Childhood and youth

Natalya Negoda was born in Moscow into a family of creative people. Mother Tamara Pavlyuchenko is a television director, filmed the popular programs “Alarm Clock” and “Up to 16 and Over...”. Natasha’s father is actor Igor Negoda, familiar to viewers from the melodrama “Blizzard.”

The actress remembers her school years with a shudder. The girl, to put it mildly, did not like studying. In elementary school, she dreamed of becoming a ballerina, although Natalia’s short stature and non-standard figure did not allow her to even get into the children’s studio. Later, Negoda became interested in the profession of an actress and began preparing to enter theater school.

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Natalya Negoda in her youth
However, the girl did not submit to universities the first time, even despite her famous surname. Only a year later she became one of the students at the Moscow Art Theater School, where she studied with the legendary actor Oleg Efremov. After receiving her diploma, Negoda passed one audition after another, trying to join the troupe of some Moscow theater, but the young actress’s candidacy was approved only by the capital’s Youth Theater.

There, the young graduate performed for two years, after which she realized that this repertoire would sooner or later lead to her degradation as an actress, and she left the stage. Subsequently, Negoda made a career in cinema, but never returned to the theater.

Biography

Natalya's parents are famous, creative people: father Igor Negoda is a popular actor, and mother Tamara Pavlyuchenko is a talented director.
As a child, the future actress was short and slightly overweight, so all her efforts to become a ballerina were in vain. But she never despaired, and quickly found a new hobby. Natalya did poorly at school; she was only interested in the dream of becoming a famous actress. The girl counted the days until she received her matriculation certificate in order to submit documents to a theater university. But the first pancake turned out to be lumpy; she did not enter any of the chosen institutions. Fortune smiled on the persistent girl a year later. She was enrolled in the Moscow Art Theater School in the workshop of Oleg Efremov.

The young actress’s failures did not end there. Having received her diploma, Natalya tried to audition for all the capital’s theaters, but was rejected everywhere. The only place where Negoda’s talent was discerned was the Youth Theater.

For two years, the actress played in various productions , but she did not receive creative satisfaction from this. As a result, she decided to put an end to her theatrical career and plunged headlong into directing.

Movies

Natalya Negoda made her feature film debut in 1985 in one of the episodes of the science fiction series “This Fantastic World.” Then a family drama based on Boris Vasiliev’s novel “Tomorrow There Was War” came out, where the girl played a ninth-grader Zina. Her colleague in the film was Irina Cherichenko, who created the image of a principled class leader. Natalya created a unique duet with Alexander Zbruev in the melodrama “Self-Portrait of an Unknown”.

Natalya got into her most famous film, “Little Vera,” almost by accident. Initially, Irina Apeksimova was supposed to play the main role in this social film, then actress Yana Poplavskaya auditioned. Negoda didn’t really like the script either, so during the auditions she didn’t try to please the director, and it was this circumstance that turned out to be decisive - natural aloofness was what was required for the role of a provincial girl confused in her life.

The film “Little Vera”, for the first time in Soviet cinema, touched upon social problems that had previously been hushed up, and created the effect of a bomb exploding. This was the first picture on the Soviet screen in which the characters have sex. Before this, censorship did not allow erotic scenes into films produced in the USSR and cut them out from foreign ones.

The film was watched by 55 million viewers, while Little Vera initially received sharply negative ratings from viewers. People ran out from the premiere of the film shouting “Shame!” after a scandalous sex scene appeared on the screens. Initially, the episode was not written into the script; the director came up with the idea during filming. According to Negoda, it was a brilliant PR move, inspired by Bertolucci's painting. It was a scandal, but the conservative part of the audience could neither ban the film nor reduce the popularity of Little Vera.

Natalya Negoda in the film “Tomorrow there was a war”

The film was awarded dozens of awards at various international film festivals, and Natalya Negoda not only became a sex symbol of the Soviet Union, but also turned out to be the first Soviet actress to appear on the cover of the American erotic magazine Playboy. Negoda received “Nika” for the main female role, beating out other colleagues. In an interview after the film, the performer spoke about the bags of letters that came to the studio every morning: half of them were abusive. Natalya’s moral character was mixed with the behavior of her heroine, securing her fame as a walking, “loose” girl.

