Biography

Mother of Sabina Remundová and Theodora Remundová.

She turned down the part of Mother Ubu in Král Ubu (1996), eventually played by Lucie Bílá.

She turned down the part of the mayor in Return to Paradise Lost (1999), eventually played by Emília Vášáryová.

She turned down the part of Miriam Simáková in Nuda v Brne (2003), eventually played by Jaroslava Pokorná.

She turned down the part of teacher in I Wake Up Yesterday (2012), eventually played by Nela Boudová.

[on Miloš Macourek]: "Our relationship was one of mutual admiration. He often named me as an example of the actors for whom he likes to write tailor-made roles, giving me the confidence and trust one needs to freely move on the ground of his beautiful screenplays. And I, in turn, admired those."

[on her gender-bending roles]: "I mean, I started out in 'Ctyri vrazdy stací, drahousku' (1971) dressed as a male conductor, smoking a cigar, wearing a beard and so on, but I didn't think of it as a male role. I enjoyed the transformations, just as I did in You Are a Widow, Sir! (1971). But Miloš Kopecký once told me that he liked the fact that I was a bit of a man, that I had some masculine qualities in me. Maybe the fact that I grew up with two older brothers as a child had an influence. The younger of the two used to go to the cinema to see Charles Chaplin and then he used to play it for me at home. That was a blessing in disguise for me, because I started to get the gags when I was five. I didn't mind not seeing the original."

[on Bourlivé víno (1976)]: "I couldn't do anything else at the time and I wanted to film. At that time, I felt confident that I had finally learned how to film. To not be afraid of the camera, to know how to stand in the lights, to keep the plot coherent despite not shooting chronologically. That I had mastered the technical side. And the idea that I couldn't apply that was unacceptable to me. Besides, I had done several successful comedies with Václav Vorlícek. We had a similar mood, a similar playfulness, a similar sense of humor. So I had no doubts about the script of Bourlivé víno (1976), even though it was co-written by a notorious communist protege, Jan Kozák. I thought to myself that with a cast full of wonderful colleagues, including Vladimír Menšík, maybe a good film could be made..."

[on Jiří Krejčík]: "I was sorry that Jiří Krejčík didn't offer me another role. I was hoping for Emma Destinn in Bozská Ema (1979). But I'm sure he had his reasons for giving it to Božidara Turzonovová. Although I admit that I was a bit angry with him, and then when he offered me another role that wasn't worth it from my point of view, and I heard that I was the fourth person he had approached, I turned it down, saying that I didn't have time. But those were such petty vendettas."

[on being shadow-banned during the 1970s]: "It was erratic. Nobody said anything exactly. They just didn't approve my casting. Then the directors came up with all kinds of tricks. For example, they waited for Ludvík Toman (Barrandov' Studios official) to go on holiday and had his deputy sign the cast. Or I stubbornly went to various officials and asked why I couldn't act when 'I could give working people the comedy joy they deserved the next day' - I tried to argue in the vocabulary of the cultural policy of the time."