Simona Lewandowska: I use a push-button phone, I wanted peace of mind from applications

In the comedy series Dobré ráno, Brno! directed by Jan Prušinovský, you play a tree frog. What’s the hardest thing about forecasting live weather?

In my opinion, the most insidious thing is to look into the camera, talk and move at the same time. I struggled a lot with this interplay.

The weather presenter must show the mirror image. Didn’t you get the sides mixed up?

Anyway, you can get used to it fairly quickly. As part of such a small workshop, I visited the studio to see what the work of the frog entails, I also looked at the basic movements and preparation, which also includes the fact that you have to learn the text by heart.

That shouldn’t be a problem for the actress.

Not really, but I was still glad to have a reading device at my disposal, unlike a real tree frog. And we also had the advantage that the filming could be interrupted and resumed at any time, which is not possible with a live broadcast. You have to be much more agile and constantly on your toes. I find it admirable, especially at five in the morning.

I was on the radio recently and I really liked that they didn’t have cameras there. You don’t have to watch yourself like that. It immediately put me in a better mood and a more relaxed start to the day. (laughter)

An unpleasant accident happens to Andrejka right at the beginning. Weren’t you embarrassed by the scene with the forgotten dog excrement in the purse?

No, on the contrary, I was excited. Such extreme things do not happen very often in our country, and at the same time I enjoy the exaggeration a lot. All of Andrejka’s negative character traits were exaggerated. He is very ambitious but often speaks before he thinks. Then she has no choice but to use women’s weapons. She is not a bad girl, more like a calf.

Will she be able to get promoted?

I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the audience. All I’ll say is that she gets a life lesson, but it doesn’t leave any major repercussions for her.

Would you find something you have in common with the character?

Generation gap. She is the youngest in the team, so her vigor and enthusiasm sometimes come across. It also happened to me during filming that I didn’t quite know how to have fun with more experienced colleagues, and at the same time I wanted to win their affection.

Sometimes there were rather awkward situations until I learned to relax. Otherwise, I hope we don’t have much in common.

Nor the purposefulness and ambition?

Probably yes, but I believe that I have it set correctly. In the first place, life clearly wins for me, not the motto of work above all else.

So did you enjoy life in Brno even when you were there for work?

I fell terribly in love with him. When I had a day off after filming, I slept over with my friends from JAMU and went to the theaters.

The sitcom was your first comedic experience in front of the camera, what did it give you?

Greater confidence as an actor. I finally feel like I’ve untied myself in front of the camera. When I’m playing something serious, it takes a lot of energy to focus. Whereas comedies put me in an upbeat mood that keeps me energized for hours ahead.

I am a tall blonde and because of that I face prejudice, some people judge me before I speak. That’s how I get cast in the roles of pipis. They play well with me, I think it’s a great way to be funny, a little silly and sarcastic at the same time.

In the spring, you will also appear in the forthcoming period series Golden Swan, set in the setting of a large department store. What will your character be? Pippinka again?

Alena is a trusting girl from the village. In Prague, she encounters a lot of new things and is quite annoyed by everything, she tries not to draw too much attention to herself and not to snoop around. Sometimes she is too kind and nice, sometimes she allows herself to be manipulated.

She has a secured fiance who is pushing her to get married, but she hesitates. She knows that thanks to him she could be existentially at ease, at the same time she is not sure if she feels love for him. In addition, it also carries a certain secret.

The plot of the series is set in the 40s. Can you judge whether the profession of a saleswoman was difficult at that time?

Specifically here probably not as much as today. Their work was not so exhausting, for example they had a mandatory two hours off during the shift, when they could go to rest on the terrace. Back then, department store owners took great care of their employees, knowing that they would then be nice to customers.

I guess perfect customer service was a priority back then.

Yes, sure. As part of the preparation, we received a salesman’s manual from Bata, which was very nicely written, not like today’s manuals that make you fall asleep. We also talked a lot about that time and people at the rehearsals. The director tried to explain to us that we should approach the characters as if they lived today, but take into account the conventions of the time.

Sure, they don’t have smartphones, but people’s thought processes don’t change. That’s how I imagined myself at that time.

What else helped you to understand the historical heroine?

Costume. Thanks to him, I was able to better empathize with the character even during the camera tests. I was also interested in the differences in daily habits, such as the order of the meeting at the table, posture, ways of behaving. What we don’t normally think too much about today was once subject to strict rules.

Strict rules also apply in modeling, which you did as a teenager. Why didn’t you stay a professional model?

I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I didn’t feel completely comfortable in that environment and I lacked motivation. While there is no doubt an art to creating a great photo with perfect styling, the fashion world is very superficial.

No matter how hard models work, they are still considered nothing more than clothes hangers, nice, soulless containers. I was frustrated that someone was constantly judging me and telling me how I should look, that I was being forced to lose weight. Now I only take pictures occasionally for fun.

