God & I: Piotr Adamczyk

HOW DID YOU come to be an actor? Was acting a boyhood dream or did it come later in life?
It was a boyhood dream. When you are a child you look for acceptance from those around you, and at school I achieved this by developing a sense of humour, by mimicking teachers, friends, and by giving speeches along the corridors. One day the Polish language teacher noticed this and he suggested that I take a role in a school play. The performance of this play was later cancelled, but during the rehearsals I understood that acting was congenial for me, and it also helped me to overcome my natural shyness.
From this experience I moved to the amateur theatre-school for children in Warsaw. I had the opportunity to try various roles which, during the Communist years, was very rare. Thanks to this school I was also able to travel outside of Poland. I visited England, for example, during the grey years of Communist Poland.
The West left a strong impression on me and that's why I use the expressions 'Colourful West' and 'Grey Poland'.
Then I graduated in the Academy of Theatre in Warsaw with great actors as teachers, and I also had the opportunity to study in London.
After graduating I became a theatrical actor, and from there I moved on to television and cinema, with some work also for radio.

You played Karol Wojtyla in the two-part film Karol: A Man Who Became Pope and Karol: The Pope, The Man. Why do you think Giacomo Battiato, the director, chose you for such an important role?
This is a question for Giacomo Battiato really. During my first meeting with him, I remember that he was not asking me about my work or my resume. We just had a very personal conversation, and I knew that he was trying to find something in me as a person.
When we started to work with each other our relationship became even better. It was just like a father and son relationship, and my fear now is that I may never again meet a director as open as Giacomo Battiato.
I feel very proud to have worked with him. When we were shooting in Poland, he was very open and talking to everybody. He exhibited a good grasp of the Polish people and our history, but he knew that we would always know more about our history than he would, so he was always open to suggestions from all of us on this matter, without, however, losing the original idea inspiring him. It is rare to find such openness in a film director.

You are 34 years old. Did you find it difficult to interpret the life of Karol Wojtyla from the age of 20 right up to his death?
Yes it was. When I received the proposal to work on the second part of the film I thought it was impossible. I actually thought they were joking. I was thinking, 'How can a man in his early 30s play an 84-year-old man on the verge of death?' But Battiato has so much faith in me that he insisted that I play the second part as well. When I understood that if I did not accept that somebody else would, and that I would forever be living with the feeling of being a coward, I realised that I had to do it; that it was my destiny.
I did my best, but it may surprise you to learn that the most difficult part was not to play the aged John Paul II - that was merely a technical problem, really. The most difficult part was the personality of our late Pope, because that is something which is very difficult to touch, to understand, to act and interpret. It was his spirituality, his faith, his contact with people, his  charisma, that was the real challenge for me.

Two years ago, before shooting began for the first part of the film, you had an audience with Pope John Paul II. What memories do you have of that meeting?
His peculiar gesture, most of all. When the now Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz told him that we were doing a film about his life he started smiling. He expressed surprise and with a gesture of modesty he tapped his forehead with his fingers as if to say, 'You are crazy'. I remember the irony in his face. I wanted to ask so many questions, but I always said to him, 'I'm so happy to play you,'  but he joked with me by asking, 'Why?'

How did you prepare yourself spiritually for such a difficult role? Did you have a spiritual mentor or advisor while working on the films? Did you read books?
I not only read books about his life, but also his theological treatises, but I soon learned that this was not a good way to approach his personality because it would have taken me from 20 to 30 years! Most helpful were, instead, the conversations with his friends and collaborators.
Before the first part of the film I went to the Tatra mountains with a friend of mine who is a priest. One of our discussions was on the significance of the religious calling, and we concluded that a 'calling' is always a great mystery.

You have also had the honour of seeing the premiere of the second film at the Vatican in the presence of our current pontiff. How did Benedict XVI receive the film?
I actually had the opportunity to be close to our current pontiff twice, because the projection of the first part of the film was also organised in his presence in the Vatican. On that occasion he made a very important speech about war, Nazism, and totalitarianism in general. A lot of clergy at the Vatican said that it was the most personal speech in the first days of his pontificate.
The projection of the second part was also a very emotional experience for me, because we were showing the pontificate of John Paul II to the very people who were closely connected to him and who were thus in no small way a part of it all - it was something they knew perfectly well. Precisely for this reason it was a very risky business, but when I noticed emotion on Benedict's face I realized that the film had touched him in a deep way. There are photos of him holding his face with a gesture of fear during the scene of the attempt on the pope's life. At the end of the projection I was really very moved when Benedict turned to me and said, with a tear in his eye, 'Thank you'! It was the most important 'thank you' I have ever received.

What is the most challenging thing about being an actor?
It's a great job to work on the human soul, on human emotions and behaviour. That's what I find most interesting, but the hardest thing is to bring out the essential simplicity and truth in all human beings.
Being an actor is like a calling because now it happens that people recognise me when I walk down the street and people are talking to me as if I were a friend. Thanks to the Holy Father I have had the opportunity to touch people's emotions, and I am now their friend.

