--- title: "\"I'm glad to be rejected\": Larysa Rusnak on the Mariupol 'Odyssey', the film 'Hatnik', and the strength born from loss" description: "In an interview with Wave RBC.UA, Larysa Rusnak spoke about her first roles at the Franko Theatre, her work on Uryvsky's 'Odyssey' about Mariupol and the film 'Hatnik', and how the loss of her mother and twenty years of television experience shaped her philosophy of courage and acceptance of imperfection." date: 2026-09-17T15:02:01.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/larisa-rusnak-interview-odyssey-hatnik-loss tags: [] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # "I'm glad to be rejected": Larysa Rusnak on the Mariupol 'Odyssey', the film 'Hatnik', and the strength born from loss ![Larysa Rusnak in a black turtleneck with crossed arms against a dark background — portrait for an interview about 'The Odyssey of Mariupol', the film 'Hutnik' and the strength born from loss](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/18/larisa-rusnak-intervyu-odisseya-hatnik-utrata/larisa-rusnak-intervyu-odisseya-hatnik-utrata-1.webp) Larysa Rusnak is a name that in Ukraine is instantly associated with several fields at once: People's Artist, a legend of dubbing, a familiar face on television. In a fresh interview for Wave RBC.UA, she deliberately moves away from the image of the "perfect star" and speaks of herself as a person who has learned not to fear imperfection. The conversation covers her path from the first ensemble roles at the Franko Theatre to the deep parts in Ivan Uryvsky's production 'Odyssey' and the film 'Hatnik', as well as her personal experiences after the loss of her mother and a rethinking of her profession through the prism of war. Rusnak emphasizes that courage, for her, is not the absence of fear but a conscious choice to be authentic, even when it is uncomfortable. ### First steps: from ensemble to lead role Rusnak's theatre career began in the classic sequence — theatre institute, then the Franko Theatre company, where she still works to this day. However, the path to her first significant role turned out to be faster than she perhaps expected. "I started very actively. Although I played everything: all the ensemble parts were mine, but almost immediately I got the lead role — the Pious Marta," the actress recalls. The occasion was a mundane but typical situation in theatre life: actresses slightly older than her began to become pregnant, and their roles needed to be replaced. For the young artist this became a real "wow effect": "butterflies inside, fireworks, joy." But after this success came years that Rusnak describes as a period of painful getting used to the main "minus" of the profession — the multitude of rejections. "Until I got used to it, it was very hard. I worried that something was wrong with me, that I was a bad actress, and that they wouldn't take me anywhere else," she admits. Over time, this perception transformed: rejection stopped being a sentence and became an "experience" that "pushes toward new neural connections." Today Rusnak says that she "even rejoices" in such cases, because they force her to grow. ### 'Odyssey': the stillness of the mothers of Mariupol One of the key theatrical works of recent years, Rusnak calls the production 'Odyssey' staged by Ivan Uryvsky — her second collaboration with the director after 'Mary Stuart'. The dramaturgy was written by Oleksandr Dorichovsky, taking Homer's 'Odyssey' as a basis but weaving into it a modern context: Mariupol, 2022, the defenders of the city. Rusnak's role is a generalized image of a mother, not a built-up character, but "the mother I imagine for myself, because I am acquainted with many mothers who are waiting." The actress focuses not on the character but on the nature of the production: it is a "fairly static story", and it is precisely the stillness, in her words, that "is sometimes much harder and more expressive" than dynamics with external transitions. The artist's task is to fill this stillness with "the energy of mothers who are looking for their children, banging their heads against the wall to learn any piece of information, and often hitting only bureaucracy and 'we can't do anything' — it drives you to madness." At the same time, Rusnak emphasizes: "These women are extraordinarily strong. There is almost no room here for any external manifestations, and perhaps this story does not need them." ### 'Hatnik' and the home as a snail's shell In film, Rusnak appeared in 'Hatnik' — a story about home, family, and roots. The plot, which she briefly recounts for the audience: a girl wants to sell her parents' house to pay off the debts of her own coffee shop, but while inspecting it she meets a hatnik (a homebound man) in it, who does everything to make sure she does not sell this place. Rusnak herself defines home for herself through a metaphor: "For me, home is a place where you can hide, like a snail in its shell." At the same time, she herself quotes a character from the 'Odyssey' who destroys this illusion: "You cannot hide. Where is your home? There is no one there anymore, everyone is busy with their own affairs." ### Loss, inner strength, and rethinking A separate thread of the interview is the experience of losing her mother. Rusnak speaks of this with her characteristic frankness, not hiding the pain, but not allowing it to define her entire identity. "I am very grateful to her" — this phrase from the headline of the Wave RBC.UA piece reflects the key message: the loss became not only a bereavement but also a catalyst for inner rethinking. The actress tells how she learned to "allow the thought that perhaps something really is wrong with you" — even when at the peak moment it seems that "everything is obvious and the truth is on your side." "You need to exhale, step back from the situation, and perhaps there is your mistake there. You need to allow that you too may be wrong." This philosophy — "courage instead of complexes", readiness to be imperfect — Rusnak calls her main professional and personal principle. She is not afraid to say that at peak moments of criticism it "seemed unfair toward me", but over time she developed an "inner strength of spirit" that allows her to look wider than only fairness to herself. ### Television: twenty years on air and an unexpected finale In addition to her theatre and film career, Rusnak for many years was a familiar face of Ukrainian television. According to 24tv.ua and Obozrevatel.com, she hosted the popular show 'Loto-Zabava' for more than twenty years, and her departure from the project, by her own admission, was painful and unexpected: "They gave me a watch, like to a pensioner" — that is how she described the moment when, after two decades on air, she was "unexpectedly removed" from the program. This episode, which she commented on in detail for the first time in the public space, became yet another confirmation that in her professional path rejections and unexpected breaks are not the exception but part of a general experience to which she has learned to relate with the same "inner strength" she speaks of in the Wave interview. The full interview with Larysa Rusnak is available on the Wave YouTube channel. A shortened version, on the basis of which this material was prepared, was published on the Wave RBC.UA website. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - ["I am very grateful to her." Larysa Rusnak on the loss of her mother, Uryvsky's 'Odyssey', and the secrets of youth](https://wave.rbc.ua/ukr/stars/ya-yiy-duzhe-vdyachna-larisa-rusnak-vtratu-1789647857.html) - Подтверждено по источнику wave.rbc.ua - [Given a watch like to a pensioner: Larysa Rusnak recalled her painful dismissal from 'Loto-Zabava'](https://24tv.ua/show24/ru/larisa-rusnak-ob-uvolnenii-iz-loto-zabava-televedushhaja-vpervye-rasskazala-o-potere-raboty_n3144420) - Подтверждено по источнику 24tv.ua - [After 20 years on television. Actress Larysa Rusnak confessed how she was removed from a popular show](https://www.obozrevatel.com/shou-oboz/posle-20-let-v-teleefire-aktrisa-larisa-rusnak-priznalas-kak-eyo-neozhidanno-ubrali-iz-populyarnogo-shou.htm) - Подтверждено по источнику obozrevatel.com