- Two of you met in the very beginning, at the set of "The Pokrovskie Gate", and not long ago acted together in "East-West".
- Yeah, such a distance, eighteen years. But we've never lost touch. "East-West" is our fifth film.

- Did he change during these years?
- Well, it would be silly if everything remained the same.

- Do you remember how you first met?
- Of course! It happened during the tests for "The Pokrovskie Gate". Kozakov [the director] invited me to play Svetlana, because Irina Muravyova refused. As for Kostik, he was thinking about another actor - a very handsome one, our Alain Delon. Still several more young men were brought to the set. As Mikhail Mikhaylovich [Kozakov] put it, "Just in case". Menshikov was one of them. It was an early morning; everyone came to the set sleepy, with their eyes half shut. And then someone showed him to me. A chubby young man wearing a long-sleeved white shirt - i.e. absolutely unfashionable - nothing spectacular. As you can imagine, at that moment I didn't care much about the partner: I knew the role was mine without any tests, and my partner would be another guy. With such mood, we began acting the first meeting of Kostik and Svetlana. And then… as soon as Oleg opened the door and said, "Oh!" - it became clear that Kostik could be only him. Everyone forgot they wanted to sleep, people came alive. We spent the whole day laughing. Later we became friends for many long years.

- Why while enumerating his directors-teachers does Menshikov name Mikhalkov and Balayan more often than Kozakov?
- I don't know. Maybe because Mikhail Mikhailovich didn't seem to teach us anything? He just gave us a thumb up and admired everything. It is now the film is the classics; and back then we didn't think we were creating something so special. I know that for a long time Oleg considered Kostik his best role. Which, by the way, made him sad, because there were no worthy roles.

- And in 1985 you decided to create a new theatre.
- Valery Fokin became the executive director in the Ermolova Theatre and invited many good actors there. Including Menshikov, Baluev, Lena Yakovleva from the "Sovremennik" Theatre, and I went there from the "Lenkom" Theatre. We were young, romantic, naive, yes-yes, and obsessed with ideas to create something unbelievably wonderful. For the time being. And Menshikov got affront right away. By that time he was already a film actor, he came from the Theatre of the Soviet Army where he had played Ganechka in "Idiot" very well.

And Fokin was staging a publicistic performance "Talk!" based on Obechkin's essays, and Oleg was given a role of… of some boss's secretary. His whole role consisted of two words, something like, "Pick up the receiver, they are calling you from the regional committee." The success was huge; the performance became one of best plays during the reconstruction period "perestroika". But it all happened afterwards. And at first, Oleg was torn apart and asked for advice what to do. Well, really, a young talented romantic hero is given a role of a secretary! I recall, Oleg was very discouraged. However, when he resigned, he began to play that secretary so funny, he began to fool around! We were almost dead from laughter when his character jumped onstage stunned with fear and whispered, "Pick up the receiver! The regional committee!!!" Now Oleg is our romantic mysterious hero, and he does it really good; but it's a pity no one uses his comedy abilities.
Then there was another awful disappointment - "Sport Scenes of the Year 1981", where he got a role of a mama's son who belonged to the Party elite, was absolutely useless - pity was the only possible emotion people would feel for him. I played his wife - a common, but clever girl; and Tatiana Doronina and Viktor Pavlov were his parents. At first, he was extremely negative towards that role too and again wanted to quit, "I don't want to act that! Did I come here for that?!"

- Well, it is a known fact that young actors play "the dinner is served" for quite a long time.
- Nevertheless. That role seemed poor to Oleg and he was very upset. Until we got used to that work. One should awake his interest in the work, then everything sorts itself out. Then the spirit awakes in him.

- There are actors who run to the theatre at the last minute before the performance, there are actors who don't eat anything on this day. What about him, what does he do?
- Nothing. He can chat till the last minute, tell jokes, amuse everyone. He doesn't prepare himself. He enters the stage and acts greatly. I asked him, "Do you prepare at home?" - "Well, yeah, I guess, a little." However, he can refuse to act in a hard scene. All of a sudden. But in this case, sometimes it seems to be because of his laziness, not some high reasons.

- How does he rehearse?
- He doesn't rehearse. No one can make him act at his full capacity at the rehearsal. He can't make himself. That's his nature. He walks about the stage, mumbles something. And doing that he irritates partners and directors. Well, he used to irritate, when he was considered an ordinary actor. Now everything is different.

