January 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Award-winning Producer and former American entertainment journalist Joan Borsten Vidov discusses her new award-winning documentary about her late husband, "OLEG: The Oleg Vidov Story," narrated by BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy-winning actor Brian Cox (Succession) and features Costa Ronin (The Americans, Homeland) as the voice of Young Oleg -- currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video -- click here to watch the trailer: https://bit.ly/OlegTrailer
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Oleg Vidov-one of the Soviet Union's most beloved actors-was persecuted, blacklisted, and pushed to the breaking point before escaping to the West and achieving the American dream.
You can monetarily support The Jan Price Show by becoming a patron and making a tax-deductible donation to The Jan Price Show. For an even larger impact, sign up for a monthly recurring donation! Click on the link below for the details: https://creative-visions.networkforgood.com/projects/236266-the-jan-price-show-s-fundraiser
We are on Bluesky! Click here to follow us: https://bsky.app/profile/thejanpriceshow.bsky.social
Oleg Vidov-one of the Soviet Union's most beloved actors-was persecuted, blacklisted, and pushed to the breaking point before escaping to the West and achieving the American dream.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The jam Price Show, All about Movies. You're listening to
The Jam Price Show All about Movies, and today my
guest is journalist and wife of Oleg Vidoor, Joan Morston Vidor,
and we're gonna be talking about this oh amazing documentary
entitled Olegg, which is all about her husband, who was
(00:23):
this incredible actor that not many Americans probably are that
familiar with. So we're going to do a deep dive
into this documentary. So thank you so much Joan for
being on the show. The last thing, oh Vidalva. Okay,
I didn't get it right, Thank you, Vidolva. So let's
talk about how this documentary came about.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So I used to work for Los Angeles Times Calendar
and I was based first in Tel Aviv and then
in Rome. And I literally traveled from Morocco to India
and Poland to West Africa. And one day I was
in New Delhi interviewing the fortune teller of the great
Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. So this was back in the day,
(01:09):
as before we had internet, and Felini used to mail
him scripts and the guru room would say yes, make
it or don't make it, and Pelini would either listen
or not listen. But at the end of the interview,
if he took my hand and he said, you're going
to marry a man from a strange country, So okay,
And they sent me to a lot of strange countries,
No Romeo. And then I went home to Rome. And
(01:30):
while I was gone, the Robert Redford of the Soviet
Union had illegally crossed him to Austria and from Austria
to Rome and come to the home of my friends
in order to go to the US embassy and defect.
And by chance, I was staying with those same friends
because I had a new apartment available in Rome and
it wasn't available for another month.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And that's how you met him.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's how I met him. That was the beginning of
a thirty two year marriage.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Wow wow, And he was gorgeous. I think he's better
looking than Robert Redford. And I'm a huge Robert Redford fan.
But when that's how the I didn't really.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Know how gorgeous he was until we got to Los
Angeles and Russian women started stamping in front of me.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Wow wow wow. No he I mean, I'm a huge
Robert Redford fan, always have been, always will be a
picture of him. I'm my refrigerator on a magnet. So
and I've met Robert Redford through the years, but anyhow,
he your husband was stunning. Actually, So, I mean, how
did this documentary come about? Joan?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So the last three years before he passed he had
an incurable cancer, he was writing his autobiography and when
he passed he left me a list of sixty people
in eight country so I shouldn't interview in order to
finish certain chapters.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Wow, you know, I was.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Born and raised in the film industry, and with him,
I was in the film industry. So I talked to
my friends and we all thought, you know what, this
is probably a documentary. So we decided that as I
ran around the world interestship you people for his book,
we would film the interviews. And after we filmed them,
it was clear that we should fill more interviews, and
it became a major project in many countries, and we
(03:12):
finished it just about I guess. Really it wasn't quite
finished when COVID had yet, and we still had some
interviews to do, which we managed somehow to finally get done,
and then we had the hard work of putting it
all together. But it was a very exciting adventure.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I can imagine it would be. There's so much to
this actually, because you know, there's so much footage of him,
obviously in his acting career, but the footage also you
know other times throughout his life too. So he you know,
you were you met him, and then you did get married,
and you said a thirty two year marriage, but he
had been married twice before. A big part of this
(03:46):
film is his first marriage. Can we do you mind
diving into that a little bit about who he married initially?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh, this was the Soviet Union, a very closed country,
and we were in a cold war with them, but
it wasn't like here where you you know exactly who
the president is married to, and who his children are,
and who is relatives are and whatever. So Ola was
at a restaurant in Moscow one night and this woman
(04:12):
came over and her name was Natalia Vedotova. That was
what he knew, and he was very taken with her.
