Aňa Geislerová: Follow Your Dreams & Live Fully

I see more themes in it. It’s a lot about motherhood, about love that can be so strong that it can hurt, about the need for freedom and your own authentic life. For women, it is very difficult to delay motherhood and give space to yourself, your body and their needs, and this is also dealt with there. It is also about the courage sometimes to discard everything so you can get up again and move on. From women, especially mothers, I get reactions that the film touched them, cleared the claw. But he speaks to men. I really appreciate when my friends call me after a few days that they still stay in them. I like that on movies when they don’t let you go, ask and gnaw.

At the time of preparation and filming, I felt a parallel with my personal life, a lot of things touched me. The mother of David, which I played, experienced things in a similar way I would experience them.

There are times when you get something out after years, and suddenly you know it comes exactly at the right moment. During the filming, I experienced moments when I realized how important it was to say: I can’t do more, everything happens as it should. You often repeat it, but then comes the moment when you feel it essential as the truth. And I have the feeling of surrender to life forever associated with a caravan.

That’s beautiful you say. The more I have a caravan in me, the more I feel that it is necessary to experience it differently than reason. It is like being in a greenhouse, in an emotional steamer. You feel close, physical and mental, you perceive all those contradictory feelings, but also light, mood, music. All of this will germinate and mature, it will do something with you.

Working with David was amazing and enriching for me. Maternity instincts worked there immediately, and because of this it was not difficult to find a relationship with him. It is true, guileless and has a sense of humor.

We met and tried a lot before the start of filming, it was David for some fifteen years. We did various exercises to get to know and play. I remember one of these exercises when we sat against each other and asked each other what he saw. David looked at me, and one of his first questions was whether he was pretty. It moved terribly and disarmed completely.

I told him he was beautiful. And that everything I see is beautiful and right.

And then I asked him what he sees on me. And he replied in one word – breasts. David is really guileless. (laughs)

David had to learn the peace, realize when it ends, using safe words that mean stop. He was handy and disciplined, learned everything and followed everything, working as a real actor. It did not happen that the scenes would have to be repeated for him. Of course, he also had a moment when he didn’t want to do something, he’s a man with emotions and his own will. But otherwise he’s really a guy!

Well that’s true! He reminded me again what it is, play, have fun. People with Down syndrome live in the present, they are joyful. What happens within them, they let go out, are pure.

If nothing happens to disturb them objectively, bothered them or somehow badly bad, rejoice in common things and situations: Oh, the sea! JÚ, red car! Hooray, we’re filming! Yummy, lunch! Look, how beautiful I painted!

On the contrary, it is wrong to be hungry or feel fatigue, then the mood is poor. But in between there are no complications for them, they do not spoil the day by thinking about who thinks, why what he says. They do not bother with consideration if they do what they do well. They don’t know this kind of doubt, they don’t think around the corner.

Seeing this intense, joyful and confident experience of things was instructive for me. People with Down syndrome have extra chromosome, and if the chromosome causes this, so it can be envied. One then thinks about his twisted brain.

Maybe there’s something about it. I lead the workshop work in front of the camera, students from the conservatory and DAMU go to it because they want to complement their knowledge. Acting in front of the camera is different from the stage and the theater teaching of the camera often does not testify. But I do not want to generalize, there are teachers who are aware of it.

The film needs nature. When you are very young and still heard -don’t do it, do it differently -it can deprive it of authenticity. He begins to think more how to do things technically than to actually experience them. He adheres to the learned forms instead of led by emotion. I am not saying it is irreversible, but some deformation can be there.

I think it is important that film acting starts to teach in our country. And that’s why I enjoy teaching so much.

I’m still learning. I go to workshops, watch acting studios, because acting is evolving, has its updates. You are still discovering new ways to grasp things.

Yes, every year I go to the festival for actors, casting directors and agents, participating in the leaders of Europe and America. And in addition to networking there are practical workshops – such as technology and use of artificial intelligence. It fascinates me to see how our profession moves. It’s a fantastic tool.

For example, if you do not have a partner to read replicas, you can “create” it with AI. You enter the text and she will play it so that you feel as if someone really has a dialogue with you.

