We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marek Probosz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Marek, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I was six years old when I stepped onto the stage for the first time to play the role of the Jester in The Princess and The Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, at the Fairy Tale Theater in Żory, Poland. I couldn’t read yet so my mom, Franciszka, taught me my lines. I stayed on that stage for seven years, and I kept immersing myself into new roles, changing characters in every new production, learning and improving my craft and professional destiny. My energy and imagination were always far ahead of my logic. I followed my instinct, my emotional intuition, allowing my soul to pull me beyond the apparatus of realism and take me on the journey toward poetry, dreams and illusion. I didn’t have to try to find my vocation, since I knew wholeheartedly that destiny had already chosen it for me. I couldn’t separate from my passion for acting. Even when I stopped for a few years and was totally absorbed in sport (five times junior champion in professional road and cyclocross cycling), it was only to train myself physically and learn how to conquer my own weaknesses, how to never give up never surrender, never lose hope in overcoming the Herculean tasks that were to arise in my artistic future.
Marek, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was accepted into the famous Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź only after my fourth attempt! But I graduated with honors and an MFA in Acting, one year ahead of the regular four year program! At the time, I was already acting in lead parts in movies and theater productions in Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. The films in which I played starring roles were winning awards at the most important film festivals in Europe. The legendary artistic director Kazimierz Dejmek offered me a contract among the elite of Polish stars in the best
theater in Poland – Teatr Polski in Warsaw, and I started to direct. My contemporary adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salome which I directed and starred in won a critics poll for Best Theater Production in Czechoslovakia 1986. That same year, I accepted a teaching position at The Warsaw Theater Academy.
And then, in 1987, things took an unexpected and life-changing turn. Gary Essert, the Artistic Director of The American Cinematheque, invited me to Hollywood for the Promise of the Future International Filmmakers Panel. That trip was a one way ticket. I knew I wouldn’t return to Poland until it was free.
I left at my absolute peak. The choice was to continue to be a star in the enslaved world of the Eastern Block, or to stand face to face with the gate to Babylon, the place I believed to be the cinema capitol of the world! My hero from zero journey started with making that ultimate choice – FREEDOM!
“Maybe I’m a freedom freak. The luck of freedom causes me physical suffering. Freedom is the ability to respect oneself and others’ sense of dignity.” – Andrey Tarkovsky
I was always a soloist, a type of marathon runner or mountaineer. I love taking risks and challenges on my own. Since childhood, I’ve felt called to a mission in this lifetime. I have followed my heart, my calling and passion and worked relentlessly in pursuing it, and I have been successful. That Jester costume I wore as a child has stuck with me for the rest of my life. I’ve remained a jester, only the royal court has changed.
As a young adult, I started portraying characters which broke the stereotypes of Polish cinema and television. I played the first drug addict depicted in a Polish movie in Growing Up – Winner San Sebastian Film Festival, the first gay man in L for Love – most popular TV series in Poland. I portrayed for the first time on the world screen one of the greatest heroes of the 20th Century, the Auschwitz volunteer Captain Witold Pilecki, in The Death of Captain Pilecki – Winner Houston Film Festival. I embodied the living legend of world cinema Roman Polanski in the movie of the week, Helter Skelter (Warner Bros.), and on stage I metamorphosed into the mythological hero Odysseus in Philoktetes alongside British theater star Henry Goodman.
I’ve been in this profession for most of my life, but I’m still excited about the future, looking ahead with the same enthusiasm I had in the beginning of my journey. My creative work comes out of my love for art. It’s my way of life. I personalize every project, I am emotionally committed to every character I play, because I see art as the most unique
opportunity to deeply touch, transform and uplift the human spirit.
I go through extensive physical, mental and spiritual metamorphosis in my work, trying to answer the fundamental questions of philosophy. My feature film directorial debut in the US, YMI (Winner Audience Award The Other Venice Film Festival), which I wrote, directed, produced and starred in, portrayed the dark forces and desperate melancholy that infects and exists in a huge sector of today’s youth, worldwide. It was one of the first films about the devastating issue of suicide – the number one cause of teenage death in America.
I think what sets me apart is that I rebel against the dreadful American myth that everything is for sale, the grotesque and mechanical lives society embraces today. I go against the current, and believe in what one of my masters Ingmar Bergman said: “Wherever I put my camera I make a moral statement” and “I am living in my dream, from which I make brief forays into reality.”
