Marina Petrenko

Marina Petrenko was born in the Crimea, in the city of Simferopol, on January 19, 1987, amid a frosty winter. She was growing a multi-talented child and went in for sports, music and dancing. Being a child, she was dreaming of becoming a ballet-dancer, but her dream was broken when she turned 6 years old. She was not admitted for ballet training. The teachers said that she would become plump when she grew up. The girl had to shortly find a new dream. The world lost a ballet dancer owing to ballet teachers’ short-sightedness, but got an actress instead.Marina’s first steps were made in a school theater. But it was a mere occasion that helped her decide on her future profession.

First role

One sunny day in June 2001 Marina’s father saw on TV that a film director was looking for a girl to play a role in a full-length movie A Prayer For Hetman Mazepa.Marina was 14 years old then.Marina’s father told her mother thatMarina’s photo might be sent to try. Mother understood that there was no chance there and sent a kind of photos that are usually not shown to anybody (“So that not to regret later as she has no chance anyway”). But the things turned the other way. Indeed, there is no flying from fate!

A week later,Marinawas invited for casting to the Hero City of Kiev.Marina went 800 km away from home, for the first time to the capital of theUkraine. They arrived and got out of a car near the Film Studio named after Dovzhenko. Pretty girls from all over the country were standing there, with flashy makeup and on high heels (it turned out that 900 girls came for casting). Mother took a look at Marina and saw her torn jeans, running shoes, two pigtails, and complete absence of makeup. Her daughter’s appearance was the one that is natural for a person having just made a 12-hour trip. Mother suggested that they should get back to the car right there and to go home, butMarinarefused flatly. The film director appeared and began to screen the girls. Those who suited were put left, and those who did not were put right. About twenty girls were selected by such screening, andMarinawas among them. They were taken to the film studio and had long interviews with the film director. As a result, two contesters remained, Marina and one more girl. They were invited to perform a situation. Then, they were told “We’ll think it over”, which is a usual practice at casting, and sent home with a strict warning not to change anything in their outward appearance.

Marinareturned to theCrimea. Two months passed, but nobody telephoned.Marinawas sure that some other girl was taken to play the role, and she went to take the sun by the sea. She plucked her eyebrows, had her hair cut and got tanned like the devil. And it was right then that the film director telephoned her and said: “You are approved”.

“God, spare us such luck!”, - the makeup artists cried when they received a girl fully different from the one they expected to see. They rushed to bleach her skin, to remove the tan, to extend her hair and to finish the eyebrows. At last, she was brought to her initial condition, and she heard the clapper sound for the first time in her life.Marinabecame an actress! Her first production day ended with the film director’s words: “We see the birth of a new star!”.

The movie gained controversial fame. Its world premiere took place in 2002 at the Berlin Film Festival. The movie was included into the out-of-competition program and gave rise to a hot discussion on its alleged nationalist attitudes.

To be or not to be

Marinareturned to her home townSimferopoland went on as a ninth-form pupil. She was flooded with proposals to play in movies in Kiev and Moscow, but she had to refuse them all because of school.Marinarealized that she was not able to wait any longer. Saying nothing to her parents, she prepared a program for admission to the theater institute, bought tickets for a train to Moscow and started bundling. Her parents could not believe that her intentions were serious until seeing her with a suitcase in her hands, ready to run to the railway station right now. Mother realized that something was to be done to save the matter.Marina was simply got off the train and her parents invited their acquaintance, an actress Natalia Vdovina, to talk sense into their child, asking her to tell Marina of all the problems of the actress’ profession and to persuade her out of becoming an actress. They were speaking for many hours. Natalia told her about all the in-betweens and outs and about the troubles that waitedMarinain case of failure, persuaded the girl to wait for two years, to complete the 11th form and then go and make and attempt if her mind did not change.Marinagave her consent. Having left school, she promised her mother that her first higher education would be not that of an actress, and she kept her promise.

In 2003,MarinaenteredKievInternationalUniversity, the faculty of international relations, specializing in international law. She was studying laws and mastering foreign languages (now, she has perfect command of the English, French and Polish languages). But her entering the university was also driven by a hidden intention to remain inKievand to go on with the career of an actress.

For two years,Marinawas studying being certain that she would have to deal with international law all her life and to forget of the career of an actress. However, at the end of the second year, fate again pulled her towards her dream.

They phoned Marinafrom the Film Studio named after Dovzhenko and invited to take part in the tests to a full-length historical movie Heart Of The World. She was approved for the leading role. Preparations for the shooting began, which were very interesting and includedMarina’s training in professional horse riding. Unfortunately, the project was not completed. But every cloud has its silver lining.

A woman, not known to Marina, approached her in a film studio pavilion and invited her to get acquainted with Sergey Aleshechkin, the director of Five Minutes To Metro, a 100-episode film for the First Channel. The shooting was about to begin, but they could not find an actress for one of the leading roles. It was winter;Marina was in a long fur-coat and on high heels, so the director saw her and said, “No, we need someone younger and not that tall!”.Marina went to a ladies’ room, washed away her makeup, gathered her hair in two pigtails, took away high heels and returned to the director barefoot. “Well, it comes closer to the point!”, cried the director.

In two days, the shooting started. It wasMarina’s first prolonged work as the serial was being shot for nine months, similarly to bearing a child. Despite a tight shooting schedule,Marinadid not quit with the university and did not even moved to the extramural form. She managed to do everything, shooting and studying on a full-time basis.

Marinarealized: her dream would come true!

