I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm sure I've met some without realizing it.
I always wanted to play characters, and that was definitely one - a Russian spy.
I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.
We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy. And the spy novel, as never before, really, has come into its own.
Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
Today's difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal.
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
Since that time I have had continuous contact with the persons who were completely unknown to me, except that I knew they would hand whatever information I gave them to the Russian authorities.
It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.
I grew up reading the classic novels of Cold War espionage, and I studied Russian history and Soviet foreign policy.