“She is so charming that I immediately opened my heart to Lavinia,” Witt told the Bild newspaper about the actress. “Seeing her perform live was surreal because I was reunited with my younger self. She is as passionate about playing as I was about the ice. I really enjoyed the trip to the past,” added Wittová, who is involved in the production of the film.
Lavini shared the news on her Instagram account on Friday. “I am incredibly happy to embody such an inspiring woman,” she commented on her new role.
Filming will last until the end of May, but it is not yet clear when exactly the film will be broadcast on television. Director Michaela Kazele’s work, with the working title “Eine Kür, die bleibt” (“The Freestyle That Remains”) takes place in 1994, when Witt, with the help of her coach Jutta Müller, attempts to make a comeback at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. At that time, Wittová was already representing the united Germany, but finished only in seventh place.
Photo: Pavel Khol, CTK
Katarina Wittová while riding at the European Figure Skating Championships in Prague in 1988
Lavinia Nowaková was born in 1995, i.e. a year after Wittová’s derniere in Lillehammer. When the filmmakers approached her, she had no idea about Witt. “I thought it was going to be a fictional story,” admitted the actress, who herself stood on skates for the last time at the age of 13 and never did figure skating.
There was also a Saxon dialect
Now she had to catch up because of the film, so in the last two months she has been rehearsing intensively under the supervision of two trainers. “I absorbed everything I could find about Katarina. Interviews, documentaries, her style. I also read her book and thought a lot about Katarina. I have to say that there are a lot of parallels between figure skating and theater,” Nowaková said.
Photo: CTK
Katarina Witt won gold at the Calgary Olympics in 1988
Photo: Instagram Lavinie Nowakové
Lavinia Nowakova
The Munich native even learned the Saxon dialect that Wittová speaks because she grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt, today’s Saská Kamenice (Chemnitz). “Katarina has amazing charisma. He walks in and the room lights up. I was enchanted by her, we got along wonderfully,” Nowaková added.
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