She joined “In the Labyrinth” at the last minute after another actress had resigned. “I was glad to play with Marek”

Sławomira Łozińska, who was awarded at the last Polish Film Festival in Gdynia for her role in Michał Otłowski’s “The Tenant”, told Jacek Wakar about her work with Marek Kondrat on the first Polish soap opera. The interview is part of the book “The First Life of Marek Kondrat”.

– One fall evening, my friend, my friend, came to see me the second director who was responsible for the production of “In the Labyrinth”. She said she had to take me to Chełmska Street to the Documentary and Feature Film Studio immediately, because everyone is waiting, shooting begins tomorrow, and one of the actresses refused at the last minute. Everything was prepared under her, she was supposed to be paired with Marek – the actress recalls. In the book, the name is not mentioned, but apparently the person who resigned from the role of journalist Joanna Racewicz. Then Łozińska appeared on the set.

One episode was usually shot for a week and cost about PLN 15 million (other series then had a budget of 40-50 million per episode). The scripts were written two months ahead. “In the labyrinth” was watched by as many as 16 million viewers, but the actors had to deal with the accusations that they “sold out” or “lowered themselves” to play in a soap opera. Marek Kondrat was one of the few who had no problem with it. – My environment lived with the memories of a bygone era, when there were no commercials and participation in a soap opera was embarrassing – said the actor in one of the interviews. – I “got into it” because I practiced this profession with all its benefits – added Kondrat. And how does Łozińska recall that period? We publish an excerpt from Jack Wakar’s conversation with the actress.

Jacek Wakar “The first life of Marek Kondrat”, Red and Black – excerpt:

The series “W labyrinth”, in which you played with Marek Kondrat, was a breakthrough. The first Polish soap opera …

Yes, but we didn’t know about it at the time of production. We shot this series in tranches, twelve episodes each. We didn’t know if this job would last a year or it would end soon. The episodes were picked up, they liked them, an order came for the next ones – that’s how it was done. It was necessary to gather strength for the next installments. And so we got to one hundred and two episodes. We shot for three years.

How did you get into this series?

One autumn evening, my friend, my friend, came to see me the second director who was responsible for the production of “In the Labyrinth”. She said she had to take me to Chełmska Street to the Documentary and Feature Film Studio immediately, because everyone is waiting, shooting begins tomorrow, and one of the actresses refused at the last minute. Everything was prepared under her, she was supposed to be paired with Marek. I like it for summer, because I love stories that change your whole life in the blink of an eye. I went, I was very happy that the director is Paweł Karpiński, because he is an absolutely positive character, there is no trace of anger or aggression in him. And most of all, I was glad to play with Marek. We knew each other from our studies. When I came to the PWST in Warsaw, he was in his graduation year. He was delightful. In addition to his amazing skills in every acting field, he had this hard-to-name thing that only distinguished a select few.

Some approached “W maze” lightly, but great actors played there.

Leon Niemczyk, Barbara Horawianka, Wiesław Drzewicz, Sławek Voit, Janusz Bylczyński, Małgorzata “Duda” Lorentowicz … You see what a team this is.

You played a married couple with Marek Kondrat. You said it was three years, a long time.

It is impossible to get bored with Marek. He has a fantastic temperament, he is like a volcano. We got along without the slightest effort. At that time, after a few years of break, I was returning to the theater and one time I asked to have a little more time off in the week before the premiere. Marek was surprised that I was playing in the theater. “The whole world is waiting for Peer Gynt,” he sneered. He himself was not in any theater then. It was before his arrival at the Warsaw Ateneum, where he played – brilliantly – in Mazepa and Fantazy.

Previously, he was at Dramatyczny’s with Gustaw Holoubek.

Yes, but at the time we were shooting “In the Labyrinth”, he did not feel the desire to work in the theater, he even laughed at him. Probably because he experienced the removal of the management of Dramatyczny Holoubek very personally. Then a piece of his life ended, a large part of his world was destroyed.

Do you have the feeling that you got to know him at least a little during these three years?

Yes. Our meeting happened at a special moment for him, when he was making a personal reevaluation. It was before “Extradition” directed by Wojciech Wójcik, so before the explosion of gigantic popularity. He has not yet met Władysław Pasikowski, who changed his acting image. He had a car accident during the filming of “In the Labyrinth”. He came out with a scar on his forehead and a different – or so I believe – perspective on life.

We were even closer to the fact that our children attended the music school in Miodowa together, even to one class, and earlier to kindergarten. Children were thrown out of the car at school and then rode to the set. Also thanks to this, we were at our place, we drank a lot of wine, and we cooked various delicious things.

What were you most likely to talk about?

We certainly did not have difficult discussions about the profession. Our conversations were very coarse, Marek is known for his sometimes blunt, but very tasty jokes. He was not afraid to balance on the border. We had our own communication code at the time. We laughed a lot. We used to have a two-hour break in the shooting of “W labyrinth” and with a larger group we went to the nearby cinema in Wola. I don’t remember what the movie it was, but I do remember that we were almost kicked out of the screening because we were laughing so much, although the movie seems not to be funny at all.

Marek was brave, he did not mind the environmental criticism that fell on us – the actors of “In the Labyrinth”. Once, I was offered a performance in a Television Theater show and I found out that my friends don’t want to play with me because I’m the one from the soap opera.

Many have advised me to quit the show. And Marek flaunted it demonstratively. After all, “The world is waiting for Peer Gynt” …

What was Marek Kondrat like an actor? Do you not think that under his merriment, also shown in comedy roles, there is sadness, reverie?

First it must be said that he was always perfectly prepared. He always had his homework done, he always knew how to text, and this is often not the case in serials. You’re right, there was some sadness under his vulgarity. Though he may already have gotten rid of him, because when I spoke to him last year, he confided in me that he was incredibly happy. “Life has taste and meaning for me,” he confessed. And I think he’s okay with the fact that he quit acting. Marek comes from an acting family, so giving up acting in his case was giving up everything he had at the time. But he was always characterized by a distance from our acting world, he perfectly saw the specificity of this environment. When the excitement for the Wrocław Stage Songs Review began, he was asked why he was not taking part in it. He replied that he would appear in the Actor’s Song Review on the condition that the surgeons would compete for the appendectomy. And yet Marek sings great, he has a sense of rhythm. I heard myself how he interpreted Wysocki’s songs perfectly.

Marek Kondrat’s first life Red and Black