Mel Borz – actor, producer and initiator of the “House of Friends of the Olympiad” in Beijing – was brought up in three cultures – Oriental, Russian and European. He speaks Russian and English with equal fluency, and knows many people, but remains outside the crowd. And his name is virtually unknown to the Russian public…

Mel, why did you change your oriental name of Muslim Tovbulatov, and what does your pseudonym mean?

My acting career began in the States, so my agent suggested I change my name to make it easier for Americans to pronounce. Mel is short for Muslim, and Borz means “wolf” in Chechen: I’m an ethnic Chechen. If I had taken another name, people would have said that I was ashamed of my ethnicity, and was hiding my roots.

You received your higher education in the USA. Why did you decide to come back four years ago?

I graduated from the New York University, from the financial and acting faculties. I acted my first roles there, and then I started to become too involved in the life of a foreign country. I didn’t break with it for good, but I made the decision to live in Russia.

You are an oriental person who grew up in Russia and studied in the USA. How do you combine these different cultures within yourself?

Fundamentally, of course, we respect our national traditions and won’t change them under any conditions. But we keep in step with the times and must adapt to them. As I lived abroad for a long time, I am able to look at a lot of things from a distance. When your parents belong to one milieu, and you are brought up in a second milieu, and mature in a third one, this allows you to look at the world from different sides, see its many facets and expand your horizons. Oriental culture is built on a clear subordination of ages. Initially I kept it a secret from my father that I was studying acting as well as finance, I was afraid of upsetting him. He found out about it when I got my first work. But in America everyone is focused on belief in God and the power of their country. And I like this. The proper values are beginning to be advocated here as well, so we are gradually beginning to respect ourselves as the citizens of the nation that we live in.

And what else should change in the world and the nation?

I am a patriot of my country, although I travel all over the world. Globalization is not necessary, because it causes cultural values to disappear, but people should become closer on a personal level. So the territorial disputes and imperialistic ways of Russia and the States will not lead to anything positive.

Let’s go back to your work. What are you doing at the moment?

I have several projects on: a film about the hockey-player Valery Kharlamov, rehearsals for the plays “Mozart and Salieri” by Pushkin and “Dreams of Paradzhanov” based on the director’s diary. But these have all come to a halt because of my joint project with the Russian Olympic Committee and Sport-Invest company, “House of Friends of the Olympiad”, where I am the director. My plan is that it should become the cultural and political center of the whole Olympiad. At least, for us and our close friends from the CIS countries. We will present Russia as a great nation, invite the best representatives of art, to show that we can be proud of more than just caviar and vodka, that we have a great cultural heritage that is one of the foundations of world culture. In six years there will be the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, so it’s time to show the world that we are friendly and hospitable.

Mel, can you be called the hero of our times? What is the main feature of your generation?

The generation of people in their 30s, and not just in Russia, can be called generation lost, just like the generation that lived through both world wars last century… We were born and grew up between two centuries, when many life principles and internal foundations changed. In my generation, 90% of people do not know what to do, they shift from place to place, scared of making the wrong decision and being attached to anything. The only difference for me is that I have an outlet – the stage. And you were right to make the comparison with Pechorin. We are all a little disappointed in life: you know all the answers and realize that nothing will be interesting anymore.

Do you really have this feeling?

Of course! We live in the information age, we go mad because we don’t know what to do, and how to deal with the information that comes raining down on us from all sides. If people used to wait for letters for half a year, now everyone has two mobile phones, and can use the Internet from any part of the world. The phone rings and you have to be ready to reply, to do something and make a decision. We constantly feel inner anxiety. The world has changed, but we haven’t changed inside. I hope that our children will have it much easier.