"Black list" of director Gaidai: for what offenses Natalya Varley, Evgeny Morgunov and other actors got into it

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

No matter how light and cheerful Gaidai's comedies may seem to us, nevertheless, in life, the creator did not at all correspond to the popular opinion about the director-merry fellow. Yes, Gaidai could be witty and spontaneous, but as far as work was concerned, thank you: the owner of the set became a serious, demanding, and sometimes even vulnerable person. Like all great people, he could secretly harbor a grudge and subsequently "recoup" the offender. Moreover, in addition to the classic reluctance to shoot in his films, Gaidai had his own individual methods of "revenge". What and who fell under the "distribution" - you will learn from our article.

Evgeny Morgunov

Perhaps the most famous was the conflict between the director and the actor Yevgeny Morgunov. It happened in the midst of work on the comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures." Once, during the tradition of watching footage after a busy day at work, the director was attentively delving into all the details when a noise was heard in the back rows of the cinema hall. Moreover, it was laughter mixed with obscene language. It turned out that in the back rows a clearly tipsy company settled down - the actor Morgunov and several girls who gave out their drunken comments about what they saw.

This behavior was reacted by the assistant director, who saw that it clearly interferes with the meter's concentration. She approached the company and asked them to leave. To which the words of Morgunov sounded to the whole hall, like a bolt from the blue "Just think, director, I also have Fellini!" This phrase of the star-studded actor put an end to his work with the famous director. Despite the fact that the trio "Goonies-Cowards-Experienced" was more than successful, Gaidai no longer used it in his scripts. And with Morgunov figured out in a director's way. Since most of the picture had already been filmed, Gaidai gave the order to shoot the actor only where a close-up was required. And in other moments, I used the services of a similar understudy.

Natalya Varley

“Komsomol member, sportswoman and just beauty”, as it is not strange to see from the outside, in addition to the role in “The Caucasian Captive” starred with Gaidai only once, and then in a small role of the vegetarian student Liza Kalacheva from “12 Chairs”. It turns out that a black cat also ran between the director and the pretty actress. But Natalya Varley told about this only many years later in her book “The Rope Walker. Autobiography . It describes a story that happened on one of the summer evenings in the Crimea. The film crew that day celebrated Shurik's birthday at the restaurant. At the end, Leonid Iovich volunteered to accompany Natalia, especially since they lived in the same hotel and on the same floor. Imagine the bewilderment of the actress when he went to her room and calmly settled in a chair. The girl began to urgently come up with topics for discussion, while nervously pondering what to do. And then the director's wife, Nika Grebeshkova, came to the rescue. She literally flew into the room, looked at everyone with an angry look and left. Gaidai reluctantly got up, followed her, but suddenly suddenly turned around and tried to kiss Natasha.

After all, he did not know that he was dealing with a circus - the girl deftly dodged and managed to push him out the door, locking it with a key. The next day of filming went on as usual, and so did the others. Natalya Varley found out that the director was offended only much later. It's just that the director "deprived her of the right to vote" - the Komsomol member was dubbed by Nadezhda Rumyantseva. And only one phrase Gaidai left in the performance of the actress. "Mistakes must not be admitted, they must be washed off with blood" - this sounds in the real voice of Natalya Varley.

Svetlana Svetlichnaya

The sanctions also affected the performer of the role of the fatal beauty Anna Sergeevna. The young actress dared to disagree with the director and put forward her exclusively feminine view of the scene of the seduction of the rustic would-be smuggler Semyon Gorbunkov. The director was interested in the interesting vision of the situation. As a result, it was the scenes proposed by Svetlichnaya that were included in the final editing of the picture. But Gaidai harbored a grudge against the obstinate actress, and also took revenge. That is why in the picture the temptress speaks in the voice of another woman. She was voiced by the actress Zoya Tolbuzina, who, by the way, was not even the same age as Svetlana - she was 18 years older.

Yury Nikulin

The official version of why we did not see Nikulin in the role of the house manager of Bunshi and Ivan the Terrible is that the artist was busy on large-scale trips abroad with the Moscow circus. Gaidai really wanted to take it off, even though the Mosfilm management seriously objected: if it is possible to present Nikulin as a petty official, then his rustic face does not "look like" the tsar's appearance. But the director believed that Nikulin is a universal actor, he can definitely play anyone. As for the face, it was at this time that a well-known magazine published a portrait-reconstruction of Ivan the Terrible, where there was clearly a noticeable resemblance to the actor. The situation was resolved by Yuri Nikulin himself, refusing to act. As Gaidai's widow later said, the reason was banal. In fact, Nikulin was simply afraid that the comedy, based on the story of the disgraced writer Mikhail Bulgakov, would simply be put on the shelf. And the actor did not want to waste precious time on a deliberately disastrous film.

Again Gaidai invited Nikulin to shoot a trilogy based on Zoshchenko's stories "It Can't Be". And again the actor, despite successful tests, refused. Therefore, subsequently, the role of the bride's father went to Georgy Vitsin.

Andrey Mironov

Remembering what a well-coordinated duet turned out in the "Diamond Hand" between Mironov and Papanov, in his next masterpiece Gaidai decided to repeat the success with Mironov and Nikulin. But the latter refused to shoot in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession", thereby inadvertently substituting Mironov. The fact is that with the new tsar - Yuri Yakovlev - the relationship with Georges Miloslavsky performed by Mironov did not go well. But Leonid Kuravlev showed himself excellently on the samples. This actor immediately got into the "favorites". But Mironov was soon fined. Five years after the premiere of Gaidaev's "12 Chairs" with Gomiashvili in the title role, Zakharov's version of the story of Ilf and Petrov was released, where Andrei Mironov had already starred in the lead role. Gaidai was seriously offended, considered it a betrayal, and did not involve Mironov in joint work anymore.

Archil Gomiashvili

The actor has always admired Gaidai's talent as a comedy director. But one day he allowed himself to flare up. After watching the final cut of the film "12 Chairs", the actor emotionally expressed that if he knew what Gaidai would do with his work, he would not have been filming. To which the director spoke directly in the opposite sense. And he gave the dubbing to another actor - Yuri Sarantsev. After that, the opponents did not communicate for five whole years. And only in 1976, before the television premiere of Mark Zakharov's film, director Gaidai phoned the artist Gomiashvili to say: "Archil Mikhailovich, today a criminal offense will be shown on TV."

Rascals

For the upcoming anniversary of Leonid Gaidai, the team led by director Yuri Saakov decided to arrange a surprise. They invited actors who starred in different years at Gaidai to create a musical film. The most interesting thing is that all the artists who have ever been offended by the director agreed to participate and sing the favorite songs of Alexander Zatsepin. In addition to Nikulin and Mironov, they again had overlays in a busy touring schedule. This joke called "Incredible Musicians, or Shurik's New Dreams" was presented to Gaidai for the holiday. Eyewitnesses claim that the touched director laughed for a long time, and then called the actors "scoundrels".