Yevgeny Mironov on Prince Myshkin (English translation under the cut)
Vladimir Pozner: You say it is difficult for you to play an 'ideal' hero, like [???] was, but here, you played Myshkin. Isn't he the ideal hero?
Evgeny Mironov: No, I found... I found a quality that helped me.
Pozner: Which one?
Mironov: That he's not a person.
Pozner: Which?
M: He's not a person.
P: Then who is he?
M: [takes a deep breath as if to speak, and then chuckles] uh...
P: He's what—an alien?
M: As a matter of fact, uh... he behaves like an alien.
P: Myshkin [does].
M: Yes, because... well, he had been sick twenty years. He's twenty, what, three years old. Out of those twenty-three, he's been sick for twenty. That means he's three years old. Three years is either a child, not yet formed— all of his reactions, they, they—how do I put it—are without any conventions. You and I are talking, we have some sort of etiquette. We have... you know how, uh, uh, Aglaya said to Myshkin, "you have no tenderness, only truth. That is unfair." So, that tenderness that Aglaya spoke about, it's already—how do I put it—it's a necessary sort of quality in the lives of... people, yes? So as not to offend each other. And Myshkin... doesn't understand that—
P: You've played Hamlet?
M: Yes, I played [in] Peter Stein['s production].
P: There. [Note: this is very difficult to translate, but he's saying this more as confirmation, not referring to location]
M: Yes, yes.
P: Is he not similar to Myshkin?
M: No, are you kidding... not at all. [Note: the 'are you kidding' is also difficult to translate and comes across much gentler in Russian than in English]
P: Really, no?
M: No, no no, no no... no, are you kidding... there's, how do I put it, it's a smart— smart person, a student, educated—
P: Well, Myshkin is no fool at all.
M: Myshkin is no fool; his intelligence is innate. He has, you know, almost like all nature from the history of humankind has gathered inside one person, inside Myshkin. Like, the feeling of 'this person is lying' or not lying, or is truthful, or needs to be comforted—this, you know, this is without skin, an x-ray. Myshkin will be completely transparent.
P: Then, let's [put it] this way. Does it ever happen that you live a role so deeply that you cannot get out of it right away?
M: Yes. Myshkin, I was getting out of—if you can say that in relation to Lev Nikolayevich—for... eight.. eight months, around that long. Why I remember is because after that, I had rehearsals for a play, and I understood that I cannot separate from him.
P: Meaning, you were Myshkin playing that role?
M: I can't... I, I, I was in [???] as Myshkin, in Hamlet as Myshkin, and he... despite his weak appearance, is really a fascinating character—how women love him—
P: Why do they love him?
M: —because he loves selflessly, that is also non-human quality. No matter what, we are egoists—
P: In love.
M: Of course.
P: —and to what an extent—
M: Yes.
P: 'Mine!'
M: 'Mine.'
P: 'Mine.'
M: But he's an exception; he's not a person, he's, again—and to women that's very noticeable, they feel that... uh, hm... he is doing this so selflessly and... everything, ready—and next to him is Ganya, um Ivolgin... no, next to him is, um... Rogozhin.
P: Rogozhin.
M: Handsome and all that, but the one everyone loves is Myshkin.
P: Even though that guy is all...
M: Yeah, macho.
P: ...macho and with money...
M: Yes.
P: Everything.
M: Nope, none of that is needed, they need... love, this kind: selfless—
P: Selfless.
M: Yes yes.
P: Yes, actually, that's rather convincing.
