Matvey Lykov: “My father taught me a lot”

BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Lykov was born and grew up in the village of Rakhya near St. Petersburg.
His father left the family early, his mother worked as a storekeeper at LOMO, his grandmother worked in the canteen, and little Sasha had to stay at home alone from an early age. As a child, he was restless and once fell down a slide so badly that he suffered a spinal injury. Doctors predicted disability, but Sasha began to do special exercises for his back on his own and not only got back on his feet, but later even practiced karate (he has a black belt) and biathlon (several medals in youth competitions). After graduating from school, Lykov went to a construction school and began studying in a theater studio, and having received a working specialty, he entered the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography (LGITMiK) in the acting department of the faculty of dramatic art (workshop of V. Petrov).

In 1984, Alexander graduated from the institute and was supposed to get into the Theater. Lensoveta: Igor Vladimirov noticed a talented student during his studies. However, Lykov was drafted into the army and sent to serve in the North, in a construction battalion. He recalls: “Guys from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Chechnya were called there - they all formed fraternities. As for the Russians, a third of them were prisoners. My stay in the army was tantamount to life in the zone.”

Studying at a university

After studying at the school, the young man without hesitation decided to connect his future life with acting. He went to storm the State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography of the Northern capital, where he was accepted without hesitation. The guy easily passed the entrance exams and over the next 5 years mastered the intricacies of an acting career. After receiving a well-deserved diploma, Alexander was already expected to receive offers from directors and screenwriters, but fate decreed otherwise. Alexander Lykov was drafted into the army, but he did not worry, because he believed in his lucky star.

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THEATER

After serving for a year and seven months, Alexander Lykov returned to St. Petersburg, and in 1985 he was accepted into the Theater. Lensovet. His notable role there was Shvonder in “Heart of a Dog.” In 1989, Lykov went to the Leningrad Youth Theater. Bryantsev, where he played in the plays “Equus” and “The Nativity has arrived.” Already in 1991, the actor left the troupe and worked at the Liteiny Theater (“Conversation in Late Autumn,” “The Miser,” “I Am Feuerbach,” “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man,” “Deadly Games”), LGI), and since 1994 year - in the "Territory" theater. According to Alexander, the main reason for his hesitation was that at a certain point he became bored and sad working in the troupe... The next time Lykov appeared on stage almost 10 years later, and it was a huge stage of the “Baltic House”, where he played Woland in the play “The Master and Margarita” by the famous Lithuanian director Jonas Vaitkus. He played brilliantly, but then, as a deeply religious person, he repented of his choice of role. Then at the ASB Theater Workshop (Mansion Theater) there was a one-man show “I... She... Not Me and I...”, staged by Alexey Yankovsky based on Klim’s play (where the actor spoke for an hour and a half about life and death, God, man and woman, love), and a new stage version of the play “The Active Side of Infinity” based on the works of Carlo Castaneda. And again “The Baltic House” is the title role in “Don Quixote of La Mancha”.

CINEMA AND TELEVISION

Alexander Lykov came to cinema in 1989. And although at first the roles were small, the young actor was lucky enough to act with real masters - Joseph Kheifits in “The Stray Bus” and Nahum Birman in “Cyrano De Bergerac”. Soon the actor began a love affair with television: after the film “Sideburns,” Yuri Mamin invited him to the television project “Chameleon.” And in films they began to offer leading roles, for example, in the film “The Picky Groom” (1993). However, a landmark in Lykov’s career was the role of operative Kazantsev, nicknamed Casanova, in the TV series “Streets of Broken Lanterns,” where he agreed to act “without fish”: in the mid-90s, the situation in Russian cinema was such that there was nothing to choose from. Alexander admits that at first, like other actors, he treated the project as an ordinary hack, but then he was drawn into the role. He, who had not gotten along with the police since childhood, had the chance to be in the shoes of the hated “cops,” and suddenly the police showed him a different side: “Even before the filming of the series began, Andrei Kivinov introduced me to the prototype of my hero Malina. We went on a mission with him and his comrades. Great guys. As I understand it, the “homicide” department included people who were disliked by the authorities, decent people with their own perception of life.” Casanova Lykova captivated the audience, especially women; he and the rest of the series' characters became incredibly popular, and the actors began to be associated with their characters. Alexander did not want to become a hostage to one image, an actor of one role (and the series was not changing for the better), and Lykov made the difficult decision to leave. Theater and small roles in other TV series saved him from creative stagnation. Once again he amazed viewers on the screen in the unexpected role of the writer Merezhkovsky in the film “The Diary of a Murderer” and his triumphant work in the blockbuster “The Turkish Gambit”. In 2003, Alexander took part in the reality show “The Last Hero-3”.

