Legendary actress Elvyra Žebertavičiūta – 90: “Old age sharpens people’s character” | Names
Now that there are no more theater tours, the life of showman Elvyra Žebertavičiūtė has become calmer, and his daily life is brightened by his three pets. In the evenings, she goes for a walk in the nearby home park, and sometimes, if there was an opportunity, according to Elvyra, her strength would allow her to dance.
Although a year ago for the portal 15 minutes Elvyra Žbertavičiūtė said that she refused many projects, we can still see her on the cinema screen. We saw the actress celebrating her 90th birthday three months ago at the premiere of Emil Vėlyvis’s “The Wicked Generation”.
The film, which immersed the thirty-year-old KGB detective, reminded E. Žebertavičiūta of her youth during filming. Even before the premiere, she shared her memories from that era.
“I once had to be in that terrible KGB palace. When you think about it, our conservatory was right next door. We are singing and dancing there, and nearby people are moaning in torture in the cellars… No one told us or explained it, but we felt it. And we knew there were “scammers” out there somewhere, we just thought there weren’t any on our course. And then one of the girls got books from abroad – which were banned in the Soviet Union. And she was immediately summoned by the KGB – they interrogated her for a long time, where she got it from, and tried to find the tip of the line – who distributed it. And I was invited for another purpose – for me to become that “swindler”! They said that I am very good at communicating. Maybe I could just tell you if something happens? I understood what it was about. I replied, “I can’t because I’m very talkative.” I don’t even feel like I’m blurting something out – I can give myself away.” This is how I convinced them that it’s not worth taking me,” she told me everything.
According to E. Žebertavičiūtė, since the beginning of the occupation of our country, people have accumulated so much inside that sooner or later Lithuania had to shake. When it happened, collective pain was felt due to injustice, horror, experiences, deprivation. “My childhood was very poor, we were all hungry. But we didn’t demand anything from the parents either, we understood their concerns. Now, when the war is going on, others say – we are losing this and that. And I’m just thinking – God, don’t let us experience what the Ukrainians have to experience now. We live in a hatch! – doubt E. Žebertavičiūtė. – We were a strong nation, that’s why we won freedom. I say “we” because I also contributed – the whole of Lithuania went crazy.”
It is obvious that E. Žebertavičiūte has accumulated a lot of experience during his life and lived beautiful moments. Memories from the theater tours are still vivid in her memory.
“I had a very small but fun company of friends from various professions, but mostly actors. These are my, as I call them, the closest friends of my heart. We all gathered, whoever gave the other a modest gift, we tasted Lithuanian dishes, for example, kugeli or zeppelins.
Friends were people who improvised and acted. We never had to invite individual artists to sing or entertain during the celebration. I remember placing the tablecloth on the floor and pushing the table against the wall. Then we all sat down on pillows, as if on a meadow, and had a meal and socialized.
That’s how we had fun, howled, and improvised. For example, someone would disappear in another and come back as a character who would leave a program he had invented right there. It was nice that not everyone was even in a hurry.
But then one of my friends got cancer, some of my friends broke up, little by little the company fell apart, later everyone went to the country, and I was left alone with my pets. How you would like to have a close friend from those times who would listen and understand you. “Old age makes people’s character traits stronger, so disappointments are inevitable,” she said.
Having celebrated her 90th anniversary on January 7, she said that she is already counting the years that have passed. “Years don’t matter now, I don’t count them anymore, I feel, as they say, a senior citizen. I realized that I was already old after 70 – then I felt that I had become freer. For example, if I didn’t dare to do something before, it was awkward, now everything has become simple, it seems, why should I compete. I can directly say what I think, I was not in my year, in my life.”
And when asked to name the secret of his longing, he turned to his childhood again. E. Žebertavičiūtė believes that difficult experiences have hardened her, but despite that, she has always remained positive.
“I often still think to myself that my mother died at the age of 96, but she suffered. Although life was given a long life, it became meaningless at the end because he suffered from dementia for 6 years.
does my longevity come from my childhood, not just my genes? She hardened me – after all, I was a child of the war, so I know what misery, deprivation, even evil is. Apparently, these things also hardened those exiled to Siberia, among whom many are long-lived with an excellent memory. Or maybe my innate optimism helped…” – said theater and cinema legend Elvyra Žebertavičiūtė, celebrating her 90th birthday.
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