However, she turned out to be so difficult on set that the crew derisively nicknamed her ' the empress.' Rerberg eventually persuaded Tarkovsky to recast the role with Alisa Freindlich, which angered Larisa and caused her to hold a grudge against Rerberg. Tarkovsky's wife Larisa convinced him to cast her as the wife of the protagonist.Accounts vary as to whether Rerberg was fired, or just walked out of the production. He also asked Rerberg to do a special effect that he had seen in an Ingmar Bergman film, going so far as to build a special studio for the task, only to erupt when Rerberg didn't nail the effect. Tarkovsky continuously resisted Rerberg's pushes to rewrite the script. Despite past collaborations, the pair's working relationship wasn't smooth. Andrei Tarkovsky shot the film in Soviet-occupied Estonia with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg.Troubled Production: Working on the film wound up literally killing many of the people involved, including the director himself.Production Posse: Anatoly Solonitsyn, one of Tarkovsky's frequent collaborators, appeared as the Writer.