The artist was not afraid to break off relations with actors beloved by the whole country.
Leonid Gaidai became famous for his numerous comedies that have been amusing for more than one generation of viewers. Many fans were sure that the director is the same cheerful person on the set, and working with him is like a holiday. However, as it turned out, in fact, Gaidai was known to his colleagues for completely different qualities.
The fact is that the director had a black list where he entered the names of the artists who offended him. And those who were included in this list were no longer on the director’s set.
For example, Natalya Varley is one of them. Once the director tried to kiss the artist, but she refused, and his wife Nina Grebeshkova saw his attention. As a result, the artist was blacklisted for many years and appeared in front of the director’s camera only once, while working on the film “The Twelve Chairs”.
Also on the list were Evgeny Morgunov and Andrei Mironov. The first got into it because he compared Gaidai with Fellini not in favor of the first, and the director refused to shoot the other, as he agreed to Eldar Ryazanov’s offer to play in The Twelve Chairs. The director considered such a step insulting, because a few years before that he had filmed his version of the novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov.
Because of The Twelve Chairs, the director also disliked Archil Gomiashvili, who in his version played the role of Ostap Bender. The artist did not like what Gaidai did with his work, because of which he was offended and did not even talk to the celebrity for several years. Yuri Nikulin, on the other hand, ended up on the list due to the fact that he twice refused the director’s offer.
As a result, many Soviet actors have been blacklisted over the long years of their career. All of them failed to subsequently establish relations with the director, who could harbor a grudge for many years.