Actor's career Alexander Lykov, filmography

After demobilization, our today's hero began performing on the stage of the Lensovet Theater, but he worked in this place for only about four years.
After this, the actor’s career included the Leningrad Youth Theater, and then the Lenin Komsomol Theater and the Territory Theater. Lykov himself, by the way, speaks rather sparingly about his wanderings around theaters, noting that at some point he simply became bored, and then he decided to make a change. In the nineties, a clear crisis emerged in the sphere of Russian art. However, paradoxically, it was during this period that our today's hero became truly popular in the world of cinema.

In 1993, the actor first received a leading role in a movie (in the film “The Picky Groom” (also starring Yulia Menshova and Anna Matyukhina)), and subsequently began to often play in a variety of cinematic projects. The range of his roles was incredibly large. Lykov starred in comedies, detective stories, action films, historical films, melodramas, etc. His roles often remained relatively small, but this seemed to be quite enough for the actor.

A real career takeoff happened in the life of our today's hero only in 1996-1997. During this period, the actor starred in the popular comedy “Operation Happy New Year”, and then received the role of operative Vladimir Kazantsev in the cult Russian series “Streets of Broken Lanterns”. The role of “Casanova” is still one of the most striking works in the actor’s entire long filmography. Participation in a famous television project made Lykov a real star and also brought him enormous fame. Also starring in this series were Oscar Kuchera, Anastasia Melnikova, Alexey Nilov, Evgeny Dyatlov.

Bashirov and Lykov - series “Streets of Broken Lanterns” On the wave of success, our today’s hero played roles in several new films (“Gangster Petersburg”, “Lost the Sun”, “Saboteur”). However, subsequently the actor’s roles began to become smaller again.

The actor still remained a prominent personality in the world of Russian cinema, but now played exclusively minor characters. A striking example of this are the films “Favorsky”, “18-14”, “Turkish Gambit”, “Cazarosa”, “Saboteur 2” and some others.

PERSONAL LIFE

Alexander Lykov met his future wife at the entrance exams to the theater institute. Then Alla Gospodenko did not pass the competition and remained in Leningrad to prepare for admission the following year. All this time, Alexander and Alla dated, and the following fall they got married. Alla nevertheless entered the institute and graduated from it at the time when her husband returned from the army. It was not easy for the young family. One after another, Katya (1985) and Matvey (1987) were born to them. With two children, the Lykovs first wandered around apartments, then moved to a communal apartment, then to a one-room apartment. Lykov honestly admits that everything happened to him and Alla in their family life. There were quarrels and affairs, and only great love for each other helped save the family. Over time, Alexander came to a firm conviction: “The woman who met you on your life’s path and with whom you married is your woman. Once - and for life." The Lykov children did not follow in the footsteps of their parents. The daughter got married and has already made Alexander a grandfather: his grandson’s name is David. The son graduated from the foreign language school of St. Petersburg University. Herzen. Now she works as a model.

Matvey Lykov: “My father taught me a lot”

He made a modeling career and is already acting in films. Matvey grew up in an acting family, but had no intention of following in the footsteps of his parents. However, everything turned out differently.

Lucky ticket Lykov was born on April 8, 1987 in St. Petersburg. His father Alexander Lykov is a famous theater and film actor, famous for his role as Casanova in the television series “Streets of Broken Lanterns.” Mother Alla Gospodenko had a theater education, but was engaged in housekeeping and raising children. Matvey has an older sister, Ekaterina. “I didn’t raise my children, I didn’t instill the right habits,” says Alexander Lykov. “They somehow grew and grew on their own.” Well, from time to time I took the dirt out of their mouths and washed their faces so that they didn’t look so crazy. I am a gypsy grandfather, and all gypsy children are taught is how to earn a living. But since I have little gypsy language left, I didn’t even teach them that. I think it may be right that I did not insist on anything, but they decide everything for themselves. I always told my wife: children are born to bring joy to their parents. Let them bring this joy.” As a preschooler, Matvey first appeared in front of a movie camera lens. At the age of 5, he and his father starred in the television play “Thomas Becket,” in which he played the young son of King Henry II. A year later, the boy once again took part in a cameo role in the film “Journey to Happy Arabia.” “My father taught me a lot - for example, that you need to work hard and always be responsible for what you do. And it doesn’t matter what you’re doing—playing on stage or mowing the grass,” says Matvey. He studied at a specialized St. Petersburg school with in-depth study of foreign languages. By the end of the last grade, the young man was almost fluent in English and Spanish. To continue studying languages, Lykov entered the Herzen State Pedagogical University at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. In parallel with his education, he worked as a tutor for children, and also taught a business English course for adult students. After his 4th year at university, Matvey went to the USA under the Work and Travel student program. This program meant that the visa holder had the right to official part-time employment. But there was a typo in the young man’s documents, and the American social service refused to provide the guy with qualified work. Left without funds, Lykov worked part-time as a courier for several weeks, and then went to one of the New York modeling agencies, Fusion Model Management, in search of work: “There was work. But my real modeling career began later for me - after an exclusive contract for the Jil Sander show, to which Raf Simons himself took me after 12 hours of casting. This was my lucky ticket."

