She escaped from Wajda’s set, they called her “that crazy woman”. In the Polish People’s Republic she became the queen of bold scenes

Younger viewers know Marzena Trybała from Polish series. The actress played in productions such as “Samo Życie”, “Pensjonat pod Różą” and “Colors of Happiness”. However, the artist made her debut much earlier. She was supposed to play her first role with not just anyone. Already in the first year of her studies at the Acting Department of the State Drama School, director Jan Budkiewicz noticed her and invited the 21-year-old to test photos for the film “Landscape after Battle” by Andrzej Wajda.

She refused Andrzej Wajda. She didn’t want to undress and ran away from the set

However, reality turned out to be much crueler than dreams of acting. Trybała’s script stated that she was to perform nude scenes. “Of course, I read the script and accepted it. I was aware that in one of the scenes I would have to undress. I thought I could do it,” the actress recalled years later in an interview with Plejada. However, she couldn’t handle such difficult scenes. She did not have the courage to ask the director for help and support, she preferred to resign.

“When I went to the set and accidentally heard fragments of conversations between the men from the film crew, I was very surprised. In a rather indiscriminate way, they commented on women running around naked, who played prisoners in a DP camp. Suddenly one of them asked: ‘Ms. Marzenko, and why do you look like that? It’s happening to you too,’ added Trybała. ‘I was terrified. I started talking nonsense that it was in my contract that I wouldn’t take my clothes off. ‘What are you talking about? Wajda will come and tell you to take off your clothes and you will do it quickly,’ I heard. I went into some sort of madness. And since I was a brat, I couldn’t afford to go to the director and ask him for help. I didn’t have the courage to tell him that I wasn’t a professional actress yet, I didn’t feel mentally ready for such a scene and I would like him to walk me through it,” the actress preferred to give up this great opportunity.

There were legends about her brave scenes. Years later she denied them

But she did not give up on her dreams and started looking for a place for herself in the Polish film industry. She played small roles, got used to working with the camera, contact with the crew on the set, and shooting intimate scenes. Trybała’s next approach to stripped shots took place in 1978. Then the actress starred alongside Andrzej Seweryn in the film “Roman and Magda”. On the set, her on-screen partner helped her a lot in scenes that reminded her of escaping from Wajda’s set, which filled her with fear and doubts. “Andrzej helped me a lot. He said that we had to concentrate enough to play intimate scenes well the first time, without doubles,” Trybała said in an interview with “Retro” magazine.

And although she gave up her first role because she didn’t want to undress on screen, she later did it regularly. “Nudity is not exciting, erotic tension is built in a different way, through looks and gestures. I rebelled against senseless undressing, but there were a lot of erotic scenes in our cinema. I didn’t like many of the ones I played because they were not properly directed.” – she said in an interview with “Retro”. The actress’s courage resulted in her being pigeonholed. The terms “sex bomb” and “sex demon”, which are now unacceptable, stuck to her name for a long time. However, the actress treated them as compliments. “If a young actress has ambitions, wants to be perceived through the prism of her potential skills and appreciated for what she has brought to the role, and not for her physical conditions, she can treat such words as added value at best,” she declared in an interview quoted by the website Virtual Poland.

Legends have been circulating about Trybal for years. For a long time she remained “the crazy woman who refused Wajda”. “I received this type of comments. And certainly because of this case, I missed out on a few roles,” the actress admitted in one of the conversations. There were also rumors about the dizzying number of scenes in which she undressed. Some counted 25 films, others 30. “I didn’t undress in all of these films. Several times I was replaced by stunt doubles. To be honest, it was always difficult for me to perform such scenes. Each time I was assured by the directors that they would guarantee me full privacy “- says the actress in an interview with Plejada.

Trybała did not complain about the lack of professional offers. “There was never a moment when the phone didn’t ring with offers… If he wasn’t calling about filming, it was a series, and if not a series, there was always a lot going on in the theater. And in my heart, theater plays a leading role” – she said in one of the interviews. In 1985, the actress played in the film “CK Dezerterzy” by Janusz Majewski, and a year later she could be seen in the series “Zmiennicy”. In the 1990s, she starred in “The Return of the Wolf”, “Korczak” and the series “Boża podszewka”. She has been associated with the Ateneum Theater since 1998, and in 2014 she was awarded the bronze medal “For Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis”.

Marzena Trybała does not regret her past decisions, and certainly not her choice of profession. “The time I experienced was fantastic, I have many roles, but I am not going back to it. I live here and now. I think about what else I will play and what lies ahead of me. One thing is certain: I chose the right profession,” she confessed. “Despite the passage of time, the glass is always half full for me. I feel that today I can afford much more than before. I have ease and a fantastic sense of freedom. I don’t have to do anything anymore,” she declared in an interview with Plejada from 2023.