Olga Zueva: Now anyone can be a star, which means no one
Olga is wearing a wool jacket, jeans, all Gucci. Danila is wearing: woolen jumper, jeans, all Gucci; watch, Bvlgari Andre Boyakov I first heard about it from Danila Kozlovsky. Russian, but lives in New York. She was a model and wants to become a film director. About to launch his first film. Beautiful? Very. From the way Danila exhaled this “very”, it became clear that the relationship was more than serious and you need to remember her name: Olga, Olya Zueva.
Then a series of different premieres followed, where all the lenses were aimed at him, and she modestly stood a little to the side, as befits a celebrity’s companion, without even trying to take center stage in the frame.
She behaved modestly, spoke little, dressed stylishly, but discreetly. Against the backdrop of the VIP audience of Kinotavr or the Moscow International Film Festival, she looked like a foreigner, for some unknown reason wandering into the crowd of local stars and professional beauties. That is, of course, it is clear: Olga is Danila Kozlovsky’s girlfriend and should be, as they say, in “format”. But something told me that she had been disgusted by this format for a long time and, it seemed, she was not going to hide anything.
In any case, society reporters managed to catch her smile a few times. This is how children who are not accustomed to praise smile - incredulously and as if even with resentment: “Where were you before with your compliments?”
This was especially striking in contrast to the ever-radiant Danila. When I first saw them together, the thought flashed through how correctly the roles in their duet were distributed. No wonder it is believed that opposites attract each other. He is always joyful, positive, shining. She is closed, strict, mocking. He is rush and drive, she is will and equanimity. He is a typical choleric, extrovert. She is a sanguine person, an introvert with a penchant for intellectual reflection. However, they did not limit themselves to appearances alone. In the spring, “Coach” was released - Kozlovsky’s directorial debut, where Olya has the main female role. And in October the premiere of her first film “On the Block” with Danila will take place. It turned out to be such an almost family exchange: you - to me, I - to you.
I write “almost” because they are not married yet. And the topic of marital ties is carefully avoided in their interviews. Why? They are young, they are beautiful, each of them is passionately absorbed in the idea of self-realization. What does the boring word “marriage” have to do with it? Moreover, Danila had already visited it once, and it seems that nothing good came of it.
Olya prefers to remain delicately silent about her past hobbies. She only mentioned once that before meeting Danila she had come to terms with the idea that she was not destined to meet her love.
- Why? - I was surprised.
“Men are a dying breed,” she says calmly. “Everyone I came across, as well as those who were busy, only confirmed this sad observation.
We are sitting in the Milk cafe on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. She arrived earlier than planned and was already waiting for me. Collected, emphatically polite, wearing an English gingham jockey jacket. With long bangs that slightly reveal the high forehead. She would have liked horn-rimmed glasses and the roles of silent intellectuals in “new wave” films. In our cinema, there used to be such women too. Vagrant, exotic birds, like Vika Fedorova, Olga Gobzeva, Elena Solovey. Stars for two or three films. And then for some reason they disappeared. Some of them flew to distant lands, others went to a monastery.
However, Olga herself did not intend to become an actress. While they were bringing food, we managed to go through all the main stages of her life's journey. Born in Vladivostok. Dad was a racing driver. Russian motocross champion 1981. He died ten years ago.
— Do you know what a buggy is? - Olya will ask with obvious doubt in her voice.
I had to admit that no, I don’t know.
Velvet jacket, cotton top, silk embroidered jeans, all Gucci; Bvlgari ring Andre Boyakov
- This is a racing car that actually only has a frame and an engine. No glass, no even minimal comfort for the autopilot. Dad rode a buggy across the country.
— Why did your family end up in Vladivostok?
— On the paternal side, it was a noble family that lost everything during the revolution and was forced to flee the capital. Somehow we got to Vladivostok, but did not move further, and settled there. Mom is a pupil of an orphanage. I lost my parents very early. Her childhood was spent on Popov Island in a fishing village. She told me that they only fed crabs there: scrambled eggs with crabs, crab cutlets... Since then, she even hates the smell of crab meat.
At the age of six, Olya asked her parents to send her to a school with in-depth study of the Japanese language. It was as if she felt that Japan would become her destiny. And so it happened: at the age of sixteen she went there at the invitation of a modeling agency and stayed for almost five years. Japan is the birthplace of her soul. In Tokyo she feels free and organic. “This is my second home,” she admits. What does she like best there? Incredible respect for another person's personal space. She had never seen anything like this in any other country. No matter how crowded it is in the subway, no one will ever touch you there; on the street no one will even accidentally touch you. Personal integrity as a principle of existence, as a sacred rule, as the main law of life. For some reason, you begin to yearn especially strongly for such inviolability in Russia, where familiar contacts have been elevated to the norm, and boundaries seem to exist only in order to quickly tear them down and start saying “you” to each other.
For Ole, all this is wild, alien, strange. She suffers from excessively noisy music in the cafe, from intrusive attention to her and Danila, from some kind of internal unceremoniousness, which we usually pass off as the breadth of the Russian soul.
— The absence of any distance killed the concept of “star.” Now anyone can be a star, which means no one. Do you know what real luxury is for me? Not money, not status, but having your own private space that no one dares to encroach on. And of course, free time. It's always missing.
But Olga also did not want to stay in Japan, although there were opportunities. A beloved but closed country with its own secret codes, secrets, and traditions. There she will always be a stranger, that's obvious. Then in her life there were Vienna, and Paris, and Milan, and London... Olga changed cities like dresses from new collections. She didn’t stay anywhere for long. She became one of her own everywhere, easily making acquaintances, only to fearlessly break them off later. She easily posed in front of the cameras, easily walked along the long tongue of the podium. She did not reach any transcendental heights of a top model - she was not thin and tall enough - but she had enough for a normal life and travel, and even managed to help her parents.
“I received great, incredible pleasure from what I did. Because when you yourself are still a young and rather senseless creature, there is nothing more important than feeling that you are beautiful, that you are admired. In addition, they put special make-up on you, arrange your hair, and dress you in unimaginably beautiful dresses. Finally you step onto the podium, and at that moment all you can hear behind you is: Oh, beautiful! Oh, amazing! Why lie? I liked it, it gave me an incentive to move on with my head held high. Even when you are not confident in yourself, even if you don’t consider yourself beautiful, it is still super important for a girl. And then you constantly receive confirmation of your irresistibility in the form of fees and photographs in magazines. Not only did I see the world, but I also gained confidence.
One day she found herself in New York - one fashion house needed a “girl with bangs.” Already on the approach to JFK airport, when the tall towers of Manhattan appeared out the window, she realized that she wanted to live here.
“I’ve lived in many places and felt like a guest everywhere. And only in New York did I find a home that I wanted to return to. She lived in Manhattan for a long time, but then moved to Brooklyn. It's not even about the money. It’s just that in ten years Manhattan has become so polished, so bourgeois respectable. Gradually everything I loved about it disappeared: cozy cafes, bookstores, shops with rare CDs. The very Woody-Allen spirit that we remember from his films has disappeared. And in Williamsburg, where I settled, it still exists. My apartment windows look out onto the Hudson. Lots of water, lots of space and the Manhattan towers in the distance.
But Olya had no time to admire these views. Life in New York is hard and hard. And her modeling career was clearly heading toward decline. How long can you be a “girl with short bangs”? A year, two, five? First, she entered an acting school and even studied for some time. For her portfolio it was necessary to make an acting video. As a determined and independent person, she did not look for a director, but wrote the script herself. But she still trusted a professional cameraman to film herself. The result is a monologue of a girl who wants to commit suicide and writes down a farewell message to her father. It was then that Olya’s dad died in Russia, and in fact she spoke to him as if he were alive. The result was a powerful spectacle that chilled even Americans who were quite thick-skinned and insensitive to other people’s dramas. In any case, after this clip she was bombarded with offers and was even invited to audition for the role of a Bond girl - the most important chance for any ambitious debutante. But something didn’t work out between her and Agent 007. I ask why I didn’t go to Los Angeles and try to get other roles from all these producers and directors, like everyone else does.
Andre Boyakov
- But I didn’t want to like everyone else. And after fifteen years of going to castings, I didn’t want to return to the same thing, only as an actress. And I didn't like Los Angeles. Walk into a cafe and you will definitely find yourself in the thick of some new film project. Everyone there - the waiters, the cooks, and the bouncers - are definitely actors. There is only talk about a new script or about a casting that we need to catch. If in New York, as a filmmaker, you feel like a member of some kind of secret community where only a select few live and breathe cinema, then in L-A it’s an ordinary everyday life in which everyone is involved. And if these are not actors, then either their agents, or screenwriters, or their closest relatives. And I don't like crowds. I love being alone. I'm a born pedestrian. I hate parking, long distances. Los Angeles is not a city to live in, it is a territory. I drive all day, everything is far and long. You can’t just walk there, you definitely have to take a ride there.
In general, Olya Zueva did not become a Bond girl, but she became the girlfriend of Danila Kozlovsky. Lately she has been tormented by questions about how they met, and who felt what. Already in several interviews I read her phrase, which would be quite suitable for the title of some female series: “And then I realized that we would never be just friends.” It’s long and cloying, but the genre of love stories lends itself to this.
Olya tries to speak carefully about Danil, choosing her words. It was then that she heard her phrase about “a dying race” and an unexpected admission that she had always been drawn to geniuses and superheroes. And in general, in order to love, she must be admired and inspired. This probably comes from childhood. This is how she looked at her father, a racing driver, superman and handsome man.
“Dad was light, kindness, wisdom for me. Probably, subconsciously, I looked for this in the men with whom I lived. And not finding anything, she turned around and moved on. And even at some point I gave up all searches. For what? I still won’t meet someone like dad. But it happened that before traveling with a friend to Rome, I had to go to Russia for a few days: first to Moscow, and then to St. Petersburg. On the eve of leaving Moscow, I was dragged out to a party hosted by mutual friends. That's where I met Danya. I knew that he was a famous actor, but I had never seen him in films, or on stage either. In general, we talked all evening like people who don’t know anything about each other. And it was great. I immediately felt what an extraordinary person he was. He has a quality that distinguishes him from many - spiritual purity. In the end, there are many beautiful and successful people, but only a few who are sincere and decent. Danya is one of them.
- What happened then?
— The next morning, as planned, I left for St. Petersburg. Then half a day passed in our endless telephone conversations, and it became clear that there would be no Rome. My friend flew away alone, and I returned to Moscow. To him.
Any meeting between two is a secret. I don’t want to touch it with my hands and pick out details. Both are thirty. Both have their own lives, careers, affections, triumphs, defeats behind them. I can imagine how difficult it was for Olya to leave her beloved New York and move to Moscow. In creative unions, someone must always give in. There is no such thing as equality. And feelings have nothing to do with it. The instinct of creativity, as a rule, overcomes any everyday considerations. Rarely does anyone manage to maintain a complex balance of conflicting ambitions, creative passion and ambitious desires.
“I don’t like the word “sacrifice,” says Olga. — Personally, I don’t sacrifice anything, rather I invest. It’s much easier for me to do this because I’m a woman and don’t work as much as Danila. But until now, everything that I put into our relationship has been returned to me with interest. So I don't feel like a victim for a second.
The most common model of union is when he, the director, films his wife, an actress, or stages a play for her. But the fact of the matter is that Olya does not want to be exclusively an actress. Although, of course, she won’t refuse a big role - the episodes in “Coach” and in her own film “On the Block” clearly provoked her.
She does not hide the fact that she is more or less indifferent to the theater. She had no desire to go on stage even after she saw Cate Blanchett in A Streetcar Named Desire. Although the great Australian’s performance amazed her.
Olga is wearing a cotton jumpsuit with a belt, glasses, all Gucci. Danila is wearing: leather jacket, cotton T-shirt, jeans, glasses, all Gucci Andre Boyakov
Cinema comes first for Olga. Ever since I saw “Lolita” with Jeremy Irons on the big screen and fell in love with this film and history. Her most powerful cinematic experience, which made her start thinking about directing.
She actually encouraged Danila to become a director on “Coach”. Until recently, he negotiated with various candidates, hoping to meet someone who loved football like him and wanted to carry out his plan. I didn't meet you. “So you’ll be filming it yourself!” - said Olya, in whom Lady Macbeth suddenly woke up. By the way, here is a role that would suit her. Woman of purpose and action. I think it's about her. You just need to lower your voice an octave.
It's amazing how they all came together in the movie. In essence, both his “Coach” and her “On the District” are about life in the provinces. Russia, about which we, the capital's residents, know almost nothing. But it exists, exists, lives according to its own laws. Only now we have begun to recognize her from rappers’ songs, interviews with Yuri Dud, and Monetochka’s lyrics. A simple, hard-working, unpretentious way of life, shown without sarcasm or anger, but cheerfully and honestly, even with something vaguely reminiscent of tenderness.
“The devil cannot lay down the unsinkable fatherland,” this is not a Komsomol slogan from Pakhmutova and Dobronravov, voiced by the late Joseph Kobzon. A twenty-year-old girl from Yekaterinburg is singing today. And the No. 1 star Danila Kozlovsky and his overseas girlfriend Olga Zueva are making their movie about this.
I remember well how the mood of the audience changed at the premiere of “Coach” at the Oktyabr cinema. From mocking irony to absolute involvement in the screen story. Is this really possible? They can make real spectacular movies here!
Never before have I seen such powerful and beautiful football on our screen, such exciting filming, such free editing, done, it seems, in one breath. And a luxurious soundtrack built according to the laws of jazz improvisation, and acting types chosen impeccably accurately, and finally, Danila himself in the tragic role of a man who wants...
This is now a very important topic for our cinema and our life in general - the desire to be, to succeed, not to obey circumstances and the will of others. To be able to rise above the provincial swamp of penny payments, when, by and large, no one needs anything, everyone is busy with business, with salaries. The office writes, the money drips, the grass grows... And suddenly he appears - a sad look, three-day stubble, a Gucci suit - and everything starts to move. Some unknown whirlwind sweeps up these not at all champion-looking indifferent-tired football players, and the well-fed officials in their private troikas, and the servants, who have long given up on everything. This was the most amazing thing about “Trainer”: the barely audible creak of unlubricated gears, which begin to move before our eyes with unexpected force and in a completely unplanned direction. The agonizing sound of cartilage and joints suddenly working at full capacity. A secret groan coming from the very depths of the Russian soul: we too can, we are also worth something!
The World Cup gave us very similar images. They can simply be mounted end-to-end: here Stoleshnikov, played by Kozlovsky, runs along the edge of the field, frantically flapping his arms like wings. From the outside it looks like a shamanic dance. This is how our ancestors conjured the spirits of fire and water. And here is Stanislav Salamovich Cherchesov. And the same gesture! It seems that a little more and he will fly like a black kite over the green arena. Or the Meteor team from Kozlovsky’s film, as if caught in a real tropical downpour. They are so sweaty, exhausted, haggard at the end of the game, but not giving up. And then there’s a sharp cut: the last seconds of the game with the Croats. The familiar faces of Dziuba, Akinfeev, Fernandez... And again a frightening, incredible similarity: hail sweat, extreme fatigue, but in the eyes - a readiness to fight to the last. Danila predicted something, guessed it in his film, which experienced football experts did not dare or did not want to see, who did not even promise our team a way out of the group.
Danila is wearing: wool jumper, Gucci; watch, Bvlgari. On Olga: jacket and top made of wool and cotton, all Gucci Andre Boyakov
Olya Zueva has something else. In her film “On the District”, she deliberately chooses people from the outskirts, guys with no special occupation, many of whom hang out on the streets of Russian cities. He peers intently into their faces, trying to understand what they are talking about. What do they want? What do they dream about? And how will the heart calm down?
She was lucky to find an amazing guy for the main role: a young actor from the Theater. Ermolova Ilya Malanin. A blond prince from a Russian fairy tale who finds himself in a dark pool. And there is no way for him to get out of it. And no one will save or help. Only a miracle, which director Olga Zueva did not have in stock.
“I myself am surprised why I took up this story.” This is completely different from the world that surrounds me. But that's where I come from. Everything that happened to me for the first time happened there, in the area: first love, first showdowns, first friendship, which seemed to last a lifetime - everything was there, on these streets, in these panel houses, in these broken entrances. light bulbs and graffiti on the walls. Some of my peers were already smoking chemicals back then, some were constantly beating someone or seriously harassing them, some stole a phone to resell later... The hum of these stories and voices resounds in my memory. And an atmosphere of anxiety, tension, when every day could end in misfortune. I can’t say that I was afraid of anything then. No, I was never afraid of anything. But there remained a feeling of life on the edge, which I later missed terribly in my prosperous, glamorous world.
