Sex in the church in “Sexify”. “It has never been our goal to tarnish the sanctity” [WYWIAD]

Justyna Bryczkowska: You are the conceptual mothers of the second season of “Sexify” and I suspect that after the great success of the first series, there may have been pressure. When you started working on the first season, did you have an idea of ​​what would happen next, or did it come later?

Kalina Alabrudzinska: It was born later. For the first series, we were just focused on coming up with the best story for the season. It was supposed to be a juicy story about the characters at that point in their lives. Back then, we really didn’t expect “Sexify” to be such a huge success. When the decision was made that we were going to make a sequel, there was a proverbial white sheet of paper to write down in front of us – then mainly me and Agata Gerc – and we had to figure out what to do next.

Agata Gerc: The idea that the second season should be about men and teaming up came up quite quickly. We knew what we wanted to tell, but we had to figure out how we wanted to do it. This is always the greatest difficulty, the execution of ideas. First at the script level, then at the implementation level.

Viburnum: Telling stories about men, but through our heroines – it was the biggest and most difficult work.

I have no idea about it, so I would like you to tell me how much time it takes to write such an eight-episode season? Did you change anything on set after that?

Agata: We had little time because the gap between season premieres shouldn’t be too long. In this case, it took us almost a year to write. At the beginning, in a larger group, while working in the so-called “writer’s room”, we created potential adventures of the characters that will carry the topics we want to raise. In the next stage, Kalina and I wrote treatments, i.e. very detailed descriptions of what exactly happens in each episode – how it ends, how it begins, what happens along the way, how the threads intertwine, what experiences of the characters trigger the action. In the next step, Kuba Rużyło wrote a screenplay based on these treatments. The exception was the eighth episode, which Kuba wrote himself, because even though we knew how the story ends for each of the heroines and for the app, we had to move on to the next stage of work.

Viburnum: From my point of view, writing doesn’t really stop at a certain point in time, because things are always dynamic on set. Suddenly the weather changes and we have to go inside from the outdoors, we have a last-minute change of actor, because, for example, the one tested before entering the set turned out to be positive for COVID-19 – and the course of the scene needs to be changed. Often you just come up with better ideas, more interesting punch lines. You have to be open to what the work on the set brings.

Agata: Sometimes changes are introduced after rehearsals with the actors, when we feel that something is missing in the scene, that it does not reach the right weight, does not carry the theme. But also at much later stages, already in the course of implementation, it often turns out that changes are necessary. On the other hand, the fact that we are so closely glued to this story, that we write it, are together on the set and then work together on editing, makes us feel so safe that we sometimes introduce even very radical corrections if necessary.

Well, it’s puzzling when you read that you invented the whole season, and Jakub Rużyło wrote the scripts. Given that this season is both about men and women, it makes sense. Did you have any way to keep one perspective from overpowering the other?

Agata: During the work in the writers’ room, i.e. at the beginning of the story, we brainstormed in a wider, also male group, with Piotr Domalewski, Tomek Habowski, Kuba and our producer Jan Kwieciński. We spent a lot of time to approach this topic with empathy. To put emphasis on the right things. The mixed line-up was definitely crucial at this early stage.

Viburnum: We always follow the characters, their development. We care not to moralize and to find surprising twists. I have the impression that in our work this wins over any perspective: male or female. In the process, both Kuba and we were learning things from each other – it was more about that. There was definitely no prospective fight.

Agata: We don’t give ready-made answers on this show, and that’s always been our premise – both seasons. We have no idee fixe on how people should live, what to do, what is the right way. Fortunately, we have three heroines who represent different approaches to themselves and to life. It seems to me that we show how important it is for people to act in harmony with themselves, but that sometimes this also has its price.

What I like about this season is how the story becomes inclusive and shows more and more perspectives of people of different ages and backgrounds. So this is the moment when I have to say that I was captivated by the idea to cast Michał Żebrowski as a stand-up artist. It’s downright revolutionary. I would like to know how it was working with him on the set?

Viburnum: Agata and I are extremely proud of this idea. We are very pleased that you tell us this.

Agata: We are all the more satisfied because there were a lot of question marks and unknowns. Everyone was somehow insanely afraid of it: to offer such a small role to such a great actor first, some tried to talk us away from this idea, but we knew that this choice was exactly what we were looking for in this scene. Precisely because these are only two scenes, they had to be properly “filled”. We are very glad that he agreed.

Viburnum: It was great working with Michał. He understood that when you act in a comedy, you don’t play a comedy. It added depth to his character. His partner in the scene was Wojtek Solarz. Together with Michał, in a short time – because within only two scenes – they were able to capture a strong partnership between the characters they played.