And then her friend arrived and she said, oh, you whatever,
And it turned out that it was the daughter of
Resinav who was the head of Russia. But of course nobody,
nobody recognized her, and she was a major force in
(04:33):
the life of his wife. She was a lot older
than the life but the wife really liked power, and
Goalina provided access to power that Natalia never would have had.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And so when she met Olegg that was also another
step up in power because he was such a popular
actor in Russia at that point in time. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yes? And for years the Russian yellow press claimed that
Galina and natal dictape who his star was going to be?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh really, can you repeat that? You fil up a
little bit? So can you just repeat that last sentence?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
The yellow pres in Russia for years claimed that he
became a star because Galina Brezhnev and his wife Natalia
had gone to various directors and said, you have to
hire this man. So, first of all, it was before
he ever met them. And secondly, what good director would
ever let the daughter of the president dictator.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
He was going to put in his film, right, right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But maybe in a little part, but not in the lead.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
This is true that that was also pivotal as to
what happened to his career that marriage. Can you do
a little can you tell our audience a little bit
further about how that a marriage, that marriage affected his
career not only positively, but negatively so because I think that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A lot of what's happening in the Soviet Union in
the Russia today is reflected in this movie. Maybe it
was different after the Soviet Union felt but it's gone
back to that. So according to the law in the
Soviet Union, there was community property. So first of all,
he found out that she divorced him unilatterly, which was illegal.
And then she found out that the court had given
her all of his side of the communal property. So
(06:02):
he decided to go to court. And when he got
to the judge, the judge liked him because he played
her grandfather in a movie. She said to M very
dare anyway, She said, all live, there are laws, and
there are phone calls. And I got a phone call.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So if you think back about Navoli, if you think
back about all these other cases we know about, I mean,
those cases were all decided based on a phone call.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, yeah, you're right. It hasn't changed right all these years.
So let's talk a little bit about So you two
got married and then what.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Happened so all it got here in nineteen eighty five,
there were huge headlines across the country. But you know what,
it was the Cold War. Our screenwriters were not writing
scripts for good looking Russians. So he got his first
break with Arnold Schwarzenader playing his partner. It wasn't a
big role, but it was a good one. And then
he did other films like Wild Orchid with Mickey Rourke.
(06:56):
But he, you know, he kind of realized that it
was going to be a long time before they were
casting good looking Russians. So he went back to Moscow
in nineteen ninety one to make a movie for a
Danish production from Dame in Denmark, and he went to
the library of the Russian animation library. The Russians had
(07:17):
stalind loved films, and in nineteen thirty two, I think
there was a Walt Disney festival in Moscow. He saw
Walt Disney animation. He decided to create a Russian animation
studio as good as Disney. So all again, every other
Soviet child grew up on that animation. So he went
to the animation studio and he said, let me make
our animation famous around the world. Our animation is better
(07:40):
than everybody else's and all we have to do is
get it out there. So they agreed. He came back
to me and he said, oh, we're going to distribute
this famous Russian library. And I said, oh, are you
going to sell it to all that? And he said, oh,
don't worry. So unfortunately, then the films arrived. They were
not in good shape and we had to restore them.
