Aleksandra Bortich gained more than 20kg to prepare for her role. Thie is the first movie in world history in which an actress gained, then lost, weight during the film period.
The filming was broken into two parts. In May and June 2017, Aleksandra Bortich was filmed being fat. Then there was a break in which she followed a strict diet and trained 7 days a week. 6 weeks later she had lost the weight and filming resumed.
Director Alexey Nuzhny lost 28kg and and screenwriter Nikolay Kulikov lost 20kg before making the film.
The screenplay-developing process took 2 1/2 years. Many girls and women who were concerned about losing weight were interviewed by the authors in order to maximize the film's plausibility. There were 17 screenplay drafts.
The film authors offered the main role to Irina Gorbacheva, but she wanted more to play the main heroine's friend.