“Team AA” is a film about four cross-addicted anonymous alcoholics who, in order to save their therapeutic center, undertake to smuggle two tankers of spirit across Poland. For their own safety, they kidnap their therapist on the journey, and are followed by a Customs Officer who is not entirely who she claims to be.
Michał Żurawski refrains from assessing his character. “We try not to make a fool of ourselves”
One of the main characters of the production is Leszek, played by Michał Żurawski. The actor is well known for giving good advice to journalists and reporters. It was no different in the case of our conversation on the set of “Team AA”, when I decided to ask him about his assessment of the character he was playing. More specifically, whether Leszek is a good person.
Honestly, do you know any bad people? (…) Well, congratulations. I don’t know bad people or good ones. I know people who do stupid things in life or good things. Normally we are just people in my opinion. This movie is also a bit about that. So as not to stigmatize these diseases, all these things that we laugh at, such as alcoholism, gambling, etc. I don’t know, I guess we started off wrong. (…) – said Żurawski.
I agreed with the actor, saying that the world consists primarily of various shades of gray, but you can always indicate which features dominate in a given person. The actor said he didn’t know how his character would be perceived. In his opinion, only the viewers will judge this. – I just have a job to do here. And the score is written for five sick people who have to struggle with their greatest drama. With what triggers them, which is alcohol, he said.
How it will be received… I have no idea, because it depends on the guys and girls who will edit it and, above all, on the director. We try not to make a fool of ourselves or harm ourselves or the viewers, he added.
He learned firsthand what addiction is. Did these experiences influence him while working on “Team AA”?
Later in the conversation, the actor reveals more details about his character’s biography and motivation. At the end of the interview, however, I decided to refer to the events of 2016, when Żurawski won the first edition of the “Azja Express” program. It then turned out that the actor was struggling with alcoholism. I wanted to find out if these experiences in any way influenced him to take part in this project.
About 70 percent Poles are alcoholics. Some don’t know about it, and some don’t want to admit it or have already admitted it. What appeared in ‘Azja Express’ was blown up into some extraordinary theory and amazing story, but that’s fine. I am one of those 70 percent of Poles who are 100 percent alcoholics according to all scientific and medical tables, etc.
– It allowed me to get into character more easily, for sure. But I don’t know if I would mix one with the other, because it’s a bit like… asking an actor how cheese tastes when… I won’t mix my private things, which have already been colored and swollen by TVN – he continued.
Then I admitted that each of us has different sensitivities. I suggested that Borys Szyc, who is struggling with alcohol addiction, recently starred in “Warszawianka” and in one of the interviews he openly admitted that being on the set of the series, where there were various props reminding him of his addiction, was difficult for him. Michał Żurawski did not want to discuss this topic further.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
