Wiktor Zborowski: there are certain things I don't want to do anymore

PAP Life: You are surrounded by influencers every day, because both your wife and both daughters run popular Instagram accounts. Didn't they try to convince you to have your own profile too?

Wiktor Zborowski: They tried, but for now, I'm not particularly interested in it. You have to devote a lot of time to it, to manage it. I simply don't feel like doing it. It's not a matter of laziness, but of conscious choice. I prefer to read books, watch a film or do my own thing in that time. It's enough for me that I'm on Facebook. And that also steals some of my time. So I thought that going into more social media would be a big exaggeration.

I read an interview where you said you wanted to limit your professional activity. Are you bored with acting in films?

No, I didn't get bored. I said I wanted to limit this activity because after 52 years of doing this job I felt a bit older. Not that I was tired, but that I didn't feel like doing certain things anymore. But the more I tried to limit my participation, the more I got absorbed in both films and theater. I simply have so many things to do that I don't know where to put my hands.

The premiere of the film "Grandpa, We're Blowing!" with your participation is approaching, you're playing at the 6.Piętro Theatre. What else do you do professionally?

I'm playing "Zemsta" at the Och-Teatr. And besides, I'm supposed to start rehearsals for a new play at the 6.Piętro Theater in the fall. I'm starting shooting a new movie in June, a second one in August, and a third one next year, if God allows me to live to see it.

You surprised me, because I had the impression that you had been less in films lately.

Ma'am, it had to be less. I haven't been used in a movie for eight years.

Why?

I don't want to talk about it. I managed and had a very good time professionally. However, a few people showed up who I would rather forget.

Fortunately, that has changed. A few months ago, the film "Keep Driving!" with Marian Opania in the lead role, in which you also played, was released in cinemas.

Mariana also hasn't appeared in a movie for eight years.

I have the impression that "Grandpa, We're Blowing!" and "Next Ride!" have a similar feel. And although the latter is a family film and the former is a tragicomedy, they share the fact that both touch on many topics related to family relationships, responsibility, and transience.

In my opinion, these films are completely different and if there is anything that connects them, it is me. But of course, each viewer has the right to receive the film as they see fit in their heart.

Why did you play in them?

They were very well written. In the case of "Kolej janie!" by Mariusz Kuczewski, and "Dziadku, wiejemy" by Emil Płoszajski. Evidently, the circumstance that encouraged me a lot to do the second production was the director, Ola Chajdas, whom I have known since she was 20. She is a great girl, I trust her, and her last film "Imago" is sensational. I also knew that there would be a very beautiful cast: Janek Peszek, Agnieszka Grochowska. In film, casting is extremely important - you have to cast every role, even a small one, exactly on point. Because the camera will show everything, every falsehood. In the theatre, you can hide, hide behind make-up, even - in the good sense of the word - cheat and it will be fine. But in film, you can't do that. In "Kolej janie!" the script was also great. It was the first time I worked with Mariusz Kuczewski. A very good director, who also has a very good pen. He worked on the scripts for several parts of "Letters to Santa" and the new version of "The Quack".

In "Dalej droga!" you play with Marian Opania, with whom you have been friends for years, and you have performed together many times. Did your professional paths cross with Jan Peszek as well?

Not that often. Once or twice we performed together somewhere, for example in the gala performances of the Przegląd Piosenki Aktorskiej. Apart from that, I really like each other with Marysia Peszek. Marysia, Janek and I sometimes operate on similar frequencies.

How important is who you work with?

I've turned down a lot of offers in my life. Film, TV, and theater. A lot, really.

Because of people you didn't get along with?

First of all, because the material didn't suit me. I knew that this script or play or role wasn't for me. Or, for example, that I would be playing something that didn't give me any pleasure, any satisfaction. Because that's how it usually is, that everything is combined together: no money, no pleasure, no satisfaction. So why? It's not because I'm bored. Because I have something to do.

Have you ever regretted your decision? Because you said no, and it turned out great.

This never happened.

It means you have good intuition.

Once, at the beginning of my career, it was maybe intuition, then it was experience. A few times, even though I didn't want to, I had to play. I simply had a full-time job in the theater and I couldn't refuse again. Unfortunately, as it turned out later, once it didn't work out, once it worked out more or less, but I still didn't like it.

Is that why you haven't worked full-time in any theater for years?

Since 1998. I needed some change. At some point I decided that a change, e.g. of theatre, would not help me at all, so I had to take matters into my own hands. And I had a fairly easy situation, because Gucio Holoubek told me: "Take an unpaid leave, you can always come back". And that was my security, which gave me some peace. Later I played in Gucio Holoubek's performances, but I never returned to theatre full-time.

And let's go back to the film "Grandpa, We're Blowing!", which is the impetus for our conversation. It's a family film…

…unlike "Keep Driving!", which is a geriatric film.

In "Grandpa, We're Blowing!" the main character is a teenager, but grandparents are important in both stories. Do you remember your grandparents?

