Childhood. The beginning of the way
The future actress was born on October 11, 1993 in Moscow. Her father is the famous photographer Ilya Chernyshov. Polina grew up in a large family: she has an older sister and a younger brother.
Little Polina Chernyshova with her mother and sister
Since childhood, Polina wanted to devote her life to art, dreamed of becoming a ballerina and intensely studied classical choreography, to which she devoted 8 years of her life, while simultaneously attending vocal lessons and classes in a modern dance studio.
But when she tried to enter the ballet school at the Bolshoi Theater, Polina was rejected: the admissions committee looked not only at skills, but also at body composition, and the girl’s physique did not seem suitable for ballet to the examiners. However, Polina continued her ballet classes for the soul, combining them with karate training.
As a child, Polina Chernyshova danced, sang and did karate
Priorities changed when Polina met the artistic director of the Kvadrat theater studio and even played Desdemona in his production based on Shakespeare. Russian cinema also made a great impression on the girl. In one of her interviews, she said that as a child she was greatly impressed by the film “Finist - the Clear Falcon.” She fell in love with the main character of the fairy tale and, together with her sister, dramatized some episodes. Since then, Polina loves Russian folklore and everything connected with it.
Polina Chernyshova has been passionate about folklore since childhood
So after school, Polina decided to become an actress, applied to all the capital’s theater universities and entered the famous Shchukin School, taking the course of Vladimir Ivanov. Already in the first years of her studies, the girl showed outstanding skill, so when in 2013 Ivanov’s students took part in a joint production with the theater troupe. Vakhtangov, she was also invited to participate - she got the role of a court lady in the production of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Puss in Boots”.
Polina Chernyshova on the stage of the theater. Vakhtangov
In “Pike” the actress participated in two graduation productions: “Late Love” based on the play by A. Ostrovsky (she played Varvara Lebedkina) and in Shakespeare’s legendary play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (she got the role of Elena). Polina Chernyshova talks about herself With the second performance, the students went to the IX International Theater Competition, where Polina Chernyshova was awarded the prize for “best actress” for the role of Elena. And for Ostrovsky’s heroine, Polina was awarded the Golden Leaf award.
Childhood and youth
Polina was born on October 11, 1993 in the family of an artist, where two more children were raised - older sister Tasya and younger brother Maxim.
There was always a creative atmosphere in the house. Mom sewed incredibly beautiful folk costumes for the girls and taught them songs. Every morning began with music. On New Year's Day, the guys made sure to show a performance for which Taisiya came up with the script. Later, my sister received a musical education at Gnesinka and went to Germany, where she is building a career as a jazz singer.
Polina Chernyshova in childhood and now
From the age of 4, Polina’s parents enrolled her in a folk singing studio. Later, the girl began attending a choreography club. Ballet fascinated Chernyshova, she even tried to enter the school at the Bolshoi Theater, but did not pass the competition. The girl did not despair, continued to study classical and modern dance and enrolled in the karate section.
Then theater appeared in the teenager’s life. 12-year-old Polina was invited to her project by her father’s friend, director of the Kvadrat studio. In the production, the girl got the role of Juliet. Gradually, Polya began to think about becoming an actress. She was attracted to the world of theater and cinema, the opportunity to transform into different characters, try different professions, and travel. In her dreams, the girl was transported to distant Hollywood.
Polina Chernyshova was fond of karate
In high school, Chernyshova became a student of the “I Am an Artist Myself” studio, where teenagers were prepared to enter a theater institute. Polina's teacher was director Andrei Yurievich Vasiliev.
When Polina graduated from school, she easily entered the Shchukin Theater School, where the master of her course was the Honored Artist of Russia Vladimir Ivanov. The teacher immediately endeared himself to the talented applicant with his radiant smile and kindness. According to Polina, for her he became a second father.
Theater and cinema
Polina Chernysheva's theatrical career began in 2014, when she became part of the troupe of the Vakhtangov Theater. Among the performances with her participation: “The Marriage of Figaro”, “In Paris”, “Take an Umbrella, Madame Gautier!”, “Mademoiselle Nitouche”, “Medea”, “Othello”.
“In Paris”: Polina Chernyshova and Maxim Sevrinovsky
Polina Chernyshova's film debut took place thanks to Sergei Ursulyak, or rather, his daughter Daria, Polina's classmate. The director often sat in the audience at performances with his daughter’s participation, and there he noticed Polina. Therefore, when he spent a very long time selecting an actress for the role of the Don Cossack woman Aksinya from “Quiet Don,” he remembered Chernyshova.
Polina Chernyshova – Aksinya
Polina was entrusted with the role of Aksinya almost without auditioning. “It has an amazing nature to it. She truly lives the role. Roughly speaking, if I don’t say “stop,” she is capable of giving birth during the filming of the episode - without being pregnant,” Ursulyak spoke of the young actress.