- Didn't Doronina "force" him?
- Tatiana Vasilievna is a very smart person; she loved him very much and called him Kid. She's a heaven-born actress and feels talent immediately. All those legends that Doronina was capricious and bad-tempered turned out to be wrong in our case. In the end, Oleg acted very well, he even got to like the role; but he began acting only at the dress rehearsal.

- Didn't Fokin argue against that?
- You won't be able to argue with Menshikov. He doesn't like to argue or stand upon his thoughts. Never.

- Does he obey like a lamb?!
- No… he leaves. Someone says something to him, he kind of pretends to listen, and then goes out - to smoke. That's what happened at first. And later he would leave at all. The director would say something to him, and he would turn around and go home without saying a word. That's it. Without arguing or something. That's his remarkable feature of character. So few people tried to argue with him… Then he played Robespierre in "The Second Year Of Freedom" and didn't act in Nabokov's "Invitation to the Execution". He wrote the staging script himself, wished to play the leading character - Cincinnatus; but Fokin offered him a negative role. And he quit. Apparently, he got disappointed in the dream we all used to cherish. It became clear the theatre chose the path that didn't please Oleg.

- He doesn't like to give interviews. Why? Is he afraid of embarrassing questions? Is there no spare minute in his schedule? Or is he tongue-tied maybe?
- No, he speaks well. He has a glib tongue. When he needs it. He is always the life and soul of the party, I would never call him tongue-tied. He just doesn't think it is necessary to publish, reveal his thoughts. He has never liked to do that. Well, I talked to him sometimes. But when we were young. He talks - to those he is friends with now, those who have the same mood. Those who he works with.

- So, the fame didn't change him, did it?
- He has always been like that. He never argued. When he understood everything himself, he just stopped communicating. And he never explained his behaviour. Many people, me included, accused him of being unreliable - for example, he said he would call back and he didn't, without explaining anything. Later I understood one should accept him the way he is. Or not communicate with him at all.

- But it is hard to live like this! One can lose many people like this. Doesn't he value friendship?
- Well, how can I put it… Those who are on friendly terms with him should accept him the way he is.

- All of you, his friends, forgive everything to him, and he doesn't forgive anything ever, is that so?
- See, that's why he doesn't like to give interviews. That's what you write making up a portrait of a capricious star. He just hates it when someone encroaches upon his inner freedom. He had always had this dream - don't do anything unless you want to do it. He made it come true.

- Isn't he afraid, "I'll refuse, they won't invite again; they haven't called for a long time - they forgot about me"?
- He never was. I guess, he was very self-confident and it was his maximalism towards the profession… That's what always astonished me in him. That's what makes us different. Or rather, that's what makes him different from everyone else.

- Can you imagine him doing something else?
- He told me many times that he could do something else. That if he had very much money and could lead any life he wanted, he wouldn't act.

- Didn't you ask him how to earn very much money?
- (Laughs) Those were our romantic dreams, we didn't think about other ideas and professions.

- Not to confide in anyone, not to act unless you want to - all it can make an actor burst. Is he that self-sufficient?
- At any rate, I have never witnessed any fits of hysterics. He could get angry though. On the other hand, he had those moments - fireworks of joy, companies, all nights through, guitar, piano, "Blow out the candles, gentlemen, blow out the candles!" He loves this sort of things very much.

- But he makes an impression of a lonely and separate man.
- I don't know, I don't know. We meet very rarely now, only phone each other, but during the filming of "East-West" he didn't seem lonely to me.

- Regis Wargnier said, "I didn't understand whether Oleg was too proud or too shy".
- Wargnier couldn't understand it! Oleg kept a distance there. He didn't consider it necessary to turn himself inside out - but that's what Wargnier wanted. Oleg liked him. It was impossible to feel the opposite towards him. But there was not close friendship either.

- What can make him lose control? Is there something he can't stand? What doesn't exist for him at all?
- Mmmm, let me think… Of course, it is the betrayal of mutual interests. If he believes a person, who turns out to be not like that, the relationship is over immediately.

- Does he give credence to the first impression?
- He used to be much more credulous. Like all of us. (Laughs)

- He has always had luck with directors and partners. Still he seems to always expect some dirty trick. In his position, he could have relaxed a bit.
- He said once, "Everyone has the right to live the way he wants". I don't feel Oleg is withdrawn into himself. He always wanted to communicate with people he liked and act the things he liked. And I have to admit, that's what he managed to do. I don't really know how he achieved that.

