Joanna Kurowska: An intelligent person can play the depths. Conversely, it is worse

The interview will be published on January 26 by the Otwarte Publishing House.

Is there any series you haven’t played in?

Yes, “M jak miłość”. I even regret it, because it is shot next to my house and I could go to work in my slippers. Playing in the “Foster Family” was a chore because the shooting took place on the other side of the Vistula in Stara Miłosna. I traveled all over Warsaw for them, but I do not complain, after all, we are in Poland and I take what they give. I played in the first Polish soap opera – “In the Labyrinth”, and after a few years “The Forty-Year-Old: Twenty Years Later” appeared. Nothing else was created during this time. Some actresses were upset about acting in series, they said it was embarrassing, and now I see them all not only in series, but also in commercials.

Maybe they’ve realized that there aren’t so many roles for women to afford to say no. Even the most popular actresses play in serials. I will ask you about the TV series “Cztertymolatek: Twenty Years Later”, in which you played with great actors: Anna Seniuk, Wojciech Malajkat, Wojciech Pokora, and Ms. Wojciech Mann was a partner. How did you feel in the series sequel?

The success of The Forty-Year-Old was tremendous, so the sequel was expected to be just as good. However, it must be remembered that the political situation has changed. It was 1993. Gruza wrote the script rather in the future. He accurately predicted banking ties and corruption, but then a man viewed the system changes idealistically. Gruza and Toeplitz made it up brilliantly, but at the time it was incomprehensible to the audience.

It’s hard to repeat the success of the first part. It actually fails.

Indeed, if you don’t count the James Bond movies, there is a different story each time, a separate whole, and different actors play the role of the main character. Apart from that, everything is obvious and in line with the convention. No matter if Sean Connery or Daniel Craig appears on the screen, they will always be accompanied by beautiful ladies, and cars tumble and set on fire, only the technology will develop more. This is constant – this is what the modern fairy tale is about, in which good always wins, and James, showing off his superhuman strength, with his face burned out, emerges from any oppression.

What role do you dream about?

Oh good. In Poland, few interesting roles for women are written. I liked “Foreigner” with Ewa Wiśniewska in the lead role, Jadwiga Barańska in the role of Barbara Niechcic from “Nocy i dni” was also great.

And Joanna Kulig in “Cold War” or Agata Kulesza in “Ida” or in “Róża”?

True, these are the enviable roles. Nevertheless, you will admit that the cross-section of female nature with which we deal with the role of Barbara Niechcic is unusual. This is what each of us is like: still dissatisfied, dreaming of an unreal man who collects water lilies, a little bit of Mrs. Bovary. A woman unable to enjoy what she has, chasing the unknown, the unattainable. The character of Barbara was terribly annoying, because what we have inside us annoys the most. I’ve watched this movie many times, every time I see something more.

Have you never regretted appearing in series?

Probably not, actually I play in series all the time. I’m glad to play them. I like my job very much, I do it the best I can. Please remember that seventeen people graduated from the Acting Department in my year, of which only four may be practiced professionally. So it is a success that I have stayed in it. I know age groups where no one works as an actor. One of my colleagues has become an IKEA employee somewhere, someone started a company, a friend is married to her husband, another ended up in a clothing store …

Every year, about seventy people graduate from theater schools in Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź and Warsaw. There are also private schools, such as the Vocal and Acting College of Baduszkowa, there are natural-mouths, there are many people known for being famous.

The first series in which you starred was “Escape from beloved places” directed by Julian Dziedzina.

It’s still in college. Then there was a role in the twenty-five-minute cabaret program “Magazyn” with Krzysztof Jaroszyński, Elżbieta Zającówna, Stefan Friedmann and Czarek Pazura. I was twenty-three years old and I was glad to be able to play with established actors. Television showed it three times a week.

It was a hardship.

Rather a good lesson in workshop and cabaret skills.

The man was young, and he was glad to be playing in one of the first sitcoms. When I got the role of Graczykowa, I was shaped in a way, also by performing in the Television Theater. Before that, I also had roles in “Kiepski”, “Badziewiaki” and “The 13th Police Station”.

