How Russian actress conquered Hollywood and met with Obama

Orlova made her debut on the big stage at the age of nine. Photo: press service of the actress

In Russia, the actress Marina Orlova played more than 30 films and TV shows, including Gromov, Interns, Barvikha and Native People, starring Stanislav Govorukhin, Sergey Solovyov and Valery Todorovsky, managing to work in French and Chinese movie. But I wanted more - and Orlova went to Hollywood.

Orlova managed to play Marilyn Monroe, light up with Eric Roberts, met Woody Allen, played in “American Horror History” and met with US President Barack Obama. About how all this became possible, Marina Orlova told ForumDaily.

In Russia, the career developed, why did you decide to try yourself in Hollywood?

I just wanted to go up the career ladder. After all, if you are successful, you want to go even further. It seems that if it turns out here, then why not try somewhere else? Still, Hollywood for any actor - is the top of the mountain. Getting there painfully long, so he is so desirable. Someone dreams of him, and someone tries.

I thought that if it does not work out, then at least in old age I will not complain and say "oh, but I could ...". Better to regret what she did, than did not.

What did you do for this?

In fact, it is very simple - you need to buy a ticket and come to start. And then it all starts to spin itself. If you strive for something, then right people and wrong people meet, which is also very useful. In general, I am glad that on my way there were so many deceivers - they motivated me to win. When I first came to Los Angeles, I didn’t know that there are all such artists, self-proclaimed stars. I took seriously the people I met. I came to the American Film Market, this is a serious organization, and I was sure that all the people who are there are professional directors, producers. I did not know that in Los Angeles a person might wake up one day and think: “And I am a producer!” Or “And I am an actor!”. I met with a huge number of people, and everyone gave me their colorful business cards, and everyone was so friendly, and everyone said: “Of course, stay, you will act in films, yes, we will introduce you to Spielberg tomorrow!”. I naively believed and stayed. And thank God! Because if I met someone who would tell me the truth about how hard everything is, I probably would never have dared. But fairy tales sometimes help. And I just stayed.

So, are you another victim of the dream factory?

Yes, and then, when I more or less came down to the ground, it was already too late - the visa was over and I had to do the documents. I could not leave the country for a year and a half. I walked along the Avenue of Stars and sang a little song: "I'm an alien, I'm legal, I'm a Russian girl in LA." I looked at all these homeless people and envied them terribly, thinking: “Do you have an American passport, do you speak without an accent, and you sit here asking me for money? Yes, if I had all this, or at least a green card, it’s not that all the doors would be open, there would be no doors for me at all! ” I spoke very badly in English, and all these one and a half years I spent on what I mostly did documents and learned the language. And in Russia, some premieres took place, I was nominated for the best actress of the year, films earned prizes, but I could not go there, I sat here.

They ask me: "How are you there in Hollywood?". And I did in Hollywood!

And yet you slowly began to act ...

That's it, that "on the sly". I had to join the union of Hollywood actors. If you do not belong to him, do not even dream about a role in some serious film. You can star in projects outside of this union, for which they will pay much less, or nothing, and maybe $ 100 will pay. But they will never take a big project, if you are not a member of the union, but in order to become one, you need to play in three projects of the union, but they will not take you there, since you are not in union! It's a vicious circle! Then I found out that there was a workaround.

It turns out that you can play for free in three films as extras, and then they give you a special voucher.

And I think: “Now my film is nominated in Russia and Cannes, and I will go to the crowd, for free, for some kind of voucher?!” And I had to go, but what to do? You walk and it’s just awkward, you think, at least no one will recognize or see. Meanwhile, magazines interview me and ask me about life in Hollywood. And you come to this crowd, and it turns out that everyone there is like this: a director from Australia who received a Cannes branch, some film genius from China who has more fans in his homeland than the entire population of America. And then you bring these vouchers, and they tell you: “You know, the films weren’t union-friendly enough, it seems like they were, but still something’s not right, let’s do more.” And in the end, when I no longer counted on anything, it so happened that an acquaintance was filming a film about Frank Sinatra, showed them my photo and I was invited to a few days of filming. And I was so lucky that I played with Eric Roberts, and he is considered a real star. And then they immediately called me from the union and said: “Now - welcome. But, of course, you need to pay a small fee - $3000, some kind of nonsense, we are an actors’ union.”

And it was the $ 3000 that I spent with the greatest pleasure in my life, because I finally joined this union.

