Grzegorz Damiêcki: I had to play a lot of roles before the elders offered me to switch to “you”

“Wilk” is the debut series of 24-year-old Jan Dybus, who also wrote the script for it. The story of the teenage Tymon is largely based on his own experience, and the production as a whole takes as much as one standard episode of traditional drama series. The idea was so captivating that the cast, apart from young actors, such as known from Polish slashers – “In the woods today nobody will sleep” and “In the depths of the forest” – Sebastian Dela, Weronika Dzierżyńka and the rapper Borys “Bedoes” Przybylski, for whom it is an acting debut – stars of Polish cinema have played, such as Agata Kulesza, Magdalena Boczarska, Grzegorz Małecki and Grzegorz Damięcki. And it was he who told us more about the project itself and what captivated him the most.

Justyna Bryczkowska: In one of the interviews you said that you always read the script carefully before deciding to participate in a given project. What made you interested in “The Wolf”?

Grzegorz Damięcki: I was fascinated by the fact that a very young man was able to describe the problems of the young generation in such a mature way. I was a rebellious teenager – my parents had a hand in hand with me. Therefore, I am eager to look for stories among the scenarios that would concisely describe the situation of isolation, generational differences, closure and incomprehension.

I like working with young artists. Janek Dybus pressed for our meeting from the very beginning. He came to me in the summer and made a great impression. I saw a man full of passion. And for me it is a basic condition. Sometimes more important than text to be improved. Passion is half the battle.

Have you had the opportunity to bring a piece of your own perspective or experience to the script? Now that you’ve admitted that he was a rebellious teenager and that he is raising teenagers himself.

I do not use a database of unchanging means of expression – I have to be reborn for each new role. Each character I construct this way is, of course, very much of my sensitivity. It is often made as a warning. That we should be careful and not be like that. If missionary character appears in my profession, it is precisely when you can talk about something important socially.

I have children. It is indeed hard to talk sometimes. The world rushes on, and parents are often unaware of how dangerous language they use. They pour out torrents of words that children don’t want to hear. What we say is used against us.

You said that “when getting ready for a role, he likes to draw his characters.” How was it this time?

It was a very restless sketch. I drew a man who was practically all tense, always ready to attack. He had very heavy leaden hands and tired eyes. Because he was awake, he wrote tracts to his own child or to all mankind. This is a drawing of a man we want to run away from. There is something toxic about this character, a kind of energetic vampirism.

Do you keep these sketches somewhere, but are you free from them?

I don’t collect “myself”. In my apartment you will not find photos of the roles or any awards. Each completed project becomes a thing of the past. One of the great painters said: “I live for a painting that will be different from the previous one”.

Undoubtedly someone is doing it for you. Admittedly in the context of sitcoms, you said once that you don’t do a quick job. And here this form is concise, five episodes are as long as usually devoted to one episode. How did you approach character building with the awareness that there won’t be so much screen time for the character?

Speaking of fast work, I meant the pace of work on sitcom sets or long-broadcast series. This is often accompanied by a huge rotation of the entire team.

‘WILK’ (2021) Canal + dir. Jan Dybus perm. Igor Połaniewicz

In the case of “Wolf”, the speed of the project was, first of all, what was done in the editing: the whole thing was divided into roughly eight-minute sequences. It is dynamic editing, but Papaya Films has a lot of experience in it. He makes interesting, engaged music videos, social and witty commercials. The preparatory period was extended. We knew exactly what we would expect of ourselves. There was time to get to know each other, ask a lot of difficult questions. We agreed – following Zbyszek Cybulski – that we would delete many points and simply try to play them.

What surprised you or you liked best about working with such a young (24-year-old) director? Such Borys “Bedoes” Przybylski, who played with you, remembers working on the set as a combination of a family atmosphere and creative work. How is it for you?