And he, you know, for him, it was like minute
by minute, second by second, cost of fortune. But he
(08:02):
we partnered with Borushnikov, We revoiced it with all these
famous actors who were really happy to do they really
loved what they were doing. And he sold it to
fifty five countries around the world, including PBS here and Bravo,
hghbo wow wow.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
But and you had this, you had the you had
the rights to the animation for how many years until
two thousand.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Six, two thousands So the Russians. Russians always thought the
animation had no value, so when they saw that it
had value, they decided to try to steal it back,
and we all ended up in a federal court in
New York. We won, and then they called and said,
we want to buy it back. Instead of steal it back,
they wanted to buy it back. So I said, okay,
and so we negotiated for a while and they paid
(08:48):
and they gave them back the animation, which they've never
ever used.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're kidding.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
All that work, all the materials are still sitting in
North Hollywood at a vault.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
They never took them over, they never they never went
back to Russia. But they on them and you can't
do anything with them. What a shame? What a shame
because you show some of the in the film in
the documentary, you show uh some of the animation, and
they are beautiful. They're just so uniquely different than anything
we've seen in this country, and and just really just
(09:19):
truly beautiful. What a shame that piece of history is
not being shown, especially to film students and people who
are in an animation. What are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
First of all, I forgot to mention that the US
military body to show on US military body, to show
on military bases around the world, towards the children of
the of the soldiers, because it was you know, non
violent and good and moral values.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
But now it's just locked in a vault.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yes, more or less.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So, how did you attract award winning UH filmmaker Nadi
Atass to this, to this project? Because she is known
for her career and films and had won many many
awards and as a director, and then all of a sudden,
she's this is her very first documentary. So how did
(10:09):
you attract Nadia Tass to this particular project?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So understanding the Soviet Union is a very difficult problem,
and I really didn't think that I had we had
the time to educate directors and editors at everyone else
about the Soviet Union. So I went looking for people
who were really talented but understood the Soviet Union. Nadia's
grandparents escaped from the Soviet Union and they went they
(10:36):
came to Greece, where she was born, or they had
children in Greece, and she was born to one of
the children, and so she knew all about the Soviet Union.
And that seemed like a perfect match in terms of
a director. But the writer and the editors, just about
everybody had a background either they'd already filmed in Russia
or filmed in the Soviet Union. They all had a background.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Interesting, interesting, I know the composer had a bad background
in it. And also that and and that is Australian.
So even though she was she was born in Greece,
was born in Greece.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And her parents were anti communists, and her father was
a communist in Greece. That was common in those days.
So he got put into prison because he was a communist,
and they finally said to him, if you leave the
country and we'll let you out, and that's how she
went to Greece. But she never heard hot her Soviet roots. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Wow, that's fascinating, fascinating. What was the most difficult part?
You said you finished most of this before COVID. I'm
sure that had, you know, created its own problems, as
it has for most filmmakers I've talked to through that
period of time. What was the most difficult part of
putting together this documentary?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
We wanted to recreate his escape to the West, and
just as we were about to do that, COVID happened
and all these countries closed their borders, So we had
to wait for the borders to reopen between what was
the once Yugoslavia and in Austria, and the Australians made
it very clear to Navia that if she left to
(12:05):
go to Slovenia in Austria, she had like a six
month wait to get back into the country. She would
have to be in quarantine. Okay, So she figured out
how from her office in Melbourne, using modern technology to
film that whole open. She directed it and the only
thing she couldn't direct was the drum. Wow, asked everybody
(12:26):
she rehearsed them. I mean she watched it out was
being filmed. She said, no, do this and do that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So what so your husband started this autobiography. You're still
in the process of finishing the autobiography? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
First of all, I could Google translate, he writes, He
writes too beautifully for Google Translate to give me any
idea of what he was saying. So I like research
who's the greatest translator from Russian to English? And I
found this woman in New York who's very talented, and
she said, well, you know, she's busy, but she would
(13:03):
look at ten pages. So she looked at the ten
pages and she said, I really love this, but I can't.
I really want to do this. And this was like
February and she said, but I can't do it until October.
I'm really busy with my other assignments. So I said, well, okay,
and then she called me in April, and she said
I couldn't put it down. I finished it and so
(13:23):
with her with her. So now the it's in the
editing process. We're almost finished. I'm checking the editor now,
so it's been edited by a qualified book editor. And
when I finished my part in checking the edit, it's
going to be published.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That's exciting. That's exciting because you're a writer. That's what
your career was in writing. So did you have a
part in the in the in finishing this up, in
writing it?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Well, first of all, I had done a lot of
the interviews right right right, and then you know, there
were stories that Olin didn't put in that I thought
she'd be in there, so I added a little bit
of this and a little bit of that. But basically
it's his voice, very eloquent on telling the story of
a country we virtually know nothing about and a kind
