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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Oh, what a handsome fellow our Semen Zozulia is! The sun hasn’t even reached noon, and he’s already on camera with a broken face. He sure knows how to find trouble! As in the first season, the driver-partners Semen Zozulia and Artem Horbach, played by Volodymyr Hladkyi and Vyacheslav Dovzhenko, face not only funny but also dangerous situations.
- But this time it’s not his fault, explains Hladkyi. “Semen and Artem always try to help someone along the way and, because of their kindness, they’ve gotten into trouble with bandits. They’re like superheroes who help others but suffer for it themselves.”
They are currently filming the third season of the series “ATP Carriers.” But you haven’t seen the second season yet! It will be released this fall on the ICTV2 channel. So let’s go behind the scenes of this road movie.
Season of love
In the new season, Artem Horbach and Semen Zozulia will have to save both ATP “Rapid” and their personal lives. There will be many love stories—the screenwriters worked hard.
- My character, as a truck driver, is used to living at a crossroads; he’s always searching, says Vyacheslav Dovzhenko. “In his reality there are no full stops; his inner state constantly pushes him to discover—so let him look, find, lose… Yes, he will have love, of course!”
The series’ creative producer Felix Abroskin explains that they devoted a lot of attention to the relationships of the main characters: Artem, Rapid ATP director Halyna (Vira Kobzar), Semen, and logistics specialist Katia (Anna Huliaeva). So the season will be spirited and positive.
- Also, a woman named Violeta (Olena Oleinikova) will appear and stand between Semen and Katia, says Felix Abroskin. “Violeta is Katia’s opposite, and she’s wealthy, and Semen loves money. Halyna will start a relationship with a mysterious Spaniard. It will begin with online communication which, I won’t spoil, might even turn into something more. And all these love lines will develop against the backdrop of the adventures that happen to Artem and Semen on the road.”
Sushko and Horbach will fight for Halyna’s heart
But it won’t be without intrigue. The guys will get a new colleague—a female truck driver Yuliia, the role played by Olha Atanasova. And since she will work for Mr. Sushko’s ATP (Dmytro Surzhykov), she’ll have to compete with Artem and Semen. And not only on the road.
- This story is quite twisted, continues Abroskin. “We have the main antagonist—Mr. Sushko. As in the first season, he wants to win Halyna and take over her company, so all his attention is focused on those goals. Artem Horbach, let’s say, will also set his sights on Halyna, and there will be a fierce struggle between him and Sushko for her heart. But Halyna has her own plans. There will be serious swings for Horbach, Halyna, and Sushko. So Sushko will involve Yuliia in this struggle.”
- To seduce Horbach?
- On one hand, yes, to seduce. But Horbach is a handsome man. And I think Yuliia will truly fall in love with him.”
- But already in the first season it felt like Horbach had feelings for Halyna.
- We also felt that there’s chemistry between them, laughs the creative producer. “And Vira Kobzar and Vyacheslav Dovzhenko are fantastic actors. In my view, they very honestly play the relationship of grown-ups who have internal barriers tied to their past experiences. It’s one thing to dive into love when you’re 18-20 years old, another when you’re 45. Especially with a person with whom you have a long background and a past. Besides, Halyna knows how many marriages Horbach has had and how many children he already has. She does not want to be another woman left on the sidelines of Horbach’s truck.”
Volodymyr Hladkyi — one hundred percent Semen
As we already mentioned at the beginning, Semen Zozulia will fall into new romantic feelings.
- Yes, he will have a passionate infatuation. Honestly, he’s a bit of a flighty guy. He seems to love Katia, but sometimes he gets swayed. A bell-boy—wherever it rings, that’s where he goes, laughs Volodymyr Hladkyi. “He always ends up in paradoxical situations because he talks about love but does silly things. Basically, my character is built on that: he creates problems for himself, solves them himself, and sometimes buries himself even deeper. But there’s Tyoma, and together they somehow get out of these situations. The same goes for love. I won’t spoil it now, but let’s say everything ends well for Semen.”
The actor is so natural in this role that it seems he isn’t acting but simply living. He jokes both off-camera and on camera.
- Sometimes we even flip scenes upside down because we add something. I just realized: whatever the story, the most important thing for me is to, whenever possible, enrich any scene with humor, says Hladkyi. “Of course, I didn’t graduate from a humor institute with honors. Some jokes are really nothing, stupid. But sometimes, when you say something—! Our director Ania Hres even said: ‘Vovo, you’ll go to hell and edit all the scenes yourself’ (laughs). I can rearrange everything, and at the end deliver a whole monologue.”
- This is one hundred percent Vova’s role, adds Abroskin. “Vova and I are friends, and I know what he’s like off camera. Vova doesn’t drink alcohol, doesn’t smoke; in that he is the absolute opposite of Semen. And in life he’s an absolutely positive person. Those traits of Vova transferred to Semen. His positive energy fit the character very well. I’m absolutely sure: if another actor had played the role, the character could easily have been pulled into negativity. And overall the story wouldn’t have looked so kind and positive. So Vova is a one-hundred-percent hit and a one-hundred-percent Semen. Not to diminish the authors’ script skill, of course, but Vova is truly a find. I love him very much.”
ATP “Rapid” — a real enterprise in Darnytsia (DVRS) district
The fictional ATP “Rapid” is located on the base of the real company “Rapid” in the Darnytsia (DVRS) district of Kyiv. Unfortunately, in July the company suffered damage due to Russian shelling.
- There was a hit; trucks burned, and our working truck was partially damaged when our neighbors, who are not of sound mind, started striking warehouses. The filming set was also affected, says Felix Abroskin. “This greatly complicated the shoots because we had night shifts at the warehouses. And every alarm is automatically a pause in filming because you don’t know where they will strike next.”
So sometimes they have to restructure the filming process so that shooting does not stop.
- That’s exactly why some night shooting days at the warehouses were canceled, explains the creative producer. “There’s money invested, the crew is called, equipment is brought, actors arrive who must be paid, and then an alarm starts for 8 hours—which are big downtimes. Mamas Film Production handles all this and pulls through in such extremely difficult conditions—sincere thanks to them, and great honor to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who protect us and thanks to whom we even have the opportunity to film!”
As for our drivers, neither Dovzhenko nor Hladkyi drive their famous truck in real life.
- A truck is a specific vehicle, explains Abroskin. “The guys work only on acting tasks. Actors must play the scene, not worry about dimensions, how to shift gears, and so on. That’s a very difficult task for those who don’t do it every day. Neither Slava nor Vova drives a truck every day.”
Songs performed by Dovzhenko
A trademark of the series, as we heard in the first season, became the songs sung by Vyacheslav Dovzhenko.
- Slava will sing in both the second and third seasons, adds Felix Abroskin. “It would be a crime not to use his vocal talents. I even joked that with such success we’ll have to carve out recording time from Vyacheslav because people will demand concerts. I’m sure, if he wants to sing, he’ll succeed. And he might even become a pop star.”
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