- Does he take risk: all or nothing?
- No. He just listens to his inner voice, you know. Many of us make ourselves do something, are bogged down to unnecessary relationships, friendships. He doesn't let himself do that. In my opinion, he succeeded to achieve what he wanted to. When he decided to stage "Woe From Wit" in the conditions of entreprise, I, for example, thought it was insane. You can't even imagine what a performance with many characters is like in the conditions of entreprise! And he did it! Even now I can't understand how he did that - to find enough money, to keep all the actors…

- Does he know how to find money? Does he persuade? Or do sponsors come to him themselves - attracted by a celebrity name?
- They don't. That's the main thing - in the beginning, everyone kind of gave money, but then, as it always happens in entreprise, everyone refused. He did everything by himself.

- But how?!
- Like that! No one knows. Now he is preparing another project, a modern play "Kitchen" by Maxim Kurochkin, ravings of a madman again. He always does extraordinary things. How he succeeds - I don't know. It's either a huge luck, or a huge belief in his own abilities, or uncommon views on life, profession, himself. I guess, he has all that. Well, tell me one thing - is it normal that he returned back after he had become known in England, received the Olivier prize?

- The story with Vanessa Redgrave made him a king here. Maybe, the performance with her played the key role in his career.
- He got that role under the unbelievable concourse of circumstances! He had always refused to speak English. On tours I asked even keys in foreign hotels for him.

- Is he ill-disposed to languages?
- As it turned out, he is very disposed! Catherine Deneuve said he didn't just speak a foreign language, he acted. After his acting the whole "East-West" crew kissed fingers saying, "Magnifique! He has an accent of a man who has been living in Paris for a long time…" But if, for example, he had had to go somewhere to meet Vanessa Redgrave in Moscow, he would not have stirred a single step! It happened so that she came to the Mossovet Theatre to watch "Caligula" and fell in love with him as an actor. A pure fortuity. The role turned out to be in Russian - Esenin didn't speak any foreign language. Only in these conditions Menshikov went there. Later he got a good English agent, acted in the performance "Gamblers", but severed all relations and came back. He has different conceptions of life, career, profession. Which exactly - you better ask him. But he won't tell you. (Laughs)

- Didn't you try to ask?
- I asked. "I don't like it there!"

- Does the conception of career exist for him in general? Isn't he ambitious?
- Certainly, he is. But he doesn't have this conception of career - like of something official, that one should make it.

- Among his roles, which one is the closest one to his personality?
- He doesn't have such a role.

- What about a role totally different from his nature?
- Dostoevsky's Ganechka Ivolgin. Or "Sport Scenes…" - that's not him at all.

- What is your favourite Menshikov's role?
- "Caligula". He was going crazy about it for several years. He would say, "I want to play him to death". And then it turned out Fomenko was about to stage "Caligula". Oleg gave me a call, "What should I do?!" I said, "You should call him". - "I can't call him myself, can I?!" And I said I'd call myself.

- So, he wanted to death, but couldn't ask?!
- He thought it was impropriate. To give a call to a big director and ask. To put him in an awkward situation, to be refused. What if he had chosen someone already? In the end, I knew a guy who was Fomenko's friend, I gave him a call. It turned out that someone else had told him about Menshikov. Everything coincided.

- Does Menshikov like his today's role of a romantic hero? Doesn't he want a different thing?
- I know that he's dreamed of classic operetta for many years.

- What can one discuss with him in a usual manner?
- Everything.

- What does he read?
- Everything. He is well educated.

- What does he like?
- Classic music. He adores operetta. He plays piano and guitar. He can perform something from operetta. He likes Soviet songs very much. He loves tennis. He loves feasts and is very good at holding them. He loves a good company. Good clothes. He thinks his style over.

- Can he give a call in the usual manner after a number of years?
- Certainly!

- What does he say?
- "Hello! How are you?" As if we said goodbye only yesterday. We meet from time to time, go to a restaurant. But not often.

- He'll be 40 on November 8. Do you think he'll celebrate an anniversary in a special way? Or like an eccentric person, he will hide from everyone?
- No, he loves his birthdays. However, they say one shouldn't celebrate a fortieth anniversary, don't they? And he is quite superstitious.