“Jessica and I speak different languages.” At that moment, the agencies were just looking for tall guys with a thin build, and Matvey fit the required type perfectly. Over time, to continue his career, he had to go to the gym and build muscle mass. At first, Lykov worked only at New York fashion shows, but later began to appear on the catwalks of Milan, London, Paris and Tokyo. In addition, in 2013, Matvey accepted the invitation of musician and director Yoann Lemoine, better known under the pseudonym Woodkid, and starred in the video clip for his song I Love You. The collaboration turned out to be interesting and fruitful, so Lykov and Woodkid worked together again a year later in the video for the musician’s new song The Golden Age. The acting performance of the then little-known young man impressed film director Timur Bekmambetov, who eventually invited Matvey Lykov to try himself as a professional film actor. In December 2020, the fantasy film “He is a Dragon” based on the novel “Ritual” by science fiction writers Sergei and Marina Dyachenko was released on big screens. Lykov got the image of an unusual werewolf - a dragon man named Arman. The initially negative character, as the film progresses, opens up more and more from the romantic side: “There is a mystery in him. You rarely see a hero on screen who can so naturally combine cruelty and kindness, maximalism and respect for other people, intelligence and extreme naivety. He tries to reconcile the human and the werewolf within himself - and love comes to his aid.” The work schedule was very harsh: shifts lasted more than 12 hours, one day flowed into the next. “But I performed all the stunts myself: I ran, jumped, flew on special suspensions,” says Lykov. “It was physically difficult, but the habit of leading an active lifestyle, which I left over from amateur triathlons in childhood, helped me a lot.” In parallel with filming the film, Matvey completed a directing course at the Paris International School of Film and Television. When Lykov lived in New York, he had many fans and a lot of fleeting romances. But after 3 years of living in America, he moved to the French capital and has lived there permanently ever since. It was in Paris that he met model and fashion designer Jessica Sterenos. The girl has Peruvian roots, but grew up in Spain. In 2013, Matvey and Jessica got engaged and soon got married. “Our wedding with Jessica is not a simple legalization of a relationship. We had a dream - to arrange a big and beautiful holiday for ourselves. And we fulfilled this dream. In fact, she and I are very similar: her dad is Swedish, from the north, her mother is Peruvian, from the south; everything is like in my family, but not in Russia. We speak different languages ​​to each other, we both lived in different countries, so we don’t feel any cultural differences.”

Prepared by Lina Lisitsyna, based on materials from 24smi.org, “Nevskoe Vremya” (nvspb.ru)

INTERESTING FACTS

• In his youth, Alexander Lykov did not have an exemplary character and led a wild life. By his own admission, during his years at the institute alone he had 18 arrests with the police.
• In the television series “Plot” Lykov was supposed to play a Russian language teacher. He arrived for filming the day before it began with a memorized role, and only in the evening Alexander Baranov informed him that the character had “transformed” into... a prisoner. The actor received a new text on the day of filming, but was able to adapt and coped with the role perfectly. Later, Baranov invited Lykov to his film “April Fool's Day.”
• Alexander sometimes watches TV at night with the watchman at the dacha: “He has nothing to do, and he watches it all night, and I also watch everything with him and tell him how and why this or that TV movie or series didn’t work out.”

DIRECT SPEECH

About “going to the people”: “I don’t travel around small towns very much, like some of my colleagues - on tour, sing songs, meet with audiences, travel all over Russia, I’m not one of those people. I work very conGogol will be relevant for a long time! He was very worried about “Dead Souls” and “The Inspector General”. The Lord did not allow him to write a sequel; it would not have worked out for him, because he could not identify this situation with the hope of change. And apparently, this situation will not change. Actually, it seems to me.”