Moscow Art Theater School

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Upon completion of the shooting, Aleksandr Naumov, an actor who performed in the serial (now he isMarina’s close friend and mentor), told her, “You have to go to a theater school anyway!”.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marinamade her final decision: she could no longer live without the actress profession. In 2007, she completed her 3rd year in the university, went toMoscow and rang her mother up from there, saying, “Mother, I am inMoscow and I’m going to try!”. And she managed to. She succeeded in several theater higher education institutions at once, namely, in the Theater Institute named after Shchukin, VGIC (the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography), GITIS (the State Institute of Theater Art) and Moscow Art Theater School. She was welcomed in any of them, but she chose theMoscowArtTheaterSchool, the class of Roman Efimovich Kozak and Dmitry Vladimirovich Brusnikin. And she made it right, indeed.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marinadid not quit with theKievUniversity. She moved to the extramural form of study, and, when having vacation at theMoscowArtTheaterSchool, she would go toKievto pass her law examinations. She graduated from theInternationalUniversityin 2008.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Not the matter to be trifled with

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marina was completing in ordinary course her first year in the Moscow Art Theater School, and at the same time the casting director of Hooked (Na igre), a full-length movie by Pavel Sanaev, being prepared for launching, was vainly looking for her in Kiev, not knowing that she was already in Moscow. The authors of the movie had been choosing the main characters for a very long time, having tried a lot of young actors and actresses. Upon certain search arrangements,Marina was found inMoscow and invited to the meeting.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marinawent to the tests with the book titled Bury Me Under The Plinth and didn’t even know that the film director she was going to meet was the author of the book. She was certain that her first tests inMoscow would be a failure. She was sitting, waiting her turn and reading the book. Then, a guy entered the room, said “Hi” and sat down opposite.Marina did not understand who the guy was and why he was staring at her in such a manner. She could not bear it any longer, stood up and asked him, “Why are you looking at me like that?”. The guy also stood up and said, “Glad to see you. I am Pavel Sanaev, the director of the movie. It looks as if you are ready to tear them all to pieces!”.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">So,Marinagot her lucky ticket to the great movie world.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">At first, Marinadid not realize that the project she started to work in was so large-scale and that she had to do a lot of interesting and difficult work. It took three months to prepare her for performing the role; she was training in extreme driving and racing with stunt performers over Moscowin the night. She had also got personal training from the world champion in the Need for Speed computer game, thus having become a racer not only in reality but in the virtual space as well.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">It is known that theMoscowArtTheaterSchooldoes not welcome its students’ involvement in shooting in the period of studies. They learnt thatMarinaperformed in The Game only when the hooting had been already completed. By happy fortune, the overwhelming portion of the shooting was carried out in summer, duringMarina’s vacation. But studies started again. Evenings, after the end of rehearsals, she went to the night shooting that lasted until7 inthe morning, and then again went to the theater school.Marinagot used to sleeping on her feet. She was able to get asleep at any place and at any time of the day. She took every effort not to miss a rehearsal in the theater school, and those who worked on the movie helped her, effectively settling her problems.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Hooked was designed as one full-length movie, but the amount of the material turned out to be so large that it was decided to divide it into two parts.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">The premieres of both movies, Hooked in 2009 and Hooked-2. New Level in 2010, were great. The movies were run with success in the movie theaters of Russia and the Ukraine.Marina would fly with the production time to first shows and press conferences in various Russian cities. In theUSA, a lot of prizes were awarded to the movie at various movie festivals.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">It was just the beginning

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">After successful and impressive debut in full-length movie, Marinafound herself famous. She received more and more invitations to movies. The teachers in the Moscow Art Theate rSchool began to allow her once and again to leave for shooting, showing unexpected loyalty that was so important to the actress. Thus, Marinaperformed in a 12-episode serial for the First Channel titled Women’s Dreams of Remote Countries. At the same time, she performed in the film titled Schism for the Culture channel. She simultaneously played two roles of a fully different nature, namely, a handsome fraudster of our time and Princess Urusova, a historical character. It was an enormous experience of dramatic identification.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">In 2010, Marina performed in a 16-episode serial Group of Luck for the First Channel, in a 12-episode serial Kamenskaya-6 and in a 8-episode serial Only You for the Russia channel.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">In the theater school, Marinaparticipated in the Giselle performance staged by a choreographer Alla Sigalova. Shortly after, Alla Mikhailovna, together with the director Yury Eremin, began staging the Casting/Кастинг performance in the Mossovet Theater.Marina was invited to play a leading role in the performance. The premiere took place in March 2011. Thus,Marina went on studying, playing in the theater and performing in the movies.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">In 2011, Marinagraduated with success from the MoscowArtTheaterSchooland immediately found herself in the shooting area of a 16-episode serial 20 Years without Love for the Russia TV channel. Exciting shooting inMoscow and Gelendzhik were completed not long ago, and the premiere of the serial is expected in 2012.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">In 2011, the youth movie festival Reflection was held in Zelenograd.Marinawas invited to sit in the jury of the festival together with maitres Alla Surikova and Emmanuil Vitorgan.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Of all trades

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Music is another passion inMarina’s life. For 8 years, she attended the piano class in a children art school in Simferopol. From her early years, she was singing jazz and took part in various song festivals and contests in theUkraine, in Poland and in Russia.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marinagoes in for dancing at the professional level, having mastered such dancing styles as jazz modern and ballroom dancing (showing her skills with success in the Casting/Кастинг performance in the Mossovet Theater).

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:15px;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:25px;">Marinawas training seriously in track and fields. She is also fond of tennis, mountain skiing and swimming.