It would seem that now the path to any film set in the country is open for Negoda. But in the end, she only took part once, together with Alexei Zharkov, in the comedy film “Dark Nights in Sochi,” after which her career in domestic cinema stalled for a long time.

In the 90s, the actress starred exclusively in American films. Her credits include the musical drama Back to the USSR, the detective series Law and Order, the baseball comedy Summer Buddies, and the melodrama Every Minute is a Goodbye. The actress managed to travel all over the world - she actively participated in foreign festivals. Once Natalya even became a co-host of the Oscar ceremony.

In 2009, the performer again appeared on Russian screens, playing the main role of a librarian from a small provincial town in the drama “Tambourine, Drum.” Thanks to this work, Negoda became the winner of the Golden Eagle and White Elephant film awards.

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Natalya Negoda and Andrei Sokolov in the film “Little Vera”
Until 2021, journalists remembered Natalya only for her past merits.

Although the actress retired, her name was mentioned at least once every couple of months in the press in collections of Soviet sex symbols, in stories about the scandalous film Little Vera, or in news about the life, health and death of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the famous men's glossy magazine. Playboy, in which Negoda was the first Soviet actress to star.

In 2021, Natalya returned to the screens. Filming took place in Latvia. The film with Negoda’s participation was directed by director and screenwriter Sergei Livnev, known for his work on “Assa” and “Hammer and Sickle.” For Livnev, this is also work after a long break in his career, as for Natalya.

A Russian-British feature film called “Van Gogh” was released in 2021. The main role was played by Daniel Olbrychski, who played the famous conductor and Russian-speaking Jew living in Riga. Natalya Negoda played a minor role. The film also stars Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Koreneva, Olga Ostroumova, Alexander Sirin and others. Sergey Livnev and Negoda presented the film at the film festival in Khanty-Mansiysk.

No children, no husband: the star of “Little Vera” Natalya Negoda became a recluse

The actress became a hostage to her leading role for the rest of her life.

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The daughter of Moscow Youth Theater actor Igor Negoda and TV director Tamara Pavlyuchenko, who worked in the popular programs “Alarm Clock”, “Under 16 and Over” and others, dreamed of ballet, dreaming of becoming a prima dancer at the Bolshoi Theater and flitting around the stage. However, the school rejected Natasha - she was not satisfied with her build, they did not see plasticity in the girl.

Then Natalya Negoda decided that she would be an actress, like her father, although her parents were against such a choice. She failed to get in the first time. After working for a year at the Theater Museum. Bakhrushin as a tour guide, the girl nevertheless became a student at the Moscow Art Theater School.

The actress became a hostage to one role. Photo: still from the film “Little Vera”

All her friends were studying in an older course: it so happened that together the children of famous Soviet actors learned the secrets of the craft - Alexandra Tabakov , Mikhail Efremov , Maria Evstigneeva , Vyacheslav Nevinny Jr. , Sergei Velyaminov .

When Misha Efremov returned from the army in 1985, he and Natasha began a whirlwind romance that lasted about three years. Those around them believed that they were very suitable for each other, but the explosive, impulsive Mikhail once switched to another Natalya, Ionova, who now lives in Austria. And along the way, he managed to get married, however, the marriage was fictitious and lasted only two months: Misha simply helped classmate Elena Golyanova get a residence permit in Moscow.

— Their union was gossip-forming. The novel is a blast. And if gossip had existed as a genre then, they would have provided the legion of paparazzi with their daily bread. Before the filming of “Little Vera,” the couple scandalously separated, and while working, Efremov heard rumors from Mariupol about his former passion’s affair with his co-star, the handsome Andrei Sokolov . Although, I think, the conversations were determined by the plot of the film and the scandalous sex scene, which became revolutionary in the history of Soviet cinema. No one held a candle, Natalya herself playfully laughed it off, she recalls in her book “Vzglyad” - the Beatles of Perestroika. They played on the Kremlin’s nerves,” journalist Evgeny Dodolev .

Having received her diploma in 1986, Natalya got a job at the capital's Youth Theater, where her father worked. The roles of bunnies or the boy Vanyushka are not exactly what a young, full-of-energy actress, a student of Oleg Efremov . But nothing else has been offered yet. In 1985, she appeared in the series “This Fantastic World”, and in 1987 she played Yuri Kara’s film “Tomorrow there was a war”.

