Korobko: the best players get into our national hockey team

The World Hockey Championship is now in full swing. In parallel with this important event, filming continues in Moscow for the fifth season of the much-loved series “Youth” on STS. Actor Ilya Korobko, who plays the role of exemplary hockey player Mikhail Ponomaryov, met with “Championship” and talked about his sports hobbies, love for surfing and filming of the new season.

– Ilya, now everyone is following the game of our national team at the World Championship in Cologne, but do you have time to watch the matches?

– We have recently started shooting the fifth season of “Youth”, and that’s why I manage to watch just a couple of games. On the set between takes we find out the score. For five years of shooting in the project actors, and the entire crew are now a fan of this sport. Hockey is an integral part of our lives. You have to not just follow it, but to delve into it, to try to understand what is going on in this world.

– Who from the current roster do you like?

– I don’t want to single out anyone, after all, this is a team, and we should talk about the team. One in the field is not a warrior. And the national team gets the best, the elite, gathered from all over the country, the real talents.

– How do you evaluate our opportunities at the World Championship?

– We played the first match with a strain, but now we are performing well, despite the defeat in the match against the USA. I hope we will reach the final. Of course, our opponents are strong, the same America, for example. In any case, I wish the guys to show character and prove that they really can! Hockey is very interesting to watch now, the level of athletes, sports medicine is growing, technical equipment is improving. We recently got a new generation of skates on the set, and even we, non-professionals, noticed the difference, and what to say about people who have their blades made to order! Our national team is powerful, and I’m not worried about the guys.

– Now many people are worried that NHL players may not make it to the Olympics. What do you think about it?

– Let them deal with it, but I think it’s stupid to ban a player from playing for his national team. I hope that if they are offered to choose, they will certainly choose the national team. Speaking in general, hockey is very developed in our country. For five years that we star in “Youth”, have seen and communicated with many hockey players. We have young talents, great coaches, technical capabilities. More and more ice palaces are being built.

– Of the young talents, who could you mention?

– Kirill Kaprizov, our star (smiles). When we were in Novogorsk, we met a huge number of talented and young guys. What I really like about them is that they are self-confident and at the same time very kind. I have rarely met aggressive, angry ones. If only goalkeepers… but I’m kidding! In fact, goalies are the most saintly. In general, I have a very good impression of hockey kids. They’re all involved, and that’s cool! It’s especially great when a kid likes it.

– Are you more interested in watching professionals or hopefuls?

– I love watching the pros. The other night I couldn’t sleep because my dad and I were watching Ovechkin and Malkin. Two of my favorite players! I like Ovechkin a lot, and he’s cool in person. When we met, I found out he has the same passion for dogs as I do. He has five hollow sheepdogs (smiles). I hope to build a house and breed them the same way!

– What team in the KHL do you prefer?

– I’ve been a fan of CSKA soccer club since childhood, and my love for the Army Men was transferred to hockey five years ago. At that time Radulov was still playing for my favorite team, and I just enjoyed those games. It’s funny that the first and second seasons of “Youth” coincided with the period when CSKA hockey was at its best.

– How did you feel about the departure of Dmitry Kvartalnov?

– It’s a shame, of course. When the team was on the rise, there was a lot of excitement around the games, more often than not you wanted to go out with your friends and watch a game. Now it’s a little different.

– In this Gagarin Cup, some people had hope that CSKA could win. Were you upset because your favorite team lost?

– I was happy for Alexander Sokolovsky (actor, Ilya’s colleague from the TV series “Molodezhka” – Editor’s note). He’s a SKA fan. To be honest, I’ve been jealous of St. Petersburg all my life, because they have only one team in both soccer and hockey. It would be great if Moscow had one CSKA team and no one else. There would be no such disunity. My dad is a Spartak fan, he goes to the stadium, and there are about 44 thousand people there. It’s such a shame, more people could have come.

– How do you and your dad get along at home, if you are for CSKA and he is for Spartak?

– Now I live separately, but before we watched soccer in separate rooms. Naturally, we have never had any conflicts about it, everything is amicable.

– So you follow soccer too?

– If possible. I support Juventus, but mostly I watch only important matches, Champions League, European and world championships. I love soccer almost since I was in diapers, as I was professionally engaged in the section until I was 14 years old. My dad even tried to give me to CSKA, but realized that all this will not bring the desired result. And I abruptly went into acting.

– Have you never regretted not becoming a professional athlete?

– Frankly speaking, as a child I dreamed of being a clown, and when I got into the Lenkom theater, I realized that I would be on stage. There were, of course, such moments when during the filming of “Molodezhka” thoughts crept in, what if I became a hockey player? Nevertheless, I wouldn’t trade my job for anything now. Here I was a hockey player for five years, then a special forces officer, a lawyer, whatever! You get to live a lot of different lives.

– You watch hockey as a spectator and play on the ice yourself. Where is more interesting?

– When I watch hockey at the stadium as a spectator, I am wildly interested and cool, because I relax, give in to the general heat of passion and cheer for the team. However, as soon as I leave the game, these feelings are quickly forgotten, because I start thinking about work. But when I come to the court, put on my uniform, go out on the ice, and you are applauded by the crowd, then I understand how the players I looked at yesterday feel. It’s cool both in the stands and on the ice.

– What did hockey teach you?

– Personally, hockey has given me an inner core. I literally went from the soccer locker room to the hockey locker room and saw what a real man’s sport is. It helped me not only in my work, but also in my life. I realized that somewhere I can be a little bit tougher, tougher, more mature, more powerful. When you have constant training on the ice, the rhythm of life speeds up. Even if you play one game during the week, you can’t stop, you want to pick up the stick and go play again!

– Why are you so attracted to training?