From a very young age, one of my favorite heroes was Odysseus. His wisdom, determination and ability to get out of the most difficult situations fascinated me… the way he solved every unsolvable obstacle, his will power, his life philosophy of the journey. Today I’m proud to say that not only have I had the opportunity to play Odysseus on stage at the Getty Villa production in Malibu, but that I’m standing strong on the deck of my metaphorical ship on the way to Ithaca, going through the storms of history and of my own, searching for the shore that I’ll be able to call my true home. Since the Day the Berlin Wall fell and the Communist regime in Eastern Europe collapsed, I kept asking myself “Should I return to free Poland now and continue my career there, or should I stay here in LA?” I haven’t forgotten the world that I come from, my roots, but I also know that if Ithaca does not turn out to be the destination, I will sail on because my destiny is the journey!
Every new role I play is a challenge. Recently, I worked on Anna Nicole Smith biopic “Huricanna”, I plaid a father of a psychiatrist – staring Oscar Winner Holly Hunter.
There are many roles I cherish: Salome, Odysseus, Polanski, Pilecki, Norwid… But I think that Captain Witold Pilecki whom I portrayed for the first time on screen in the movie The Death of Captain Pilecki, whose reports from Auschwitz I recorded in English as an Audiobook for audible.com (10 hours), and whom I performed on stages across America and Canada in an audiovisual play, stands out amongst the rest. Pilecki is a beacon of light, a shining example of unparalleled heroism that transcends all divisions and has deeply inspired me along my own journey. I directed and performed The Auschwitz Volunteer: Captain
Witold Pilecki, a one actor show, on the day of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s Independence, at the world’s largest solo theater festival UNITED SOLO 2018 (Winner: The Best Documentary Show Award) and I had the honor of playing him and sharing his riveting story again this year in the documentary film The Burden. Pilecki touches me so deeply because he not only symbolizes unflinching ideals, but also embodies many threads that connect to my own story. I grew up with the stigma of a family tragedy related to World War II. My grandfather, Jerzy Probosz, poet, writer, playwright was awarded in 1938 by the Academy of Polish Literature in Warsaw with the Literary Laurel Award for his work. A year later in 1939, he was one of the first to be arrested by the Germans, who after invading Poland, as the first priority, killed thousands of our intelligentsia, spiritual leaders and patriots and deported thousands to concentration camps in Germany (they had not yet built them in Poland). My grandfather was taken to the concentration camp in Dachau, where he was murdered in 1942. He orphaned nine children. My father was just 10 years old. On the day of his brutal arrest, my grandfather managed to scratch a few words on a scrap of paper to a friend he was going to see that day.
“I wish you strength from my heart,
That you may endure every day and night. Endure! Endure! Endure!
Even if you burn the earthly body down to dust, Your spirit must survive.”
The power of these words, their message, have become my life’s motto.
I love poetry. My most recent project Norwid’s Return, a Winner Best New York Premiere 2022, UNITED SOLO Festival, which I directed, produced and am starring in, is dedicated to one of the greatest world poets of the nineteenth century, Cyprian Norwid. A Polish hero, a symbol of the fate of an emigre, a visionary ahead of his time, rejected by all, unwanted and unknown, a homeless pilgrim and a vagabond. In the solitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, I got an impulse to bring Norwid’s story back today, more than 200 years after his birth, as our contemporary, an innovator who describes the indescribable condition of the human spirit. I am Norwid 2023. I sweat his blood on the stage for 90 minutes and deliver his powerful story in a solo performance, share his genius in Polish words, with English super titles. Every show is like climbing a vertical rock.
“Of the things of this world only two will remain,
Two only: poetry and goodness…and nothing else…” – Cyprian Norwid
There are many other things I am proud of accomplishing both in my new country, and back home. I hold two MFA diplomas – one in Acting from the National Film School in Lódź, Poland, and one in Directing from The American Film Institute in Los Angeles. I’m proud of directing my original play AUM or Torturing of Actors at the Odyssey Theatre in LA, of writing, directing, producing and starring in my first feature film, Y.M.I. (Winner of the Audience Award at The Other Venice Film Festival – 2004). I’m proud of portraying world cinema legend Roman Polanski in the movie Helter Skelter for Warner Bros. (2004), as well
as playing in popular TV series like MONK, Scandal, Scorpion, Numbers and JAG, and working with many Oscar winners on stage and in films and receiving great reviews for my work in The New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Washington Post. I was grateful to be awarded twice for my shows at the world’s largest solo theater festival, UNITED SOLO NY. I’m honored to be teaching Film and Theater Acting at UCLA since 2005 as Adjunct Associate Professor, and I’ve also taught at Emerson College, Williams College, Edgemar Center for the Arts and the Theater Academy in Warsaw. I coach lead actors for Hollywood studios and I mentor students from around the world. I’ve been invited many times to be a jury member at international film festivals, and given numerous lectures and workshops around the globe. I’ve also written several screenplays, plays and published two books. In 2023, I was honored with THE OUTSTANDING POLE Award in USA in Culture category, and in 2022 I received a lifetime achievement award – MODJESKA PRIZE in Los Angeles and the Pola Negri award – POLITKA PRIZE in Poland. Among other recognitions, I was also the recipient of the Polish Diaspora Oscar – GOLDEN OWL in the Film category in Vienna 2018, the Witold Pilecki Gold Medal – STEADFAST in Auschwitz 2011, and THE MORTI SUNT UT LIBERTI VIVAMUS award in London in 2011.