So you were more drawn to acting from a young age?

Well, sure, I wanted to be an actress. I went to a drama teacher, with whom I went to theater camp. And since all my friends went to the conservatory, I went too.

You didn’t even think about another school?

I had my head in the clouds at the time and didn’t think much about it. I am glad that I chose the conservatory, even though I have gaps compared to my former classmates who went to gympl and in retrospect I see that I lack a general education.

I was always clear about acting as a profession and never doubted it. I just enjoy it more at DAMU now because I’m more mature. One of our leaders used to tell us that acting is for those who have nothing else to do, and I feel like I have nothing else to do. (laughter)

You have acting genes on your mother’s side. Did you go to her performance in the volunteer theater she was involved in?

Yes, and if I inherited a sense of drama from anyone, it was from my mother, as well as a sense of humor. Wherever he goes, he can entertain the whole company. He has a natural command of the commedia dell’arte (a type of theatrical improvisation originating in Renaissance Italy – editor’s note)which also appealed to me, so I also tried alternative theater, but both of my knees give out, so I have to be careful with some movements.

When I was a teenager, my mother received a family tree for her birthday, thanks to which we found out that she was related to puppeteers and people of the world, among them the Nováks, who run Cirk La Putyka. When they found out, they invited us to the show, I also remember that they were visiting us.

Besides your Polish surname, what do you have after your father?

He is a businessman and can pull off incredible things, such a good Polish scumbag. I admire how she can arrange everything, yet she doesn’t stress when things don’t go right away or according to plan. I guess I learned this from him. I believe that things will turn out well, even if it is at the last minute.

Did your immediate nature affect your early move away from your parents? While still studying at the conservatory, you started living with your partner at the time, Zdenek Piškula.

It was a strange and difficult time. My parents were divorcing, I was filming The Rose Garden and had no idea how demanding real life was. I also didn’t know how to handle money very well, so the impact was quite hard.

On the other hand, becoming independent from my parents moved me a lot, I got to know myself in detail and learned to take responsibility for my life.

What period do you have now?

Now I have a nice one. I’m going to shoot a movie, I’ll have another one in the summer, I’m playing in theaters. Knock on wood, I have enough work. It also works in personal life.

You play in four productions in Disk.

They are The Worm in the Heart of Man and The Righteous by Camus, as well as a parody of the musical Beggar’s Opera, which is very often sold out. And then in the controversial performance Blood on the Cat’s Neck, during which there is spit, vomit, blood, rough erotica, and the last scene takes place in a BDSM salon. Once it made a gentleman so angry that he flew onto the stage.

He even got involved, picked me up in his arms, flew me back and forth. He was well built, so my classmates couldn’t push him out, and when we asked someone in the audience for help, they laughed because they thought it was part of the show. Before we finally managed to throw him out, he still managed to break the equipment.

We’ve had security ever since and this gentleman has a strict curfew. But I will admit that I appreciate his courage a lot. Sometimes I also feel like entering the stage as a spectator.

Would you do that to your colleagues?

She did, I imagined it as a child and it still doesn’t leave me. I have to try it at least once in my life.

I’m a little confused about how you prepare for a controversial show. Did you go to a real BDSM club as part of your preparations?

It wasn’t exactly a BDSM club, but I went to a regular music club in Berlin while I was there on a trip. People there are far more daring, they are not ashamed to wear latex or leather, they are more open to different forms of sexuality.

Have you pushed any boundaries of your own?

Certainly. The performance is designed in such a way that the characters change during it, so I play a model, a prostitute, an abused wife and a dominatrix. During the preparations, my classmates and I tried various things that helped us understand the characters, we were as if torn from the chains, but soon things settled down again. However, because of this, we got to know each other very well and learned to judge people less.

Do you have a dream character that you would like to break out of your usual roles?

Here we had a three-hour performance at the main station, where I played a junkie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Addictions have always fascinated me, I realized that I would like to play such a character in a classic theater performance or film.

There’s something about the stories of addicts that appeals to me. Maybe it’s also because my mom works as a psychiatrist in the drug and alcohol department.

Shouldn’t you rather have them as a deterrent example?

Forbidden fruit tastes the best, right? (laughter) On the other hand, my mom and I don’t talk much about her work. Here and there he mentions, for example, how sad it is that more and more young people are addicted to mobile phones, but that’s about it. I use a push-button phone because I wanted to have peace of mind from applications that irritated me. I found it to be a relief.

Doesn’t mom have a tendency to dissect your mental balance as well?

It doesn’t, but it diagnoses my boys every time. I’m afraid to bring anyone over because she always casually throws something in and then I find out she was right.

What kind of men do you choose?

I like him funny and a bit cheeky, humor always disarms me. I am also attracted to empathy. For a long time I had the feeling that there weren’t many sensitive boys, but lately I’m happy to discover that I was wrong.

And do you have someone like that at home?

Yes. I’ll keep the others to myself.