– What attracts me to hockey itself is the nature of the sport, the feelings you get on the ice, being in shape, with a stick in your hands, when your partners are near you and your opponents are opposite. The whistle blows, the game starts, and there’s no turning back. It’s like surfing!

– That’s a pretty amazing comparison! You surf too?

– While I was at school, every summer my parents sent me and my sister to a surfing school in France, on the ocean. There I stood on a board for the first time, rode a wave and felt extraordinary pleasure. Since then surfing is my love.

– In general, it’s not the easiest sport.

– Yeah, surfing is incredibly physically demanding. You surf from 6 to 12 in the morning, until the solstice, then you seem to be exhausted, and next to it – the ocean… I don’t know, it’s hard to describe this delight in words. The first time I got up in the surf though, it was a really nasty feeling. Bad weather, rain, wet wetsuit. There were huge waves and I had a hard time getting out of the ocean and onto the shore.

– Do you remember your first training on ice?

– It took me two weeks to get used to how to put on my shields properly, how to tape them up. At first I laughed, I didn’t understand why I had to do it at all. Now, if there is no duct tape on the set, I am the first to shout for it to be brought, otherwise the leggings fall off (smiles). It’s also funny when a new actor appears on the show and you tell him, as an experienced player, that he wrapped his putter wrong. I’ve always been curious why movies show a coach taking a board and drawing a diagram of the game on it – I didn’t understand anything either. Now, of course, the coach draws, and you realize in your head what and how to do. We felt hockey most of all when 300 people were brought to the playground. You throw the puck in and they all start screaming! The feeling is akin to when you come out to the audience to bow after a well-performed play. And still there are doubts on stage, because you don’t know whether you personally played your role well or badly. But on the ice, you can see the result at once – the puck in the goal.

I think hockey players have incredible feelings on the ice. Can you imagine how Ovechkin felt when he scored his 500th goal? There were hats flying onto the ice! Probably, this moment can only be compared to when a prima ballerina on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater receives bouquets. But in hockey, that’s how you thank almost every other player. You score three goals and get teddy bears on the ice.

– Don’t these feelings lose their significance over time, don’t they become commonplace?

– No, these feelings can’t become mundane. It’s like kissing a loved one. You still get a prick somewhere in your heart. All the more it is human attention with positive emotions, and it is worth a lot.

I remember walking down the street once with a classmate who was starring in another TV series, also famous. And he heard mostly negativity in his address. But people came up to me, shook my hand and said “Thank you” for our project. When everything just started with “Youth”, I did not think that everything would work out this way.

– How did you pass casting in “Youth”, how did you prepare for filming?

-We had an unusual casting. We spent three months trying out for the project, as if we were re-entering the theater school. 800 people for a place, and no one could not skate! Initially we wanted to take on the main roles of professional hockey players, but then we changed our minds, we decided that it was better to teach artists to skate.

After we were approved for the project, we gathered at the Reebok store, where we received skates and a training schedule. Three times a week for two hours a day we practiced in the gym and on the ice. There were two coaches for five artists – practically one-on-one sessions. It seemed as if we were in Hollywood – we were constantly working and practicing. They took us to Novogorsk, to the Dynamo training base. They traveled to our national team. We talked to all the top hockey players of the country – they all came to our court. Oleg Znarok, by the way, loves “Molodezhka” very much, he constantly asks the producers to send him episodes before the broadcast, because he doesn’t want to wait (smiles). And they send him disks.

– Your character Misha Ponomaryov has a prototype in real life?

– No, the scriptwriters did not try to write off characters from real people, although all the stories are just the opposite taken from the lives of hockey players. These are all collective images. Nevertheless, Misha Ponomariov has the number 95 for a reason. If you remember, this number belonged to one of the captains of our national team, Alexey Morozov. We talked to him a lot, and he even took part in the filming of the first season. We keep Misha’s number 95, despite the fact that Ponomarev moved to another team. Thus we pay tribute to my favorite captain and player of my favorite team. We are also trying to convey Morozov’s technique and his style of play on the screen together with the understudies.

– What do Misha Ponomaryov and Ilya Korobko have in common?

– Naturally, Misha and I are two completely different people. I’m not such a bad actor that I can’t play a given role. Misha is internally very calm, able to stand a pause, soberly assess the situation, reflect, and only then – to do. In most cases he keeps silent, waits, takes an observant position. We made Misha a real man, honest, sincere, who will never cheat or betray.

Ilya Korobko is a completely different person (smiles). Emotional, agitated, he can immediately say what he thinks, or on the contrary, keep silent, hold a grudge. I am far from being a calm person.

Of course, the director at the casting had the task of finding actors who maximally fit the written images. That is, some basic character trait had to coincide. And Misha and I are related by kindness. This is my personal, even family quality. Ponomarev is a lover of noble hockey and a noble man. At one time Nikolai Karachentsov told me that a real actor should be a noble and educated man, with whom it is interesting to communicate. I fully share his point of view.

– What could you compare hockey to?

– My colleagues and I made a parallel and found out that hockey is very similar to the acting profession. There are a lot of overlapping factors. For example, any hockey player has his own agent who helps him look for work. There is tremendous competition in the hockey world. Children of rich parents have some advantages. It is the same in the life of actors.

Hockey is a team sport, fast, energetic, which builds a sense of partnership in you. And people go into the acting profession for that sense of partnership, for that energy.

– Lastly, reveal the secret that the audience is waiting in the fifth, the final season of “Youth”?

– All the secrets I can not tell, but believe me, it will be really interesting. My hero scriptwriters prescribed another sport – fighting without rules. And I have, to be honest, now all the fists are knocked down (smiles). The fifth season is called “Adult Life”, so everything will be mature. There will also be a lot of hockey waiting for the viewers.