How was the fate of the girl who played the main role in the film "Foundling": Veronika Lebedeva

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

More than 80 years ago, the film "Foundling" was released on Soviet screens, and little Natasha, who went on a big trip around Moscow, captivates the viewer with her spontaneity even today. The leading actress, Veronica Lebedeva, was only 4.5 years old at the time filming began, but this was not her first film work. True, having matured, the girl did not begin to associate her life with the acting profession.

Little artist

For the first time Veronika Lebedeva appeared in the cinema at the age of three, in an episode of the short film "Air Adventure", but she hardly remembered anything about those filming. But I remembered the work in "Podkidysh" very well, the childhood impressions were so vivid.

One day Veronica, along with her mom and dad, went to the cinema for an afternoon session, and right in the cinema a woman approached them, who introduced herself and invited Veronica's parents to take part in auditions for the main role in the new film. The baby's dad was categorically against it, considering the cinema to be nothing more than the corruption of the child. But my mother still left their new friend their phone number and soon Veronica Lebedeva was invited to audition.

There were many beautiful and well-dressed girls at the film studio. Veronica's mom, seeing so many children, decided that her Veronica would definitely not be able to compete with them. The children were asked to tell about themselves. When it was Veronica's turn, she climbed onto the stage, sat down on a chair and began to examine those sitting in the hall.

The girl was asked to at least read a poem. And then they listened in amazement: "The fly sat down on the jam, that's all the poem!" When asked if this was all, she just nodded her head and resolutely went to her place. In those few minutes while Veronica was on stage, she managed to completely charm the director Tatyana Lukashevich, who immediately understood: this girl would play the main role in her film.

The shooting was not easy for the baby. She and her mother went to the studio by trolleybus every morning. In public transport, the girl was very sick and she came to the site already exhausted and tired. Tatyana Lukashevich, having learned about the problems, began to send a car for Veronica and her mother. Even after many years, Veronika Yulievna recalled: at that time she felt like a real movie star.

Veronika Lebedev remembered well Faina Ranevskaya, who sometimes was out of sorts, was capricious and all the time promised to give her little colleague a beautiful doll. True, she never fulfilled her promise. But Rostislav Plyatt treated the little one with sweets every day, and during the breaks he played with the girl with pleasure.

Veronika Lebedeva well remembers Tatiana Lukashevich, the director of Foundling. She perfectly understood how quickly children get tired, how rapidly their mood changes. Therefore, the wishes of the little artist were fulfilled instantly. If Veronica was tired, she could calmly approach the director and declare her desire to draw. Veronica was distracted from the cameras for only a few minutes, and then worked. At the same time, four-year-old Veronica Lebedeva received a very substantial fee of 75 rubles per shooting day for filming.

Life after glory

When the picture "Foundling" was released, the girl became the most famous child in the Soviet Union. People often approached her on the street, gave toys and sweets. Mom never allowed her daughter to be capricious or arrogant. She constantly pulled down Veronica and always explained that she was no different from other girls, and therefore should respect people.

Later, the girl starred in the animated film "In the Puppet Country" and was supposed to star in the film "Mozart". But the outbreak of the war made its own adjustments: the shooting had to be postponed, and Veronica, along with her parents, went to evacuate to the city of Shakshe. True, a month later, the family again boarded the train heading back to Moscow.

The baby will forever remember how the officer who was traveling on the train, noticing how the girl was staring at the bread in his hands, turned around and handed Veronica a whole half of the loaf. A more expensive and more luxurious gift simply did not exist at that time.

When Veronica was already finishing school, she seriously thought about becoming an actress. But her mother, who had once accompanied her daughter on the set, resolutely opposed and advised Veronica to think about another profession. At first, Veronika Lebedeva planned to study science and become a microbiologist, but then she still applied to the pedagogical department, after which she received a diploma as an English teacher.

Veronica never advertised her acting past, even at school she did not say that she acted in films, and at the institute no one could recognize in a pretty student a girl who once conquered the whole country with her spontaneity. Only in the courtyard where Veronica grew up was she often called a foundling, remembering her star work.

After graduation, Veronika Lebedeva worked as an English teacher at school, married the writer Igor Sinitsyn, gave birth to a daughter, Marina. Later, in the 1970s, she was an editor and reviewer for publishing houses. The husband of Veronica Yulievna wrote under the pseudonym Yegor Ivanov, and she herself became the co-author of his trilogy "Together with Russia", and generally helped her husband in his work.

In 2008, Igor Eliseevich died. After his death, the life of Veronica Yulievna, by her own admission, stopped. She suffered a stroke and is now living in the past. Now that same Natasha from "Foundling" is already 85 years old, her daughter Marina is taking care of her, who is helped by a nurse. Veronika Yulievna refuses to communicate with strangers and only once, in 2010, agreed to talk with the press.

Once, Veronika Lebedeva stood on a par with children who will forever remain in the memory of viewers in the images of their young screen heroes. It seemed that these children must certainly become professional actors. But in fact, each of them had their own destiny. Some really chose the profession of an actor, but for some, filming in a movie remained only a good memory of the happy moments of childhood.