On January 19, the PREMIER online cinema launched the second season of the folk horror "Territory" -a travel series based on the legends and superstitions of the Perm Region. In the continuation of the story, the characters find themselves between the world of the dead and the living.
Will the heroes survive and save themselves? Where are the boundaries of these worlds, and what is the price to pay to return to the living? All this can be found in the continuation of the mystery series. And we talked to the lead actress — Asya Chistyakova - and found out more about her professional path and the filming of "Territory".
– Let's start with the basics: you are from St. Petersburg, studied there and worked there. What has changed since moving to Moscow?
– In St. Petersburg, I really had a large number of projects. To be honest, I left there because of the immersive performance "Returned". In St. Petersburg, I got a big story, I shot more often. Now there are fewer projects, but they are qualitatively higher and the roles are "more mature". Therefore, Moscow is a consequence in my career path.
Unfortunately, the main problem of St. Petersburg is the lack of money, which leads to a lack of projects. I don't know if I would have lived in Moscow if my work situation had been different in my hometown. I really love my city, I have my own apartment in the center there. Only the moment of work stops you from returning.
It is sad to look at the dying Lenfilm. Something like "Sled" (a multi — part Russian crime series) - I don't see myself in this at all.
The classical theater left scars in my soul, so I worked exactly 3 months on the stage of the repertory theater and left with wild delight. The theater is the last place I'll go to work. Great performances, yes, but I don't want to live in slavery.
– Do you find any differences in theater and cinema in St. Petersburg and Moscow?
– It all depends on the director. There is no money in St. Petersburg, so everything is worse with projects. The style itself in theater and cinema does not change much, you can get to a fool on the set, or you can get to a great director — it's all about the person.
- Tell us about your participation in the immersive theater.
– Because of him, I moved to Moscow! We had a press conference on the release of "Runaway Relatives", and I arrived a few days earlier to visit my friends in the capital. I get out of Peregrine Falcon and my agent calls me: "There's some kind of theater casting, you want to go. You seem to like this kind of fun." And I just had the time. It was the first day of the first casting call for the play "Returned" in March 2016. I was torn between projects at the time, but I was definitely told to go and do a new job. And now, I've been living in Moscow for 6 years.
For me, immersive theater is a very important story (by the way, thanks to Slava Dusmukhametov, who gave money for all this. We have a good connection with the TNT TV channel, serdechnaya straight). From a creative point of view, this is an incredible experience — as you entered the site, so you exist in it. Sneeze, die, but you don't get out of character, you don't have a backstage, no camera – stop. You can build a very clear image and live as a character for 2 hours. Many thanks to all the people who created and are creating this project. The scenery, the lights, the music, everything is brilliant, and you really immerse yourself in it. There is a different energy transfer, a different energy exchange with the viewer. You see his eyes, and how his tear swells, how it flows — an incomparable experience, which neither the classical stage nor the cinema will give you.
In the immersive theater, everything alive is born "here and now". For my character and temperament, this is an ideal job.
– You have an author's acting course — how did you start teaching?
– To be honest, I have been teaching since the 3rd year of the Theater Institute. At first I helped the teacher in "stage speech", then she almost completely handed over the students to me. I also taught private classes to prepare for admission, and later conducted master classes for friends from the film school.
I love it, and I think it's insanely important. However, in the meantime, I want to work with people who are not going into the profession. I help them to open up and cope with any injuries.
My acting course is based on the birth of true and honest movement, speech, and reaction. It is more focused on the ability to improvise and be in contact with your partner. Finally, it should lead to the fact that everyone will choose their personal story, which most influenced them, and create a small study based on it. It's all about the birth of a step, the first word, working with a partner, emotional states, text and subtext.
– Finally released the second season of "Territory", where you played the main role. How was the shooting going?
– Everything was shot in the beautiful Kusya-Alexandrovskoye-3 hours from Perm, near the city of Gornozavodsk. If in the first season we had one scene in Moscow, where we shot in the pool, this time we shot everything in the north.
