History Trivia / DoctorZhivago

* CaliforniaDoubling: Being that they couldn't shoot in the Soviet Union, most of the film was shot in Spain.

** In an early scene, Komarovsky was supposed to kiss a shocked Lara. After noticing in rehearsals that Creator/JulieChristie was anticipating the scene and showing nervousness, Creator/RodSteiger, with Lean's permission, decided, while kissing her, to not let her go and follow up that first kiss with a french kiss. It worked.

* FakeRussian: The Lebanese-Egyptian Creator/OmarSharif as the Russian Dr. Yuri Zhivago. Then again, most of the cast are British (or in Creator/RodSteiger's case, American) actors playing Russians, so the trope's in effect for everyone.

* UncreditedRole: Ingrid Pitt appears throughout this film in five different uncredited bit roles.

** Creator/WilliamHartnell was offered a role, but was unavailable.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The film was not shown in Russia until 1994.

* AllStarCast: Notably, the actors are credited in alphabetical order, despite Omar Sharif clearly playing the central character.

* EnforcedMethodActing:

* PrimaDonnaDirector: Creator/AlecGuinness recalled that Creator/DavidLean was trying to act the part of "superstar director".

** Creator/PeterOToole was the original choice for Yuri, while Creator/OmarSharif was cast as Pasha. However, O'Toole refused to work with Lean again following ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and Sharif got the lead role.
*** Creator/SeanConnery, Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/PaulNewman and Creator/MaxVonSydow were also considered. Creator/MichaelCaine tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago and participated in the screen shots with Christie, but (after watching the results with Lean) was the one who suggested Sharif.

** The original director of photography was Nicolas Roeg, but he resigned after creative differences with Lean led to a major falling out between the two. Freddie Young, the director of photography from ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', was offered the job, and though he was reluctant to work with Lean again after the exhausting experience of shooting Lawrence, he eventually agreed, but needed two weeks to re-shoot the scenes that Roeg had shot before his resignation.

** Creator/PeterO'Toole was the original choice for Yuri, while Creator/OmarSharif was cast as Pasha. However, O'Toole refused to work with Lean again following ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and Sharif got the lead role.

*** Creator/MaxVonSydow and Creator/PaulNewman were also considered. Creator/MichaelCaine tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago and participated in the screen shots with Christie, but (after watching the results with Lean) was the one who suggested Sharif.

** The role of Pasha was written with Creator/AlbertFinney in mind. However, Lean was bitter about him turning down ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia''.

** The role of Pasha was written with Creator/AlbertFinney in mind. However, Lean was bitter about him turning down ''Film/LawrenceofArabia''.

* EnforcedMethodActing: In an early scene, Komarovsky was supposed to kiss a shocked Lara. After noticing in rehearsals that Creator/JulieChristie was anticipating the scene and showing nervousness, Creator/RodSteiger, with Lean's permission, decided, while kissing her, to not let her go and follow up that first kiss with a french kiss. It worked.

* StarMakingRole: For Creator/GeraldineChaplin and Creator/JulieChristie, along with the same year's ''Film/Darling''.

** Producer Carlo Ponti won a bidding war for the film rights to Boris Pasternak's novel, and wanted it to be a spectacle on the same scale as ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia, so he hired many of the same crew members, including Creator/DavidLean, script writer Robert Bolt, composer Maurice Jarre, and production designer John Box. He wanted location shooting to take place in the Soviet Union, but was refused permission by the government due to the content of the novel. Scandinavia was deemed too cold for a lengthy film shoot, while Yugoslavia was ruled out for both the cold weather and the obstructive bureaucracy; the location shooting was mostly done in Spain. Construction of the Moscow set in a suburb of Madrid took nearly eighteen months, while filming itself fell behind schedule as Lean hoped to shoot scenes during each of the various seasons as depicted in the novel. Unfortunately, the winter scenes did not go as planned due to the unusually mild winter, and they were instead mostly filmed in summer in temperatures as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with marble dust and plastic snow standing in for actual snow and the actors' profuse sweating requiring frequent makeup touchups.note

