He made his debut both on screen and in theaters when he was still a child. He began his professional career in 1968, when he graduated with distinction from the Warsaw State Theater School. Today, he has less than 120 acting credits in productions such as “Tigers of Europe”, “Love Will Forgive You Everything”, “Mr. Kleks’ Academy” and its sequels, “Kill Me Cop” and “Dzień Świra”. Few people realize that he once had a good chance to make it in Hollywood.
How many Oscars did the film “Schindler’s List” win? Fronczewski fought to play the title role
This was supposed to happen thanks to the film winning seven Oscars. When Steven Spielberg started working on the film in 1992, he selected Fronczewski, who at that time already had an unshakable position in the Polish industry, as a candidate for the title role. The actor felt honored by this, although the casting was an absolute novelty for him, as he had never had the opportunity to take part in it before. – The institution of test photos is extremely embarrassing for me – he explained in an interview for .
Despite this, the colleagues of Lew Rywin, who was the co-producer of the production and was responsible for selecting Polish actors for the cast, persuaded Fronczewski to try his hand at it and take part in the audition. After receiving the monologue, which was a fragment of the script, he learned all the lines meticulously and then created a recording that was sent to the studio.
I recorded it, sent the tape to a studio in Hollywood, and then I met Spielberg when he came to Krakow to document the film. We had a nice chat about everything and nothing, I took his autograph for my daughters and we saw each other a lot
– he recalled in the pages of his book, adding that at that time the only thing left for him was to wait for an answer. However, this one was completely different than everyone expected.
Spielberg offered Fronczewski a “consolation prize”. Years later, he revealed why he refused
Although he was delighted with his approach to the subject and commitment, he ultimately entrusted the role of Oskar Schindler to Liam Neeson. He made the decision at the instigation of Universal producers, who believed that a Hollywood star was a greater guarantee of success than an actor from Eastern Europe unknown to the general public. The rest was treated similarly with , who was also on the list of potential candidates. Unlike his colleague, who recalled bitterly the way he was treated, Fronczewski had no regrets about it. In interviews, he emphasized that a foreign career was never on the list of his professional goals. – My sense of self-criticism, my psychological inhibition mechanism did not allow me to let my imagination run wild enough to hope for becoming a Hollywood star. From beginning to end, I treated the whole thing as a nice episode with no special significance, he said years later.
It is worth mentioning that the director did not leave him without a “consolation prize” and before work on the set began, Fronczewski received an offer to play an episode. As you can guess, he was not interested in this option and refused before he could be presented with the details. – I’m not a morbidly ambitious person, but I don’t like consolation prizes. I refused, he said directly, adding that he did not regret this development of the situation at all. If you feel like it, vote in our poll below.
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.
