Samara clown loses 80 kg, becomes dramatic actor

A serious dramatic actor. A hereditary chef. Unmarried. This is all about Alexander Morozov. The famous native of Samara (the actor was born and raised in the regional center) visited his hometown and gave an exclusive interview to 63.RU. We talked about losing 80 kilograms (176 lbs) and hate, about his new image and roles, about big cinema, girls, and Samara. Watch the video interview, and read the extended version below.

Alexander Alexeyevich Morozov (born 16 July 1973 in Kuybyshev) is a Russian entertainer, actor, teacher, humorist, clown, and TV host. He gained immense popularity thanks to his participation in the shows «Laugh Panorama» and «Crooked Mirror». Several years ago, the artist underwent gastric bypass surgery, which allowed him to lose 80 kilograms (176 lbs).

I don«t notice many changes in Bezymyanka over the years

— How often do you visit Samara?

— I visit Samara very rarely, unfortunately. I don«t even know why. Although my mother lives here, my brother lives here. Mostly, I manage to combine work and our family meetings. Today, I came to you from my mother»s.

— Maybe you«ve noticed some changes in Samara over the last 10 years?

— Well, I should start by saying this is my homeland. And how can you not love your homeland? But, you know, I«m from a working-class district called Bezymyanka. And I honestly admit, I don»t notice any special changes there, and that«s a bit sad.

But the center of Samara, of course, has blossomed. Beautiful buildings have appeared. Before, there were many dilapidated houses, it was somewhat gloomy. And now Samara, I think, is like a pearl on the Volga. Because I travel a lot for work and note that the center of Samara is truly wonderful.

— What city would you compare Samara to?

— I probably wouldn«t compare it, because there»s a certain spirit here. For example, nowhere, in any city on the Volga, is there such a thing in summer where the whole city goes to the other side of the Volga to relax. Everything here is tied to the river. Maybe, of course, I imagined it myself, but I think the city-forming enterprise in Samara is the Volga itself. I was born on it, I«m a fisherman, and you could say the Volga flows in my veins. In other cities on the Volga, I didn»t feel that sense of the river«s importance. I visit Saratov, Astrakhan, Volgograd. There, their attitude to the Volga is just a river. But in Samara, I think it»s different.

My first creative experiments were on Leningradskaya

— Are there places in Samara that you really like?

— Right now, we«re in the Opera and Ballet Theater. And if you walk across the square, there»s my alma mater, the Institute of Culture and Arts. And probably the happiest years of my life, my student years, are connected precisely to the city center.

Another favorite place is our drama theater. Also… Samara natives will understand, this is, of course, the bottom. (Laughs.) Of course, the embankment. And on Leningradskaya, I had my first creative experiments.

— Tell us about it!

— I started as a clown and street performer. And on Leningradskaya (we, as freshmen, would take makeup, sew costumes ourselves) we had so-called hat performances. We«d put a hat on the asphalt, show various acts—people would walk by and throw some money to us poor students.

— Do you remember what you spent your first fee from performances on Leningradskaya on?

— On alcohol. (Laughs.) What did we students need back then? Some bread with sausage, something to drink—that«s basically it.

— You came to Samara for the 63.RU People«s Award, where the best restaurants, bars, and cafes were named. Do you often go to such places? Especially in Samara?

— I«m a hereditary chef, my mother was a pastry chef-technologist at the »Rossiya« chocolate factory in the past. I»ve had enough chocolate for a lifetime, honestly. And not because my mother worked there—she didn«t steal, by the way. But since we lived near the »chocolate factory,« many worked there, and they»d bring it. So there was always a lot of chocolate around. (Laughs.)

— What was your favorite chocolate at that time?

— You won«t believe it, it wasn»t sold. This chocolate was never sold at all. The thing is, at the «chocolate factory,» there was defective candy—all the varieties produced there, but with different defects. And they were ground into powder and packed into huge paper bags. And we kids would climb over the fence (they chased us, of course), tear those bags, spit on our hands, and make snowballs from this powder. And it was the tastiest treat on the planet! Because it had grillage, «Razdolye,» and everything that existed on earth.

But back to the question about restaurants—I cook myself, so I don«t really like going to restaurants. I prefer to cook at home myself.

— What do you cook most often at home?

— Since I«m a fisherman, a former hunter (now I try not to do that, I»m getting older, I feel sorry for the animals). In general, I really like to procure it myself, cook it myself, and обязательно feed my friends. I like to cook something from meat myself.

— Can you name a simple recipe off the top of your head?

— Yes, of course. You need to find a hunter friend to get you a good fat goose. And chop this goose very finely into a pot and, strangely enough, just cut oranges into slices without the peel—and stew it in oranges. For quite a long time. At a low temperature, about 180 degrees, I think, you need to stew it for three hours. And the goose becomes tender, and the orange turns into some amazing, new product, not so sweet, but giving a fabulous aroma to the dish. I adore wild goose in oranges.

— Have you tried any new recipes? Tell us, what have you cooked recently that«s new?

— Oh, I«m so primitive with food. I love fried potatoes the most. I live in Zvenigorod, in the Moscow region. And recently, I stopped by a market, and they were selling fish, I think it»s Baltic herring. In small buckets. And I thought: «Ah, with boiled potatoes in their jackets, it»ll be great.« Well. That»s my last pleasant impression of that fish. (Laughs.) It turned out not so tasty.

And trying something new… I don«t even know. Right now, we have rehearsals with Petrosyan, and we have Zhenya Kryzhanovsky there, he»s from Belarus. And we had an argument. He started telling me that Belarusian Parmesan is the most Parmesan Parmesan in the world. To which I said it«s a lie, Parmesan can only be Italian, when it»s not Parmesan but Parmigiano. But that«s sanctions stuff, but I have a friend in Italy, he periodically sends me real Parmigiano. And we argued. He brought me a little Belarusian Parmesan, and I gave him a small piece of Parmigiano. He tried it and said: »That«s it, I give up.»

