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It's funny because I'm so used to acting in English that any time I have these moments where I have to speak Russian, it definitely takes a different part of my brain to pull it off, but it's always nice and fun.

I had a really fantastic dialect coach that I worked very well with, and I was constantly surprised by the different intonations that the Russian dialect has.

Thank God, I have sort of a pan-European accent rather than Russian, which doesn't sound very pleasantly to Americans. For them, we speak with a rather rude pitch, and that might be our actors' problem there. Now I've begun working with language coaches in Los Angeles to get rid of the accent completely.

I had to choose between American and British actors, and it didn't take me more than a second to decide: Russians are Europeans and should be played by other Europeans.

I think somebody who speaks the language is going to notice immediately that I'm not Russian.

My biggest entertainment in Moscow was to go to the subway and watch people. When American students visited, I watched them; I learned English from them.

In American films, Russians are often portrayed like cartoon villains without clear motivations.

I always wanted to play characters, and that was definitely one - a Russian spy.

I'm actually embarrassed to tell people I'm Russian these days, because it's become such an awful place.

It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.