Alexander Ustyugov: From life in the attic to three weddings with Aglaya Shilovskaya
You know, sometimes you look at a hero on the screen and it seems that his life is a continuous red carpet woven from luck. Alexander Ustyugov. Major Shilov, from whose shadow he ran as from a fire. And he ran away. Today, he has almost a hundred roles behind him, from crowned heads to tired romantics. But few remember the cold Moscow attic in Ramenki. Yes, it was there that he spent the night when he came to embrace the capital once again. There was no money. There was only stubborn faith in himself.
The smell of coal dust and the light of spotlights
Alexander was born in Ekibastuz. And he still remembers this harsh land with hidden tenderness. Years later, he will even name his rock band Ekibastuz - in honor of the city where his character was forged. There, among the winds and industrial pipes, a core was formed. Although as a child, attending art and theater studios, the guy hardly thought seriously about fame. Life dictated its own, down-to-earth rules. He went to a vocational school to become an electrician. He worked at a coal enterprise - the same place where his father had spent his entire life leaving his health. An ordinary rut. Reliable. Hopeless.
But art pulled like a magnet. First there was the Transport Academy in Omsk, then a transfer to the correspondence department and a modest position as a lighting technician in the local Youth Theater. The light of spotlights. The dust of old wings. The backstage awakened dormant childhood dreams. He began to go on stage, and soon even staged his own performance. And he realized acutely, to physical pain - he needed to study. The Omsk College of Culture turned out to be not enough. The goal was Moscow.
The capital was met with icy indifference. That same attic. Endless auditions. Searching for any, even the dirtiest, part-time job, just to buy food. The Shchukin School only surrendered on the fourth attempt. He was already 24 years old when he finally saw his name on the cherished lists. And before that? Before that, there were humiliating verdicts from teachers. They told the future star to his face: not photogenic, not flexible, look for another profession, young man. Cruel? Perhaps. But it is this cold that weeds out casual passers-by from those who really need it. He made a promise to himself: the fourth time will be the last. He did not give up. He endured.
The curse of Major Shilov
After graduating from the institute, Ustyugov was accepted into the RAMT troupe. Filming in movies began. Episodes, minor roles, and then - a trap. The series "Cops Wars". The role of Roman Shilov brought deafening, overwhelming popularity, but at the same time became his cross. Eleven seasons. Eleven long years in one skin. Ustyugov repeatedly tried to leave, tried to refuse, but the producers knew how to find arguments. In the end, the actor simply begged for mercy. The ending was left open - let the viewer guess whether Roman survived or disappeared into the darkness.
Alexander categorically did not want to be a hostage of one role. He knew his strengths. He began to choose projects with manic care, as far as possible from police everyday life. War films, historical dramas. Each new era required immersion. He bought stacks of books, disappeared into the dusty halls of museums, studied the cut of ancient costumes and the life of those times. And, surprisingly, he never refused episodes. Where there is no crushing burden of responsibility for the entire project, you can breathe deeply, improvise, be mischievous.
But the framework of acting was always not enough for him. Directing, voicing books. And then he went to St. Petersburg, opened a bar there and ... a carpentry workshop. He returned to what he knew in his youth. The smell of fresh wood, a plane, varnish. He restored antique furniture and carved wooden soldiers, selling them through social networks. There was its own therapy in these painstaking movements. A way to ground yourself. To feel under your fingers not ephemeral fame, but a real, rough material.
Trials by everyday life and broken cups
The actor's personal life long resembled a complex, intricate maze. Back in "Shchuk", he fell in love with Yanina Sokolovskaya without memory. A girl from a wealthy family, used to comfort. At first they lived in the luxurious apartment of her parents, and then Alexander, driven by pride, took his young wife to a harsh dormitory. One shower room per floor. Eternal queues to the buzzing stove in the communal kitchen. But Yanina turned out to be surprisingly resilient. She learned to cook soups, made their tiny room cozy. Then there was the move, the renovation, the construction of their own house. The birth of her daughter Evgenia. And a sudden, dull blow - divorce in 2015. The girl was only eight years old. The yellow press whispered about infidelity, but the former spouses themselves kept icy silence.
Loneliness did not bite at the heels for long. A hasty marriage with Anna Ozar - the daughter of a millionaire, the head of a large aviation holding. They had known each other for a long time, but a spark ignited on the set of "Viking". The result? Divorce after exactly three months. Too fast. Too abrupt. Then - an attempt to build happiness with Maria Prokhorova, the manager of his band and co-owner of the bar. Also a miss. Ustyugov often repeated that the main woman in his life is his daughter Zhenya. But fate, as usual, was hiding an ace up its sleeve.
A quiet harbor. Three weddings and one sofa
Theater. Rehearsals for the play "Warsaw Melody". It was there, in the dimness of the auditorium, and not on the set of "Capital Thing", where they first met, that a real current ran between Alexander and Aglaya Shilovskaya. They did not give interviews. They did not comment on anything. They just appeared together and looked at each other as if the world around them had dissolved.
In the summer, they shocked everyone with the news: they signed, got married, escaped to Thailand for their honeymoon. The wedding became an anchor for them. After it, as the actors themselves admit, any quarrels lose their meaning - the marriage is sealed in heaven, and now you just need to work on preserving it.
The wedding was celebrated on a grand scale, three times. First, on August 15, 2025 - a deeply symbolic date for Aglaya, the day when her grandparents and parents got married. Alexander, understanding the importance of the moment, decided not to break the tradition. Then there was a celebration in foggy St. Petersburg, and then - under the hot sun of Krasnodar, in the circle of his relatives.
They are woven from contradictions. Aglaya is communicative, emotional, used to keeping everything under control. A week before the trip, she thoroughly checks tickets and bookings. Alexander is closed, calm. A person who may not even know the exact route on the day of departure. But these puzzles came together without a single gap. They no longer need to prove anything to anyone or fight for leadership.
They turned out to be frighteningly homely. They prefer an evening on the sofa with a good movie to red carpets. They recently moved into their new apartment and are enthusiastically nesting. And you know what's the funniest thing? Alexander acts as the main designer - Aglaya unconditionally trusts his taste. Now their life flows between St. Petersburg and Moscow. There is a house in both cities. There is work in both cities. And absolute, ringing happiness. Simply because they are returning home. Together.
