On the occasion of the Proton Theatre's guest appearance at Teatro Bellini in Naples with their production Imitation of Life, actress Lili Monori was interviewed by Lorenzo Codelli, an Italian film critic, staff member of Festival du Film Positif and advisor to the Cannes International Film Festival.

If I understand correctly, you studied acting in Budapest, Hungary.

I studied at the Academy of Film and Drama in Budapest. Before that, I was an amateur. I was reciting poems. That's what I liked the most back then and still now, poetry. At the University, we mostly spent our time rehearsing scenes from different plays. You couldn't really learn much from that. After graduation, I finally had a chance to meet the great actors of the era. I saw them on stage and worked with them, and that's how I ended up learning the most about the profession. For me, Margit Dajka was the greatest Hungarian actress. I don't understand why I never met her during my student years, why she wasn't one of our professors.

Among your first works, The Witness, directed by Petér Bacsó in 1969, became a highly acclaimed top film after being banned for many years. What kind of memories do you have of that film?

I was only on the set for three or four days. I didn't even know the title of the film. Also, I had never seen a camera before. I was told to look in one direction, but instead I looked at the sky. The director asked me not to look at the sky. I asked why not. We never worked together again. But a colleague of mine, the actor Ferenc Kállai liked what I was doing. He thought I was brave. I actually wasn't, I was just curious and really wanted to know why I should look left or right. I was still a student at the academy. We hadn't learned anything about how to act in films. Then the film disappeared. It wasn’t until the ’80s that I got to see it. Later I learned that during these years it was hidden in the National Film Archive. It was only screened late at night. Members of the Communist Party came to watch it in secret. They would laugh hysterically at it, but officially it was still banned.

Nine Months, by Márta Mészáros, released in 1976, was an international hit. What consequences did this film have on your career?

Inside Hungary, we received very poor reviews from the critics and quite negative feedback from audiences. It was terrifying. In Q&A’s, sometimes men told me how brave I was, but women never mentioned that. On the other hand, the film gained international attention. Probably because Eastern Europe was already in focus, and also because it was an important film for the women’s rights movement. I subsequently received plenty of job offers, mostly from Italy. For example, singing a song with Marcello Mastroianni, which didn't actually end up happening, as the role went to someone who was better known. Then I was offered a contract by the French film studio Gaumont. I worked with Isabelle Huppert in France. The directors of the French New Wave had a lot of respect for me. I'm not sure why, probably because I dared to give birth in front of the camera in Nine Months. In reality, I wasn't at all brave, just rather naive. 

Márta Mészáros had told me that Agnès Varda recorded herself while giving birth. I wondered how she could do that. Was the camera in her hand or on a stand? I wasn't really thinking about what it would be like to give birth in front of a camera and crew. Where the position of the camera would be. How I should act. It all just happened. Eleonora Duse, the Italian actress from the turn of the century, was an icon for me. Her birthday was the 3rd of October. I was due to deliver my baby on the 16th, but I was completely sure it would happen on the 3rd. I went to the hospital and I called the film director, Márta Mészáros, from a phone booth to tell her that they should come quickly. The whole crew had already been on standby for weeks, so they raced to the hospital. The doctor said the baby wouldn't arrive that day, but my water broke. I received two injections induce labour. It felt as if my spine had broken. My son was small and skinny. He wouldn’t have survived if we had waited until the 16th. The film saved his life. That was and is the most important part for me.

How did you prepare to play your unforgettable character in that film?

You can’t prepare for such a role.

Was your working class character based on a real person?

My working class characters are based on real people. My father was a shoemaker, my mother an unskilled worker.

Do you prefer acting for the cinema, theatre or television?

Television films do not exist anymore, and I haven’t been working in any TV series, nor do I want to. Film is a rarity, it’s technical, but in reality, you shouldn't concern yourself with where the camera is. Also, when you are good in films, this does not necessarily mean you are good at theatre. I believe in theatre. In astrology, film, as well as journalism, belong to the planet Neptune, which stands for humbuggery.

Which directors were important to your brilliant career?

Gábor Bódy. We were young and we didn't really know what we were doing. He was studying history and philosophy. He had a deep philosophical approach to films. I never met anyone like him again. Dezső Magyar, a mutual friend of ours, had a film project about the working class, those in power and the intellectuals. A young woman was torn apart by them. It is a massive story, I still have the script for it. It was based on a Russian short story, which later on became a banned book. We were banned from shooting on the first day, when it was noticed what we were working on it. Dezső emigrated, he left for the USA, where he started a career as a teacher. Gábor and Dezső took the film projects, the resistance and the politics very seriously. Seeing all this was a great lesson for me that it was possible to remain yourself. I was never a star, I never wanted to be one. I worked a lot in theatre. At state theatres and with my own independent company. There I started to think about what is wrong with theatre. I was talking to a lot of people about this subject too. It is just not enough to work three or six weeks on a piece: you need more time to make both it and the role your own. I didn't want to become part of the system. I chose my own way.

How did you prepare for the very moving character of the mother for Evolution?

Evolution was initially a production of music theatre from Proton Theatre. My scene, which is about 40-45 minutes long, is in the middle of Requiem, a large-scale choral and orchestral composition by György Ligeti. We rehearsed a lot before the premiere, which was held at the Ruhrtriennale, for several months in Hungary and for some weeks in Germany. This was the basis for the film, which we didn't get much time to shoot.  We could only film my scene a maximum of three times a day, due to technical reasons and also because of my health issues. Basically, it is impossible to prepare for such a role. I simply don't exist in this role, I just let the role take over. I would not consider this notion to be acting. It is beyond acting.

What kind of method does Kornél Mundruczó use in directing actors?

An actor is for him an independent artist, and the role is the actor’s own creation. We are artistic partners, we trust each other. Equality and mutual respect instead of pressure.

The production, Imitation of Life has been on a highly successful international tour since 2016. How do different audiences react in different countries?

This piece by the Proton Theatre has been given more than 30 guest performances. It's hard to remember each one. After the premiere, we received very good reviews in the German-speaking countries. The festival and theatre directors came to congratulate us very warmly. Our first tours after the pandemic, to Turin and Madrid, were unforgettable. The amount and the intensity of positive reactions was overwhelming. There was also a general happiness about theatres being open again, that it was possible to perform and to watch performances.

Next IMITATION OF LIFE >>> 7-8TH JUNE 2022