Andrey Ponkratov: “My wife does not travel with me. The producer doesn't allow it."
To the variety of social life, he prefers a narrow circle of close friends, a studio editing room and the quiet comfort of his apartment, literally filled with the spirit of distant travels. Apparently, a world not spoiled by civilization is much more pleasant to him. Andrey categorically refuses even a mobile phone as an absolutely unnecessary accessory.
— Andrey, I think you realize that you have a job that millions dream of: traveling around the world for free...
- Yes, my current lifestyle fully corresponds to my inner worldview, and I can’t even imagine what I will do later, whether there is anything more interesting. I have already seen so many countries that it is much easier to count those where I have not been. Although there are still a lot of them.
— How many years have you been working in the program and how did you end up in such a warm place, where, in my opinion, there is no staff drain at all?
“I’ve been working in the program since its inception—five years.” And you are wrong about personnel leakage - it exists. Our service is not so easy. You probably think that everything is so simple - we arrived, had a rest, looked better, tanned, looked younger... But in reality - nothing like that. We move from place to place, that is, taking off, landing, changing climate zones, pressure... And how many kilometers we have to cover per day by car is not always on the best roads. I remember in Mexico it took us sixteen hours to get to the right place over continuous bumps and potholes.
- Well, these are production costs...
— Plus, our producer Danila Sharapov has very strict requirements for running the program, for drawing up a travel plan, some routes, so not everyone can withstand it. Despite the fact that the host country is determined by the leader, the presenter always independently thinks through each of his trips, writes a script, looks for interesting, unusual places about which he must tell the audience in an unconventional way. Not everyone can do this either. Therefore, if initially there were three presenters in the hour-long program with their own three stories, then today, in the half-hour format, there are only two of us left. Me and the new girl, Ira Pudova, who came to us from MUZ-TV, replacing Dasha Subbotina who left us, who, apparently tired of wandering around the world, settled on the Domashny channel.
— I would like to clarify your biography for myself. At first glance, you are a boy from a good, professorial family...
- No. My father is a driver, and my mother is a technologist. I'm from the people. He began his career as a mechanic. At school, at the CPC, I received a specialty as a tractor driver of road-building machines. Immediately after graduation, I went to production, where I worked as a mechanic before the army, received a lot of money, and I liked the work. And after the army I already entered Moscow State University, the journalism department.
- Just like that, unexpectedly, without any prerequisites...
- Why?! Since childhood, I dreamed of becoming a journalist. It gave me pleasure to write stories, poems, and essays... In the army, I wrote for the army's circulation magazine, then, when I was demobilized, I was already published here in some magazines, I worked at Sovetsky Sport and entered the university without any problems the first time.
— What is your connection to sports?
- The most direct thing is that I am friends with him. I used to do sambo. And once he even took third place at the Moscow Championship, fulfilling the standard for a candidate master of sports.
— Where did you go after Moscow State University?
“With some of the guys from our course, we went to Dmitry Veniaminovich Zakharov, now the host of the “Their Morals” program. Then he did a bunch of programs, among which were “Avtomig”, “At the Turn of the Century”, “Stars Speak”, game projects on the “Russia” channel, and we worked as correspondents for him. Then I worked on “Morning Express”, and later on STS I hosted the “Stylish Things” program together with top model Irina Dmitrakova.
— It is clear that politics and economics do not interest you, but you are all drawn to a beautiful life: foreign voyages, fashion...
— Yes, I am not indifferent to fashion, I am not at all indifferent to the latest trends in this area. And during periods of not being in a very good mood, shopping therapy sometimes helps. True, I don’t like to go shopping for a long time and buy things mainly abroad - they are cheaper there. Buy trousers for five dollars or orange boots made to resemble crocodile skin, along with a belt for only seventy, what could be nicer!
— Have you always wanted to be in the frame?
- Never. And now I don’t want to go there. I am not chasing popularity, I speak without coquetry. Giving interviews, attending social parties, hanging out - all this is not my thing. It’s another thing to have a drink in a friendly company somewhere in the country. But at the same time, oddly enough, they still sometimes recognize me on the streets. Fortunately, mostly decent people come up and complain about the Saturday broadcast being too early. But I have no control over the situation here—that’s what they decided on the channel.
— So how did you end up on the “Around the World” program?
— When the “Stylish Things” project closed, I was unemployed for some time, and then Zakharov called me and invited me to this program, which was initially called “Planet Earth.”
- It turns out that you somehow don’t make your own way, but go with the flow - where it will take you, who will invite you...
- That’s right, I’m lazy in this sense. In addition, he is a fatalist, he is sure that everything is predetermined and there is no point in rocking the boat. We can only choose: to be bad or good. Personally, I try to be good. And modest. I try to free myself from some desires that are the cause of suffering. (Laughs.)
— This is how you get rid of pride and ambition? What is your relationship with finances?
- Smooth. Sometimes I can’t even figure out what to spend the colossal amount of money I earn on. I’ve saved up for a car and am planning to buy it soon. This will be the first foreign transport in my life. In the long term, I would also like to have a country house where I can sit on the veranda among the greenery...
— Tell us about your wife.
— My wife is a wonderful girl. Her name is Tatyana. Now she sits at home and is carrying my daughter Glafira, who is due to be born in August. Tatyana and I met more than ten years ago, at a classmate’s birthday party. Beautiful women have always inspired me, so Tatyana immediately attracted attention with her bright appearance, and later she did not disappoint with her character.
— Is she as calm and relaxed as you?
