For a year she performed in a Belgian circus with a cabaret number. Last September, the musical Cabaret, in which she plays singer Sally Bowles, premiered at the Bez zábradlí Theater in Prague. He also stars in the film and regularly sings with his father, musician, actor and director Ondřej Havelka with the band Melody Makers.
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How did you manage to do it all?
I don’t even think I can do much for my age, because I’m old. However, I started early, so I managed a little more. From a young age, my dad gave me opportunities both in the theater and with the band. I danced Charleston with him on stage for the first time at twelve.
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A year later, I started acting in his production Crime in the Posázavský Pacific. It was actually my theater and music school that I didn’t graduate from. In the world, an early start is usual, and at twenty-five, many stars are already at their peak of fame, if not settled. While I’m just starting my solo career. But Radůza released her first solo album at the age of twenty-seven, so maybe it’s not too late.
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Do you prefer something?
I don’t want to do everything, and nothing really. Sometimes I feel distracted, I feel like I’m expected to choose whether I want to be more of an actress or a singer. But I enjoy the variety. I’m lucky I haven’t had to do something I didn’t want to do yet. And also luck with the opportunities that moved me forward.
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Today I am playing again in Crime in the Posázavský Pacific, no longer the little girl, but the main female role, and also Sally Bowles in Cabaret in the Bez zábradlí Theater. This is a dream role for which I am very grateful. She moved me a lot in acting, but also in singing. Cabaret is a jazz musical, so I can use my experience of Melody Makers, and it’s also very emotional singing.
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But Sally is also related to my annual circus tour, because I discovered the movie Cabaret at that time. I completely fell for him, I played Sally because, like her, I performed in the same cabaret show every night. And I’m very grateful to director Adam Skal for giving the actors a lot of space and freedom to grasp the role. That also taught me a lot as an actress.
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The Bez zábradlí Theater will open the Jiří Menzel Festival tomorrow dedicated to its local productions, as well as films and other activities. What are you going to do on the gala dinner?
Singing and playing the accordion, a song from the movie Postřižin Loďka is a long one, which I learned at the age of twelve, and then one of my songs. Maybe the King of Spades, because Jiří Menzel is the movie king for me.
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Did you meet each other?
When I was writing a year’s thesis about the Czech film wave at the grammar school, my father arranged an appointment with him. There was a conversation that, by the way, no one ever gave up. I was at his house and he told me his bonmot that the film is his wife and theater mistress.
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I’m looking forward to meeting his mistress now, because I haven’t seen any of his theatrical productions yet. It’s a shame, because there are so many of them in the Theater Without Railings that they will spend the whole festival. I love Menzel’s films, I also love him as actors in them, especially as the magician Arnoštek in Whimsical Summer.
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How did Jiří Menzel affect you then?
I was young, stupid and very nervous, today I would definitely enjoy the meeting quite differently, because I am no longer young. Forgive me, this is the birthday crisis. Mr. Menzel was very kind to me, he had great charisma, even at home in slippers watching TV. He claimed to be a terrible sloth, but he did quite a bit. And most importantly, he did things right. I took that from him, my dad and a few other people as my principle.
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You have said somewhere that it is not always good to fulfill your dreams, but you are purposefully pursuing them, since the dream of traveling with a circus…
They kind of fill me up. But of course, in order for a person at the age of nineteen to go on a circus trip for a year, he must have a little courage. At the same time, however, I did not go to any squat, I was very well taken care of. The circus provided me with a beautiful wooden caravan, which I had only for myself. Each of the members of the ensemble carried a piece of home with them on a stand. It was very beautiful. I like to remember that period.
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What do you want to devote energy to in the future?
Definitely author’s work. I’m finishing my first record, it will have my chansons in which I feel the most. I like to sing with Melody Makers, but it’s more like a swing singer in the spirit of stylizing the program, while in my songs I give the audience my rougher self. And at concerts or while shooting clips, I can also influence the scenography, costume, the whole form of the performance. And I really enjoy that.
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What will the record be called?
Probably a Corsetist, according to one of my songs about a relationship with one such corsetter who slowly but surely tightened the corset strings. But on my upcoming album, there is also the song Twenty-Five on the Bare, which, as the name of the record, would be quite appropriate for my recent twenty-fifths, after all.
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