These were comedy series about an average family, even a very average one, who has no dreams.

No, they have dreams, for example to sell the Bule car. These are the dreams of the players. I will also answer the question that you are ashamed to ask. It is so in my profession that an intelligent person can play a nugget. Conversely, it is worse.

How does building such a character look like? Were you spying on people on the street or was your imagination enough?

This series was brilliantly invented by Jaroszyński – Jadzia was drawn with a strong line, as well as her conflict with her husband, conductor. It was enough not to send, invent and make George Sand out of Graczykowa. When you get the role of Gamer, you have to play it on point …

… and not add her feathers …

… sequins, ornaments and pretending that she is actually secretly reading Proust in the original. This is a character written like this. If you play it godly, it’ll be fine. Sometimes the actor’s lack of humility causes him to explore a character in which there is nothing to explore.

I liked the assumption that Graczykowa could read Proust in the original.

There is no need to philosophize here. Jadzia makes sure that the bigos does not burn, whether to buy plums for compote or put tomatoes in the soup. These are her dilemmas, not the suffering of young Werther.

You played Mirella Ciapara in the 13th Police Station. This series featured great actors, such as Marek Walczewski.

Apart from him, also Marek Perepeczko, Arkadiusz Jakubik and Cezary Pazura. It was the first sitcom in Poland where dogs were hung – probably because canned laughs were played. Here I had a different situation than in “Graczyki”. The script was written and directed by Maciej Ślesicki, with whom you could not change a comma, you could not take your breath in your own way. I am an intuitive actress and when something goes wrong in my mouth, I have a problem.

You have been tormented like a condemned man.

Very much, although I must admit that he wrote it well. He was a bit ahead of his time, because the role for Cezary Pazura resembles the later style of Jim Carrey, but the Polish audience was not yet prepared for this type of acting, for these plastic characters, where one is good, the other is bad, one is nice, the other is mean. My Ciapara is a latex character – she is crazy, crazy journalist, completely crazy. And it should be like that, there is nothing to nuance here.

How much are you in this role?

You leave a little bit of yourself in each role, but in fact, the less of me there is, the better the role.

Then you came back to “Kiepskis” again?

Both series were broadcast in Polsat, you cannot play two such big roles on the same air, because the viewers would get confused. Both series dealt with similar topics of simple people, so I understood that they reduced this role for me in “Kiepski”.

Then you join the crew of the series “Foster family”, in which you played the slightly crazy mother-in-law of one of the protagonists. I had the impression that you had a lot of fun in this role. There were also a lot of scenes with Maryla Rodowicz, who is a singer, not an actress.

I loved playing with Maryla.

I wonder where her comic instinct came from.

Marilla is a personality, she doesn’t have to play anything, it is enough that she is – and she is very intense. Such a slapstick character with her outfits, hair, makeup … She even touched me with her humility, because she watched the episodes carefully. I never watch what I do.

Why?

I don’t like it, but I don’t feel like it either. Some actors analyze frame by frame, but I don’t get it. After all, nothing can be improved. Yes, conclusions can be drawn. When we were shooting “Foster Family”, I didn’t see any episode, only now, when there are reruns, sometimes I sit down and watch.

What do you think when you watch yourself years later?

I even like it, but generally don’t watch myself. For example, some people analyze how they are shown and then bore the director or cinematographer to illuminate them in one way and not the other. I don’t really understand how you can have an ego inflated so that you can occupy other people’s space and time. At home, they play their roles on the player over and over again. They stare for hours. You come to them and they take out the tape. Andrzej Kondratiuk once showed me how he works with Iga Cembrzyńska. Honestly, I was shocked because he tried some emotional states with her and recorded everything. He would say to her: “You feel bad”, “You’re jealous”, “Now you are crying” – and she did everything he asked her to do. It seemed unnecessary to me. Sure, there are different methods of getting into a role, but this kind of training is not for me. Acting, in my opinion, is not a constant exercise of emotional states. I was shocked that someone might be the essence of life – being an actor all the time. I was with Iga Cembrzyńska and Andrzej Kondratiuk in their apartment in Ochota and we talked for a long time. We loved talking to each other. It happened that until the morning.