The childhood of Alexander Pal
The future actor was born on December 16, 1988 in Chelyabinsk. The actor got such an atypical surname for a Russian ear thanks to his German roots: his paternal grandparents were Russified Germans, exiled to the Urals during the Stalinist repressions.
Parents of Alexander Pal
The actor’s childhood can hardly be called prosperous. The family, like many in those years, was low-income. His father died early, his mother had to raise her son alone, so Alexander was essentially raised on the street. He began to study poorly, although he was an excellent student until the 6th grade, became known as the main bully of the class (once, as Alexander admitted in an interview with Yuri Dudu, he showed his butt to the teacher), and had no special desires or aspirations other than to buy a car. “Many guys in my city lived and live exactly like the characters in the film “Everything at Once”: that is, there is an appearance of being busy, but there is no busyness,” Pahl later recalled.
Alexander Pal in his youth
Everything changed in 9th grade, when Alexander became seriously interested in literature. True, at first he read crime literature, for example, during class he secretly read the entire series of books “Thief in Law”, after which for some time he dreamed of becoming a prison watcher, but then he moved on to more serious works. Also, at the suggestion of his uncle, Sasha began attending a theater studio, however, he then decided that it was not suitable for him and soon quit. At the age of 17, Sasha went to visit his aunt, his father’s sister, in Germany for six months, thought about staying there for permanent residence, began to learn the language, but eventually returned to Russia.
After school, Alexander stood at the fork in three paths: he could go to study as a journalist, philologist or actor. As a result, the guy submitted documents to several acting schools (including in his native Chelyabinsk), including VGIK, “Pike”, “Sliver”, the Moscow Art Theater School and GITIS. Almost all universities in the capital rejected his candidacy after the second round. During the entrance exams at GITIS, in the third round, he showed a sketch, playing a dad who has been waiting for his little daughter for a very long time. Afterwards, Leonid Kheifets approached the young man and said that he was taking him to his course - he liked the individuality of the applicant.
First roles
The teacher was loyal to the fact that his students acted in films. Moreover, Alexander had such an opportunity at the end of his studies. Assistant director Roman Karimov came to his graduation performance and invited the young man to audition for the comedy “Everything at Once.” Pal soon joined the cast of Nikita Ost, Yulia Khlynina and Anton Shurtsov. His character Dan, according to the actor, is a collective image: “I wasn’t such a simpleton, I was much bolder.” True, viewers saw the film only two years later, when they already knew Alexander as “that frostbitten gopnik from Gorko!”
“Everything at once”: Alexander Pal as Dan
Alexander auditioned for “Gorko!” Zhory Kryzhovnikov, because he liked the script. At first he liked another hero, but then he decided to play the brother of the main character - a bald gopnik. According to many viewers, Alexander's hero became the brightest accent of the film. Just think about the first scene with Valentina Mazunina, who played his girlfriend Ksenia, or the tattoo with three heroes (which, of course, was drawn by make-up artists).
Alexander Pal's tattoo in "Gorko!" - not real
After the premiere of the film, Alexander became popular. But he focused his attention on the theater and simply refused many scripts because he did not want to become a hostage to the image of a “repentant gopnik.” He enlisted in the Moscow Youth Theater, where he served from 2012 to 2013 (he was involved in the productions of “The Four-Legged Crow” and “The Lieutenant from the Island of Inishmore” based on Martin McDonagh), and also played in the video for the song “Sleep” by Vasily Zorky. Alexander Pal in the video “Sleep” In 2013, the actor moved to the theater. Vladimir Mayakovsky and two months later made his debut on this stage in the play “Berdichev” and immediately in a key role. Since the chronology of the play was extended over 30 years, Pahl had to reincarnate both as a beardless youth and as a man, wise with life experience, who returned to the city where he spent his childhood.