At one workshop, we showed that artificial intelligence could ask for a psychological analysis of the character. It offers various interpretations, contexts, possibilities to grasp it. Then it is up to you what you use, but it can open new views.

I was on casting in England, I had a minimum of time to prepare and the scenario only existed in English. I don’t mind, but I wanted to orientate myself in scenes where my character wasn’t at all. I didn’t want to overlook anything. I asked AI for translation and analysis, and I must say that the speed at which she offered me was stunning.

I believe so. It offers you more options, more ways to get to the character. You used to have a book, director and your own intuition. Now the tool has been added, which will create ten different profiles of the same character in a few seconds. I am not saying that all the outputs of artificial intelligence are perfect, but it forces you to think and compare, look for a relationship to the character differently and that is very interesting for the actors.

That’s just that – artificial intelligence can help you, but it won’t replace you. Acting is still about human experience, body, emotions. AI can prepare your terrain, offer options, but then it is up to you what you make. It’s like reading a review of a book you don’t know yet. Something will tell you, it will direct you, but the real experience will only come when you open it and start reading.

I do not want to overestimate artificial intelligence, but I see how quickly it develops and how much potential it has. In acting it can be a partner, helper, inspiration. But never a replacement. This is the magic of our work that a man must still be enjoyed.

It depends on what I’m working on. Some roles require deeper psychology, more information and preparation, sometimes it is not needed. Just use something you have sucked in in life. The actor is like a sponge, still sucks stories and emotions, and then she is squeezed at the right moment. Sometimes it is enough, sometimes it is necessary to add something else.

I love it. But it is true that I may sometimes bother the surroundings because I tend to make a short story of everything. Someone tells me something and I will say immediately: That would be a great plot! (laughs) Everything draws me, I keep observing something, I read.

The actor has a litmus paper in him, thanks to which he recognizes emotions, feels when they are obscured or when someone is transformed. I think it’s right to grow this ability. It is part of our work and for me and life settings.

Yes, I think. In Cannes, I thought to myself: Dad, you would look … There are things in my life that I feel sorry for not experienced them – maybe my books when they came out. I think he would like it. Sometimes they are small things. Maybe I have a houseboat, it would certainly excite him. I can imagine that he would have keys of me and that I would often find him there. It would be our place. We liked to share such boy things together. And even though he never told us much, I know he was very proud of us. I learned it more by a detour, from other people.

I can’t guess that. But I know I wouldn’t want to watch this movie with my parents or my children, because some scenes are too intimate to me. But I believe that my dad would be enthusiastic about Zuzana Kirchnerová, our director. This is exactly the type of woman who admired – strong, noisy, with boundless taste after life. I’m sure he would entertain him.

I would be afraid. In any case, Stella is my mother’s daughter, so I experience the moment of horror, but at the same time I’m glad it is. I can’t imagine preventing her from telling her: No, you can’t. That would be against everything I got from my mom myself. I think this is one of the best things your parents have given us – knowing that you will bring children to the world, but their life does not belong to you. You can’t program them, you just have to accompany them.

We are not completely lax, so if the children start something, we want them to finish it. And ideally to start. We try not to be too free or too binding. I feel paradoxically benefited by Covid. As they were left to themselves, they had to create their own order. They set up the system they work. They have a lot of freedom, but at the same time their own inner move on the goal. And that’s a great feeling for parents – seeing they have it in them.

Sometimes Stella grinds a little. I feel that for more pragmatic reasons, it knows that it can be made money, that it is just a job. She is handy, she has it, but there’s no big ambition that she would have to do just this. She enjoys it, but when nothing is happening, she does something else. And it is actually nice to me that he does not let himself be bound in one way.

I take it more with ease. Fifty still seems to me quite cute (cute). Then he comes sixty, seventy, it still runs somewhere … I don’t feel like something essential suddenly happens. I realize that time is coming, but I do not panic. Actually, I’m looking forward to what comes next.

One should always do the most in the direction he wants to go. Because if you postpone things or do not make them fully, you may regret it later. Fortunately, I felt this intuitively this before – that it was important to follow what you want, what you want. Life runs much faster than it seems. And to feel like you missed something, that’s very difficult to me.

Of course I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but they just moved me. Thanks to them I know what to do. So I would say in retrospect: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because things will turn out just as well. Mistakes are sometimes a gift.