[on his character in The Search (2014)] Kolia is an ordinary boy who falls into the hell of war. For me, the best way to define him is to invert the popular metaphor: Kolia is not a caterpillar turning into a butterfly but a butterfly that turns into a caterpillar. That is the effect war has on him. At the beginning Kolia is like a flying butterfly, he knows how to be happy at any moment, every day. By the end he is the opposite, incapable of any true happiness, crawling like a caterpillar.

[on being cast in The Search (2014)] Tatiyana Kliminskaya, an excellent casting director, called my agent to tell her a French director was looking for Russian actors. We didn't know who the director was at that point, or what kind of film it would be, just that it was a big project. The casting took place in four stages and I only met Michel Hazanavicius during the fourth. It's almost a miracle for me to have been associated with such an ambitious project. I felt as if I was taking my first step towards the European market.

[on preparing for The Search (2014)] I looked at a lot of documentation about Chechnya and Afghanistan on the Internet. I tried to meet people who had lived through these conflicts. I underwent an intense 2-month training in order to build muscle mass and gained eight kilos. And I imagined Kolia's story: I didn't tell anyone about it but I had to understand him and why he does what he does... For me, Kolia is a boy who lived alone with his mother and who was teased a lot... This situation is more and more common in Russia: you find boys in boarding schools calling their teacher 'Mummy'. I went through the same thing. I completely understand Kolia's pain.

[on Michel Hazanavicius] Not only is Michel a terrific director, he is also very gentle man. In Russia, directors often shout at actors. Michel gets what he wants by other means. I was also very happy that we could do many takes. Up until now, on the Russian films I've worked on, we rehearsed then did three takes, no more.