November 18 on the PREMIER video service, the series "Beyond Myself" is released. This is a multi-genre story about a brilliant financier who loses his memory and begins to see ghosts. The main role of a "slightly" insane person was played by Evgeny Stychkin, a multifaceted theater and film actor. Here are 10 interesting facts from his biography.
Genealogy fan
Yevgeny Stychkin was born into an intelligent family: his mother Elena Ryabinkina is the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre, and his father Alexei Stychkin is a simultaneous interpreter at the UN. Eugene was so carried away by studying the history of his family that he even compiled a family tree up to the seventh generation. And in the process, he discovered the memoirs of his grandmother, actress of the Bolshoi Theater Alla Tsabel, forgotten in the closet, and decided to publish them as a book.
“Grandmother Alla Sergeevna Tsabel has a very rich past. About everything that happened to her, she wrote for herself, on the table. She was the daughter of a white general, but at the same time a staunch Bolshevik. She joined the party and believed in Soviet power until the end of her life, and this was with her brother tortured in the camp. She also gave an interesting description of the formation of the Soviet Bolshoi Theatre, where she first danced and then headed the troupe,” Stychkin told the 7 Days portal.
Random VGIK student
At the theater institute Evgeny Stychkin was the favorite of the teachers. He came earlier, left later, always rushed into battle, without any fear and embarrassment, he took on absolutely any task. Perhaps it was thanks to this that the aspiring actor got his first role shortly after starting his studies - it was the movie "Bee". However, the irony is that Stychkin should not have ended up at VGIK at all. He was going to follow in his father's footsteps and learn foreign languages, but accidentally wandered into a theater audition with friends.
The parents did not approve of their son's choice, because they knew many examples of good actors who earned pennies. But realizing the fact that in the future he will be able to become a director or screenwriter, they did not interfere with Yevgeny's creative path.
Directorial debut
Ultimately, Stychkin became a director, however, it took almost 30 years of his acting career. Eugene directed the series "Contact" for TNT and PREMIER. This is a story about a single father who works in the juvenile police department, but can't get along with his daughter. To get closer, he decides to get in touch with her through the social networks of one of his charges - a dysfunctional teenager.
“I have wanted to shoot for a long time, I thought about it. shared some ideas, but when my friends-producers told me "let's shoot", I kept denying it. And then I was offered a specific script, and I really liked it! Therefore, I decided that the time had come,”said Stychkin. Evgeny admitted that it was not so easy to be on the other side of the barricades, but expressed the hope that his fellow actors enjoyed working with him as a director.
Father of many children
Yevgeny Stychkin chose the theme of fathers and children for his directorial debut, partly because it is close to him as well. The actor has long been a father of many children: he has three children from his first marriage with pianist Ekaterina Skanavi, a joint child with actress Yulia Zhemchugova, and in 2020 Stychkin tried on the role of a parent already in a new marriage - with actress Olga Sutulova, for whom the born boy became firstborn. Stychkin flew in for the birth of his fifth child, without even having time to wash off the makeup from the filming: he just stood in the ward with a “broken” face.
“Evgeny prepared, prepared and…. it turned out not in vain. I gave birth to a guy, adopted him, checked everything and sent him to warm up. The guy was met by an almost male company. With a strong gender bias anyway. To the sounds of the Rolling Stones, he was received by a pair of male golden hands of Russia and handed over to dad. And dad is already for me,”the actor’s wife shared.
Gun Lover
Stychkin is a fan of all kinds of weapons. He took over this hobby from his father, who was a collector. Most of all, Evgeny is impressed by edged weapons, he calls the Japanese sword katana his favorite. However, it also sometimes works with firearms: for example, in the series “Beyond Himself”, its hero picks up a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Played a man with a mental disorder
At the dawn of his theatrical career, Evgeny Stychkin found himself in a comedy role, risking being stuck in it for a long time due to the peculiarities of his appearance. The actor became very careful with the choice of scripts, wanting to prove himself as a versatile artist. He even said that he was ready to act for free, just not to be a hostage of one image. The series "Beyond Myself" gave Stychkin an ideal role in which he could show absolutely from all sides. There is a thriller, and a detective story, and a comedy, and a tragedy. In addition, Evgeny had to be responsible for other characters, too, because in fact the phantom heroes of Elena Lyadova and Evgeny Tsyganov are also part of the image of the main character.
“We are one. We are a person divided into three people, my thoughts, my feelings, we express them in different ways. Just as in any of us some principles are fighting: male or female, love, fear, and so on. I also have these two people in me, and our opinions: mine, Lena, Zhenya, somehow mixed up, create a single personality - we play one person in three,”Stychkin describes a difficult role.
Three weeks of silence
Stychkin has become one of the most sought-after Russian actors in recent years. At some point, there were so many offers that Eugene decided to escape from this endless work flow. The actor went to catch Zen in the Indian village of Hampi, where the English writer Rudyard Kipling was inspired to write The Jungle Book. There, Stychkin took a voluntary vipassana and simply remained silent for three weeks.
“It was great there. It used to be the capital of the Vijayanagar Empire. When the Muslims occupied the city, the Hindus left and did not return. Carved majestic temples, huge boulders, yellow mountains, green fields and blue skies. Such trips are an opportunity to gain strength. I definitely want to repeat it, only now I will go to another friend - to Thailand,”the actor shared his plans with Myseldon.com.
Martial arts fan
Catching Zen Stychkin prefers not only with the help of long-distance trips abroad, but with the help of sports. From an early age, he was engaged in martial arts, then moved to boxing, which allows him to still keep in excellent physical shape. “Love and training are very important,” says the actor. – I have been practicing yoga for quite a long time, I have mastered martial arts since my youth. I also try not to start drinking before 12 noon.”
Hollywood Filming
Love for acting challenges brought Yevgeny Stychkin even to Hollywood. The actor starred in Alexander Nevsky's film "Maximum Impact". And if for some viewers the project was perceived as another pass from Mister Universe, then Stychkin saw it as an opportunity to work with Andrzej Bartkowiak, the man who filmed The Devil's Advocate, Lethal Weapon 4 and many other cult films. In addition to Nevsky and Stychkin, the cast included Danny Trejo and Mark Dacascos, and the stunt coordinator moved straight from The Matrix.
“First of all, I was attracted by the script and Andrzej Bartkowiak. I went there first of all after I found out who it was and got to know him at a meeting when he flew to Russia a few months before filming began. It seemed to me that this could be a very interesting and rewarding experience, regardless of the outcome. I also liked working with Alexander Nevsky, he behaves wildly cute. Friendly, obviously. A certain image that he creates is just a poster,”Evgeny shared his impressions with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Unlike Lenin
And if Stychkin agreed to shoot in "Maximum Impact" easily, then the actor did not want to embody the role of Vladimir Lenin in the film "Trotsky". Eugene believed that he was absolutely not like the leader of the revolution, and therefore he would not succeed in getting into the image. However, the incredible work of the make-up artists still convinced Stychkin, and then he already began to work. To create the image, he was helped by the use of a white mask, although even here it was not easy at first.
“For me, Lenin is a black hole. When I first started preparing for the role, my friend and colleague, the wonderful artist Yuri Chursin, advised me to look at myself in the mirror wearing a white, expressionless mask as one of the exercises in the process of finding character. To find the "eyes" of the character and understand what lives inside the cunning squint of the devil. But I didn't find anything. There is a void. Absolute disregard for human values, for people's lives, the absence of even the rudiments of mercy,” Stychkin describes the image of Lenin in an interview with the Kultura newspaper.
The series "Beyond" will be released on November 18, 2020 on the PREMIER video service.