Photo from the play “Berdichev”
Despite his theatrical successes, the young actor left the theater in 2015. As he admitted in one of his interviews, although theater is a stronger acting school than cinema, it is much more exhausting - it is difficult to show such strong emotions when you have played the same role several dozen times. However, he did not give up the theater at all - he continued to play in the production of “Waiting for Godot” by the Open Stage project. The performance is quite innovative and risky for Alexander personally - in one of the scenes he was covered with cardboard pizza packaging and set on fire. Performance "Waiting for Godot". Trailer
Theater
Also in 2012, the actor began collaborating with the Vakhtangov Theater, which is located on Arbat. But this experience was short-lived, and after some time the actor moved to MTYUZ. There, Alexander Pal was involved in popular performances, including “The Ridiculous Poem” based on Dostoevsky and “The Four-Legged Crow” by Daniil Kharms (he played the main role in this performance).
Their joint work with the theater lasted just over a year, after which Pahl began collaborating with an institution that had attracted him for several years: the Mayakovsky Moscow Academic Theater. The first production at Mayakovka with the participation of Alexander - the play "Berdichev" - was demonstrated on stage at the end of 2013. The actor himself speaks warmly about the team with whom he works, and about the theater itself as a whole. He claims that in Mayakovka the atmosphere is much more lively.
In addition, the actor collaborates with the theater and club “Workshop”, where he plays in the play “Waiting for Godot”.
Career blossoming
2014 was marked for the guy with the release of the second part of “Bitter!”, as well as filming in the New Year’s film “Yolki 1914”. Together with Konstantin Khabensky and Vera Panfilova, Pal played in the short story “The Tsar’s Christmas Trees,” playing a soldier in the Tsar’s army collecting signatures for the revival of the tradition of New Year trees. Also this year, he was awarded the “Discovery of the Year” award by GQ magazine.
On the set of the film “Yolki 1914”
In addition, in 2014, Pahl began filming the youth tragicomedy “The Rag Union” (released in 2016). For the role, Alexander had to go to the gym for 2 months, and then intensively lose weight and learn parkour (in order to reliably develop into a “rag”). The work of the acting tandem (in addition to Alexander, the film starred Ivan Yankovsky, Pavel Chinarev and Vasily Butkevich) was highly praised at Kinotavr - all four received the prize in the category "Best Actor" - for the first time in history the award went to a group of actors.
Still from the film "The Rag Union"
In 2015, Alexander Pal worked on two films at once. In October, the premiere of the film Without Borders took place, in which he played the role of a witty customs officer. The film was directed by Karen Oganesyan, Rezo Gigienishvili and Roman Prygunov. The actor also appeared in the leading role in the comedy with elements of the horror film “The Guy from Our Cemetery,” where he played the role of a guy who is hired by his uncle, the owner of the cemetery, to work as a security guard. After this role, Alexander began to be compared with Sergei Bodrov Jr. - viewers saw in him the same openness and honesty as in the late actor.
Alexander Pal in the film “The Guy from Our Cemetery”
Filming in the film “Hardcore,” the feature-length debut of Ilya Naishuller, was an interesting experience, although Alexander’s role was small – one of the mercenaries with a flamethrower. “There haven’t been films like this for a long time, neither in Russia nor in the world,” he claims.
Alexander Pal in the movie "Hardcore"
Soon he worked with Naishuller again, and this time the collaboration became more intense. We are talking about filming in the video for the Leningrad group for the song “Voyage”. At first glance, it might seem that Pal’s hero is an ordinary bandit and debauchee, but by the end of this video, which resembles more a short film than a music video, viewers became acquainted with his tragic past. Alexander Pal in the “Leningrad” video In 2021, Pal appeared in the blockbuster “Icebreaker” together with Pyotr Fedorov, played a computer science teacher in the comedy “Good Boy” with Semyon Treskunov, and made a gift to all St. Petersburg residents by starring in the short story “Morning” in the film almanac “Petersburg. Only for love".
“Good Boy”: Alexander Pal, Ieva Andreevaite and Mikhail Efremov
In 2021, the comedy series “You All Infuriate Me” was released, where Alexander Pal played one of the main roles - taxi driver Vova. The plot of the series revolves around the cynical journalist Sonya Bagretsova, her friend, the sociable manicurist Nelya, and their neighbors. Svetlana Khodchenkova, star of the Leningrad group video Yulia Topolnitskaya, Alexander Petrov and others took part in the filming.
