What celebrities auditioned for the role in the legendary epic "War and Peace", but were not included in the film

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

It is believed that the image of Pierre Bezukhov in the great novel of Leo Tolstoy was a kind of reflection of the author himself. With the film adaptation, it turned out about the same: the director of the picture played a key role. To match the type, he had to put on weight, and for the role of Helen Bezukhova, Bondarchuk took his wife Irina Skobtseva, while rejecting another beautiful actress.

The "order" for the creation of a film version of Tolstoy's most famous novel was "lowered" from the very top. In 1956, the American film War and Peace was released with Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova. A scandal erupted in the USSR Ministry of Culture. Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva, who has just assumed the post of Minister of Culture, expressed herself quite definitely on this matter: “Not only have you ceded the right to the first film adaptation of War and Peace to the Americans, you are also asking me to allow the purchase of this film for Soviet citizens! Do you want our people to study the work of Russian classics according to American patterns?"

It was decided to urgently begin work on our version of the great work. By the way, this novel was filmed in Russia, but back in 1915. Now it was necessary to create a motion picture capable of overshadowing everything that had ever been done, so that for many decades later no one would even undertake to repeat this feat.

The choice of the director immediately led to a conflict: Ivan Pyryev, the head of the organizing committee of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR and the former director of Mosfilm, wanted to shoot the film himself. However, the motion picture was entrusted to Sergei Bondarchuk. It is not exactly clear why the venerable filmmaker himself refused in favor of a younger colleague, but it is known that after this incident the directors did not communicate until the end of their lives and did not even greet each other when they met.

There were also disagreements with the choice of actors. There are more than three hundred characters in the film (not counting the extras), so the work on the selection of the group's composition was colossal. Filming began on September 7, 1962, with the French shooting the city's arsonists, but by this time the actors for some of the main roles had not yet been determined.

Eduard Martsevich, Oleg Strizhenov and Vyacheslav Tikhonov auditioned for Andrei Bolkonsky, but Bondarchuk chose Smoktunovsky. If everything turned out the way the director wanted, in the great film today we would enjoy playing this particular actor, but Innokenty Mikhailovich was forced to choose between Bolkonsky and Hamlet, and as a result he played the Prince of Denmark at Lenfilm. The candidacy of Vyacheslav Tikhonov was supported by Furtseva herself, but the actor had to prove for a long time that he could fit into this image, although today it seems to us that it cannot be otherwise.

The role of Natasha Rostova became another "stumbling block". Many actresses applied for it at once: Anastasia Vertinskaya, Larisa Kadochnikova, Natalya Fateeva and Lyudmila Gurchenko. It was difficult to make a choice among such a “flower garden”, and the director took a bold step - he gave the role to an unknown debutante, 19-year-old graduate of the Leningrad Choreographic School, ballerina of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater Lyudmila Savelyeva.

Preparing for filming, Sergei Bondarchuk did not even think about acting in the film as an actor. It was assumed that he simply did not have enough time and energy, however, when it turned out that there was simply no one else suitable, the director had to take on this work as well. Of course, there were many actors who, in principle, could be reincarnated as Pierre Bezukhov, but it was not possible to choose "the one" from them.

Even very original options were considered. So, Bondarchuk almost persuaded to play in this role of the famous athlete. Weightlifter Yuri Vlasov really fit in appearance, but he did not dare to take on such a burden. There is a story that, refusing the director, Vlasov said: "Asking me to play such a role is like making you lift a barbell with a record weight."

After the Ministry of Culture rejected several foreign candidates with a scandal, Sergei Bondarchuk had no choice but to approve himself for the role of Pierre Bezukhoi. But at the same time the issue with Helen Bezukhova was resolved. True, a wonderful Baltic actress Vija Artmane was already planned for this role, but the director decided that his real wife Irina Skobtseva must play this role.

This couple had only one drawback - age. Critics discussed a lot on this score, because at the beginning of the novel, Pierre and Helene should be about twenty years old, and the actors at that time were 42 and 35, respectively. The role of Pierre Bezukhov really requires such a level of awareness and depth that a young man could hardly show, but many did not like Helen performed by Skobtseva, because a younger actress could also cope with this role.

But, as you know, the winners are not judged. Six years later, which the director equated to twenty, having survived several severe heart attacks and clinical death, Sergei Bondarchuk completed the main work of his life. The film was triumphant all over the world, and became an undoubted classic of world cinema.

In 2020, Lyudmila Savelyeva celebrated her 78th birthday: the other side of the glory of one of the most beautiful Soviet actresses