Having gone to the studio named after him for a fee. Gorky, Natalya will clash with the administrator of Little Vera. She will take her to Vasily Pichul , an aspiring director. He had already approved Irina Apeksimova , but the freshman was simultaneously selected for the film “Tower” by Viktor Tregubovich and, on the advice of her teacher Oleg Tabakov, decided to choose a venerable director. Yana Poplavskaya also tried , but it didn’t work out with her either. And Negoda came up and, most importantly, agreed. Later she recalled that it was summer, the theater was on holiday, and filming was planned at sea, in Mariupol, which played a decisive role. Her friend in the film was played by her friend in life Sasha Tabakova . By the way, future TV presenter Ksenia Strizh auditioned for this role, but in general Pichul wanted to shoot Alika Smekhova . However, at first she set a bunch of conditions, and then announced that her trip to Sochi was on fire and flew off to rest.

“On the eve of filming a complex scene where Vera’s friend shows the “Ha!” pose, Natalya Negoda and Alexandra Tabakova were having fun with Yankovsky and Abdulov who had come on tour,” the film’s director Vasily Pichul later recalled, confirming the version that the girls perceived the filming more like a vacation . “The next morning the girls showed up late and in a cheerful mood. It was impossible to take them off, I was in shock...

Friends in life and on film, Natalya and Sasha Tabakova had fun on the set. Photo: still from the film “Little Vera”.

However, after the film was released in 1988, 25-year-old Natalya received all-Union fame, which, in general, no one expected. But the film became a breakthrough, a revolution in cinema, a bomb. Of course, the explicit scene played a huge role in this - this had never been shown in Soviet cinema. The most interesting thing is that it was not in the script: already during filming, the director decided, so to speak, to strengthen the video sequence. However, it cannot be said that the film rests only on this. In fact, this is a serious, deep picture that shows the life of ordinary people without embellishment. Although, of course, many went to the cinema for strawberries. And then they criticized the film mercilessly for its promiscuity.

Be that as it may, the film was watched by 55 million people. She received a lot of prizes, including international ones, and Negoda was named the best actress of 1988 in the USSR, in addition, she was awarded the prize for best actress at the 1988 International Film Festivals in Bogota and Geneva.

Natalya Negoda with the Golden Hugo Grand Prix award for best film at the Chicago International Film Festival, 1989. Photo: Anatoly Morkovkin/TASS

At that time, she was dating economist Sergei Tolstikov , who later took the position of executive director of the Cinema Fund. And then young, reckless Natalya and Sergei (married, it must be said) are having fun in the company of future television masters Konstantin Ernst and Alexander Lyubimov , “machinist” Andrei Makarevich and journalist Evgeniy Dodolev , who described these stormy days in his book:

— The summer of 1989 was record-breaking. Then half a dozen difficult guests moved into the room allocated to 27-year-old biologist Konstantin Lvovich Ernst on the second floor of the miracle boarding house! Andrey Makarevich, Sasha Lyubimov, Natasha Negoda + Sergey Tolstikov and me.

True, the then sex symbol of the power Negoda, who arrived in Nikitsky with her boyfriend Tolstikov, a couple of days later found some kind of private apartment on the mountain, between Nizhny and Primorsky parks. And the couple in love promptly vacated the luxurious balcony on which their honeymoon bunk was located. Relatively speaking, honey, since Sergei, as Natalya complained to us in a drunken shop, was chronically married. However, for 10 years or more after that trip they lived in perfect harmony; I don’t know to what extent I have legalized my relationship.

By the way, in the same 1989, Natalya would commit another act that stunned everyone: she would agree to appear in Playboy magazine - the first of the Soviet women. He will receive an unimaginable fee at that time, which he will easily squander.

“Natalia squandered like a merchant, squandering her fees from “naked” overseas filming with the ease of a Viennese waltz. It wasn’t that there was a lot of money – it just seemed that this was just the beginning and there would be more to come. Dollars, covers, awards, roles, delight. It was a short step from the standard payment for the role of Komsomol member Zina in the film “Tomorrow there was a war” to the $$$-remuneration for filming in the most popular magazine in the world at that time (for trying to smuggle a copy into the country you could very recently be kicked out of the party and lose work and ruin your life and career), writes Evgeny Dodolev.

