused indignation among the leadership. And in 1987, his wife invited him to leave the acting profession. At that time, it seemed to both of them the only right decision - they could no longer lead a double life and be dependent on directors and screenwriters.

Then almost none of the acquaintances understood and supported Elena and Alexander Mikhailov. Many even stopped communicating with them, because they perceived their decision as a betrayal - both to themselves and to the acting profession. For them, it was a very difficult choice, because both had successful careers, they were often called from Mosfilm, and they categorically refused to act. But then both decided to act as their hearts dictated.

While still working in the theater, the couple began to take vocal and solfeggio lessons, preparing to serve in the temple. In the village of Grebnevo near Moscow, the Mikhailovs became choristers in the church, then moved to Tushino. There they reconsidered their views on the acting profession: in Sunday school they staged performances for children, and when the Mikhailovs went with them to church holidays in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, they saw that there were also performances on biblical themes. Then the Mikhailovs decided that there could be nothing sinful in acting, it all depends on how and what to talk about from the stage.

At first, Alexander and Elena sang spiritual songs during church holidays, and then returned to the stage, began touring with solo concerts and released several albums with spiritual songs. In 1997, they both graduated from the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities. At the same time, the couple began to put out joint performances: they staged M. Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "Conscience Lost" and prepared a production based on A. Solzhenitsyn's story "Matrenin's Dvor".

Today Alexander Mikhailov does not consider his life in vain before he came to God. He is not ashamed of his roles in cinema, because he sees a special meaning in them. About his most famous film work, he says: "".

Much interesting remains behind the scenes of the film "Formula of Love": Why the actors refused roles.