I don't remember one grandfather, because I was born after his death. And the other one, only through a fog - he died when I was less than three years old. But I remember both grandmothers very well. And Grandma Kobuszewska, and Grandma Zborowska. I loved them very much.

What kind of grandfather are you?

I think I react much more emotionally to my granddaughters than I used to with my daughters. I simply get moved when I look at them. I have a bit more time to see how they develop. I have a difficult relationship with my two older granddaughters because they live in Fortaleza, Brazil. But they come at least once a year, sometimes even twice. We go there too. We haven't been there for a while now because such long journeys are tiring, but they will come in the summer.

You're not encouraging your daughter to move to Poland?

How could I persuade her? After all, my granddaughters are Brazilians. They were born there, their main language is Portuguese, they go to school there, they have their friends, their entire cultural environment and the other part of the family. When they are adults and want to live in Poland, they will make that decision themselves.

What place does acting have in your life today?

I have exactly the same approach as my uncle Janek Kobuszewski. That is, I do not live to work, I work to live. This is his maxim and I subscribe to it.

So the most important thing is life?

Yes. A profession, if it is a pleasure, is a terribly good thing. But apart from this profession, there are many other things. For example, I practiced various sports at the same time. I used to ride horses, play tennis, compete as a spinning angler, sail. Then I started playing golf. So there was one trend, the professional one, and next to it all my activities, let's call them sports. And, of course, family. All of this somehow intertwined. But without what goes along with the profession, I wouldn't be happy. And then there are my beloved dogs. Now I have two, and sometimes three, sometimes even four. And in the character of Sisyphus, I collect rubbish in the Masurian forests. I think I have already collected a few tons. In this respect, I have a certain occupation for the rest of my life.

Are you a fulfilled man?

Fulfilled people lie in cemeteries in pencil cases or urns. This has nothing to do with fulfillment. It is simply an attempt to live the way you like. The Chinese divide people into bush people and wind people. I am a bush person. I like to be in one place, I get used to it. But since everyone cares about what they care about the least, I have traveled the whole world, I have been to all continents. These are all things that - as they say - you have no influence on. It worked for me, because I have never prepared any trips myself, apart from maybe some holiday trips. It is all a kind of accident.

You never tried to get any roles?

Never. I waited for something to come to me. Besides, how could I try? Go, beg, send letters? I don't know how to do it.

There are agents who do this for actors.

I don't have an agent. I never really did. There were some short attempts, but the collaboration didn't work out, so I decided it was pointless. And we parted ways without any fights.

Do you have any professional dreams?

Ma'am, I am 74 years old and basically I don't have any great dreams because I can't do certain things anymore, for example, I've already lost the stage of some roles. I can't play a 30-year-old. If anything, I can dream of a very static role of a dignified old man, which will be so wonderful that it will bring me all possible Golden Globes, Golden Bears, Golden Palms and Oscars.

Or the Eagles.

That's what I'm least counting on. And the others, please. Let them gather dust on the shelves.

While we're on the subject of international awards, now a younger generation of Polish actors are playing successfully in foreign productions. For example, Tomasz Kot, who, like you, is a very tall man.

In my generation there are also people who played abroad. Daniel Olbrychski, Jurek Radziwiłowicz, Andrzej Seweryn, Joaśka Pacuła or Małgosia Zajączkowska. Although it was definitely more difficult than now.

As for Tomek, I like him and appreciate him very much. We met many years ago, during the Review of Actor's Songs. A very tall guy approached me and asked if he should apply to a drama school. I said: "Of course, apply. It may turn out that you will play my son". It was Tomek - and he did play my son in Agnieszka Holland's "Pokot". Nowadays, there are many very tall young guys in the profession. Tomek and I are not the tallest at all.

What do you think this young generation of actors is like?

They are completely different from us. But that's no wonder - they have a different language, different literature, different music, different films, different plays, different drugs. Everything is different... I often admire their acting, because it is so unbelievably real. It's just mind-boggling! They are simply wonderful.

There are also many Polish films and series at a very high level of production. This is really great.

It's good that we end on such an optimistic note, because the world we live in has become unpredictable.

Undoubtedly. Unfortunately, we have no influence on this. Maybe if we all thought the same, something could be done, but we do not think the same. Blind, brutal force or money rules all this. I will not think about it. It will be as it is. And for now, see you on the silver screen.

Wiktor Zborowski - theatre, film, radio and dubbing actor. He is 74 years old. His uncle was a famous actor, Jan Kobuszewski. As a teenager, he played basketball at Polonia Warsaw. In his final year of high school, he suffered an injury that interrupted his sports career. He graduated from the Warsaw State Drama School in 1973. He has dozens of film roles to his credit, including in "CK Dezerterzy", "Ogniem i mieczem" and "Koglu-moglu". He recently played in the tragicomedy "Dalej jaka!" (Next Ride!). On May 9, the family film "Dziadku, wiejemy!" (Grandpa, We're Blowing!), starring him and directed by Olga Hajdas, will hit cinemas. He is married to actress Maria Winiarska. He has two daughters - Hanna and Zofia, and four granddaughters.