Natalya quit the Youth Theater after the release of “Little Vera,” apparently hoping that now offers would come. They really appeared, but they were all the same - the role of a girl from a working-class family, a pet girl, a broken girl. Negoda became a hostage to the image of Vera, but did not want to get bogged down in this type and refused such scenarios.

And then the 1990s came, and devastation began in cinema, as in any other field. Negoda was just invited first to an American film filmed in Moscow, and then to Hollywood. She, of course, accepted the offer - who would refuse such a thing! However, four absolutely passable films did not bring not only fame, but also notoriety. However, they allowed us to go through a difficult period without any problems, when many colleagues went to work as taxi drivers, trade, or even wash floors. And even buy a good two-room apartment on Frunzenskaya Embankment (she still lives in this apartment). Natalya initially did not intend to emigrate, she simply worked in the USA, often coming home.

In 1990, Natalia was invited to announce one of the Oscar winners. The legendary Jack Lemmon came to Russia to appear live on the ceremony with Natalia. Filming took place in the Rossiya concert hall. Photo: Yatsina Vladimir/ITAR-TASS

In America she married a Russian emigrant who had nothing to do with cinema. They lived for 13 years, there were no children in the marriage. Natalya remains stubbornly silent about this story, as well as about her personal life in general.

In 2007, Negoda finally returned to Moscow, she was 44 years old. She was invited to the film “Tambourine. Drum", published in 2009. For her role as a provincial librarian, Natalya received the Golden Eagle and White Elephant awards. Then she starred in the 2021 film Van Gogh.

Actress Natalya Negoda (right) in a scene from the film “Tambourine, Drum” directed by Andrei Mizgirev. Photo by ITAR-TASS/ cinema

The actress claims that she is spoiled and does not want to accept offers just for the sake of making money. He calls himself “Oblomov.” At the same time, she does not appear at film parties, does not go to festivals and premieres, hardly appears on TV and does not give interviews, and lives as a recluse.

In 2021, Negoda turned 55, and the film that made her famous is 30 years old. On this occasion, the actress agreed to come to Andrei Malakhov’s , where she met with colleagues Andrei Sokolov, Lyudmila Zaitseva , Yuri Nazarov. However, she again flatly refused to answer questions about her personal life, even her past one.

“The only place where I feel like I’m not a stranger is my home,” Negoda once admitted in an interview. “That’s why there are rarely strangers at home... One friend said: “I built some kind of hole for myself.” You get in and live with your books. You stick your nose or paw out into the street: No... It’s chilly. Hurry up and go back to licking your wounds.” Home is a place where you don’t have to be what you are imagined to be.

Before hunting, Andrei Sokolov does not use shower gel

She knows for sure that any appearance will end with questions about “that very scene,” about her relationship with Andrei Sokolov on the set, about her other men. But she doesn’t want to chew on the same thing for so many years, trying to explain that she and her heroine Vera are two completely different people.

However, sometimes 57-year-old Negoda still gets out of her “hole.” True, we still have to talk about the only famous film in her career. In March of this year, she visited Yekaterinburg at the screening of “Little Vera” at the Yeltsin Center and took part in a meeting with the audience.

Natalya Negoda and film critic Vyacheslav Shmyrov at the screening of “Little Vera” at the Yeltsin Center, March 7, 2021. Photo: Ivan Abaturov/wikipedia.org

– Actually, we were lucky. The film was held under the slogan of what Gorbachev gave to the country - perestroika, glasnost, we in the West became very popular against this background. “Little Vera” was a little slowed down; for six months they couldn’t figure out whether to release it or not, and we were extremely lucky that Robert Redford came and immediately took the film to his festival. Probably, if it weren’t for the wave of interest in Russia, the West would not have been interested in the film, and if we talk about our country, then let’s not lie, for the most part the film owes its success to those very ill-fated scenes for which we are still rinsed on all programs. We received bags of letters, 95 percent of them were simply terribly abusive. And this means that people were hurt, shocked, and could not remain silent. I’m thinking, what a blessing it is that there was no Internet back then. We would probably all have died from the slop that would have been poured on us. And they also wrote: “Where did you find this? We don’t live like that!” We still live like this in Russia. Little changes, unfortunately, but people don’t change at all,” Natalya Negoda told a correspondent for the Yeltsin Center website.

Marina Sidorova
Andrey Sokolov Cinema and TV series show business

Personal life

When Natalya was studying at the Moscow Art Theater School, she had a short affair with the son of her artistic director, Mikhail Efremov. After the success of the film “Little Vera,” the young people separated.