About younger colleagues: “It is necessary to communicate with young people in order to feel how much you have grown up. “Drafts blow through them,” and it’s important for everyone to get some air.”

About his favorite role: “I love, for example, Zhelvis: there was such a series “Version”, however, it somehow went unnoticed, although there were good things there. This hero is one of my joys in the profession, one of the successful things finally done on television.”

On the dilemmas of creating a modern TV product: “For me there has always been a problem: how, within the framework of strict time and money regulations, to create still good products - quickly, efficiently and cheaply. This is the most difficult task in fact, because it is either fast, or high quality, or expensive, or cheap, but not all together. And time makes such a challenge. I thought that after a while it would move in some direction, but nothing changes. Everything still needs to be done quickly, efficiently and cheaply. Therefore, you need to take this as a given and a challenge. Either you learn to work like this and work, or you don’t. Fast and cheap - it works already. There's a lack of quality."

On the choice between cinema and television: “Yes, everything is interesting, the main thing is that there is work. The only conversation is about whether there is work or not. I refused many times, thinking that it was impossible to do this or that work, but now I understand that it was in vain and it meant that I was simply not prepared.”

About the dream role: “For me, the main thing is that my character can convincingly exist in a given space. He can be anything - any profession, any era and time, but it must be a character with whom it will be interesting for me to work, in which there will be some new, unknown features.”

Based on materials from kino-teatr.ru, mega-stars.ru, wikipedia.org, kinopoisk.ru, www.uznayvse.ru

FILMOGRAPHY

Actor:

• Save yourself, brother! (2015), TV series
• Boarding house "Fairy Tale", or Miracles included (2015)
• Leningrad 46 (2014-2015), TV series
• The Inquisitor (2014), TV series
• April Fool's Day (2014)
• Sherlock Holmes (2013), TV series
• Three Musketeers (2013)
• Detective (2013), TV series
• Without the right to choose (2013), TV series
• Version-3 (2011-2012), TV series
• Hippocratic Oath (2011)
• New Challenge (2011)
• Chiropractor (2011)
• Version-2 (2010), TV series
• On the game 2. New level (2010)
• Wedding. Case. Death (2010)
• Pushken (2010)
• There is no third option (2009)
• At the Game (2009)
• High Security Vacation (2009)
• Version (2009)
• It's Hard to Be a Macho (2008)
• Soldiers-15. New call (2008), TV series
• I'll be in good hands (2008)
• Catch up with the brunette (2008)
• Strawberry Time (2008)
• Traffic cops (2008), TV series
• Saboteur. End of the War (2007), TV series
• 1814 (2007)
• Professor in Law (2006)
• 9th company (2005)
• The food is served, or Be careful, love! (2005)
• Casarosa (2005), TV series
• Jisai (2005)
• Favorsky (2005), TV series
• Hunting for red deer (2005)
• Death of an Empire (2005), TV series
• Turkish Gambit (2005)
• Capital Souvenir (2004)
• Saboteur (2004), TV series
• Dancer (2003), TV series
• Plot (2003), TV series
• Kidnapping (2002)
• Medics (2002), TV series
• Gangster Petersburg (2000), TV series
• Totalitarian Romance (1998)
• The circus burned down and the clowns fled (1998)
• Merry Company (1998)
• Streets of Broken Lanterns (1997-2007), TV series
• We'll wait and see (1996-97)
• Rasputin (1996)
• Operation Happy New Year (1996)
• Golden Ring (1995)
• Grushko (1994)
• You're the only one I have (1993)
• Passion for Angelique (1993)
• The Picky Groom (1993)
• Journey to Happy Arabia (1993)
• Kestrel (1992)
• Junkyard Man (1991)
• Get out! (1991)
• Sideburns (1990)
• Stray Bus (1989)

Further roles

At the turn of the new century, Lykov took part in a similar project called “Gangster Petersburg,” where he played a minor role. Then he played in the television series “National Security Agent.”

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In the same year, he was invited to film the 8-episode comedy “Doctors,” where Lykov played one of the main roles. After filming the film, over the next few years the man appeared on television exclusively in minor roles. Alexander could be seen in such films as “9th Company”, “Dzisai”, “Hunting for Man deer”, “Death of the Empire”, “1814”, as well as “Krechinsky’s Polonaise”. Then Alexander Anatolyevich played the role of a prosecutor’s office investigator in the crime film “Version,” which was filmed until 2012.

In 2013, the artist played in I. Yurchenko’s film “Detective,” where he again played the role of a police officer who was about to retire. After this picture, Lykov continued the theme in the film “The Inquisitor”.