** The relationship between Creator/DavidLean and Creator/AlecGuinness had become certifiably toxic; Lean frequently insulted not only Guinness' performance as Yevgraf Zhivago but also Guinness personally. Guinness recalled Lean mocking him as too old for the character and saying his "face was too fat onscreen," a criticism Guinness neither understood nor appreciated. This treatment generated a rift between the two men that would last nearly twenty years.note
** The original director of photography was Nicolas Roeg, but he resigned after creative differences with Lean led to a major falling out between the two. Freddie Young, the director of photography from Lawrence of Arabia, was offered the job, and though he was reluctant to work with Lean again after the exhausting experience of shooting Lawrence, he eventually agreed, but needed two weeks to re-shoot the scenes that Roeg had shot before his resignation.
** The political climate in Spain (under Fascist leader Francisco Franco) made it a risky country in which to shoot a film about the Russian Revolution. The scene in which the crowd chants the Marxist anthem, "The Internationale", was filmed at 3am; the police, thinking an actual Marxist revolution was taking place, descended on the shoot and insisted on staying until the scene had been filmed. The mostly Spanish extras, fearful that the police would arrest them as Communist subversives, had to pretend not to know the words to "The Internationale".

* FakeNationality: The Lebanese-Egyptian Creator/OmarSharif as the Russian Dr. Yuri Zhivago. Then again, most of the cast are British (or in Creator/RodSteiger's case, American) actors playing Russians, so the trope's in effect for everyone.

*** Creator/MaxvonSydow and Creator/PaulNewman were also considered. Creator/MichaelCaine tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago and participated in the screen shots with Christie, but (after watching the results with Lean) was the one who suggested Sharif.

** Producer Carlo Ponti won a bidding war for the film rights to Boris Pasternak's novel, and wanted it to be a spectacle on the same scale as ''Film/LawrenceofArabia, so he hired many of the same crew members, including Creator/DavidLean, script writer Robert Bolt, composer Maurice Jarre, and production designer John Box. He wanted location shooting to take place in the Soviet Union, but was refused permission by the government due to the content of the novel. Scandinavia was deemed too cold for a lengthy film shoot, while Yugoslavia was ruled out for both the cold weather and the obstructive bureaucracy; the location shooting was mostly done in Spain. Construction of the Moscow set in a suburb of Madrid took nearly eighteen months, while filming itself fell behind schedule as Lean hoped to shoot scenes during each of the various seasons as depicted in the novel. Unfortunately, the winter scenes did not go as planned due to the unusually mild winter, and they were instead mostly filmed in summer in temperatures as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with marble dust and plastic snow standing in for actual snow and the actors' profuse sweating requiring frequent makeup touchups.note

** Creator/PeterO'Toole was the original choice for Yuri, while Creator/OmarSharif was cast as Pasha. However, O'Toole refused to work with Lean again following ''Film/LawrenceofArabia'' and Sharif got the lead role.

* StarMakingRole: For Creator/GeraldineChaplin and Creator/JulieChristie, along with the same year's ''Darling''.

* EnforcedMethodActing: In an early scene, Komarovsky was supposed to kiss a shocked Lara. After noticing in rehearsals that Julie Christie was anticipating the scene and showing nervousness, Rod Steiger, with Lean's permission, decided, while kissing her, to not let her go and follow up that first kiss with a french kiss. It worked.
** Another example (possibly) is when Komarovsky buys Lara that red dress and forces her to wear it. Shooting the scene was apparently delayed because Julie Christie was so repulsed by it that she refused to wear the dress. She was coaxed out by the production designer, who pointed out that Lara didn't want to wear the dress either, but she's forced to. Christie then agreed. When you watch the scene, Christie's discomfort and unwillingness really shines through.
* FakeNationality: The Lebanese-Egyptian Omar Sharif as the Russian Dr. Yuri Zhivago. Then again, most of the cast are British (or in Rod Steiger's case, American) actors playing Russians, so the trope's in effect for everyone.
* StarMakingRole: For Geraldine Chaplin and Julie Christie, along with the same year's ''Darling''.
* ThrowItIn: In another scene, after Lara slaps Komarovsky, he slaps her back with his glove. Komarovsky's response wasn't on the script. Rod Steiger later commented that "nobody slaps Komarovsky and gets away with it".

* AllStarCast.

* FakeNationality: The Lebanese-Egyptian Omar Sharif as the Russian Dr. Yuri Zhivago.

* ThrowItIn: In another scene, after Lara slaps Komarovsky, he slapped her back with his glove. The glove slap wasn't on the script. Rod Steiger later commented that "nobody slaps Komarovsky and gets away with it".

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* BannedInChina: Pasternak's book was originally banned in the Soviet Union.