Director Michal Samir: Iveta did not find a soul mate in her life – News

What sources did you draw on when writing the script, since the perspectives on Iveta’s life events often differ greatly?

With Iveta in the 1990s, we are clearly entering the post-factual era, when everything that was said and is being said about her needs to be confirmed. Sometimes you have credible sources that claim the complete opposite.

If we go back to the preparations for the first series, then a certain person convinced me with the power of magic that Iveta was already in Prague a week after the death of Petr Sepeši, where she was recording, and he was the one who picked her up at the train and took her to the studio. Likewise, there is another person, according to whom she did not leave her parents’ room in Frenštát for a month and did not speak to anyone for a long time.

For me, this was a clue that all the information must be collected and distilled from it into the most probable possibility of how things could have happened. I dare to say that I already know Iveta and I have feelings for her.

So what books or personalities are these?

I don’t need to name the books, there are about five of them in total that you can start from. For me, purely factual ones are more interesting than those where you can tell that the author was trying to create a sensational story. But even there you will find some clues. If I came across events with purely contradictory information, I did not continue to work with them. Fortunately, these were not important moments.

For example, you missed the relationship with Michal Penek…

We skip the period from 1986 to 1991, where this acquaintance also dates. I don’t consider her unimportant, but I have always conceived all three series on the pivotal man in her life. After Sepeš and Štaidl, he would eventually be Josef Rychtář, but now Artur becomes this man during the creative process (Štaidl, son – note red.).

What do you think Iveta was like? People around her describe her as a stubborn naïve or a flying angel with a devil in her body.

All the characteristics you mentioned can be true. My subjective opinion is that Iveta had enormous spiritual and mental potential, by which I do not mean esoteric. There was some charm in her, as the Slovaks say, which partially remained undiscovered.

It was reflected in her melancholy. I think she was even more sensitive than she appeared. Unfortunately, she was born in a time when no one cared much about the deep inner world. I think that if she had come into the world today, she would have coped better in her personal life.

People often ask me if Iveta’s problem was that she didn’t find the love of her life. I always twist this question a little, she hasn’t found a soulmate. Iveta missed this entity, her sister Ivana replaced her to a certain extent, but she disappeared from her life in the nineties, and that must have been painful for Iveta. Shtaidl had his unwavering truth, which she could not budge from. You shouldn’t be in a relationship with such a person at all, or you should put up with his nature. But Iveta was not conciliatory.

Ladislav Štaidl succumbed to covid-19 in January 2021, later that year you started filming the first series. Would there have been a miniseries if he had stayed alive?

I have no clue. When I learned that he was struggling with the coronavirus, we were just about to reach out to him and Artur, so we delayed contacting him for logical reasons. We waited for him to recover, which unfortunately did not happen, and then for a long time after, so that it would not appear that we wanted to take advantage of his death. When I went to see Artur for the first time, I did not expect that he would allow us the project. However, our communication worked, we are also similar in age (there is a 12-year age difference between Artur and the creator – note ed.). He agreed to it, which honestly surprised me.

Did you consult with him about the script and the final form?

Not quite. Artur reads brief summaries of individual parts in advance, but does not approve the script. So they see the miniseries for the first time every time at the premiere. He was kidnapped from the first series, even though we don’t build a monument to Iveta.

From how many applicants did you choose Ondřej Ruml for the role of Karel Gott? There is a noticeable age and height difference between the singer and his representative. He was portrayed by Roman Vojtek in the recent Volga.

I totally agree with you. There are two or three actors that you could cast in Gott’s role in his middle age, including Ruml. And with none of them, you wouldn’t say it’s the exact Gott anyway. Vojtek was not in our list. When I can no longer catch up with the looks, I look for the essence of the characters. Ruml has Karl’s round eyes and angular face and, like Ondřej Gregor Brzobohatý representing Štaidl, he carries the aristocracy that men of their generation possessed.