by Google
Zuzana Vačková is not only a well-known Slovak actress, but also an active influencer who inspires on social media. In the interview, she reveals how she experiences Christmas, what her favorite Christmas menu is, and talks about her career and experiences with influencer marketing. Read on and discover her recipe for Štedrák, tips for mental well-being, and the message she wants to convey on the occasion of Christmas.
Hello, how are you?
I'm doing very well in this long-term rut. Yesterday I had my last performance, a few days before that I had the premiere of the comedy Diera v nebi at the theater, so now I'm already shifting from the highest gear to a relaxing one. Although it can't be said that preparing Christmas for my large family will be relaxing, I definitely feel it as relaxing internally and mentally.
How are you experiencing this Christmas season and how are you preparing for Christmas?
I love beautiful things, so I've been decorating the house for several weeks now and there are lights everywhere and there are ornaments and wreaths everywhere, on the table, on the door, on the terrace. Everything is twinkling and shining everywhere in our house. I've been baking for quite a while now, and I also have a lot of all kinds of sweets from friends who do various charity cake projects. It's been like Christmas for a long time here.
What is your favorite Christmas recipe?
Our most classic one is Štedrák cake. It is a classic sourdough that is layered like this. There are various fillings in between, starting with dough, then jam and poppy seeds, thin dough again, nuts, thin dough and finally cottage cheese with plum jam. It really is such a generous cake. Christmas cannot be without it.
And what does Christmas dinner look like for you? Do you have any unusual recipes or customs?
No, I like the classics. Our Christmas menu is normally carp and salad. The mushroom soup that I cook every year must have some mushrooms that we picked. I never make this soup from purchased mushrooms, but they are always our dried ones. And I always hope that we recognized them well and that we don't get poisoned, haha.
What is the difference between Christmas today and your childhood?
When I was a child, I didn't have any worries. My only worry was helping my mother tie the Christmas tree, because back then the Christmas tree was still tied with strings and hung over the tree, and cleaning my room. Now I have to clean the whole house and cook for the whole family. There are really a lot of us at the table. So it turned out that we all meet in our living room, my brother and his family, my son and his family, dad, daughter, boyfriend and so on. We are crowded around that table, but we are fine.
I think that as a mother, it is more pleasant for me when we are crowded at the table, as if we have too much space and someone is missing. Of course, our family members are decreasing year by year, not because they have moved somewhere, but because they have gone to eternal hunting grounds. That is sometimes difficult to accept, because Christmas is so sensitive to that.
Since my grandson will be 5 years old, he already knows various poems and songs, so it looks like we will go caroling for the first time this year. We need to practice something, one or two simple carols. I would love it.
What is the best Christmas present you have ever received or given?
I am a child growing up in a small house and I really wanted to have my own tape recorder. At that time, my only connection to music was a small transistor radio that I won at some acting competition and I couldn't play whatever I wanted on it. I think I was about 12 years old when I got my first tape recorder. I remember when we were unwrapping the presents under the tree, I said to myself: "Jesus, this is possible" and I got a cassette with Beatles songs. It was perfect.
How do you take care of your mental and physical health during the winter months?
I take care of my mental health very continuously and very intensively. The greatest benefit of this modern era is that we are starting to realize that our soul influences our lives much more than we are willing to admit. Having peace of mind, or dealing with your psyche and your emotions, is, in my opinion, the alpha and omega of a happy life. You can have any education you want, you can be physically healthy and do as much sport as you want, but if you don't understand your emotions, you are just playing by chance. You never know how your day will turn out, because you are terribly influenced by various things from the outside. I think that knowing yourself and knowing what hurts me, why it hurts me, what can make me angry and what the reasons are, and solving it so that I am not so susceptible to influence is the foundation.
There are so many people who are in a bad mood because the weather is bad, so it affects them negatively. I once interviewed Riš Müller and it was raining at the time, so I asked him if it made him feel bad. He said, "No, when it rains, I'm full of energy, because everyone is down and I excel then." 
You told me that you had the premiere of a play last week, what was it like and what was it about?
It's an original Slovak comedy and was written by Lenka Garajová. It's an insight into a community of people with such small ambitions, or rather, I would say, how sometimes life circumstances and where you are can somehow silence and silence you. Despite the fact that you once thought that you could do everything in your life, you come to terms with the fact that it's not quite that way and suddenly you have very little. It's such a sad comedy for me. I play a very clever, ambitious mayor who loves her son very much, whom she raises alone and would like to get something from him, but she doesn't really succeed.
So it's a comedy, but it also has a deeper meaning.
I love comedies that, when you think about it at home, you say that we actually laughed, but it's maybe a little sad. When you mentioned that you had Jakub Ťapák here, let's also mention Jakub Gulík, because they play the role of a priest together, they alternate. They are stand-up comedians and it was fantastic for me to watch them at work and how they actually create their stand-ups. I think this show is set for great success and there are very clever young people there.
What motivated you to start being active on social networks?
The Internet is a magical world, because there is absolute freedom there and you can create yourself anew. It doesn't matter what you do today, where you are, on the Internet you can become whoever you want. It gives us enormous freedom, it gives brutal potential, there are an awful lot of viewers, but also business partners. I really like the Internet world, but of course it has its pluses and minuses and pitfalls. Just as it gives me freedom to create, it also gives other people freedom to create, but also to destroy. Some destroy and some create.
Why do you think some people, even those younger than you, don't want to learn how to use social networks?
They're comfortable with their old world, but I think I'm also very old-fashioned about some things, but I really like to accept and learn about new things that come along and decide whether I want to use them or not. My grandmother, who was born at the beginning of the last century, used to say about different elements, such as water or fire, that a good servant is a bad master, and the internet is detto.
Did you have a problem with haters at the beginning of your work on social networks?
You know what, if I said that I had never been affected by any negative comments or hate in my life, I would definitely be lying. I was more surprised and shocked by how malicious and, from my point of view, unnecessarily mean people can be. I don't fully understand what the person gets out of it. But these things don't say anything about us, but about the people who put it out there.
Acting or social networks?
Acting, that's where I feel best.
Is there any other role you would like to play, but haven't been able to do so yet?
I would like to play in a good movie. I don't have a specific role, just something nice, meaningful, that would make people and me happy.
And if you were to play in a Christmas movie, what role would you be?
Cinderella, definitely.
Do you have New Year's resolutions? What do you think about that?
So, the New Year is always such a new beginning, so I always say to myself: "Okay, this year at least 10,000 steps every day". Then I look at the average and find out that I wouldn't reach that even if I ran a marathon every day, haha. But I don't make any big resolutions, I try to do everything on an ongoing basis. Maybe one thing that surprises me when I think about it is that once, about 15 years ago, I had a TV in my bedroom and I was taught to fall asleep with it. Today I can't imagine how I could have done that. At that time, I made a resolution not to fall asleep with the TV on.
What message would you like to send to our readers on the occasion of Christmas?
If I had the power, I would want people to think and to answer such basic questions before they say something - is what I want to say really true and will it help someone? Let's use our time according to what we want to achieve in our lives. Time is the only commodity we really have. Let's choose people who enrich us and pull us up, let's choose topics that enrich us and pull us up. There is also an awful lot of smog on the internet, so let's learn to select what is good for us so that we can move up.
