Heroes of the series “Ranevskaya” and their prototypes in real life

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Mikhail Romm — Alexander Bezrukov

In her unfinished memoirs, Ranevskaya recalled:

In all my long life I have not experienced such joy either in the theater or in the cinema as at the time of our second meeting with Mikhail Ilyich. Such an attitude to the actor – I’m not afraid of the word – I did not know, I did not meet such a gentle, such a benevolent director-teacher.

Despite the fact that after the filming of the legendary comedy “Spring” Ranevskaya no longer worked with Romm, they maintained a warm relationship. Faina was friends with the director’s wife Elena Kuzmina. Romm in the series is played by the actor of the St. Petersburg Theater on Liteiny Alexander Bezrukov.

Rostislav Plyatt — Maxim Litovchenko

Actor Rostislav Plyatt Ranevskaya called “an ideal partner” – however, when it came to cinema. They started filming together at the beginning of their careers, back in The Foundling, where Ranevskaya uttered the famous “Mulya, don’t make me nervous”, and Plyatt played a lanky bachelor as if from a comedy dell’arte. Subsequently, together the actors starred in “Dream” by Mikhail Romm, “Spring” by Grigory Alexandrov and other films. Despite the fact that both Plyatt and Ranevskaya worked for Yuri Zavadsky, they had practically no joint work in the theater, and Faina said about Rostislav’s performance in the theater:

Let him just succumb to the director.

However, her phrase “Brilliant! Talent! Here is someone who is not afraid to waste his soul!” in relation to Plyatt, who was played by actor Maxim Litovchenko in the series.

Yuri Zavadsky — Daniil Spivakovsky

The relationship between the chief director of the Moscow City Council Theater Yuri Zavadsky and Ranevskaya was special and sometimes bilious, but the authors of the series KION decided to focus on the other, more tender side of their relationship, which, however, is also absolutely real. Yes, Ranevskaya regularly gave Zavadsky taunts, but she also called her a “brilliant bastard”. The image of the director in the drama was embodied by the actor Daniil Spivakovsky, in his track record there are many historical roles: the writer Vetlugin, the Soviet actor Springfeld, the physicist Lev Landau and Emperor Peter III.

Sergei Eisenstein – Pavel Alekseev

In the distant forties, Faina Ranevskaya took part in the auditions for the film “Ivan the Terrible” by Sergei Eisenstein for the role of Princess Efrosinya Staritskaya. It is known that the great director gave her a lot of valuable acting and life advice, but the role eventually went to actress Serafima Birman. The refusal greatly hurt Ranevskaya, and in the telegrams the actress and director exchanged a couple of “courtesies”. In the series “Ranevskaya” the image of the young Eisenstein was embodied by the actor of the theater “Satyricon” Pavel Alekseev.

Anna Akhmatova – Yulia Avsharova

Much is known about the strong friendship between the actress and the poetess Akhmatova – Ranevskaya grieved greatly when Anna Andreevna died, because they were the closest friends, there is even a book about this by the writer Vera Brem. They became close during the war, in the evacuation in Tashkent, where Akhmatova came after her friend Lidia Chukovskaya, and Ranevskaya, along with the family of actress Pavla Wolf. The military period of Ranevskaya’s life will also be reflected in the series. Anna Andreevna was played here by an actress Yulia Avsharova, who is very similar in portrait to her.

Pavla Wolf – Polina Kutepova

Faina met the already mentioned actress Pavla Vulf in Rostov-on-Don, and then they played together in the Simferopol Theater. Over time, Pavel Leontievna became Ranevskaya’s mentor in acting and her closest friend, Faina endured her departure from life hard and wrote in her diary:

Pavla Leontyevna Wulf – this name is sacred to me. I owe it to her that I became an actress.

Thus, Pavel became the link between her acting teacher Komissarzhevskaya and Ranevskaya herself. In the series, Wulf is played by a theater actress, a student of Pyotr Fomenko, Polina Kutepova.