„As long as I am interested in human beings, I will continue being an actor. I do hope that it will be like this, until the day I die,” says Jan Peszek. He is a versatile actor and a perpetual anarchist, who will receive an award for artistic insolence.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in Andrychów. He has graduated from the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Kraków, where he is now a teacher. He madehis debut in 1996 and performed in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, which was played in the Polish Theatre in Wrocław. The breaking point in his career a script for the Scenario for a Non-existent But Possible Instrumental Actor monodrama, presented to Jan Peszek by Boguslaw Schaeffer, in 1974. Jan Peszek has performed the monodrama more than 2,000 times, all around the world. His professional portfolio includes roles in the most famous theatre directors in Poland: Jerzy Krasowski, Kazimierz Dejmek, Mikołaj Grabowski, Jerzy Jarocki, Krystian Lupa, Michał Zadara, or Grzegorz Jarzyna. As for the big screen, he debuted in 1969 in Znaki na drodze by Andrzej Piotrowski, but it was only in 1980s, when he started making frequent appearances on the big screen. He has played in several dozen Polish films, including the following: There Was Jazz by Feliks Falk, 30 Door Key/Ferdydurke by Jerzy Skolimowski, Death as a Slice of Bread by Kazimierz Kutz, or Escape from the “Liberty” Cinema by Wojciech Marczewski. As of late, he has portrayed Tytus Ceglarski, an industrialist, in Hiszpanka (Influenza) by Łukasz Barczyk, who has to choose between helping the insurgents and continuing making business with the Germans.
Peszek claims that he is not afraid to portray extreme characters, for example deviants or subversives. “I am always puzzled, when my colleagues fear portraying, say, gays, because they believe that they would be associated with them. Perfection means that you can enact all situations, including the extreme ones,” he comments. He has lived in Kraków for a long time. “I am driven by the force of a paradox. Because in reality, I do not accept Kraków. This situation has created constant ferment and rebellion,” he explains. In 2005, Jan Peszek received the Golden Eagle Polish Film Award from the Polish Film Academy for King Ubu, and he has also been awarded many prizes for his theatre performances (including the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Award, in 1987). He is also a film director, who has made between ten and twenty theatre plays, including Wroniec (Crowman) by Jacek Dukaj.
“I was raised to believe that the worst manifestation of suppression is to deprive people of freedom. People can do whatever they want, as long as they do not hurt others. It was a lesson I learnt back at my family home. The most important thing is life and its affirmation, instead of fearing for what comes after we die.” Jan Peszek has been actively fighting for freedom in both his work and life.