by Google
Lukáš, hi. How are you?
I'm fine, quite well.
Perinbaba 2 is coming to cinemas. Are you excited?
You know what? I also thought that it would really come this year, because after all the unfortunate events that happened, it more or less has no other time. We don't have a pandemic, we don't have anything that would prevent the premiere, so I expected it. But, I'm still a little stressed about it.
How do you perceive feedback in messages or interviews?
I don't mind interviews, they're cool. I told myself that I couldn't even click on any discussion related to the film. Of course, when a film like this comes out, there is a huge media interest in it. Articles are published under which there are various discussions and we all know what those discussions look like. One thing is that the film will be compared to the first one, although they have almost nothing in common. Sure, it has something, but it is a completely different film. I had to say to myself, no, don't watch the discussions.
When did you first encounter the story of Perinbaba?
I think that as children we naturally couldn't avoid it, because Cinderella, Perinbaba and Mrázik are basically the Christmas trio that always has to be. I have to admit that Perinbaba Unit was probably my least favorite when I was a child because I was afraid of her. She had teeth and it seemed scary. Cinderella was more understandable to me. I'm not saying that I didn't like Perinbaba outright, but I had such a natural respect for her.
Were you scared when you got this offer?
Luckily not. I didn't even want to watch Perinbaba before filming, because it's a completely new story about someone else. The character I play is the son of Jakub and Elžbetka. So it's like a clean, unwritten piece of paper. I didn't want to watch anything from the previous Perinbaba, so I didn't study it much beforehand.
Did you consider whether you dare to take on such a role?
No, I absolutely did not consider it and did not think about it. It was wow, it was great that I was going to film Perinbaba with Mr. Jakubisko, but I did not 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 was a project and I was 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 guy, unloved by life, who leaves home to look for love, happiness and the functioning of life. I was 24 or 26 at the time, so I just transported myself 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 doesn't affect a person, but we'll see how I preserved the character. I'm curious myself.
We know that you have long hair in the film. Was it your own?
It wasn't completely. I don't even know why I had long hair. I probably let it grow because I was filming with Matej Zrebný and I was playing Jesus. At the beginning of the casting, I had them up to my ears, and when we started filming, they gave me hairpieces. I often wore a hat, but yes, most of my hair was mine. After we were filming until Hallelujah, I had really long hair.
How did you feel working with your four-legged partner?
That was Kačenka, who unfortunately is no longer with us. Shortly after filming, she went to dog heaven. She was an extremely talented and playful dog. She could combine several tricks together, but of course she also had her own mind. It was often about her saying no, then no during filming. Because of that, we had a brutal number of takes. It was complicated. Especially when we were filming in a barn, in the forest or outside in the winter, at night on the rocks, the dog gets tired after a while. During filming, there are usually several such dogs, so that they can take turns. For example, I filmed one project where only dogs played. There were two or three pieces for one character, and some never came back, because they stopped working, but Kačenka pulled the whole film. There was also a boy playing.
Do you 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 end, maybe some of the shots didn't suit him. I worked with a large crew on locations that no one would ever get to. Oh my God, I swam in the Demänovská Cave. It's something special and I love this filming because there are a lot of talented people there. There were also dangerous situations where I could easily die. 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 story because I really thought I would die there. I trained without a costume, in a warm pool... And then came the sharp spin. The pool was cold, I was wearing a costume and when you jump into the water with your clothes on, it carries you back up. So they gave me more lead, I jumped again and suddenly I was sinking, sinking and sinking. At that moment, I had no idea that there was someone there to save me, no one told me. I panicked, I was out of breath, I was about to let out the last bubbles from my mouth and suddenly someone grabbed me and pulled me out. So I coughed and we did it about 30 more times.
How long did it take to shoot?
Preparations were underway in 2016 and filming began in February 2017. I can't say exactly when it actually ended. There were still little things that we could do this, that something needed to be fixed here. We were finishing in 2019 and then post-production and post-synchronization came, so for me the process ended a year ago. I recorded a song for it earlier this year.
The film also works with artificial intelligence. Can you tell us more about it?
I would like to answer this question, but I don't know what the film will look like in the end. But they probably also worked with technology like AI in such a way that they fitted the face to the actress. Or they restored older footage that they could have used. I know that Perinbaba was filmed from behind, so it won't be the same, but Giulietta Masina will still be there. Zubatá has the huge advantage of changing appearances, so a lot of actresses and actors have changed in it... namely the actor, Albín Medúz. We'll see how it will look in the end. Oh, and of course Petra Kolevská also plays at the beginning in the introduction. How was it working with Mr. Jakubisko?
I considered him a friend. Of course I have respect for him, he's a director, but when you're filming something, you have to perceive him, you have to be able to delve into his inner self, know what he wants, try to understand him and therefore you have to let him in. We drove together in the 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 moved when he showed me the diaries he wrote and drew. He was flipping through the pages and I noticed that he had drawn me. That was something special for me, things like that can move me.
His head worked differently than the rest of us. When he was filming, he didn't eat, he didn't sleep. He was driving, he was a machine. If he could film for 24 hours, he would be filming and we would be dead on the ground. At 5 in the morning he would wake his wife up at the hotel and say, "Oh, Deanka, I want to film this."
We were filming in a quarry and he suddenly got lost. We found him behind a large rock, painting a picture on the rock with a brush and suddenly he thought that we would film this here. He walked around locked in his head, everyone followed him and tried to blame him for what.
What would you say to the young generation who will see Perinbaba for the first time?
That it's only good. They won't compare and evaluate it with anything, like we do. I might not want to know about Perinbaba either. As I say, no one competes with the number one, Juraj wanted to make a sequel, a new story. It's something so diametrically different, so you have to go into it with that feeling.
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