- Did you miss me?
- Yes, don’t be surprised. I missed you! Because all successful people are more or less the same and predictable. The motives for their actions, the code of laws and rules by which they live are clear. You can rarely expect anything unexpected from them. And people “in the area” feel absolutely free from any conventions. They have absolutely nothing to lose. They know that tomorrow they may not be in this world, but today they need to live to the fullest. I won’t lie, these people have always been more interesting to me. They turn me on. Especially guys. Because the girls there live with the indispensable intention of getting married, finding a partner, a man. And it's not that exciting. And the guys are all extreme sportsmen, walking on the edge, risking their lives every day. How many such stories have passed before my eyes! How many of my peers are no longer alive. Maybe this is not the bottom yet. But one rash step and you're already there.
And yet the films of Danila Kozlovsky and Olya Zueva have some inexplicable similarities. Maybe it’s the feeling of some kind of spaciousness and beauty of the world present in the panoramic shots of “Coach” and the way Vladivostok was filmed by Zueva?
Or maybe the whole point is that both of them, metropolitan, successful and famous, do not separate themselves from their heroes in any way, but feel a blood relationship with them, some kind of strange closeness. And maybe even love. Ɔ.
Actor Danila Kozlovsky is finally getting married, but not everyone likes his bride
Danila Kozlovsky began his affair with Olga Zueva about two years ago, but the actors hid their relationship. Days earlier, the actress told their story of how they met and shared her plans for the future.
The first meeting of the actors took place at a party in the USA, where they were invited by mutual friends. Olga worked as a model in New York and already fell in love with this city. Her love for Danila turned out to be so strong that the girl decided to move to Russia, leaving her friends, work and apartment in America.
Zueva says that she has an explosive temper, but Danila knows when she needs to give in. The actress says that their relationship is very stormy, but this does not prevent the lovers from being happy and continuing to live together.
The actors are working together in Danila Kozlovsky’s directorial project, where Zueva got the main role. Now Zueva’s goal is to finish everything she started.
The couple travels a lot. After one trip to Tokyo, a wedding ring appeared on Zueva’s ring finger. There has still been no official statement that the couple is engaged.
The actress comes from the Far East. All of her childhood and youth were spent in Vladivostok.
Olga was born into a family where no one ever thought about modeling or cinema. Zueva had all the data to be realized in her profession.
At first, the girl made successful steps as a model. In her hometown there was a casting for a modeling agency, the girl decided to try her luck and come to the casting and she succeeded.
In New York, Olga Zueva shoots for glossy publications, as well as in advertising. The Russian beauty was noticed in an advertisement for the famous US shoe brand “Pour la Victoire”. This commercial was produced by Cameron Diaz.
Having seen the model in advertising, the directors paid attention to her. Olga Zueva began acting in films with small roles in the American films “Salt” and “Love is a Strange Thing.” A little later, the rising star was offered the main role in the popular TV series “Orange is the New Black.”
Olga liked acting in films and decided to continue this thorny path. For a successful career as an actress, Olga needs to improve. She immediately enrolled in acting classes. During the course, she realized that she was also very attracted to the work of directors and screenwriters. Therefore, Olga Zueva became a student at The New School in New York, in the directing department.
In her homeland, Olga “honed” her acting and directing skills at the summer academy of the famous Nikita Mikhalkov. Immediately after completing the course, Olga shot her debut short film as a director, “Five Minutes to Tomorrow.”
It’s interesting that Olga Zueva’s very first role was not in America, but in Russia. Anna Melikyan invited her to play in her short film with a long title “Such a Mood, Bach’s Adagio and a Small Fragment from the Life of the Girl Lena.”
The actress appeared on the screens in the image of a young girl who has long dreamed of love. Maxim Matveev played Olga's on-screen lover. Together they starred in an explicit scene. Three years ago, Olga Zueva came to Russia again and shot her second short film “Marble and Flesh”, in this short film she was already in the leading role.
After the first general photos of the couple appeared online, Danila’s fans immediately expressed their opinions about his choice. Not everyone liked it. Danila is also strongly advised not to rush and check his feelings for his beloved.
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I think that soon we will see full-length films starring Olga Zueva and Danila Kozlovsky. How do you think Olga and Danila are suitable for each other?
