Alexandrina Markvo is not only intelligent and beautiful, she's also a businesswoman. She manages the Marka Face Fashion production company and is seriously involved in producing theatrical plays. Sometimes, when she has some time off from her theatrical projects, she acts in movies. Markvo's latest film, "Atlantis," which premiered at Kinoplex na Leninskom movie theater in early August, is a story of passionate love and intricately entangled relationships. Markvo, 26, played at Frenchwoman in this romantic flick. LifeStyle's Dmitry Mozheitov caught up with her on a warm August day on the patio at Moscow-Rome cafe.

Your first film role in "All You've Dreamed of for So Long" was as a German woman, and in "Atlantis" you played a Frenchwoman. Why do directors see you as a foreigner? Does it have something to do with your excellent command of foreign languages?

I wouldn't call this sequence of events an indication of a trend. In "All You've Dreamed of for So Long," they only needed a beautiful woman who could speak German. And actor Dmitry Kharatian, who produced "Atlantis," saw a "typical Frenchwoman" in me. He recommended me to the film's director, Alexander Pavlovsky. [Pavlovsky] met with me and said I would be a good fit as a Frenchwoman. As for foreign languages, I think the word "command" is a dangerous term. I'm fluent in English and Italian and I can speak German and French. In all the countries I've been to, people always took me for a native. But this doesn't mean I'm a polyglot, a person who is perfectly in command of these four foreign languages.

As far as I know, you weren't educated as an actor. Was it difficult for you to act around such celebrities as Dmitry Kharatian and Julia Rutberg?

I was very nervous - not only because I played a pregnant woman and had to wear a pillow on my belly, but also because the cast was very professional, and although all of them are my friends, I was afraid of screwing up in front of them. After the filming was finished, my movie godfather Kharatian said he hadn't expected me to be so talented.

Are you going to continue moving along the thorny path of an actress?

I don't think that acting is my profession. It's a very dependent profession and it takes, first and foremost, tolerance and humility. I'm an organizer and a theater producer, and I had my own vision of how certain scenes in the film should be and often disagreed with what the director suggested that I do. But what could I do? He was the director and I was an actor. And it was hard for me to leave Moscow for six weeks, even though Karolina Bugaz (a place near Odessa where the filming was done) turned out to be a very beautiful place. By and large, I liked it and I had a good time. If I were invited to act in a movie again I wouldn't refuse, but if not I wouldn't be that upset either. I don't plan on earning my living this way.

In the early 1990s you were a successful model. Why did you quit modeling?

I didn't quit; it's just that I rarely do fashion shows these days and only if I'm invited by my closest friends. I always model in my friend Dasha Razumikhina's shows, and I'm the face of her label in the West. That's how my photo appeared in the American edition of Vogue.

Models often drift into the world of acting, but your story is different: You are a theater producer. How did it happen?

I didn't get into the business of theater production through modeling. It all developed step by step. You could say I've climbed up the steps of a ladder to become a theater producer, including modeling, being a modeling agency director and a PR agency director. Last year, my friend, stage artist Pavel Kaplyevich (who my companion, Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, and I introduced to the public as a fashion designer) invited me to co-produce his theater project "Chaika." It was the first Moscow staging of the work of the famous, though young, Ukrainian director Andrii Zholdak-Tabulevich IV, and it involved a company of Russian theater and movie stars. The project was a success. The idea of modern theater is rather appealing in itself; I mean modern theater in the way it exists in the West. This summer we produced "Bifemme," an adaptation of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's surrealistic play. The play received completely opposite critical responses, but nobody was indifferent to it. I see the mission of a producer as showing the public something new, a theater unknown before.

So, you're not planning on stopping with "Bifemme"?

Of course not! First, "Bifemme" - which is a play about a woman with two heads - will be performed much more frequently when fall begins. Secondly, we plan to present a production of Maxim Kurochkin's play "Imago. Pygmalium" with the movie and theater diva Anastasia Vertinskaya starring. She's returning to the stage after a long hiatus. The premiere will be in the Chekhov MKhAT in October, and it promises to be quite an event. Thirdly, in late November, we plan, along with choreographer Alla Sigalova, to stage a ballet called "Red and Black Dances" to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dyagilev Seasons Festival.

Sasha, you're a model, a director, a publisher, a producer and an actress. Which of these capacities is more appealing to you?

A boss! Just joking - I plan to continue on in the theater business. At the moment I'm involved in negotiations on a TV show. Maybe it will work out and maybe it won't. I've been pretty lucky in my life: I'm nice to people and people are nice to me. That's the cycle in my life.

Have you used your beauty to your advantage?

I've used my beauty to the same extent that I've used my knowledge, intellect and sense of humor - no more and no less!