Many would still like to see me as the fat clown

— Tell us, what projects are you involved in? I found in open sources that you perform at the «Shalom» theater, is that correct?

— I«ve already left there. The thing is, the management changed, with which I didn»t quite agree. And I had plays there, in my work book it says: «Leading stage master,» that«s the highest category of artists in the theater. But I was invited there by Alexander Semyonovich Levenbuk, and he recently passed away. And I felt uneasy there. And when I was offered to leave the theater, I did it, probably without regret. But with longing for that theater, when there were many Jewish songs, dances, real, national, traditional, Jewish culture. Now there»s a different repertoire. I«m not saying it»s bad. Just different.

I«ve now gone only into commercial theater. I have many plays. Because I»ve changed a bit, by 80 kilograms (laughs), of course, I«ve lost on the variety stage. That is, many probably would like to see that fat and funny person, the clown. But, you know, after all, by education, I»m a dramatic actor. And I think I«ve now, on the contrary, gained. The acting range has, I think, expanded a lot, because I»m no longer a hostage only to comedic roles. I play from drama to tragedy. I play Aesop. So I«m enjoying it in that sense. Yes, I miss the variety stage, undoubtedly. There»s less of it. Now on the variety stage, we«re filming »Petrosyan Show.«

— In what role would you like to try yourself? I mean in drama.

— I have all that. Why try myself in this? I dream of big, good cinema. But I«m rarely invited. And I understand why. For now, there»s still a certain stamp on my forehead—ah, that one from «Crooked Mirror,» fat, funny.

But I«m starting now with slow steps with good, short films. Recently, a film I played in, called »Rollback,« took first place among short feature films. There»s wonderful cinema. Called «The Dad Who Lives on the Roof.» We just shot it, finished editing, dubbed it. I watched it—I liked it, but viewers haven«t seen it yet. I»d like it to become a full-length film, because the idea is very cool.

It«s not happening yet, to be invited to some picture—and you wake up in the morning a famous Russian film actor. Unfortunately, that doesn»t happen. So I«m going with tiny, tiny steps. In general, there»s a common opinion that cinema is primarily a clique. If you get in, everything will be good. Agents pass you to each other, directors pass you, if you«re well-recommended. Of course, probably, it»s hard for directors to just take someone off the street—how they behave on set is unclear; maybe they drink or something else. Anything can happen. They mostly take some proven people, whom they can rely on.

— I can«t help but ask about your career in »Crooked Mirror« and »Laugh Panorama.« Do you have a least favorite image from that period?

— There was such an experiment, but, fortunately, it didn«t air. Someone from the writers wrote a parody of Pugacheva for me. First, the text wasn»t funny. Second, there should have been physical recognizability, external. And so they made me up as her, put me in leggings, some tasteless thigh boots, some kind of loose dress, an unclear wig. And I stood in the dressing room, when they did all this, looked at myself in the mirror and thought: «God, what a disgusting sight. Well, the viewer will say everything they think.» And so I went out to the audience, showed what I can do, what kind of Pugacheva I am. In general, the viewer was as perplexed as I was.

And I realized that such parody experiments aren«t for me. Because in my repertoire, there are many charming, funny silly girls, funny girls with pigtails. They definitely worked for me, and I love all these roles. And in general, you know, I believe a man can be proud if he successfully handles female roles, without false modesty, because it»s not so simple. We can count on fingers the male actors who play women and it doesn«t cause some disgust.

My health was at zero

— I read in one of your interviews that the audience didn«t immediately accept you after the gastric bypass surgery, there were many negative comments. Was that really the case?

— It was. As they say fashionably now, hate, right? There was a lot of hate. Well, I understand it perfectly, because I even got it from Petrosyan for this, let alone ordinary viewers? Of course, it came in full force. But also, when I lost 80 kilograms, everything sagged, and my face became like a Shar-Pei«s. And then our main TV director told me: »Sanya, I can«t take your close-ups, you»re just scary, an unattractive person.« Of course, that couldn»t make the viewer laugh. It only caused some pity, because I was very unpleasant-looking. I had to work on it for a long time. I«m still in the process.

— How do you maintain your shape now? Do you follow any diet?

— I«m a hedonist. Probably, that»s considered a bad word now. But before, hedonism had a positive connotation. I like to enjoy everything in life—from food, sleep, walks, doing nothing, from everything that happens. I get a kick out of it. And I don«t want to burden myself with physical exertion. I know I should, but I don»t want to. (Laughs.)

— If you had to go through the whole gastric bypass procedure again, would you do it?

— Of course. Well, imagine, by my 50s, well 45, I had just become a wreck. My health was simply at zero. The quality of life was so poor, sorry for the tautology, when you wake up, you don«t feel like living, what»s the point of such a life? And now I«m like reborn. Everything is new for me, nothing hurts. I»m young, promising, unmarried.

— About being unmarried. A question from female fans: is your heart free and where can you be met?

— Well, there«s a small chance, of course. (Laughs.) Come to Zvenigorod and sing a serenade under the windows with the words »Morozov, come out on the balcony.« (Laughs.) I have a small French balcony, and it would be beautiful if a girl played something, on a harpsichord, for example, under the balcony. (Laughs.)

But seriously, you know, I«ve been married so many times that I»m calm about marriage and relationships. If God gives me a seventh wife (my favorite number, by the way), and then that«s it, you can put a cross on yourself as a bridegroom, have children, in general, enjoy life. And why not? Charlie Chaplin at 52 or 53, I don»t remember exactly, married an 18-year-old. And nothing. And there were normal kids, and everything was fine.