Topaller's last interviews: actor Ilya Volokh about life in the USA and the conquest of Hollywood

January 15 2018 of the year unexpected gone from life one of the brightest Russian-speaking journalists in America, Victor Topaller, leaving many unfinished business and projects. His death was, without understatement, a shock for readers and colleagues. Literally, until recently, Victor worked on new projects, wrote articles, recorded interviews.

Interview video screenshot

One of his latest projects was an interview with actor Ilya Volokh. A graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School, Volokh has starred in 150 Hollywood movies and television series. Among them are popular ones like Air Force One, U-Turn, Indiana Jones — 4, The Immigrant, Mission Impossible 4 with Tom Cruise, Abduction with Alfred Molina, GI JOE-2 with Bruce Willis.

Viewers remember the actor also on famous TV shows Six Feet Under, Alias, Friends, Criminal Minds, Baskets, Shameless, The Americans, NCIS & NCIS New and others.

Volokh shared his impressions of working with Hollywood stars with Topaller during their conversation.

“Their first and main feature is, of course, high professionalism. It is quite difficult to assess their human qualities, because there is no special personal communication on the site, although there were some moments. For example, I worked in the film “Swordfish” with Travolta, where Hugh Jackman was also involved. He's a wonderful dude, by the way. I was just doing a play at the time, and he was the only one of the entire film team who came to this performance with his family, but he is a theater lover himself,” Volokh said.

According to him, Travolta impressed him as a gentle and courteous person, but he still showed “show off,” if not the juice he asked for was brought to him during the break.

“I also remember how Travolta then (it was 15 or 17 years ago) taught Hugh Jackman how to behave at a press conference. Travolta said that journalists would try to start a conversation on personal topics, but their questions must be translated into the film,” Volokh recalled.

There are legends that it is very hard to work with Spielberg?

It should be borne in mind that I did not work with him the way he works with Harisson Ford, for example, there were clashes, but from what I observed, I had the impression of a soft and intelligent person about him. He approached everyone and asked how he was doing, and he explains the details to the actors in the process of shooting, he recruits the actors himself, and they already know what to do.

How many films have you done in Hollywood?

In total, if you include television series, which are the majority, then I have over 150 works. Here I enter the category of so-called Journeyman Actor, a working actor who moves from one film to another. This is such an acting middle class. There is a group of several Russian-speaking actors in this class.

You really starred in some Hollywood films, but there are Russian actors who play “dead fascists” all the time in Hollywood, but at home they boast that they have “conquered Hollywood”.

“Conquering Hollywood” is a very relative concept. I don't know if this is possible in principle. That is, it sounds nice to the public, but what does it mean to “conquer Hollywood”? There is a working actor who goes from film to film. Los Angeles, no matter how you look at it, is a city of auditions, even actors with a name in Los Angeles go to auditions. I'm not talking about people like Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise - they don't audition unless there's a script they want. There are not many worthwhile scripts, and sometimes producers choose between, for example, De Niro and Al Pacino, so there is also competition in the upper echelons.

Be honest, is Hollywood a rotten organization? After all, there are practically no such talented films as there were before.

All this is business, big business. I believe that this business, like everything else, does not stand still and is changing all the time. Big problems for the Actors Guild brought new media, social networks and the need to adapt to them. Now this is somehow leveling off on the sly, but still it all changes all the time. I think that talented things are always rare, but they appear. Again, this is a business, a lot of money is turned on this, the producers are looking to make money when the movie comes out, so mass films are being made. This is not the same as in Russia, when public funds are being sawn in the process of shooting.

How did you decide to go to the USA?

Well, first, I married an American. We had mutual feelings, although, frankly, I did not rule out that it was an opportunity to go to work in the USA. But the marriage did not last, we lived together 8 months. Those times were a bit different, and the process of getting a green card through marriage was easier. I received a temporary green card, but then my wife decided to divorce, I asked to wait a bit before receiving the permanent resident card, but she still divorced me. I was in a panic, but that was good, she, her friend and mother wrote an official confirmation that it was a real marriage, not a fictitious one. And in this I was lucky. But I’m telling everyone that I left for distribution.

Full video interview about how the first years of life of the actor in the United States and how he, slicing sandwiches in an American restaurant, envied his fellow students from the Moscow Art Theater School, who became famous actors in Russia, see below.

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