Because of what the actor Vladimir Shevelkov lost the role of the midshipman and why he did not communicate with colleagues in the film

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The adventure series directed by Svetlana Druzhinina has become a real hit. After it was shown on TV screens, Vladimir Shevelkov, Sergei Zhigunov and Dmitry Kharatyan began to receive letters from fans with declarations of love in batches, they were invited to creative evenings with a request to tell the details of the filming, and the directors vied with each other to offer new roles. Nevertheless, for some reason, one of these actors disappeared from the field of view of fans for a long time. Yes, and in the sequels of the legendary film, they "forgot" to invite him. What happened to Vladimir Shevelkov and what is he doing now?

Period before "Midshipman"

The actor always remembers his parents with admiration. A difficult fate fell to their lot: his father and mother were forced to work from an early age. The family of Vladimir's mother almost all died in the war, so from the age of 11, his mother herself earned a living for herself and her younger sisters, working in logging. After coming of age, she moved to Leningrad, where she got a job as a mechanic. And even having given birth to her eldest son, she continued to work as a cleaner in order to have a free schedule and combine work and family. But at least Shevelkov's father remained with his mother, but instead of his father who died in the Russian-Finnish campaign, he was forced to drag the entire large family on himself. Nevertheless, he was able to go from a worker to a chief engineer and graduate from two higher educational institutions.

Vladimir Shevelkov was born in Leningrad and grew up as a sports boy. He was especially fond of athletics and football, and even sometimes thought of becoming a professional athlete. His zeal was noticed by a physical education teacher at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. With his help, Vladimir Shevelkov managed to enter there. But studying the exact sciences required perseverance and cramming, and Volodya, oh, how he didn't like that. He liked to declare poetry much more. This talent was noticed by another teacher and invited the young man to take part in a casting at a film studio. As a result, Shevelkov gets the main role in a youth drama about first love from directors Nikolai Lebedev and Ernest Yasan "I ask you to blame Klava K. for my death."

The film was a huge success among audiences and received positive reviews from critics. The young actor instantly became recognizable. Such attention was flattered, especially since Vladimir did not want to spend more time on a profession for which his heart did not lie.

After two years of study, he decides to leave the Polytechnic Institute and enter VGIK. But here, too, the study does not go smoothly. They tried to expel the student nine times: either for not attending, or for problems with passing tests, or even for immoral behavior - the young man was "caught" while having sex with a fellow student in an empty classroom. Nevertheless, Shevelkov was lucky: he was constantly invited to the shooting. But here, too, there were conflicts. The fact is that the actor, although he starred with the masters of Soviet cinema (for example, in The Adventures of Prince Florizel, Oleg Dal, Donatas Banionis, Lyubov Polishchuk, Mikhail Pugovkin and many others were on the set with him), but he did not behave modestly.

Feeling like a star, Shevelkov began to be insolent and even behave arrogantly and arrogantly. But then the assistant director quickly intervened and explained to the "famous actor" how easy it was to become an actor in one picture. Vladimir had to cool down a little, and later, by the time he graduated from the university, there were already 15 films in his filmography. A certified actor gets a job at the Lenfilm film studio.

Prince Olenev

The actor was already very tired of his association with one of the heroes of "Midshipman", but it was this film that made him a real star and idol of young people. Shevelkov starred only in the first part, and then he was replaced by Mikhail Mamaev. So what happened, who did the actor quarrel with?

According to him, initially everything went somersault. For the role of Nikita Olenev, it was planned to take the son of director Anatoly Mukasey Jr. But he, for some reason, refused, and Svetlana Druzhinina hastily began to look for a replacement. The proposal to shoot Shevelkov came from the already approved actors Sergei Zhigunov and Dmitry Kharatyan. There were no conflicts with them, as well as with Tatyana Lyutaeva and Olya Mashna - Vladimir managed to get acquainted with the first in his previous works, and he studied together with girls at VGIK. Difficulties began directly in the process of filming.

According to Shevelkov, the team was determined to shoot a relative, which is why the attitude towards him was initially negative. The actor, he said, felt condescension towards himself, and began to snap back from nervousness. This was followed by absenteeism, disruptions to the filming process. There was another reason: with the director, he had a different vision of his hero. The fact is that before that, the celebrity played characteristic characters - lovers, drug addicts, scum. But the relationship with his hero - the quiet and dreamy prince Olenev - did not work out in any way.

However, the director did not want to rewrite the script for him. As, however, she could not tolerate the young actor's interference in the very process of work - after Prince Florizel, Shevelkov fell ill with directing, so he wanted to prove himself in every scene. He also grappled with Svetlana Druzhinina because of the music - in his opinion, some of the words in the song had to be replaced. In general, the parties have suffered so much that after the completion of the joint work, everyone just breathed a sigh of relief.

Subsequently, Shevelkov not only did not think about participating in the continuation of the film, but even refused additional earnings, which in the difficult nineties helped the rest of the actors to survive: without a third young hero they traveled around the country with concerts "Do not hang your nose, midshipmen."

Where did you disappear to

So what happened to the ambitious actor? After "Midshipman" Shevelkov starred in several more films, where his most striking role was Francis Morgan from the adventure film "Hearts of Three". They started talking about him again as a sex symbol, again thousands of fans … However, the actor was bored with fame. And, as he himself says, he called the film studio with a request not to bother him anymore. The actor admitted that at some point he regretted what he had done, when he was no longer recognized on the streets. But he found his true calling in directing. He started an advertising agency and started producing small videos. Among his works are clips of Yulia Mikhalchik, Tatiana Bulanova, video advertising. And even several of his works have received prizes at the International Advertising Festival in London. But chance helped to get involved in the production of films.

They began to persuade him to play a role in the series “Opera. Chronicles of the slaughter department. The actor agreed with one caveat that he would be allowed to direct at least the episode. So he shot five episodes for this series at once, and then followed by "Vasilyevsky Island", "To the End of the World", "Stanitsa", "Pregnancy Test", "Born by a Star", "What the French are Silent About", "Spasskaya" and other jobs. So Shevelkov did not disappear - he found himself in a new profession. And as an actor, he continues to modestly remind of himself, appearing in episodes of his paintings.