Do you think this role will stick to you for the rest of your life? What are your plans for the future?
I would not be unhappy to be connected with John Paul II for the rest of my life, but I am sure that I will work, and that I will bring new characters to people. I am still working as an actor. The next film I am working on is Testosterone. It's a comedy, and it will premiere this coming February in Poland. It may also premiere in Western countries soon.

Do you see yourself as a religious person?
I am a believer, but I also believe in the intimate nature of religious faith, so I find it difficult to talk about my religious life openly.

Could you name a person who has influenced you a lot, apart, of course, from our late pontiff?
I think everyone we meet in life gives us something. The biggest influences we receive when we are young. I had the opportunity to study from the great Polish actors; they gave me a valuable work ethic. My director, Giacomo Battiato, has been a great influence. I miss the conversations I had with him on the set probably because I lost my natural father when I was very young, and it is very important to receive answers from experienced people. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of spiritually relevant people in my life thanks to that role. The conversations I had with Father Stanislaw Dziwisz have left a deep impression on me.
I feel very honoured to have been elected a member of the new John Paul II Centre in Krakow. The Centre, called Do Not be Afraid has been established by Father Stanislaw to spread and develop the legacy of John Paul II, and promote his spirituality, culture, tradition as well as his scientific and educational activities. The Centre will include a conference centre, a papal museum, a library, an exhibition hall, a hospice, a hospital, a rehabilitation centre, a family helping centre, a single-mothers house, a children house and sports facilities. The centre will also promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, of which John Paul II was a fervent advocate. It may even contain a theatre for young people, and I would love to contribute to it.

You were present at Benedict's recent pilgrimage to Poland. What can you tell us about this experience?
It was a very important pilgrimage for us Poles because the loss of the previous pontiff was a double loss. All Poles saw John Paul as a part of their own families, and for this reason it was a difficult pilgrimage for Benedict. But day after day, I noticed that Benedict's contact with us became stronger and deeper and, when the time came for him to leave, we were greeting him with real love, and had begun to perceive and call him as 'Our Pope'. I noticed this by two signs; first, his self-confidence increased steadily, and secondly, the young were receiving him with ever greater enthusiasm. Millions and millions of people were listening to his words in the  Polish language, which is a difficult language to learn, but Benedict managed to speak it, and this won our hearts. I was happy to be with the youth during his meeting with them. It reminded me of a previous moment when, as a young man, I was with John Paul II years ago. Benedict's visit to Auschwitz gave added impetus to it all, and at the end of the pilgrimage we all felt that we had received a new direction from the new pope.

How do you spend your spare time? What are your hobbies?
I have very little spare time, but I use the little that I have by practicing extreme sports like parachuting, scuba diving, or horse riding which is useful for us actors because it boosts our self-confidence. Sometimes I wonder why I need such extra emotions when acting itself is such an emotional experience. The reason might be that, by having to act every night you are bound to feel tension, and these extreme sports provide a means of releasing this tension. We need a different kind of adrenalin than the one that surges through us when we're on the stage.

Last June you received the Saint Anthony International Award for your characterisation of our late Pope. Do you feel a connection to Saint Anthony of Padua?
First of all, I would like to emphasise that I received that Award in the name of Giacomo Battiato, and also in the name of everyone else involved in the film - the real winner is the film, and not only myself. Having said that, the Award has personal meaning for me because Saint Anthony is the patron saint of my family.
Before the war, my grandfather built a house and constructed a small chapel next to it dedicated to Saint Anthony. When I was a child I remember my mom used to say to me, 'If you have any problems you have to pray to Saint Anthony,' and his intercession always works. So it was really incredible for me to be in Padua last June, and I felt very honoured to receive it.

BIOGRAPHY

A GRADUATE from the Warsaw Theatre Academy and the American Theatre Academy in London, Polish actor Piotr Adamczyk was born March 21, 1972 in Warsaw.
Adamczyk has had the honour of meeting not one but two Popes in his young life. Prior to his portrayal of a young John Paul II in Karol: A Man Who Became Pope, he was granted an audience with the Pontiff, and was later in attendance as Pope Benedict XVI viewed Karol: The Pope, The Man, the continuation of the first film which portrayed Karol's life as Pope. Both popes praised the actor's ability in the films, which were directed by Giacomo Battiato, and created as a Polish-Italian-French-German and Canadian joint cooperation project.
The first movie was supposed to premiere at the very beginning of April 2005 in the Vatican, but it was delayed due to the Pope's death. It was broadcast for the first time by the Italian television station Mediaset on the first and second day of the 2005 papal election. Although it was originally broadcast on television, it was also released in theaters, which allowed the film to be shown in Poland.
An actor of both stage and screen, Adamczyk has appeared in more than 40 television roles in Polish films and TV series. In 2006 he received the Wiktor Award with Lech Walesa and Jean Michel Jarre.
Adamczyk lives in Warsaw, and is currently working on the comedy film Testosterone.