Negoda’s companion on the set was Andrei Sokolov. After the film was released, the young people were credited with having an affair. The artists themselves deny the fact of a love affair. In Andrey Malakhov’s show “Hello, Andrey!” from 2021, Natalya noted that they had exclusively friendly relations with Sokolov. In a 2021 interview in the “Human Fate” program, Natalya’s partner called Negoda a wise woman who lived a difficult life. The artist also admitted that there was no romance between them.

After breaking up with Mikhail Efremov, Negoda began dating Sergei Tolstikov. Evgeny Dodolev recalled: Natalya called her companion the son of the famous party member Vasily Tolstikov. In the bohemian company of Nikitsky (a botanical garden with a mini-boarding house), where Konstantin Ernst brought his friends in his youth, Sergei stood apart. The actress's lover was married. After the breakup, Natalya left for the USA.

At the very beginning of the 90s, the actress got married. According to numerous rumors, her husband was a Russian emigrant living in the United States. In fact, Negoda met him in Moscow, and her economist husband did not change any citizenship. It was she who left for the USA, since the performer was invited to work there.

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Natalya Negoda and Andrey Malakhov
Natalya lived for quite a few years in Los Angeles, but in 2007 she decided to return to her homeland. By the way, she also divorced her husband a long time ago. As far as the press knows, the couple had no children.

Today, the actress spends most of her time in Moscow, and lives quite secluded. Social life is not welcomed or supported, preferring to enjoy the comfort of his home. Natalya Negoda does not hide her personal life and does not hide from journalists, but she also does not advertise the events of her own life.

The actress is not very active in political issues. However, during the major scandal surrounding the “YUKOS case” related to embezzlement and embezzlement, in which a number of employees were accused, Natalya Negoda came out in support of the company’s former manager Svetlana Bakhmina.

Natalya Negoda also supported the controversial feminist punk group Pussy Riot. The girls were arrested and charged with hooliganism after holding a punk prayer service and an unauthorized musical performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In this case, the actress also spoke out in support of the release of the participants.

First love

While studying at the Moscow Art Theater, Negoda began a romantic relationship with the future star of Russian cinema, Mikhail Efremov. However, two shocking, bright personalities were unable to maintain the relationship and quickly put an end to it.

In the early 90s, Natalya married an unknown economist, with whom she emigrated to America. This relationship also did not last long, and the couple ended their marriage. The couple had no children. In 2007, Negoda returned to her homeland alone, and since then nothing has been known about the actress’s personal life.

Did you become free and happy?

After the premiere, Natalya Negoda and Andrei Sokolov were dubbed “sex symbols of the Land of the Soviets.” His film fate was happier. Although not in a way that he was very pleased with her. Negoda and Sokolov played weightily, rudely, visibly. And they found themselves... hostage to their own images. For Natalya, this was the beginning of the end. A few years later, cinema ceased to be interesting to her:

- I haven’t worked for a long time... Should I expect that they will suddenly call me for another audition and I will become Michelle Pfeiffer?.. It doesn’t happen. And I will never be Michelle Pfeiffer there. And as soon as I stopped reacting to the fact that my life was less and less connected with cinema... I became free and happy.

About 10 years ago, Natalya returned to her homeland unnoticed by everyone. She played a dramatic role in the film “Tambourine, Drum” by Alexei Mizgirev , receiving “Nick” and “Golden Eagle” for her. And then she disappeared again for a long time. Making an exception only for Sergei Livnev in the film “Van Gogh”, the premiere of which is scheduled for March 2019.

Natalya Negoda, who starred after a 20-year break in cinema in Alexey Mizgirev’s film “Tambourine, Drum,” was awarded the National Film Criticism and Film Press Award “White Elephant” for 2009 in the category “Best Leading Actress.” 2009 Photo: RIA Novosti/Ilya Pitalev

Is Natalya happy now, at 55? Alone in a two-room apartment in a prestigious area of ​​Moscow? Albeit with a wonderful view of the football field? Disillusioned with the profession... Having survived a long-suffering romance with classmate Misha Efremov , a passionate love for Sokolov’s partner, which he didn’t even know about, a 13-year marriage with economist Sergei... Having not become a mother...

Perhaps such happiness can happen.