The whole of Poland talked about their romance. He had a wife and a daughter, but it was Jarocka who received threatening letters

Jerzy Gruza came up with the idea to combine these two unique personalities. The popularity of the hit series, which also turned out to be a curse for Andrzej Kopiczyński, prompted the director to continue the story on the big screen. The creator came up with the idea that in “I am a butterfly, or the romance of a 40-year-old” Karwowski will fall in love with the singer Irena Orska. Gruza knew from the very beginning who would play the artist.

Andrzej Kopiczyński and Irena Jarocka played a pair of lovers. What did they really have in common?

“I had no doubt that Irena Jarocka should play Orska. In fact, Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz and I wrote the film script for her,” said the director in the “Meetings with the Stars” program of TVP.

The duo found a common language from the very beginning. There was a spark between the actors and it was clearly visible that they liked each other even outside the film set. After Jarocka’s death, a concert was organized in honor of the star of “Landscape Without You”. Kopiczyński recalled the relationship as part of a block of memories. “I met an extraordinary being, Mrs. Irena. I was delighted with her and the fact that she was not only a beautiful woman and a great artist, but also a very good actress,” he said.

After the premiere of “I am a butterfly, or the romance of a 40-year-old” Jarocka received threatening letters

However, the viewers did not like the chemistry between the actors. Kopiczyński was then married to Ewa Żukowska, and the couple had recently given birth to a daughter. “After this film, I received a lot of letters in which viewers had huge accusations against me, saying how could I behave so badly. In their eyes, I was a great person and how can I now hit on a serious man and break up his family,” said Irena Jarocka in interview “Allowed since the 40s”.

Although the singer recalled these times with a smile after many years, she was not spared from any unpleasantness. “I was giving Mr. Engineer Karwowski my telephone number and just like that, I came up with one. Unfortunately, it turned out that it was someone else’s telephone and people were calling, demanding to talk to me,” she said.

Forever and ever Karwowski

In turn, in her autobiography “Those Years Will Not Come Back”, she admitted that she could not protect herself from direct attacks from viewers. “I received a lot of letters with threats. Shocked viewers did not spare me epithets, they could not forgive me for letting them down. (…) In one of the scenes of the film, Irena Orska gives Stefan her telephone number (I made it up quickly). The viewers were firmly convinced that that it was my private telephone number,” we read in the book.

Andrzej Kopiczyński had different experiences, although his was related to his obligations to his wife and daughter. “I’ve never had anything unpleasant happen to me from the audience, but my professional life suffered a bit,” the actor recalled in an interview for codziennik.tv.

As it turned out years later, Irena Jarocka was a threat to Kopiczyński’s marriage. “I liked her very much, very much. I think that if it had been like this longer, we would have maybe fallen into some kind of romance,” the actor said with a smile, recalling the deceased artist. However, the divorce from his third wife took place thanks to another woman. It was about Monika Dzienisiewicz-Olbrychska, with whom he starred in the film “Life Hot”.

Kopiczyński’s sentiment and sympathy for Irena Jarocka never faded away. After the artist’s death, he confessed: – She was touching, really. She didn’t change, she was still very, very, very interesting, charming. I’m still very sad that she’s gone. It’s a pity, she left too soon. I think about her a lot, she was delightful.”

Irena Jarocka died on January 21, 2012 due to malignant cancer. The artist suffered from brain glioma. She died in one of Warsaw’s hospitals and was buried at Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. Andrzej Kopiczyński died only four years later – on October 12, 2016. Two years earlier, the actor was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.