This season I had an easier time at Fizika — we walked less in the woods, sat more, and had a lot of interior filming. Although we had "wonderful" night shifts on the bridge, where we stood all night under watering cans. But I was still lucky with the guys. The series is divided into 2 blocks, and my block with Gleb Kalyuzhny, Ksenia Otinova and Alexey Rozin was filmed in the fall. It was cold, but at least we didn't catch any frosts, except for a couple of scenes. Ksenia even has a video when we went to warm up in a tent with a heat gun, and it was under -40 outside. And what do you think? I froze my hair to the tent! I was sitting with my elbows on a chair, and my hair was frozen.
– Was there any preparation for the role?
– Before filming started, I flew to Spain (laughter). Seriously, there was no separate training, because Nadia is already a "given" character for me. I don't have complicated trick stories, etc. In addition, we had a lot of changes in the script, there were a lot of concerns. To be honest, I really didn't like the first draft, I didn't understand what was going on with my character. I won't tell you what happened there, but I panicked.
The series changed a lot during filming thanks to our excellent director, Dinar Garipov, and creative producer Timofey Sharipov. During the day, we worked out, and in the evening or at night, we sat down and worked on the script. Many scenes were changed, there were constant "reads", edits. In the end, in terms of filmography, this is my strongest role. My character is undergoing an amazing transformation.
– What did you like most about changing your character?
– I liked that Nadia reveals her character. She faces difficult choices, makes mistakes, and matures. If in the first season my character is like a "friend of the main character", soft-bodied and "without a core", then in the second season she already shows her character. At the beginning of the story, for me, Nadia is the "blonde in horror" who will be killed first, just to make the audience feel sorry for her. I wanted more.
It took me a long time to win her back, because the original character was not organic to me. Even my hoarse voice gives people a different feeling. In the first season, it was more difficult for me, I had to defend many things. Thank God, we found a common language with Timofey, and in the second season there were more scenes made by Nadia. She doesn't just create an atmosphere, she's not just a hero who gets pitied.
– What is the significance of the Territory project for you?
- From the professional point of view, this project is very important for me, because the role was "on resistance". This is not my "organic", this is not what I used to do, and so on. I wouldn't even shake hands with girls like Nadia in my life. I hate these whining, tender, breathy ... all my life irritate such women.
Recently, we were sitting with friends, and there was a friend with whom we have known for a long time. We were talking about "Territory", and he asked me who I played there. And I was very surprised when I found out that I was Nadia. The person did not stick together at all that I can be like this. And this is cool, in my opinion. Many times I have come across the fact that people do not associate me with this role at all.
After the first season, I spent streams on Instagram*, subscribers came in, wrote something like " so, this is not Nadia, we're going our separate ways." I don't have all this tenderness, "girlyness"in me. I was very worried that they wouldn't believe me: different facial expressions, gestures, energy. It was very difficult for me, but I did it and I'm proud of it.
– And the last question: which directors would you like to work with? Who do you like?
– I would really like to work with Tarantino, this is my blue dream! (laughter). One of our directors is Yura Bykov, Ilya Aksenov, with whom we once did not work out. I was approved for the first season of "Peace, Friendship, Chewing Gum", but at that moment"Territory" was launched. I want to play with Lesha Kuzmin-Tarasov, Evgeny Sangadjiev. In fact, there are still so many directors… It's fun to work with cool people on interesting scenarios. Whatever the "name" is, if the script is bad, then you don't want to participate.
- Please give me some final advice on movies.
– Well, it will not be a top, but just an associative series.
- Closed Spaces by Igor Lebedev is a very cool Russian movie that very few people know about. With a cool script and healthy humor;
- +1 — I love this thriller by Dennis Iliadis;
- "Lion in winter" 1968;
- "The Beginning" with Inna Churikova;
- "War and Peace" by Sergey Bondarchuk-you should buy a projector for this, this is an incredible movie;
- "Angel A" by Luc Besson — a film I watched as a child;
- "Everything is Everywhere at Once" by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert;
- "Youth" by Paolo Sorrentino, he also has "Young Dad", "New Dad" and other films;
- "The Tenth Kingdom" - 1999 TV series, highly recommended;
- "Inglourious Basterds", I can list for a long time, but I will stop at Quentin Tarantino.