of amazing childhood, despite the fact that it was poor
(14:13):
and it was ostracized for most of the world, and
you couldn't travel and there were all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
These you couldn't travel. I'm sorry you froze up and
you couldn't travel.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I mean, I don't know if you remember, but after
the Periestroika, these beautiful, drop dead Russian women who looked
like they were from James Bond movies started arriving in
this country. Do you think that they ever gave them
visas to leave? No? On everything kind of changed.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It did change in politics, yes, yes, yes, yes. So
what was it like being married to the most popular
Russian film star?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I loved him, He loved me. I never had any
doubt about that. And he repeatedly brought me all of
these projects to help him with and somehow I was
able to do them, don't ask me how. And so
we were also like a team.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And I think that's why it worked, yes, being good
collaborators on these projects. That's Was there anything when you
found out when you do you speak Russian? By the way,
I have.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
About two hundred words and they're all animation titles.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, So when you got the translation of what he
had written in his autobiography, was there anything in there
that was surprising to you that you had never known
about before? Or were there many things?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
You know what? He had a very eloquent way of
telling his story. I definitely could never have told his
story in the way that he did, And I think
that the Russians who read it are just you know,
so pleased and you know so impressed by his vision
of life in that country and how he managed to
get to where he to where he.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Did amazing, amazing. Where can people see oleg So it's.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Being it is being streamed on Amazon Prime Video and
with Russian subtitles by the way, he needs them, and
you just have to go up into Prime Video and
type in olic or olid vida. Up it comes.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Now people seek it out because this is an actor that,
as I said, not many Americans know about. But once
you watch this year, you'll want to know more about
You want to go see his films. He was in
a film with Kevin Kostner, correct and what was so all?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
All? It was always cast for his looks. Yes, like
a lot of Americans, right. Kevin Coster film was about
the Soviet the Soviet missiles that we put that were
put into Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis, and Roger Donaldson
was actually brave enough to saying, you know what, Olive,
I think you can do the part, but you don't
(16:51):
look like the Soviet ambassador, so we're going to have
to put makeup on you. And he said fine, So
they gave him this big nose and these ears, and
they changed him so most of the russiansitn't even recognize him.
They said, who's that Russian actor? Oh my god, it's
all in Beato.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I know it was surprising when you see him in
the documentary, you go, oh, that's still him or not? People,
This is a fascinating documentary for anybody who loves movies,
loves films as much as I do, and I know
many of my listeners who listen to the show do
love movies. Seek this one out because it is so
unique and so different, and it will you'll learn a lot,
(17:29):
and it's just this beautiful actor inside and out. So
thank you Joan so much for being on the show
and for sharing your story with us, and I wish
you much success with Oleg.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You're welcome. I hope your readers go up on Amazon
and watch it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes, definitely go on Amazon. It's great. Hey for all
of my loyal listeners. If you would like to support
the jam Price Show financially, you now can do that
and you can get a tax free donation by doing that.
You can go to creativisions dot org that Creativisions dot
org and go into the podcast section and you can
(18:03):
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Price Show, you're also supporting independent and documentary filmmakers because
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support the arts by donating to the Jam Price Show
and go to creativisions dot org. Thank you all in advance.
(18:23):
Thank you Joan again for being on the show. Welcome
the Jamprice Show, All about Movies.
The jam Price Show, All about Movies. You're listening to
The Jam Price Show All about Movies, and today my
guest is journalist and wife of Oleg Vidoor, Joan Morston Vidor,
and we're gonna be talking about this oh amazing documentary
entitled Olegg, which is all about her husband, who was
(00:23):
this incredible actor that not many Americans probably are that
familiar with. So we're going to do a deep dive
into this documentary. So thank you so much Joan for
being on the show. The last thing, oh Vidalva. Okay,
I didn't get it right, Thank you, Vidolva. So let's
talk about how this documentary came about.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So I used to work for Los Angeles Times Calendar
and I was based first in Tel Aviv and then
in Rome. And I literally traveled from Morocco to India
and Poland to West Africa. And one day I was
in New Delhi interviewing the fortune teller of the great
Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. So this was back in the day,
(01:09):
as before we had internet, and Felini used to mail
him scripts and the guru room would say yes, make
it or don't make it, and Pelini would either listen
or not listen. But at the end of the interview,
if he took my hand and he said, you're going
to marry a man from a strange country, So okay,
And they sent me to a lot of strange countries,
No Romeo. And then I went home to Rome. And
(01:30):
while I was gone, the Robert Redford of the Soviet
Union had illegally crossed him to Austria and from Austria
to Rome and come to the home of my friends
in order to go to the US embassy and defect.
And by chance, I was staying with those same friends
because I had a new apartment available in Rome and
it wasn't available for another month.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And that's how you met him.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's how I met him. That was the beginning of
a thirty two year marriage.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Wow wow, And he was gorgeous. I think he's better
looking than Robert Redford. And I'm a huge Robert Redford fan.
