Unknown Oleg Basilashvili: why the artist refused to kiss Gurchenko, and how he learned to drive a hearse

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

September 26 marks 82 years of a wonderful artist, a talented actor of theater and cinema Oleg Basilashvili … His roles in films "Office Romance", "Autumn Marathon", "Station for Two" became classics of Soviet cinema. Despite the all-Union popularity, the artist did not get rid of shyness and dissatisfaction with his work. And during the filming, a lot of curiosities happened to him, which he now recalls with a smile.

Director Eldar Ryazanov saw Basilashvili on the stage of the theater, after the performance he approached him and asked: “I don’t understand why you don’t appear in my films?”. The actor replied: "I confess, I don't understand that either." Ryazanov even wrote a joke receipt, in which he pledged to shoot Basilashvili in each of his films. As a result, the actor starred in 5 of his films.

Basilashvili received the role of Samokhvalov in the "Office Romance" even without samples, he was approved immediately, although the humble Novoseltsev was closer to him in character. Ryazanov explained his choice in the following way: “My decision - to offer the role of a modern scoundrel to an actor charming, handsome, ironic - rested on fairly clear directorial calculations. I wanted to show a well-disguised and therefore not amenable to rapid exposure, a prosperous Soviet scoundrel. " At that time, the actor did not know how to drive a car, and according to the script he had to sit behind the wheel of a Volga. And although an instructor was with him, he never mastered driving, and during the filming he accidentally touched the camera with a car and drove into the kiosk.

In fact, Basilashvili should have starred with Ryazanov 2 years earlier, in the role of Ippolit in The Irony of Fate. He had already auditioned and was approved for this role, but refused to act due to the death of his father. But he still appeared in the film - this is his photograph flying out of the window into a snowdrift. This shot was filmed even before Y. Yakovlev was invited to the role of Ippolit. There was no time to re-shoot this episode - spring began, and the snow melted.

Basilashvili had to give up filming for N. Mikhalkov in "Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano". Doctors said that his mother had no more than five months left to live, and the actor took a leave of absence from the theater, refused to act in films and spent all his time with his mother.

But G. Danelia in the "Autumn Marathon" Basilashvili might not have been - after the image of a brilliant successful careerist from "Office Romance" the director did not see him in the role of an indecisive and weak-willed Buzykin. The director's assistant invited him to the audition, and Danelia approved him after he saw through the car window that the actor was marking time, not daring to cross the road.

Oleg Basilashvili does not like manifestations of excessive attention to his person, does not watch films with his participation, is dissatisfied with his own appearance. He was always quite modest and even shy, which led to funny moments on the set. On the very first shooting day of the film "Station for Two", the actor had to kiss Lyudmila Gurchenko, but he categorically refused to do this, since he had not even met her before. Gurchenko admitted that she had never met such a shy partner.

Basilashvili was perplexed: “Why kiss right away? Maybe it's better to just talk? Then Gurchenko herself rewrote the dialogue - now it consisted of fragmentary phrases, but it really looked like a conversation between lovers. After that, the scene finally worked out. But he never got rid of the embarrassment while filming such episodes. Alisa Freundlich was his beloved partner for many years, but he was always embarrassed to kiss her on stage.

Oleg Basilashvili continues to act today. In 2015, in the film "Without Borders" by Rezo Gigineishvili, the actor played an elderly Georgian working in a cemetery. For this role, he had to master the control of a hearse: “We had a hearse on an automatic transmission. I have never had a car with an “automatic”, only a “mechanic”. And the dimensions are noticeably different from ordinary cars: the hearse is longer. In general, I didn’t fit into the turn right away,”the actor admits.

One cannot but agree with the words of E. Ryazanov: “Basilashvili is an orchestra artist! He has an unusually powerful acting range backed up by devilish professionalism."

And although the actor himself never considered himself attractive, viewers call his name among 20 most beautiful actors of Soviet cinema