Photos from the filming of “Quiet Don”
Polina herself admitted that working in front of the camera was not easy at first. Before filming, the girl had to seriously prepare. And it’s not just about the complex image of Sholokhov’s Aksinya - in order to realistically play a Cossack woman who grew up in a big city, she had to take an “express course” in rural life.
The actress had to learn the intricacies of Cossack life
At the Moscow Museum of the Cossacks, she was taught the intricacies of Cossack life: feeding geese, milking a cow, carrying water in buckets with a rocker. Then, already in a real Cossack village, I had to master the master's tricks: bake pies in the oven, knit and spin, as they did in the old days. Polina also had to watch a real birth scene in order to then convincingly “give birth” on camera right in the field.
“Quiet Don”: Polina Chernyshova as Aksinya
But the actress overcame all the difficulties, as well as the embarrassment during the game with her on-screen partners - Evgeny Tkachuk (played Grigory Melekhov) and Sergei Sotnikov (played Evgeny Listnitsky). With the latter, the actress had a “bed scene,” which was filmed exactly on Polina’s 22nd birthday.
Still from the TV series “Quiet Don”
After the success of “Quiet Don,” Polina Chernyshova received a huge portion of rave reviews. There were, of course, critics who compared her performance with the work of Elina Bystritskaya, Aksinya from the 1957 film adaptation. But still, the majority of viewers were confident that Russian cinema had gained another talented actress.
Elina Bystritskaya VS Polina Chernyshova
Actress Polina Chernyshova: the beginning of the journey
The performer of the role of Aksinya was born in Moscow in October 1993. Actress Polina Chernyshova was born into a family that had nothing to do with the world of cinema. Even as a child, the girl began to gravitate towards creative activities. She had many hobbies, including choreography, singing, and dramatic art.
By the time she graduated from school, Polina no longer doubted her desire to become an actress. On her first attempt, the girl managed to become a student at the Shchukin School; she was enrolled in a course taught by Vladimir Ivanov.
Personal life of Polina Chernyshova
Polina dances not only on stage, but also at home. But he prefers to sing quietly, and only for himself. In his free time, he likes to sit comfortably with a laptop and watch movies directly from the Internet. Emir Kusturica and Quentin Tarantino top the list of her favorite directors.
Polina Chernyshova without makeup
The actress also loves to travel a lot, and in the company of versatile people who are far from the theater. For example, she once visited the Tien Shan with a group of brilliant mathematicians, and during the trip they never spoke about the theater.
Theater
At the theater at the institute, Polina Chernyshova played the role of the rich and extremely frivolous widow Varvara Kharitonovna Lebedkina in the play “Late Love” based on the play by A. Ostrovsky and Elena in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Polina’s debut work on the stage of the Vakhtangov Theater was the role of a lady in love with the King in the play “Puss in Boots” by Charles Perrault. The production itself was a great success and even received several awards, including the prestigious Crystal Bluebird award.
And the Dons are quiet here [photo]
For the anniversary of the classic (he was born on May 24), the next television version of the novel “Quiet Don” is almost ready. The 10-episode epic directed by Sergei Ursulyak (viewers are familiar with his TV series “Liquidation” and “Life and Fate”) will be released before the end of this year. According to the director, he did not seek to film “his own version” - on the contrary, he tried to follow Sholokhov’s text as completely as possible. In anticipation of the premiere, we compared the actors of the new series with the performers of the roles in the “canonical” film adaptation of the great novel - the three-part film by Sergei Gerasimov in 1958. For greater clarity, in quotes we give descriptions of Sholokhov’s heroes based on the text of “Quiet Don”.
Panteley Melekhov (Grigory's father)
“Under the slope of the sliding years, Panteley Prokofievich began to grow heavy: he spread out in width, slightly stooped, but still looked like a well-built old man. He was bone-dry, lame (in his youth he broke his left leg at an imperial horse racing show), and wore a silver crescent-shaped earring in his left ear.”
1958: Daniil Ilchenko
Ilchenko turned out the old Cossack to be unusually colorful. True, success partly backfired on him: after “Quiet Don,” the actor was called upon mainly to play the roles of old Cossacks and grandfathers until the end of his life.
2015: Sergey Makovetsky
At first glance, Makovetsky’s Melekhov Sr. turned out to be not as formidable as Ilchenko’s. When the residents of Veshenskaya were shown fragments of the future series, they made many harsh comments about the acting. But Makovetsky was not touched: he liked it. By the way, during the filming the actor almost drowned: he fell over the side of the boat when, according to the script, his hero was fishing with his son at dawn.
Daria (wife of Peter Melekhov)
“A lazy woman, spoiled... She blushes and blackens her eyebrows, her mother is a bitch.”
