Many thanks to Ayako for tweeting the link!
TopSPB TV posted their interview with Keanu’s bodyguard while he was in St. Peterburg. They include the clip and a transcript of the interview in Russian.
Many thanks to reader SC who sent the translation of the interview to the site. It is below. No copyright infringement is intended.The interviewer is Elena Boldysheva and the bodyguard is Victoria Korchagina.
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “How to approach the star, we’ll find out from the regional director of the national bodyguards association Victoria Korchagina. Victoria, you participated in the protection of the Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, is it really so?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “Yes”.
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “You were alone?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA:”No. With my partner Pavel. Well, I’ll be honest, if it were not for our valiant police, I thank all the employees.”
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “Thousands of people followed him, did he expect such attention in Russia?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “No, he did not expect such attention to himself, but somewhere in the depths of his soul, I think such attention was pleasant to him.”
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “When Keanu Reeves learned that his personal bodyguard would be a woman, what was his reaction?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “He was surprised. He said, “My God, a woman.” It was in the sense of, how “did i come to that?” or something. But later, in the process of work, he was satisfied.”
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “Are there any specifics (or particular qualities), maybe he is too capricious?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “He is unpretentious in nutrition. He drinks a lot of water, sometimes comes out to smoke. Smokes a little. In a day he can do three or four cigarettes. There couldn’t be direct contact with Keanu with the public, so we had to stand always on the camera line. People hung on poles, trees, balconies. From a distance, were visible very decent cameras with good lenses. Very unpleasant moments were when they tried to break us in cortege. Decent cars like “Porsche Cayenne”, “Mercedes”. We undergo training of a certain kind.”
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “Was it new for you – to protect one when he is surrounded by so many fans?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “There was something similar, when in 2004 we secured the safety of Paul McCartney’s concert at the Palace Square. There were ninety thousand, but there were not many security guards. Departure was organized by a large tourist bus, through the black passage of the Hermitage. They even joked that these gates had not been opened since the tsarist times. All this crowd from the embankments, bridges and squares broke down, and we prayed that the driver wouldn’t stop, because they would turn us over.”
ELENA BOLDYSHEVA: “On the Internet there are rumors that Keanu Reeves drove in the St.Petersburg metro. How much does this correspond to reality?”
VICTORIA KORCHAGINA: “The end of his working day was around 1 am, the metro was already closed. At six-thirty, just in any case the working day was beginning.”