Elder Ryazanov had the greatest difficulties in choosing the main roles in the film "Irony of Fate or Enjoy a Bath".
The most difficult thing was choosing a contender for the role of Nadia Shavala. The screen tests went on and on, but the ideal candidate was not found. According to the director:
"One actress, with an amazing nuance of emotions, was a little vulgar, and the plot immediately took a different twist. The second was betrayed by the movie camera. Beautiful and very nice in life, the actress came out much worse on screen. The third, whom I admired in dramatic performances, played excellently, but it turned out that she was completely devoid of a sense of humor."
We will not guess from the tea leaves who is who, but Lyudmila Gurchenko, Alisa Freindlik, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Antonina Shuranova and many other unknown actresses of the Soviet cinema were tested for the role of Nadia Shavala. Everyone wanted to star with Elder Ryazanov, but the director himself could not find a place for himself, where to find an actress for the main role?
@ "Post-Soviet secular" comes from childhood!