Meet Maxim Matveyev, a Russian actor & latest TikTok star (PHOTOS)

Maxim Matveyev was born in 1982 in the small town of Svetly, Kaliningrad Region, and spent his childhood in Saratov. He planned to become a lawyer, but on the advice of theater teacher Vladimir Smirnov, he applied to the theater department of the Saratov Conservatory.

This was unexpected – at first, the idea seemed ridiculous. Furthermore, Maxim had no acting experience whatsoever: he'd sometimes put a toy machine gun on a stool while watching war films, waiting for the scene with fleeing enemies. But, his attempt was more than successful: he was accepted straight into the second year.

In 2002, Matveyev enrolled in the Moscow Art Theatre School and, just a year later, made his debut on the stage of the renowned Moscow Art Theater. He also performed in productions at Oleg Tabakov's Tabakerka Theater. In 2009, director Konstantin Bogomolov, whose productions have always generated considerable attention, invited Matveyev to star in his production of ‘Wolves and Sheep’.

After the premiere of ‘The Ideal Husband. A Comedy’, in which the actor played Father Artemy, audience members upset by the production filed police reports and Orthodox activists even attempted to disrupt the performances.

Matveyev had to explain that his character had nothing to do with offending the feelings of believers: “He’s not a priest, but a petty demon, a worthless Mephistopheles, which is clear from the context of the play… My Artemy doesn’t wear a cassock – he wears a tight, stylish, black coat, buttoned up tightly. He doesn’t even wear a real cross – it’s a cheap, fake one. He’s part of a glamorous world and he covers it up with his false piety. That’s exactly who I play.”

Meanwhile, Matveyev met his first wife at the Moscow Art Theater – he and Yana Sekste were performing in the play ‘Forty-First. Opus Posth’. Together, they not only performed on stage, but also volunteered for the ‘Gift of Life’ charity foundation. It was then that they came up with the idea to create their own project they called ‘Doctor Clown’, which helps sick children. "Visiting children, I realized that my profession had a truly therapeutic effect – and this thought constantly warmed me," said the actor once in an interview.

His second wife was Elizaveta Boyarskaya. They met in 2010 on the set of the movie ‘I Won't Tell’ and got married in 2010. Seven years later, the couple starred in Karen Shakhnazarov's ‘Anna Karenina: Vronsky's Story’. "Everything was easy for us, even playful, with a certain dose of playful adrenaline. We were very happy that Liza and I did this, because it's a very intimate story. It gave us a great deal of freedom. I can’t imagine who else it could be,” says Matveyev.

He said that, for him, Leo Tolstoy’s novel is a universal story of love and relationships between a man and a woman. Regarding his preparation for the role of Stavrogin in ‘Demons’ (another character that TikTokers are currently going crazy over), he said he consulted a psychiatrist, as Dostoevsky himself borrowed many of the character’s traits from the inmates of asylums.

Matveyev’s filmography includes melodramas, adaptations of classics and war dramas. One of his most striking roles was that of Artyom Streletsky, a psychologist who uses an unconventional shock therapy method, in the TV show ‘Trigger’. In an interview, the actor admitted that this project had become a point of growth for him and that he and the audience had explored psychotherapeutic methods and tried them out on themselves.

On set, Matveyev performs all of his own stunts and admits that this decision is a real headache for the producers. He was a fencing enthusiast in school. He still enjoys sports, trying to practice every day. But, Matveyev admits he loves spending time with his sons and even makes toys for them. “You need to learn to notice moments of happiness. Children are good at this, so we should learn from them. Seeing something beautiful is happiness, having a heart-to-heart talk is happiness, giving a hug is happiness. But, to see and feel this, we adults need to do some work, touch our souls,” he believes.

He takes a humorous view of his sudden TikTok fame. Recently, Matveyev posted a collection of rather “unglamorous” photos on his social media, captioning them: “TikTok crush”.