I am always captivated by the artist’s zeal and honesty. There were no random people on the set, only enthusiasts. In such conditions, you go to work with growing wings, there are no thoughts like “Jesus, why I agreed”. For me, it was an artistic proving ground. I was able to check the scope of my current possibilities. Janek worked for heavily wrenched money, he also made his debut, so he really did his best.

When you were talking about it, I started to wonder if there was a role in your achievements – whether it was theatrical or filmmaking – that you realized after some time, that you exaggerated a bit with your means of expression, that you did something “too much”?

Of course! More than once. I am very critical, I am reluctant to see the results of my work, but you cannot overdo it. You cannot tire your surroundings with yourself. I would play many roles differently today. However, there are those that gave me satisfaction. Yes, I believe that in art one should cross borders, even if it brings about criticism. I often cross these boundaries, I am aware of it. I do it on purpose. I provoke because you have to ask embarrassing questions and “force” the audience to look for answers.

I was intrigued by the information that when you played Grzegorz Molenda (a character in the series “Belfer” – ed.), Discovering the dark dimension of this character influenced your home life, because you had to learn to cut it off after you left the set.

These are difficult mechanisms. When a man comes home from theater very late, he is full of adrenaline. For example, he is compulsively eating or throwing around an apartment where everyone is already asleep. After a performance, it is sometimes so charged that there would be enough energy for three more hours at the disco.

Grzegorz Damięcki Photo Mateusz Skwarczek / Agencja Gazeta

Molenda is the type of hero I “came out of” for a long time. He was a man full of tension, resentment and hatred. It was very therapeutic for me. After returning home, I did not have the strength to argue with anyone.

I also asked because, for example, Lady Gaga said before the premiere of “Dom Gucci” that she lived in the skin of her heroine for nine months, even without leaving her accent. It seems difficult to me.

The great theater actor Sir Lawrence Olivier would probably ask, “Can’t you just play it?” There are different approaches to the profession. There is a school based on bringing out your own emotions, transferring your sensitivity to a figure, working with your privacy. In the case of great actors, this is an extremely interesting procedure. Such an actor was my professor, Mr. Gustaw Holoubek. He was an absolutely intellectual actor, he built through his own mind. It was based on the word.

The other extreme is acting based on directing each gesture, on characteristic, on the externality. Tadeusz Łomnicki was also such an actor. Two completely different schools, and yet two great actors.

Which of them told you that acting is about partnership?

Mr. Gustaw Holoubek. This is my master, guru. He also said that to be an actor you have to have the flicker of a butterfly, but the skin of an elephant. He left behind a whole bunch of wise words.

Have you had the opportunity to work with his son, Jan Holoubek?

It happened several times. There is nothing to hide, he had an unusual laboratory at home. There was something and whom to draw from.

You say he had something to absorb, but the same can be said of you.

I mainly used the street. My parents worked very hard. I lived in a place that bordered the pre-war world of caravans, carters, charcoal makers, and suppliers of kohlrabi, cabbage and other vegetables to the city of Warsaw. They lived in poor houses, and it was a world of extraordinary types. There, I followed others for the first time in my life. I played with the children of horse-drawn carriages and it was my first theater.

I also caught somewhere that you are driving your honorable father crazy when you say that you are not welded to acting forever, and for him this is a way of life. Is it a generational or individual difference?

My father is stuck with one foot in the nineteenth-century ethos. His professors believed that if an actor does not come to the theater in the evening, he must be dead. Today it looks completely different. Sometimes the performance is canceled because of the barley in the eye.

I remember the Athenaeum full of great individuals. When I came to the theater from school, I had to work and play a certain number of roles before the elders suggested that I switch to “you”. And I remember that I liked it very much. I had the feeling that I was changing my place, moving to a different group. When Jerzy Kamas said “listen, call me Jurek from today”, it was really impressive. Today we are all “touching”. We take the pleasure of the next levels of initiation from ourselves.

“Wilka” can be watched on CANAL + online at canalplus.com.