Oleg Menshikov's biography is well-known and laconic: rapid ascent, fame he won in 19 and hasn't lost ever since, reluctance to give interviews, sea of fans and not a nugget of information about his private life. He was born on November 8, 1960. He is a Scorpio and a Rat. He is 40.
He is a recluse surrounded by many people. He is jovial and sociable. No one knows anything about him. Except for one thing - he is a very good actor.
In an interview he once said it wasn't important for him what film with Brando or Depardieu to watch, it'd be interesting for him all the same. In fact, it's not important what films Menshikov acted in. The thought about him never having been acting in bad films is fable. The point is the films with Oleg Menshikov become at least interesting. Well, at least, for me.
Viewers fell in love with Menshikov after "The Pokrovskie Gate" - the film, which in spite of the constellation of actors was held up only by him - light and precise, imponderable like a stroke of a pen. Menshikov managed to reproduce the period he never lived in - so convincing it was even frightening. And he forever favoured it with fascination that never existed in reality.
He is an eternal boy. He is exactly the way most people want to see him: Kostik from "The Pokrovskie Gate", cadet Tolstoy from "The Barber Of Siberia", an eternal student from "Flights in Dreams and Reality" and "With The Orchestra Along The Main Street". He is incredibly attractive, his charm and brightness shine from TV screens. This is the man everyone loves.
However, there is also another Menshikov. Menshikov-Caligula (staged by P. Fomenko). A masterly drama actor who wields a great many nuances, half tins, half smiles, half glances. I don't know what kind of Camus's Caligula unbelievably attractive Gerard Philippe was. Nevertheless, Menshikov's work struck home. The performance became a theatre legend, although not everyone saw it.
Far fewer people saw the performance "'N' Nijinski". "The delicate canvas of actor's improvisation, emotional bursts arose unexpectedly leaving no space for boredom".
At the same time, there was intensive cinema work. No matter what anyone thought about controversial "Burnt By The Sun", in this film Menshikov captured everyone. Sergey Bodrov's "Prisoner Of The Mountains" first was considered "just another work for a very good fee". However, it turned out to be an unusual work. Some think, why would Bodrov turn the only actor with an intelligent face into a cheeky boor? But "what makes me wonder is how refined Menshikov, who leads a super secluded life, managed to catch this special street grace, this rogue cruelty, this magic ability not to think about anything, this lonely restlessness… and again show verity and truth" (A. Solntseva).
Menshikov's acting truth is a special reality: he is always convincing and always special. It is hard to imagine such stubborn, quiet and selfless love as the one doctor Golovin feels in "East-West", but Menshikov portrays it as if it existed in reality. He is not a stranger in any epoch. They say he wears Armani and rides in a "Mercedes", still he looks great in prison overalls, tails and uniforms as if he were born in them. He is not a stranger in any culture. It is hard to guess his nationality: he doesn't know French, but speaks it as if it were his native language.
He has been an idol of the young for too long and is "too used to considering himself a symbol of youth". When being 38 he played an 18-year-old cadet from "The Barber of Siberia" - a role of a cute boy - again he managed to show tragedy and convincingness of this hysteric and sketchy character. It was frightening: is there anything more pitiful than a senescent eternal boy?.. His next role was Golovin. And things were cleared up again.
Insensibly and skillfully, he became a director. His "Woe From Wit" was doomed to be a success. Still it caused a gust of critical essays. Why? Because this beautiful and expensive performance surpassed the border of aesthetic interpretation of the classics. Each monologue of Chatsky - very well known to everyone - is the present-day and painful truth.
That's why every role of his is a scrap of life, which comes painfully and demands big concentration. Because everything is held up by him, since long ago people go "to watch Menshikov". The same thing will be with his new theatre work "Kitchen".
His acting means? Besides natural charm, mercilessly exploited by cinematograph, one can name some special inner excitement, which gives an impression of a very personal reading of a role. There is also attention towards details. He creates a character as if painting a miniature very precisely. Then it turns out the miniature is huge. He brings cinematographic close-ups to the theatre. Actually, Menshikov is an actor of the close-up. He is extremely lively, but it is the close-up that is the most interesting to watch. When he is silent. And to listen to the richness of inflexions. He can make anything he wants out of plain lines. A primitive role or bad lines - actors often grumble about - seem not to exist for him.
One can name several very good actors of his generation. For example, former Kiever Sergey Makovetsky. However, there is no other actor who can unite charm and profundity, virtuosity of mimicry, plasticity, inflexion and knocking out emotionality. For all that, Menshikov is probably a genial actor.