Alexander Pal in the series “You All Infuriate Me”
Alexander Pal is selective in his choice of roles, and yet his face appears more and more often on screens. So, in May 2019, the TNT channel premiered the inspiring series “Tolya the Robot,” where the actor got the main role - a disabled guy without arms and legs. Despite the disadvantage, his hero can give a hundred points ahead to many of those around him: having received bionic prostheses, he tries to make the lives of the people around him better.
Alexander Pal in the series “Tolya the Robot”
Together with Evgenia Gromova, the actor played in the drama “Loyalty”. Their characters are spouses with relationship problems. Sergey Garmash and Alexander Pal in an advertisement for Post Bank Meanwhile, TV viewers criticized an advertisement for the Russian Post Bank with Alexander Pal and Sergey Garmash. Mainly because of the strange concept of the video: the actors utter only the sound “piu-dsch” in the frame - according to the creators, it is with this sound that the loan rate in the advertised bank drops.
Start of a film career
According to Alexander Pal himself, his debut as a film actor was the comedy “Everything at Once,” although another film of the same genre with his participation, “Bitter!” from Zhora Kryzhovnikov.
Recalling his debut on the set in “Everything at Once,” Pal, in an interview with Yuri Dudu, said that before that he had not slept for two nights and got sick. “My worst day,” he emphasized.
In the crime comedy by Roman Karimov, Pal played one of two loser friends who took on the task of a local crime boss.
In “Gorko,” Pal played the role of the groom’s brother, nicknamed Khipar, who had recently been released from prison. The audience also remembered Alexander’s character because of his tattoo. But Pal’s mother asked that her son no longer play such “disgusting” characters as Khipar.
The artist also made his mark in the continuation of the comedy – “Bitter! 2". The young actor also worked with Kryzhovnikov in a small way, starring in his short film “Accidentally,” which was later included in the collection “New Russians.”
Personal life of Alexander Pal
Almost nothing is known about the young man’s personal life. Despite the fact that on screen he plays relaxed and sociable guys, in life he is the complete opposite of his characters. Alexander is quite closed to journalists, and even more so when the topic comes to his relationships.
Alexander Pal and his ex-girlfriend Lisa Yankovskaya
It is known that he dated Elizaveta, the daughter of Oksana Fandera and Philip Yankovsky, for a long time. According to rumors, they were together since 2012, but broke up in 2021.
Kinotavr Prize
After “All at once” and “Bitter!” the actor managed to work with such directors as Pavel Parkhomenko (“Gagarin. First in Space”), Gennady Ostrovsky (“Dumplings”), Olga Kharina (“Christmas Trees 1914”), Ilya Chizhikov (“The Guy from Our Cemetery”) and Mikhail Mestetsky (“The Rag Union”).
“The Rag Union” is also about, and Pal himself, in the company of Vasily Butkevich, Pavel Chinarev and Ivan Yankovsky, received the prize for best actor.
After this, Pahl made his mark in the comedies of Karen Oganesyan “Without Borders”, where he worked with Inna Churikova, Oleg Basilashvili, Alexander Adabashyan and Milos Bikovich, and Dmitry Dyachenko - “Wonderland” (together with Elena Yakovleva, Fyodor Dobronravov and Sergei Lavygin).
In 2021, the actor starred in two notable films. He appeared in Ilya Naishuller’s “Hardcore” and Nikolai Khomeriki’s drama “Icebreaker”.
Alexander Pal now
In 2021, the premiere of the comedy “Deeper!” took place, the star of which was Alexander Pal. He plays a young director who has entered the field of adult cinema and is trying to make racy films according to the canons of arthouse cinema. The role was Fr.
On the set of the film "Deeper!"
On April 25, 2021, the media reported the detention of Alexander Pal in connection with the beating of hockey player Kevin Antipov. The former player of the CSKA youth team said that he was attacked on the street by three unknown men, among whom he immediately recognized a famous actor, and, according to the athlete, Alexander behaved inappropriately, as if he was either drunk or under the influence of drugs. A little later, Kevin posted photos of himself with bruises on his face online. However, Pal denied this information: “I’m not in the police, but on the street, this is the first time I’ve heard about this situation.”
In the photo: hockey player Kevin Antipov
