Film starring Tomáš Holý († 21) immediately won the favor of children and adult viewers. Funny dialogues, a humorous script, unexpected cute and spontaneous reactions of the little actor became popular at that time literally overnight. The film is still loved by viewers today. brought interesting things that you probably don’t know about the Christmas classic.
Actress Jana Preissová played the role of the successful prima ballerina and mother of the little brat. Did you notice she had a stunt double in the movie? It was revealed by the actor and dancer Vlastimil Harapes († 77). “Jana had a dance double in the film, Hana Vláčilová, who was a soloist of the National Theatre. It was amazing how the director managed to film it, because I myself would not have recognized the pronoun in the film. Jana was slim and also very good at moving.” revealed a few years ago.
Even Tomáš Holý had to be replaced by another boy in the scene where Vašek is skiing. Observers with a keen eye did not miss that there was a difference in height between the boys, which was easily noticed.
Director Marie Poledňáková († 81) cast Tomáš in the role of Vašek based on a spontaneous gesture he performed before leaving the stage. He was remembered by the audience as the son of a ballerina and a mountaineer. However, the little actor fell in love with his film father Luboš (František Němec) so much that Poledňáková later had problems shooting scenes with him in which he is angry with Luboš. Tomáš Holý became the nation’s darling on Christmas Eve in 1977, when the film How to Pull a Whale’s Chair had its television premiere.
“He was amazingly authentic and natural. Marie Poledňáková was very smart when she preserved Tomáš’s spontaneous reactions that were not in the script…” Jana Preissová recalled in an interview. The little actor listened to the talk on the radio and started wrapping (scene with steaks). Director Poledňáková liked it so much that she immediately used this scene and thus succeeded for the first time without a single rehearsal.