It’s great because you really have a very strong cast in this mentoring generation. Izabela Kuna as a predatory business shark is also a great concept. Was there anything that they changed for you in your thinking about individual champions?

Kalina: We actually wrote the role of Ma³gorzata with Iza in mind. Dobromir Dymecki also appeared during the writing. Actors come, get to know their characters and often bring them to a much higher level, but it’s not like they completely overturn the concept for us, because we come up with everything very precisely at an earlier stage. We go very consciously in this process from the concept, through casting, to working with the actor.

Agata: In particular, the character of Małgorzata was built so specifically that there was probably no room for any drastic changes in interpretation. Certainly, Dobromir contributed a lot to the character that was invented on paper by how great he is as an actor. For us, it is very pleasant when actors give their soul and body to our heroes. They give them those additional, deeper layers that we count on, but also always discover together with great pleasure.

Izabela Kuna in ‘Sexify 2’ Netflix

I’ll be kicking myself if I don’t ask. I mean, of course, the sex scenes in the church and in the cemetery. What was the conceptual process behind them? On paper or in summary, they may even sound iconoclastic or scandalous, but they are filmed with great sympathy and delicacy.

Kalina: We follow the characters at every moment of making this series. We follow where they lead us. There is no reverse order, there are no situations where we think, “Okay, where to take them now, so that it will be weird, so that everyone will be outraged.” It never looks like this. Because they are specific characters and are brave in life and listen to themselves, they end up in places like this cemetery or this church. Maybe not at the perfect time…

Agata: Paulina’s theme is special this season. She once again had to transcend herself and continues to fight various demons. In the first series, she made specific moves in her favor, and now her path is still full of twists and turns. She is constantly looking for herself, doubting whether she did the right thing or made the right decisions, but at the end of the season, she naturally finally breaks everything that weighs on her. That is why what Kalina said earlier is so important – it is the hero who guides us. That’s why the “final breakup” scene takes place the way it does. This is due to her path, not the fact that at the stage of the first episode we imagined that at a certain moment she would have to do something like this. Since the convention of this series is very specific, we are careful not to go in the direction of flashiness. We would very much not want that, and it has never been our goal to tarnish the sacred.

In the first part, there was “Deluge”, which people associate with Easter, and now you’re remaking another Polish holiday.

Agata: “The Deluge” was indeed an important accent of the first season, but when working on the second one, we didn’t want to fixate on anything in advance. If this story didn’t lead us to any holidays, we wouldn’t force them. Since at the stage of the seventh episode there comes a moment when the girls have to bring themselves back to life, it was a great chance to do it on Day of the Dead. It came from the plot and was fresh to us, so it really stuck together. “Forefathers’ Eve” has been chased away and there is a new, vital energy to act.

You also mentioned form and effect. In the first season, music and editing were somewhat separate protagonists. I read that previously, for example, JIMEK sat with you during editing and you worked together on what music would be best to put on at a given moment, he could also write on the fly. How has the work on this aspect looked like now?

Kalina: Same. Jimek watches the cut versions of the episodes with us, we point to the places where we want a new musical theme, we say what feeling we want to convey at the moment, and JIMEK already knows how to achieve it through music. It is also often the case that he proposes his own solutions, and because he is guided by a very accurate intuition – they are usually on point. I have to admit that one of the most enjoyable parts of post-production are the moments when the music and image layer start to interact. It always gives us a lot of emotions.

Agata: Editing is sometimes also at the service of music, because it strongly determines the rhythm of our series. In the case of “Sexify” one does not exist without the other. Therefore, this cooperation is very close and close.

I have the impression that Polish films are most often at the editing stage, so I listen to what you say about it with all the more interest.

Agata: Editing is an absolutely key stage for us, because then it is finally decided how our show dish will be served. How best to convey what we had in mind when we wrote it, cast it and shot it. The fact that we don’t let it go is an understatement: every, absolutely every plywood is “blown” by us, and the work with our wonderful editors Sebastian Mialik and Magda Chowańska is very strict. We watch the episodes many times, we refine them, then of course Netflix also watches them, then we talk about it and further polish it. This is a very tedious, multi-stage, but also extremely satisfying process that is super important to us.

“Sexify” was an international success. What was the most important thing you heard from viewers who do not grow up in our Polish soil and looked at it from the outside?

Kalina: That we are an important series because we give voice to women. And in the second season, we also hit the mark because we try to understand men.

Agata: In women’s voices from abroad, it was most often seen that the experiences of our girls were received very universally in the world. Some foreigners, when they talked to us and found out that we were doing “Sexify”, they had goosebumps. Because this topic appeals to them so much. These are not viewers who meticulously analyze plot solutions and look for the genre roots of our series, but people who listen to our characters and what they hear affects them very much. We heard about it most often abroad and it is what gives us the most pleasure.