1958: Lyudmila Khityaeva
Gerasimov met Khityaeva in the corridor of the Gorky film studio and immediately suggested: “Do you want to play Daria in Quiet Don?” On the set, the city girl learned to reap and mow. To authentically play the scene of her husband’s funeral, the actress attended a real Cossack funeral in a neighboring village.
2015: Anastasia Vedenskaya
The actress’s track record includes many roles in films and TV series (“A Night of a Lifetime,” “Trust Me,” “Fatal Inheritance”). Unlike Khityaeva - a Cossack woman of natural blood - her Daria turned out to be more fragile, feminine in the modern sense, with a “devilish” quality.
Grigory Melekhov
“The same as my father’s, a drooping kite nose, slightly slanted slits with blue almonds of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones covered with brown, ruddy skin. Even in their smiles, both of them had something in common, something brutal.”
1958: Peter Glebov
The outstanding actor played dozens of roles in cinema and theater, but the role of the Don Cossack Grigory Melekhov became the main one in his career. By the start of filming, he was already 40, and the director doubted whether Glebov could handle the scenes where Melekhov was 20 years old. And the actor’s appearance did not seem entirely Cossack to Gerasimov. But the voice was suitable. Only after makeup tests did the director think that Glebov could handle the role. Sholokhov himself approved the choice.
2015: Evgeniy Tkachuk
The actor is 30 years old, his track record includes the main role in the television film “The Life and Adventures of Mishka Jap”, a dozen smaller serial roles, as well as prizes for the best debut on the theater stage. Like Glebov, Tkachuk was given a special make-up, the main difficulty of which was his hooked nose. It is quite possible that the new “Quiet Don” will become a springboard for the young talented artist to new roles and real fame.
Aksinya
“The wind picked up small fluffy curls on her dark neck. A cap embroidered with colored silk blazed on the heavy top of her hair; a pink shirt, tucked into a skirt, without wrinkles, covered her steep back and plump shoulders.”
1958: Elina Bystritskaya
Nonna Mordyukova auditioned for this role, and quite successfully. But Bystritskaya’s candidacy seemed more suitable to Sholokhov. Before filming, the very slight actress, who grew up in the city, gained weight, learned to carry water on a yoke, and ride a horse. Subsequently, the Cossacks accepted her as one of their own and even offered to change her name to Aksinya Donskaya.
2015: Polina Chernyshova
For a recent graduate of the Shchukin School, this is her first film role. According to the actress, there were no auditions at all. The director often came to Shchuka, where his daughter Daria studied, to student productions - and that’s how he noticed his Aksinya. The girl took on the role extremely responsibly: to play childbirth, she went to the maternity hospital to watch others give birth.
Natalya Korshunova (wife of Grigory Melekhov)
“Under the black standing dust of a bobbin scarf there are bold gray eyes. On her elastic cheek, a shallow, pinkish pit trembled with embarrassment and a restrained smile. Under the green blouse, which covered the tight tuft of the body, small girlish stone breasts stuck out naively and pitifully, rising up and apart, with sharp nipples sticking out like buttons.”
1958: Zinaida Kiriyenko
After Quiet Flows the Don, the actress gained unprecedented popularity. They say that Fellini himself was fascinated by the fatal beauty. Filming was not easy for her: director Gerasimov was very demanding. At some point, Kiriyenko’s nerves gave way, and she shouted out in her hearts: “I don’t need your VGIK and your Moscow, and your Sholokhov, and your “Quiet Don”, and your Natalya!” But Gerasimov, of course, did not let her go anywhere.
2015: Daria Ursulyak
Sergei Ursulyak is not one of those directors who drags close relatives from picture to picture. His daughter Daria ended up in the film by chance. They say that the actress who was applying for the role of Natalia did not come to the audition. The director asked his daughter, who was nearby, to help - to give a couple of lines to his partner. Daria turned out to be so organic that the director decided that there was no need to look for Natalya anymore.
FROM THE HISTORY OF THE QUESTION
“Quiet Don” was first filmed back in 1930 - it was a silent film by Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Ivan Pravov. It was voiced in 1933.
For many years, the idea of filming his own version of “Quiet Flows the Don” was nurtured by Sergei Bondarchuk, who received the blessing of Sholokhov himself: Gerasimov’s film did not completely suit the writer. Filming of the joint Russian-Italian-British film was completed in 1992. The key roles went to foreigners - for example, Rupert Everett played Gregory. The already mounted picture was confiscated from the manufacturing company by the creditor bank. The director died without seeing his 10-episode television film, and the audience did not see it either. After long negotiations, the Russian side bought the working materials, from which the director’s son Fyodor Bondarchuk edited his version of the film. In 2006 it was shown on TV.