But when that's how the I didn't really.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Know how gorgeous he was until we got to Los
Angeles and Russian women started stamping in front of me.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Wow wow wow. No he I mean, I'm a huge
Robert Redford fan, always have been, always will be a
picture of him. I'm my refrigerator on a magnet. So
and I've met Robert Redford through the years, but anyhow,
he your husband was stunning. Actually, So, I mean, how
did this documentary come about? Joan?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So the last three years before he passed he had
an incurable cancer, he was writing his autobiography and when
he passed he left me a list of sixty people
in eight country so I shouldn't interview in order to
finish certain chapters.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Wow, you know, I was.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Born and raised in the film industry, and with him,
I was in the film industry. So I talked to
my friends and we all thought, you know what, this
is probably a documentary. So we decided that as I
ran around the world interestship you people for his book,
we would film the interviews. And after we filmed them,
it was clear that we should fill more interviews, and
it became a major project in many countries, and we
(03:12):
finished it just about I guess. Really it wasn't quite
finished when COVID had yet, and we still had some
interviews to do, which we managed somehow to finally get done,
and then we had the hard work of putting it
all together. But it was a very exciting adventure.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I can imagine it would be. There's so much to
this actually, because you know, there's so much footage of him,
obviously in his acting career, but the footage also you
know other times throughout his life too. So he you know,
you were you met him, and then you did get married,
and you said a thirty two year marriage, but he
had been married twice before. A big part of this
(03:46):
film is his first marriage. Can we do you mind
diving into that a little bit about who he married initially?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh, this was the Soviet Union, a very closed country,
and we were in a cold war with them, but
it wasn't like here where you you know exactly who
the president is married to, and who his children are,
and who is relatives are and whatever. So Ola was
at a restaurant in Moscow one night and this woman
(04:12):
came over and her name was Natalia Vedotova. That was
what he knew, and he was very taken with her.
And then her friend arrived and she said, oh, you whatever,
And it turned out that it was the daughter of
Resinav who was the head of Russia. But of course nobody,
nobody recognized her, and she was a major force in
(04:33):
the life of his wife. She was a lot older
than the life but the wife really liked power, and
Goalina provided access to power that Natalia never would have had.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And so when she met Olegg that was also another
step up in power because he was such a popular
actor in Russia at that point in time. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yes? And for years the Russian yellow press claimed that
Galina and natal dictape who his star was going to be?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh really, can you repeat that? You fil up a
little bit? So can you just repeat that last sentence?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
The yellow pres in Russia for years claimed that he
became a star because Galina Brezhnev and his wife Natalia
had gone to various directors and said, you have to
hire this man. So, first of all, it was before
he ever met them. And secondly, what good director would
ever let the daughter of the president dictator.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
He was going to put in his film, right, right.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
But maybe in a little part, but not in the lead.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
This is true that that was also pivotal as to
what happened to his career that marriage. Can you do
a little can you tell our audience a little bit
further about how that a marriage, that marriage affected his
career not only positively, but negatively so because I think that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A lot of what's happening in the Soviet Union in
the Russia today is reflected in this movie. Maybe it
was different after the Soviet Union felt but it's gone
back to that. So according to the law in the
Soviet Union, there was community property. So first of all,
he found out that she divorced him unilatterly, which was illegal.
And then she found out that the court had given
her all of his side of the communal property. So
(06:02):
he decided to go to court. And when he got
to the judge, the judge liked him because he played
her grandfather in a movie. She said to M very
dare anyway, She said, all live, there are laws, and
there are phone calls. And I got a phone call.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So if you think back about Navoli, if you think
back about all these other cases we know about, I mean,
those cases were all decided based on a phone call.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yes, yeah, you're right. It hasn't changed right all these years.
So let's talk a little bit about So you two
got married and then what.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Happened so all it got here in nineteen eighty five,
there were huge headlines across the country. But you know what,
it was the Cold War. Our screenwriters were not writing
scripts for good looking Russians. So he got his first
break with Arnold Schwarzenader playing his partner. It wasn't a
big role, but it was a good one. And then
he did other films like Wild Orchid with Mickey Rourke.
