Discussion on War and Personal Choices

That's all.

But what do you mean, "it's terrible"? I mean, how did the war threaten you specifically?

What does that have to do with it? It's just, damn, such a difficult question.

How can we answer that? War is bad, Yur.

War is bad. It's just that there are things that, well,

kind of...

It's very difficult to answer that question. How can I put it?

It's very difficult to answer specifically, but emotionally.

You see, I'm an actor. And as my teacher used to say:

to understand means to feel.

Ah!

Understanding with your head is a poor excuse.

Sorry, I keep saying "a poor excuse," that

phrase.

Anyway,

I felt it.

Stop. Right there. That's all.

Ah,

no, it's just that there are specific stories.

I mean, say, Varya Shmykova, she left because there was simply nowhere

to act.

Yes.

Or if there is somewhere you can, then the level of compromise required...

which she isn't emotionally

ready for.

Yes.

Kukushkin feels the same way.

Well.

Kuznetsov is actually Ukrainian,

for whom it's still more acute than it is for us.

Well, you see, like—

I mean, certain specific things.

I'm just this kind of fool, you know?

Just this kind of fool who simply, well, has these, well, these

principles in life, just

guy principles, I don't know, well, just basic human pri-principles,

where it's just like, okay, thank you, everything was great and

cool, I love everyone, but it's not my thing. Sorry.

But they'll tell you, "Well, you moved to a country that

is also waging war."

Well, please. Well, well,

go ahead, sure, I'll say one hundred percent.

Look, it's a dead-end conversation.

They tell me, "You moved to a country that attacks this group and that group."

I say, "Yes."

Which is true.

I say, “Yes.”

And?

What comes next in the conversation?

Well, you left Russia because, well, you felt that you didn’t want to live

there, in a country that started a war.

Yes.

You moved to a country that keeps starting wars, and

feel good there.

Some people will see

inconsistency in that.

Probably, probably, some people will see it, but that’s not the case,

that’s not the case, because America is a different country,

it’s a different country. And I want to tell you that you can say whatever you want

that I really like, Americans said, it’s a really cool thing. And

in general, what is America?

I’m going to sound pompous now, but I’ll tell the truth,

how I

truly feel about it. It’s the only country in the world

where you can become

a citizen of the country and truly be one. Nowhere else.

In Britain, you'll never, never become British,

you'll still

be an immigrant, you know.

In Italy too, you'll always be an immigrant,

even in Russia.

Well, it's very difficult. People never got any roles,

even if they came from Armenia, you know? They just, well, had always been there.

In America, you become American, because it's a country of immigrants.

Right.

You really become one, you can feel it.

I understand.

That's the first thing. Second.

The first thing they told me in America, you know what?

You can say something very interesting too, right now: "Ah, well, I see,

that's how they all

justify themselves." No, they told me:

"What do

the government and the people have to do with each other?"

They draw a very sharp distinction. It's exactly the same in America.

There are people who

do their own things there, and there are people who, and we

sort of...

but society there is very,

you understand, it's very, well, it, it's very active, it’s

very active.

Right.

Yes.

And ours isn't active?

Well, listen,

I always say, guys, you didn't have 70 years of the Soviet

Union.

Yur, but after 70 years, it's very hard.

Very, very, very hard to see things with fresh eyes, roughly

speaking, with a certain genetic code.

Mm!

So, like, you're saying that in America, even if the state does crazy things,

people can speak out and resist?

Of course.

And in Russia, they can't?

Yeah, even, well, we see it often.

You see what happens to grown people,

on a genetic level, people are simply afraid.

But you don't either…