The actress was born on June 14, 1956 in Leningrad. The girl's father was People's Artist of the RSFSR, Vsevolod Dmitrievich Safronov, best known to viewers for his participation in Viktor Nekrasov's war drama Soldiers, Nikolai Dostal's detective The Motley Case, Alexander Ginzburg's fantasy adventure film The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin, and Gennady Pavlov's detective film The Investigation is Led by ZnaToKi. He's Somewhere Here. Elena's mother, Valeria Rubleva, also worked in the film industry. She was one of the directors at the Mosfilm studio. In many ways, this environment predetermined her daughter's choice of future profession. Immediately after graduating from high school, Elena applied for admission to VGIK, where she was successfully accepted.
After her second year, the university administration expelled Safonova from the institute for ideological reasons. The reason was the friendship of the young actress with a young man who had moved to the United States of America. Later, in addition to problems with her studies, this friendship resulted in Elena being assigned the status of "restricted to travel abroad" - for a long time, the girl did not have any opportunity to leave the country even for a while. After being suspended from school, Safronova took her documents and transferred to the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography, where she successfully completed her studies on the course of Ruben Sergeevich Agamirzyan. Immediately after her final exams in 1981, the aspiring actress was accepted into the troupe of the V. F. Komissarzhevskaya Theater, where she subsequently worked for many years.
Her debut in cinematography occurred much earlier, in 1974. Her first role was that of Lyuba in Aida Manasarova's drama "Looking for My Destiny." The leading roles in the film were played by Georgy Zhzhenov and Galina Polskikh. Two years later, the actress was invited to star in Yuri Grigoriev's children's film "Pole Perekhodit." Two years later, Elena starred in Sergei Solovyov's Soviet-Japanese melodrama "Melodies of the White Night." The actress's first leading role was that of opera singer Salomeya Krushelnitskaya in Oleg Fialko's film "The Return of Butterfly." Safonova's first film award came after playing the leading role of the lonely, divorced, beautiful and intelligent Olga in Igor Maslennikov's melodrama Winter Cherry. The audience immediately liked the film, and Elena received the title of Best Actress of the Year according to a poll by the magazine Soviet Screen.
In 1987, the whole world learned about the actress. Safonova was invited to play the leading female role in Nikita Mikhalkov's Soviet-Italian drama Dark Eyes, based on the stories of A.P. Chekhov. The leading male role was played by the Italian Marcello Mastroianni. For this work, the actor was nominated for an Oscar. In 1992, Elena Safonova was invited to play a role in the French film The Accompanist. During one of the parties dedicated to the film, the actress met the French theater actor Samuel Labarthe. The wedding took place that same year. Over time, two sons were born into the family, Ivan and Alexander.
