Popular actors Yury Yakovlev and Alexey Batalov were hired for the main roles. Before the filming started, Yakovlev was hospitalized and had to be replaced with Innokenty Smoktunovsky. For the main female part a young and little-known actress Tatyana Lavrova of the Sovremennik Theatre was invited. The role of Lyolya was Tatiana’s best known role in her film career, later she mainly devoted herself to the theater.