(06:56):
But he, you know, he kind of realized that it
was going to be a long time before they were
casting good looking Russians. So he went back to Moscow
in nineteen ninety one to make a movie for a
Danish production from Dame in Denmark, and he went to
the library of the Russian animation library. The Russians had
(07:17):
stalind loved films, and in nineteen thirty two, I think
there was a Walt Disney festival in Moscow. He saw
Walt Disney animation. He decided to create a Russian animation
studio as good as Disney. So all again, every other
Soviet child grew up on that animation. So he went
to the animation studio and he said, let me make
our animation famous around the world. Our animation is better
(07:40):
than everybody else's and all we have to do is
get it out there. So they agreed. He came back
to me and he said, oh, we're going to distribute
this famous Russian library. And I said, oh, are you
going to sell it to all that? And he said, oh,
don't worry. So unfortunately, then the films arrived. They were
not in good shape and we had to restore them.
And he, you know, for him, it was like minute
by minute, second by second, cost of fortune. But he
(08:02):
we partnered with Borushnikov, We revoiced it with all these
famous actors who were really happy to do they really
loved what they were doing. And he sold it to
fifty five countries around the world, including PBS here and Bravo,
hghbo wow wow.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
But and you had this, you had the you had
the rights to the animation for how many years until
two thousand.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Six, two thousands So the Russians. Russians always thought the
animation had no value, so when they saw that it
had value, they decided to try to steal it back,
and we all ended up in a federal court in
New York. We won, and then they called and said,
we want to buy it back. Instead of steal it back,
they wanted to buy it back. So I said, okay,
and so we negotiated for a while and they paid
(08:48):
and they gave them back the animation, which they've never
ever used.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're kidding.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
All that work, all the materials are still sitting in
North Hollywood at a vault.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
They never took them over, they never they never went
back to Russia. But they on them and you can't
do anything with them. What a shame? What a shame
because you show some of the in the film in
the documentary, you show uh some of the animation, and
they are beautiful. They're just so uniquely different than anything
we've seen in this country, and and just really just
(09:19):
truly beautiful. What a shame that piece of history is
not being shown, especially to film students and people who
are in an animation. What are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
First of all, I forgot to mention that the US
military body to show on US military body, to show
on military bases around the world, towards the children of
the of the soldiers, because it was you know, non
violent and good and moral values.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
But now it's just locked in a vault.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yes, more or less.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
So, how did you attract award winning UH filmmaker Nadi
Atass to this, to this project? Because she is known
for her career and films and had won many many
awards and as a director, and then all of a sudden,
she's this is her very first documentary. So how did
(10:09):
you attract Nadia Tass to this particular project?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So understanding the Soviet Union is a very difficult problem,
and I really didn't think that I had we had
the time to educate directors and editors at everyone else
about the Soviet Union. So I went looking for people
who were really talented but understood the Soviet Union. Nadia's
grandparents escaped from the Soviet Union and they went they
(10:36):
came to Greece, where she was born, or they had
children in Greece, and she was born to one of
the children, and so she knew all about the Soviet Union.
And that seemed like a perfect match in terms of
a director. But the writer and the editors, just about
everybody had a background either they'd already filmed in Russia
or filmed in the Soviet Union. They all had a background.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Interesting, interesting, I know the composer had a bad background
in it. And also that and and that is Australian.
So even though she was she was born in Greece,
was born in Greece.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And her parents were anti communists, and her father was
a communist in Greece. That was common in those days.
So he got put into prison because he was a communist,
and they finally said to him, if you leave the
country and we'll let you out, and that's how she
went to Greece. But she never heard hot her Soviet roots. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Wow, that's fascinating, fascinating. What was the most difficult part?
You said you finished most of this before COVID. I'm
sure that had, you know, created its own problems, as
it has for most filmmakers I've talked to through that
period of time. What was the most difficult part of
putting together this documentary?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
We wanted to recreate his escape to the West, and
just as we were about to do that, COVID happened
and all these countries closed their borders, So we had
to wait for the borders to reopen between what was
the once Yugoslavia and in Austria, and the Australians made
it very clear to Navia that if she left to
(12:05):
go to Slovenia in Austria, she had like a six
month wait to get back into the country. She would
have to be in quarantine. Okay, So she figured out
how from her office in Melbourne, using modern technology to
film that whole open. She directed it and the only
thing she couldn't direct was the drum. Wow, asked everybody
(12:26):
she rehearsed them. I mean she watched it out was
being filmed. She said, no, do this and do that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So what so your husband started this autobiography. You're still
in the process of finishing the autobiography? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
First of all, I could Google translate, he writes, He
writes too beautifully for Google Translate to give me any
idea of what he was saying. So I like research
who's the greatest translator from Russian to English? And I
found this woman in New York who's very talented, and
she said, well, you know, she's busy, but she would
(13:03):
look at ten pages. So she looked at the ten
pages and she said, I really love this, but I can't.
