Lukáš Frlajs: I almost drowned during the filming of Perinbaba 2!

Lukáš, hello. how are you

I'm fine, quite. 

Perinbaba 2 is coming to cinemas. Are you looking forward to it?

You know what? I also thought that it would really happen this year, because after all the unfortunate events that have happened, it will more or less never happen again. We don't have a pandemic, we don't have anything to prevent the premiere, so I expected that. But, I'm still a little stressed about it. 

How do you perceive feedback in messages or interviews? 

I don't mind conversations, they're cool. Rather, I told myself that I can't click on any discussion related to the movie for nothing. Of course, when such a film is released, there is huge media interest in it. Articles are published under which there are various discussions and we all know what those discussions look like. It's one thing that the movie will be compared to the unit, even though they have almost nothing in common. Sure, it has something, but it's a completely different movie. I had to tell myself no, don't look at the discussions. 

When did you first encounter the story of Perinbaba? 

I think that we naturally did not avoid it as children, because Cinderella, Perinbaba and Mrázik are basically the Christmas trio that always has to be. I have to admit that the Perinbaba unit was probably my least favorite when I was a child, because I was afraid of her. She was jagged there and it looked scary. Cinderella was more understandable to me. I'm not saying that I disliked Perinbaba outright, but I had such a natural respect for her. 

Were you scared when you got this offer? 

Thankfully not. I didn't even want to watch Perinbaba before shooting because it's a completely new story about someone else. The character I play is the son of Jakub and Elizabeth. Therefore, it is like a clean, unwritten paper. I didn't want to peek at anything from that last Perinbaby, so I didn't study it much beforehand. 

Have you considered whether you dare to take on such a role? 

No, I absolutely did not deal with it and did not think about it. It was wow, it was great that I was going to shoot Perinbaba with Mr. Jakubiska, but I didn't have the feeling that it would be evaluated and that it would be something more, it would probably block me. I took it professionally, that it's a project and I'm going to do it. 

How did you identify with the role of Lukáš and how did the preparations go? 

Lukáš is an 18-19-year-old young man, unloved by life, who leaves home in search of love, happiness and the functioning of life. I was 24 or 26 at the time, so I just went back to my younger days. Mr. Jakubisko told me that it was a shame that we didn't make it a year earlier, because I was also developing, it won't affect a person, but we'll see how I guarded that figure. I'm curious myself. 

We know you have long hair in the movie. Were they your own? 

They weren't completely. I don't even know why I had long hair. I probably let them grow because Matej Zrebny and I were filming and I was playing Jesus. At the beginning of the casting, I was maybe up to my ears, and when we started shooting, they gave me hair pieces. I wore a hat quite often, but yes, my hair was mine. After we had already shot it to hallelujah, I had really long ones. 

How did you feel working with a four-legged partner? 

That was Kačenka, who unfortunately is no longer with us. Shortly after filming, she went to dog heaven. He was an extremely talented and playful dog. She knew how to combine several tricks together, but of course she also had a mind of her own. Often it was also about the fact that she said no, no, during filming. Because of that, we had a lot of takes. It was complicated. Especially when we filmed in a barn, in the forest or outside in winter, at night on the rocks, the dog gets tired after a while. There are usually several such dogs to take turns at the turns. For example, I shot one project where only dogs played. There were two or three pieces for one character, and some were never returned, because they stopped being functional, but Kačenka carried the entire film. In addition, the boy also played. 

Do you also have a great memory from filming with the filmmakers? 

There are a lot of great memories, because it was filmed for a long time in different environments. Juraj had visions but in the final some shots may not have suited him. I worked with a large crew on locations that no one would ever get to in their lives. For God's sake, I was swimming in Demänovská cave. It is something special and I love this spin because there are so many talented people. There were also dangerous situations where I could have easily died. I went to diving training because we filmed in a pool that is 7 or 8 meters deep and divers go there to train. I like to repeat this stork, because I really thought I was going to die there. I trained without a costume, in a warm pool... Well, then came the sharp spinning. The pool was cold, I was wearing a wetsuit, and if you jump into the water with your clothes on, it will bring you back up. So they gave me more lead, I jumped one more time and suddenly I was going down and down and down. At that moment, I had no idea that there was someone there to save me, no one told me. I panicked, I was running out of breath, I was letting the last bubbles out of my mouth and suddenly someone grabbed me and pulled me out. So I coughed and we gave it about 30 more times. 

How long has it been spinning? 

Preparations took place in 2016 and filming began in February 2017. I can't say exactly when it actually ended. Little things kept coming that we could still do this, this still needs to be fixed. We ended 2019 and then came post-production and post-synchronization, so for me the process ended a year ago. At the beginning of this year, I recorded a song for it.

The film also works with artificial intelligence. Can you explain it to us? 

I would like to answer this question, but I don't know what the film looks like in the end. But they probably also worked with such technology as AI in such a way that they fit the face of the actress. Alternatively, they restored older footage that they could use. I know that Perinbaba came from behind, so she won't be alone, but Giulietta Masina will still be there. Zubatá has the huge advantage of changing forms, which means that a lot of actresses and actors have changed on her too...that is, the actor, Albín Medúz. We will see how it will look in the final. Oh, and of course Petra Kolevská plays at the beginning in the introduction. 

How was your cooperation with Mr. Jakubisko? 

I took him as a friend. Of course I have respect for him, he is a director, but when you shoot something, you have to perceive him, you have to be able to dive into his interior , know what he wants, try to understand him and therefore you have to let him in. We drove together in a car, I went to see him in Prague. It was such a different relationship. He was young at heart, he was sometimes playful, like a child, and I enjoyed it. Once I was touched when he showed me the diaries he wrote and drew. He flipped through the pages and I noticed he drew me. That was something special for me, such things can move me. 

He had a different functioning head than the rest of us. When it was spinning, he didn't eat or sleep. He went, he was a machine. If he could shoot 24 hours a day, he would and we would be lying dead on the ground by now. At 5 in the morning, he woke his wife up at the hotel saying "Hey Deanka, I'd like to film this."

We were shooting in a quarry and he suddenly disappeared. We found him behind a big rock, painting a picture on the rock with a brush, and he suddenly thought we were going to shoot this here. He walked closed in his head, everyone followed him and tried to blame him. 

What would you say to the younger generation who will see Perinbaba for the first time? 

That it is only good. They will not compare and evaluate it with something, as we do. I might not want to know about Perinbaba either. As I say, no one competes with the unit, Juraj wanted to film a sequel, a new story. It is something so diametrically different, so you have to go with this feeling. 

You will learn more in the interview: