Fast confession - Simona Stašová: My life is Italy

You're very connected with Italy. Could we say that Italian is your second native language?

Yes, you could say that. Italian isn't difficult, when you learn the first ten lessons, you can communicate easily. It is also very easy to read.

And when did you first come into contact with Italian?

At the age of twenty-one, it's fate, I believe in these kinds of things, you simply attract certain things. I saw the singer Drupi in the Lucerna hall at that time, I loved him, and when he started singing: "Cosí piccola e fragile"...God, I would have loved to know what this wonderful man was singing, so I started going to the Italian embassy.

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And suddenly, your destiny started to unravel...

Exactly. Due to the fact that I was learning Italian, I started travelling to Italy, where I met Italian friends, and finally I fell in love with it and one thing led to another. Today I play Anna Magnani on stage, I perform in Roman Nights, I play Filumena Marturano. So I'm bringing the Italian culture here to us.

How many performances have you done, do you even keep count?

Well, it'll be tens of thousands, because I do...it's possible to count, twenty six times ten is two hundred and sixty a year, at least, because I play a lot in the summer, so three hundred a year, and I've been performing since I was twenty-one, at the beginning it was less, so since I was twenty-three. That's forty-two years, so forty-two times about three hundred, twelve thousand six hundred. It's incredible, more or less about twelve thousand.

I know it's really difficult, but try to pick one, two performances that are the most important for you.

Obviously, it's my Shirley Valentine monodrama, I will never again play anything bigger and more difficult, but the other performances seem like a Sherpa going up Mount Everest and putting down his backpack. Shirley Valentine is absolutely the most beautiful, hardest and most interesting performance I have ever done.

You are connected with Barbra Streisand because you do her dubbing. Do you listen to her as a singer?

I listen to her, and I have a very mother-like and sister-like relationship toward her, because when you dub someone, you kind of get a look into their kitchen.

Would you like to meet her or have you met her?

I have not meet her and I would be very shy. It would be beautiful, but I think she would not be curious about me and I would be afraid, but I would love to see her in concert sometime. I was in Las Vegas and three days before she had a concert there! You cannot imagine how sad I was that I missed it. I saw the “Barbra Streisand on stage” sign still up. I thought to myself that I'd go and watch quietly as a mouse. She's a brilliant person, unbelievably talented, and I'd love to see her live.

Can you imagine having a vineyard in Italy and, for example, riding a bicycle there?

I ride a bicycle in Italy all the time. My child's father, my ex-husband, has a vineyard. So not only can I imagine what you are saying, it's all there.

Is there any difference between Italians and Czechs? Something typical or, on the contrary, what we have in common?

The Italians are practically all actors, they have the energy, the sea in them, the sun. They are practically always in a good mood. They are rascals, because they love women, and even if the woman isn't very pretty, they will still say she is pretty. You want to believe that, right? And they know how to live!

The Czechs are, according to many, very slanderous. Do the Italians also gossip?

Of course, they also gossip. They love a good rumour too, because I know ordinary people, but I never noticed such animosity. That maliciousness, it's not there, or maybe I don't stay there so often, long enough to notice it.

How do you perceive the Czech Republic now? These are strange times, people talk a lot about politics and are often on different sides of the barricade.

I like the Czech Republic, and the fact that we are going through a tense period now, that will pass. Italians and Czechs, we are in it together, we have something in common, we are not so rich, they are not so rich, we like dancing, we like singing, they do too, we like wine, so do they. I think, or at least I feel that when we put aside that bad mood, we are really similar to the Italians.

What have the Italians taught you and what do you teach them? Or do you try to bring a piece of the Czech Republic to Italy?

That's an interesting question, I'm very adaptable there, I talk to the milkmen, butchers, bartenders. I visit various specific places, so I already know the people well and because I can speak Italian, I know the so-called “kitchen” Italian, I go there not to bring the Czech Republic to Italy, but to suck in the Italian culture and spew it out here in the Czech Republic. So I actually absorb it and then go on stage, and I also let it out in my life. They have the big gestures, the joy, this is what we are missing a little, that joy of life, but it's not so bad.