I really want to do this. And this was like
February and she said, but I can't do it until October.
I'm really busy with my other assignments. So I said, well, okay,
and then she called me in April, and she said
I couldn't put it down. I finished it and so
(13:23):
with her with her. So now the it's in the
editing process. We're almost finished. I'm checking the editor now,
so it's been edited by a qualified book editor. And
when I finished my part in checking the edit, it's
going to be published.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That's exciting. That's exciting because you're a writer. That's what
your career was in writing. So did you have a
part in the in the in finishing this up, in
writing it?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Well, first of all, I had done a lot of
the interviews right right right, and then you know, there
were stories that Olin didn't put in that I thought
she'd be in there, so I added a little bit
of this and a little bit of that. But basically
it's his voice, very eloquent on telling the story of
a country we virtually know nothing about and a kind
of amazing childhood, despite the fact that it was poor
(14:13):
and it was ostracized for most of the world, and
you couldn't travel and there were all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
These you couldn't travel. I'm sorry you froze up and
you couldn't travel.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I mean, I don't know if you remember, but after
the Periestroika, these beautiful, drop dead Russian women who looked
like they were from James Bond movies started arriving in
this country. Do you think that they ever gave them
visas to leave? No? On everything kind of changed.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It did change in politics, yes, yes, yes, yes. So
what was it like being married to the most popular
Russian film star?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
I loved him, He loved me. I never had any
doubt about that. And he repeatedly brought me all of
these projects to help him with and somehow I was
able to do them, don't ask me how. And so
we were also like a team.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And I think that's why it worked, yes, being good
collaborators on these projects. That's Was there anything when you
found out when you do you speak Russian? By the way,
I have.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
About two hundred words and they're all animation titles.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, So when you got the translation of what he
had written in his autobiography, was there anything in there
that was surprising to you that you had never known
about before? Or were there many things?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
You know what? He had a very eloquent way of
telling his story. I definitely could never have told his
story in the way that he did, And I think
that the Russians who read it are just you know,
so pleased and you know so impressed by his vision
of life in that country and how he managed to
get to where he to where he.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Did amazing, amazing. Where can people see oleg So it's.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Being it is being streamed on Amazon Prime Video and
with Russian subtitles by the way, he needs them, and
you just have to go up into Prime Video and
type in olic or olid vida. Up it comes.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Now people seek it out because this is an actor that,
as I said, not many Americans know about. But once
you watch this year, you'll want to know more about
You want to go see his films. He was in
a film with Kevin Kostner, correct and what was so all?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
All? It was always cast for his looks. Yes, like
a lot of Americans, right. Kevin Coster film was about
the Soviet the Soviet missiles that we put that were
put into Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis, and Roger Donaldson
was actually brave enough to saying, you know what, Olive,
I think you can do the part, but you don't
(16:51):
look like the Soviet ambassador, so we're going to have
to put makeup on you. And he said fine, So
they gave him this big nose and these ears, and
they changed him so most of the russiansitn't even recognize him.
They said, who's that Russian actor? Oh my god, it's
all in Beato.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I know it was surprising when you see him in
the documentary, you go, oh, that's still him or not? People,
This is a fascinating documentary for anybody who loves movies,
loves films as much as I do, and I know
many of my listeners who listen to the show do
love movies. Seek this one out because it is so
unique and so different, and it will you'll learn a lot,
(17:29):
and it's just this beautiful actor inside and out. So
thank you Joan so much for being on the show
and for sharing your story with us, and I wish
you much success with Oleg.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You're welcome. I hope your readers go up on Amazon
and watch it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yes, definitely go on Amazon. It's great. Hey for all
of my loyal listeners. If you would like to support
the jam Price Show financially, you now can do that
and you can get a tax free donation by doing that.
You can go to creativisions dot org that Creativisions dot
org and go into the podcast section and you can
(18:03):
make a donation there. But by donating to the Jam
Price Show, you're also supporting independent and documentary filmmakers because
a portion of that donation goes to those filmmakers. So
support the arts by donating to the Jam Price Show
and go to creativisions dot org. Thank you all in advance.
(18:23):
Thank you Joan again for being on the show. Welcome
the Jamprice Show, All about Movies.
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