The actor was afraid of the reaction of politicians.
Yevgeny Leonov was in good standing with Soviet officials. But once he allowed himself one liberty, which could cost him dearly.
In the legendary film “Ordinary Miracle” Leonov played the King. In one of the scenes, his character greeted the people and waved his hand like a member of the Politburo from the podium of the Mausoleum.
When everything had already been filmed, Evgeny Pavlovich thought about the consequences. He asked director Mark Zakharov to cut the episode to avoid problems with the censors. Officials could easily find fault with this scene, allegedly discrediting Soviet politicians. The film could be on the shelf.
However, Zakharov did not listen to Leonov and left everything as it was. Mark Anatolyevich did everything right – the censorship simply did not notice anything terrible or mocking here. The audacity of Leonov, depicting a Soviet official, remained in the picture.
By the way, Evgeny Pavlovich at first did not want to act in the film. He did not see any depth in his character, but Zakharov convinced him that the King was a complex and interesting character. So a charming tyrant performed by Leonov appeared in the film.