However, my biggest and most important success is my family. We love and can always count on each other. My wife Gosia, my best friend and faithful companion for over thirty years, is a yoga teacher, Reiki master and the mother of our two beautiful children. Valentina is a UC Berkeley graduate, a classically trained violin player and a brilliant dancer, aspiring life coach and yoga teacher. My son Vincent is a former FIFA soccer player in Brazil, Poland and Scotland, model and actor (you can see him on billboards across America and in national TV commercials). He is a successful professional soccer coach at Beach Futbol Club Southern California and the creator and co-owner of Procarthy Soccer Academy in LA. I was lucky to have some great role models in my family. My father Stanisław, who was the great Mayor of Istebna in the Polish mountains, my mother Franciszka who was nominated for The Golden Five Women Award of her region in 2020, and my grandfather Jerzy, poet and writer, Winner of the Literary Laurel Wreath, Poland 1938.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Beyond my professional accomplishments, the fruits of my artistic passion, hard work and a million “no’s” turned into “yes’s!”, perhaps I am most proud that the journey I have endured has brought me the opportunity to learn of the strength, depth and beauty of the human spirit. Being an emigrant who left the country of his forefathers, the language, the prominent career and stardom, I learned how to be anti-conformist, how to express the Beauty of the Idea through revealing my uncompromising Art. Starting all over again as a stranger in a foreign land was almost suicidal, it was like swimming with sharks, but it gave me strength, toughened my spirit in fulfilling my dreams. Never give up, never surrender, persevere! “You ask why did I leave my home country? I left because an artist must be free to create. I left an enslaved country” – Cyprian Norwid.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I just remembered that one of my short films, which grapples with loneliness and meaninglessness in the lives of US teenagers today, was entitled Rebel, like our Canvas interview. I believe that Art has the power and capacity to impact the human soul and make people more receptive to good. Through beauty, shock and catharsis, Art can provoke to action, to awakening of self awareness and to expanding consciousness. Being an incurable romantic, a little like Don Quixote in the XXI Century, I would suggest that from time to time it’s good to listen to the common sense of Sancho Panza. But do I want to unlearn who I am? I don’t want to! I’ll continue my fight against mediocrity and the pressure of social media. I’m not going to compromise my freedom to create in my own vocation. Love cannot be explained by science and mechanics, only art can show us its infinity. Being an artist means to channel your spiritual energy and consider your existence with a higher purpose. Don’t be blind and deaf, don’t follow the consumer ignorance of mass culture. I want to be a servant of God’s given talent to create. To me it’s not a sacrifice, but an honor.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marekproboszofficial.com
- Instagram: @marekproboszofficial
- Facebook: marek probosz & https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=marek%20probosz-oficjalny%20fanpage
- Linkedin: marek probosz
- Other: Marek Probosz https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0698230/
Image Credits
All photos Marek Probosz private archives. 1. Marek Probosz starring as Captain Witold Pilecki, film “The Death of Captain Pilecki” dir. Ryszard Bugajski 2. Marek Probosz as Roman Polanski, film “Helter Skelter” dir. John Gray 3. Marek Probosz starring as Ruda Aksamit, film “Shades of Fern” dir. Frantisek Vlacil 4. Marek Probosz as Satora, film “Janosik” dir. Agnieszka Holland & Kasia Adamik 5. Marek Probosz starring as Norwid, play “Norwid’s Return” dir. Marek Probosz 6. Marek Probosz starring as Witold Pilecki, film “The Burden” dir. Piotr Owcarz & Grzegorz Rosengarten 7. Marek Probosz Winner The Outstending Pole Award in USA 2023 8. Marek Probosz at the gate of Paramount, invited by American Cinemateque 1987.