Office Romance - Casting and Production

Casting and Production

• Alisa Freindlich was the director's primary choice for the role of Kalugina. Eldar Ryazanov invented the character having in mind Freindlich as the one to portray it. Moreover, he started working on the screenplay seriously only after securing consent of all the actors he wanted to cast to participate in the film. It was a rare case in Soviet cinema when a director would be allowed to cast all actors of his own choice without preliminary screen-tests and approval of the Art Council. Ryazanov worried that Freindlich would not be able to come to Moscow for shooting of the film because of stage performances and rehearsals she was busy with in her native Leningrad. So he assured both the actress and her management that she would be allowed to go to Leningrad on the first demand. It came out that she was compelled to leave for the theater often and thus travel between Moscow and Leningrad all the time.

• In order to create genuine image of a frumpy boss Ryazanov and Freindlich searched through all wardrobes of the studio for baggy, old-fashioned clothes. Cameraman Vladimir Nakhabtsev brought to the studio the old thick-frammed glasses that belonged to his father - they helped to complete the image.

• Ryazanov took some risk casting Andrey Myagkov for the second time for the role of a clumsy intellectual, similar to this in 1975 hit The Irony of Fate. Not everyone agreed with the director's decision upon casting. Oleg Basilashvili didn't like the role of the "villain" Samokhvalov. Like Freindlich, he had to travel frequently between Moscow and Leningrad due to obligations on the Leningrad stage, and he believed that his worn-out look would be ideal to portray an unkempt and humble Novoseltsev. Later, during the shooting he admitted that the director's choice was right. But it was a hard task for make-up artists to make a glossy complacent Samokhvalov out of the exhausted Basilashvili, and, on the contrary, a sloppy bachelor Novoseltsev out of the refined Myagkov.

• One of few roles for which screen-tests were taken, was the role of activist Shura. Actress Ludmila Ivanova, who in real life was a head of local labor union committee at the Sovremennik Theatre, got into the role quickly and was the most convincing when she shouted out: "Comrades, donate 50 copecks!"