- She's a little livelier. It bothers me all the time. Tatyana can force me to do anything: take a naked picture on the street of a resort town for the sake of a fun experiment, and grow my hair because she likes men with long hair.
—What is her profession?
— Editor. She managed to work in various television programs. I’m not at all against Tatyana continuing to work, but I think that if there’s no suitable place yet, then there’s nothing wrong with staying at home.
— How often and for how long do you usually leave Moscow?
— We have very different business trips: from four days to a month. On average, we are away from home for about six months.
“You’re like that sailor... Why don’t you take your wife with you?”
- Firstly, the producer does not welcome this, and secondly, feelings from a long separation only get stronger. Although my wife, I understand, can be offended. She loves to fly, and when an airport is shown on TV, tears well up in her eyes... But I’m already tired of airports. But what can I do, everyone envy me. Relatives and acquaintances advise on where to go on vacation. Lately I have been recommending Philippine beaches to everyone. This is a fairytale! Also Mexico, where I am ready to travel at least every month. A fantastic country that can constantly surprise.
— I wonder where you go on vacation with your own money?
— To places not so far away, like Turkey, Egypt or Bulgaria, where my wife drags me out, through fierce resistance on my part. I have a dream - to relax somewhere in our middle zone, so that it is not so hot...
— What would you say to people trying to take your place?
- Please borrow! I don't hold on to him. Moreover, a TV presenter is an age-related profession. This year I will turn 37 years old, and I understand that soon I will no longer be able to quickly jump from the bungee, as I did before, or live in clay huts and endure the severity of the local climate. But for now I am not preparing the ground for my future. At any given time, each of us usually has what we deserve. And I am grateful to fate that it gave me the opportunity to collect a sufficient amount of knowledge about almost fifty countries... One of the great Muslims very accurately and beautifully said that a journey is when Allah invites you to dance. When a person dies, he is allowed to take only one thing to the next world - his impressions. These are the ones worth accumulating throughout your life.
Movies
Alexander Pankratov-Cherny made his debut in the legendary film poem by Andrei Konchalovsky “Sibiriyada”, where he successfully played the character Sashka. The breakthrough came 5 years later. The comedy “We are from Jazz” was staged in such a way that behind the external lightness and gaiety, acute social and even philosophical issues were hidden.
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Alexander Pankratov-Cherny in his youth
After this, the actor appeared in many top-rated films: the drama “Cruel Romance”, the military film “Battalions Ask for Fire”, the musical “Winter Evening in Gagra”, the melodrama “Forgotten Melody for the Flute”. A new round of fame overtook Alexander Pankratov-Cherny in 1987, when the comedy “Where is Nophelet?” was released. In the role of a ladies' man and ladies' man, he managed to realize both comic and dramatic talent at the same time.
Unlike many Soviet actors, Pankratov-Cherny did not disappear from the screens during the difficult times of the 90s. During that period, he starred in 30 films, from which we can highlight “Promised Heaven”, “Tram-ram, or Bay-floundering”, “Shirley-myrli”, “Impotent”.
About the actor's personal life
The artist’s first love “happened” back at VGIK, when he began to live in a civil marriage with classmate Irina Semikletova. Irina had a daughter, Svetlana, when she was already living with Alexander Nikolaevich, but the actress’s common-law husband refused to recognize the girl as his own - Pankratov-Cherny to this day claims that this is the child of Irina’s first husband. Whether this is true or not - let it be on the mother’s conscience, but the alarming fact is that after breaking up with Pankratov-Cherny, the woman remarried her first husband, and her daughter was already recognized as the official father without any problems.
Veronica Izotova
The second time Alexander Vasilyevich tried to improve his personal life was with actress Veronica Izotova. Their romance lasted about two years, and the relationship began at the Moscow Film Festival, where Pankratov-Cherny and Veronika sat next to each other, and he made her laugh with original translations of foreign films. “Cheerful, charming! The eyes sparkle, the mustache of a hussar - I immediately fell in love,” is how Izotova described the significant moment. The age difference of ten years (Veronica was in her twenties) did not prevent the lovers from dating, but the relationship never developed into an official marriage.
Alexander Pankratov-Cherny with his wife Yulia Monakhova
In the late 80s, he finally met a woman who became his wife and muse, supporting her husband “in joy and in sorrow, in wealth and in poverty.” This is Yulia Vladimirovna Monakhova, film actress, daughter of the famous cameraman Mikhail Monakhov (he took part in the filming of the film “The Fate of a Man”). Vladimir Aleksandrovich Pankratov, their son, did not follow in his father’s footsteps - he also graduated from GITIS, but chose the variety and circus direction.
Social activity
In 1999, Alexander Pankratov-Cherny participated in the elections to the State Duma. The artist was nominated as a candidate for deputy by the mother's committee to combat child drug addiction, which wanted a famous person to represent the organization at the highest level.
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Alexander Pankratov-Cherny
Subsequently, Alexander Vasilyevich abandoned this idea and focused on helping people in other ways. The actor became the president of the children's sports foundation “Our Generation”, a member of the Board of the charitable organization “Blagomir”, and also took up charity work with the help of the public foundation named after Mikhail Evdokimov.
Alexander Pankratov-Cherny is also known to the public as a poet. The first collection of poems was published in 1996, then several more books were published. The text of the poem “Spin, Spin” served as the basis for creating the soundtrack for the film “Tram-ram, or Bays-floundering”. Pankratov-Cherny also wrote the prayer “Lord, give me freedom,” which was performed by Joseph Kobzon at the grand opening of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
