Quotes

[on The Valley of the Bees (1968)] A project for which I had to study Latin, learn how to ride a horse and keep a diet. On top of that, we travelled to Germany with another film during pre-production, so for once in my life I was staying at a fancy hotel, being offered fancy food on a daily basis, and I had to feast to lose weight! I remember people asking me whether I was unhappy with the screening because I didn't eat or drink anything. But these were sacrifices which payed off great.

[on Courage for Every Day (1964)] This film which screened at festivals around the world was banned at home, and I remember reading ridiculously conflicting reviews. In Czechoslovakia, they said that my role was not believable and that "workers like this didn't exist", whereas a French reviewer was glad that someone had finally captured the soul of the worker, pronouncing that this was the way that future worker would look!

[on Smrt si ríká Engelchen (1963)] It was shot for 132 days and I had my family at home, rehearsed in Ostrava all day, took the train at midnight, got to Prague, where a car was parked and took me to Liberec, where the Beskydy Mountains were filmed, although the real ones were behind Ostrava. But the director of photography had a cottage in the Krkonoše Mountains, so we filmed there. I hated that film from the bottom of my heart.