That's how Eric Roberts, without knowing it, played the role of a positive hero in your personal story. What impression did he make on you?

He, of course, on the one hand, the pros, and on the other - a terrible hack. That is, he does not teach the text at all, does not even try. He immediately says: “So, hang up posters for me here, here, there, and sign them with 1, 2, 3”. Then the cameras are arranged so that these posters are not visible in the frame, and specially trained people periodically outweigh them. But he so manages to read that we will never see that his eyes are running while reading, this is generally imperceptible. He is shooting a lot, he is scored every day. He even, in my opinion, does not remember where he is removed. By the way, he doesn’t like him very much when they call him Julia Roberts' brother, because, as it turned out, he was always an actor, and Julia was just his sister, who did not think about acting.

He once wanted to just help her, advised her for some casting, and so helped that he turned into brother Julia Roberts.

Tell us about this movie, has it already come out?

Not yet, and while you can not say what it is called. It is made on the centenary of the birth of Frank Sinatra. I have already watched a few collected scenes, I really liked it, a good quality film. There are only songs worth it! He, first of all, will go to festivals, this is a cultural cinema, not mass, not popcorn. I think it will be released this year.

The first acting experience Marina Orlova received while playing in Pyatigorsk in the KVN team, her mentor and first teacher was student Semyon Slepakov, who wrote scripts for sketches. Photo: press service of the actress

What other premieres are expected?

White Crows is still due to comedy, where I got my first lead role in a Hollywood film. How did you find the role? Facebook! In the LA casting group. Before that, I acted as Marilyn Monroe in The Treehouse and laid out photos from the set in the image of Marilyn everywhere. And they called me to the casting. And the producer and screenwriter did not like me. She said that I was fat, I needed to lose weight, that I was somehow not so, in general, criticized me completely. And then I had such a situation that in order to receive the documents I needed to be given a contract for three years, to prove that they want to work with me. This was my only chance to stay in America, so I needed this contract. And I decided to switch to another quality and offer them to find money for the film. They gave me the relevant documents, I began to show them to everyone I knew, she said: "Well, please, well, a couple of millions, well, what you should, donate to art." Before filming, there were 2 weeks left. In such a short time, not everyone wanted to fork out at once, and I could not find a sponsor. I was almost desperate, but during the time I ran in search of sponsors, we all became friends and, moreover, I lost weight. So the producer said: “Listen, Marin, you are already like us, you must stay in the film.” That is, they took me through this torment for this role. In the end, of course, I was later told that no one would have played it better, which is nice, of course, to hear, but it turned out to be difficult, not so that I appear directly, and everyone immediately wanted to take me to the cinema.

Now you are also awaiting the premiere of the short film “Hello! I am the producer of Woody Allen ”, which will be held at the Cannes Film Festival. Do you hope with his help to withdraw from Woody Allen?

And who would refuse from this? And the story is there that the actress, who is not really an actress, and the producer, who is not a producer, meet at the film festival, and everyone wants to snatch something from each other. In general, in Los Angeles, I had many stories when men tried to meet, make an impression, hoping for the continuation of the evening, and told such tales! At some point, I realized that this should be recorded. In general, having heard about the film, I was contacted by all the producers of Woody Allen, they probably wanted to know what they were talking about. They laughed a lot and said that the film is right in the style of Woody himself. We have with him the premiere will be held in parallel in Cannes. I invited him and my family to my premiere, and he invited me to hers.

And this is a step to the dream. I just realized that it is better not to wait for the weather from the sea, but to do something, to show that you can.

My film even before the premiere brought me to some new proposals, which I did not expect.

You have already met not only Woody Allen, but also the president. Tell us about your meeting with Barack Obama.

He sometimes comes to visit athletes, artists, arranges such meetings. That Putin never comes to visit the actors of the series "Trace" or, there, "Capercaillie-3", and Obama is practicing this. It was before all these conflicts between our countries. Everything went very well. Of course, I didn’t have a long conversation with him, but it was just interesting to see the president. There were a million photographers there, so I left a picture for memory. His perfume is good, here's what.

What goals did you set for yourself when you went to America, and what are your plans now?

The goal was to get the lead. I played it. Now I also have producer ambitions. I realized that if the project is really good, you can find funding for it and invite those you would like to work with. Appetites are growing!

Everything comes in time. But timeliness is an eternal drama.