Yuri Kolokolnikov's American Dream: Why did the actor return from the USA to Russia after filming "Game of Thrones"

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

Today, Yuri Kolokolnikov, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, is one of the most successful and sought-after Russian actors, known not only at home, but also far beyond its borders. From 5 to 10 years old, he lived in Canada, and then moved to Russia, but at the same time he did not give up the idea of finding application for his talents abroad. Hollywood did not submit to him on the first try - at the age of 20 he went there for the first time and returned with nothing. But after 14 years he succeeded in what many of his colleagues dreamed of - he starred in Game of Thrones and earned world fame and recognition. Why then did the actor leave the United States again?

Yuri Kolokolnikov was born on December 15 in Moscow, in the family of a mathematician and translator. When he was young, his parents divorced. Yuri stayed with his mother. When he was 5 years old, his mother, thanks to her work, got the opportunity to move to Canada and took her son with her. As a child, he was completely uncontrollable - he was a hooligan, ran away from home, studied poorly and even ended up in the police. The last straw was that he bit the school teacher's ear. After that, his mother decided to send him to his father "for re-education."

He returned to Moscow in a very difficult period - in 1990, and many realities after living abroad made a terrible impression on him - food on coupons, huge queues. But even then Yuri was not taken aback and started his own business: they lived opposite Mosfilm, there was an apple orchard, and the boy picked apples and sold them in the market. But even then he firmly decided what he wanted to do in the future. Since childhood, Yuri loved to be in the center of attention of those around him, he was very artistic, at the age of 5 he learned to mimic and parody everyone. His father enrolled him in a film school in order to direct his irrepressible energy in the right direction, and then Kolokolnikov, at the age of 15, passed his school exams as an external student and entered the Shchukin school.

While still a student, he made his film debut, playing a cameo role as a street child in the film "The Iron Curtain" and the role of the groom in the film "Retro Threesome". In 2000, after completing his studies, Kolokolnikov, together with a friend, decided to go to America. An attempt to be realized there in the acting profession was not crowned with success: he left his portfolio in all acting agencies, but no offers were received. To survive, I had to work as a loader, courier and waiter. And soon he was called to several Russian projects, and he decided to return to his homeland.

In Russia, his film career developed rapidly: he immediately got the main role in the film "In August 1944", after which the directors bombarded him with new proposals. In the early 2000s, the actor was probably remembered by many viewers for his roles in the films and TV series “Children of the Arbat”, “Lily of the Valley-2”, “State Councilor”, “Demons”, “Pechorin. A Hero of Our Time "," At Sea ", etc.

In 2014, his old dream came true - he finally received an offer from foreign producers. And it was not an episode in a film that was a walk-through, but the role of the leader of the Tennes Steer in one of the world's most popular TV series co-produced by the US and Great Britain, Game of Thrones. At first, he was invited to audition for another project, where he was not approved. But there he was noticed by the casting director of "Game of Thrones" Nina Gold and soon invited him to come to audition. Kolokolnikov became the first and only Russian actor to star in this project. He did not talk about the fact that he got a role in the fourth season of "Game of Thrones" for six months, even when the shooting had already begun - the actor signed a non-disclosure contract.

When the new season kicked off, the mystery was revealed, and Kolokolnikov gave dozens of interviews about his participation in Game of Thrones. He admitted that the period of preparation and filming became very difficult for him. Since childhood, the actor spoke English, but he had an American pronunciation, and here it was necessary to master the North-English accent. He immediately began to study with a teacher on Skype. In addition, he needed to learn how to handle medieval weapons. But this was not the most difficult thing - in parallel with filming in "Game of Thrones", he played the main role in the TV series "VMayakovsky" in St. Petersburg, and all this time he spent on flights from Iceland, where the shooting of "Game of Thrones" took place, to Russia and back. The most difficult thing was to rebuild from the image of a cannibal to the image of the famous poet.

The actor had the opportunity to see from his own experience how different the filming processes in Russia and abroad are. In his opinion, the filming mechanism is the same everywhere, we have no less professionals, but everything depends on the lack of funds allocated for filming. Kolokolnikov also considers poor work on scripts to be one of the serious problems of domestic filmmaking - they often have to be redone right during filming.

After his triumph overseas, the actor decided to go to the USA again. For a long time he lived in Los Angeles, where, in addition to acting, he tried to realize his creative potential as a producer and screenwriter. He participated in many castings and starred in several more foreign projects. But even after this resounding success, Kolokolnikov does not think about emigration. At home, he became one of the most successful and sought-after actors, in his filmography at the moment there are already more than 90 works! Today he lives in Russia, although he often goes abroad on the set. He has Canadian and Russian citizenship, and he considers himself a man of the world.

In numerous interviews, the actor willingly answers all questions about his profession, but he keeps the topic of his personal life behind seven seals. It is only known that he is not officially married. In his youth, he had a long-term relationship with a woman not from the acting environment. She gave him a daughter, Taisia. Later Kolokolnikov for several years was in a de facto marriage with actress Ksenia Rappoport, who in 2011 gave birth to his daughter Sofia. They broke up in 2015. This year, the actor often appeared in public with the singer and model from St. Petersburg Dayana Ramos Laforte, with whom he is credited with having an affair. He himself does not comment on any information about his personal life.

Journalists and colleagues more than once awarded him with unflattering epithets: "ambitious upstart", "arrogant snob", "capricious egoist", "arrogant impudent". The actor himself explains this by the fact that he has simply always been a perfectionist and demanded decent working conditions and a serious attitude towards it. Kolokolnikov is often asked questions about which of the movie characters is closer to him. Most fans will probably be surprised, but one of his most beloved characters is the cartoon hero! In 2017, the actor voiced the peaceful bull in the cartoon "Ferdinand" and said about this: "". Probably, this is the closest to reality characteristic of his human nature.

Few domestic actors have managed to achieve noticeable success abroad, but there are still exceptions to the rule: Yul Brynner is a Broadway and Hollywood star originally from Soviet Russia.