Netflix’s In From the Cold is currently in the top ten most popular series on the service. One of the lead roles – that of Svetlana Petrova – was played by Russian actor Alyona Khmelnitskaya. In an exclusive interview with RT, she spoke about the shoot, her experience of working abroad and what makes this show different from many other movies about Russian spies.
A: Yes.
A: I recorded the tape and then, of course, I tried to forget it, to delete the file from my brain. But…To be honest, I didn’t really believe it could happen. I am a realistic person. Pretty romantic, but still. I was 49 at the time. I thought, “Come on, there must be scores of Russian actors who speak English perfectly. Why would they pick me? I don’t even look particularly Russian.” I thought the Americans were looking for a stereotypically Slavic face. And I am anything but that.
A: Even older than that – closer to fifty. ‘Eastern European type,’ it said (almost like a dog breed, you know, the East European Shepherd). And they also described, well, the character’s personality.
I think my agent sent them some photos, and then I got the script for the audition. There were two scenes, one in Russian and one in English. I chose the shorter one, and it was in English. I recorded the piece – and I wouldn’t be able to do it without lots of help from my daughter, who speaks English fluently. She was very helpful, she constantly said, “Take it easy, Mom, it’ll be alright, you can do it.” But I was freaking out. I found that speaking a little English to get around is nothing like playing an actual scene – it’s a completely different story.
So I finally recorded the tape at home, at 3am, when the whole family was sleeping.
A: It wasn’t long at all: they came back to me in about two weeks. Maybe even earlier. They were clearly interested. And then we started discussing schedules and all that. That was when I started to believe this whole thing was for real.
A: No thoughts. My agent and my daughter had a lot of laughs about this situation – the thing is, I was supposed to be shooting for [Russian TV show] Dancing with the Stars at the same time…
A: It wasn’t really a choice, of course. But it was hilarious. Just like the joke: “Hello! Who is this? Oh, sorry, Mr Spielberg, I’m all booked, it’s that time of year, you know, every party needs a Santa…” And I’m not saying that Dancing with the Stars was not important: I had been preparing for that project, I was so excited about it, and everything was set, while this new engagement was still up in the air… At that time, I thought the shooting of In From the Cold was never going to happen. I don’t know why.