Tereza Ramba: We all know that alcohol is a problem. A lie usually comes with it

The film was shot by director Dan Svátek based on the blog and book of the same name by Michaela Duffková. In them, she openly described her struggle with addiction, which she fell into during parental leave. She solved loneliness and family crisis with alcohol.

I admit that you surprised me that you took on a similar role.

I also considered it for a long time. On the other hand, I consider myself mainly a dramatic actress. The last four years alone, I’ve had a really hard time.

For the children, I suppose.

Yes. I limited my work around the time Mikulášek was born. Since then, I try to make about one film a year. After that, I was the first to take the fairy tale About the Christmas Star… I usually choose a beautiful movie or a fairy tale, preferably where children can be on the set. I’ll get there, someone will do my makeup, I’ll have a coffee (laughs).

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Now I’m making light of it a bit. Of course, comedy is also a terribly difficult discipline and I had to learn a lot of things, but mentally it keeps you in some sort of normalcy.

The alcoholic’s notebook is seriously thematically different in this regard.

Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been avoiding for the last few years… It wasn’t even the role for me at first.

Actually, it all happened that the film was cast in a completely different way, but it didn’t work out and Dan Svátek was looking for an actress again. And my manager, Michaela Bastien, told him, unbeknownst to me, that she thought I should be in it.

Photo: Jan Handrejch, Novinky

You didn’t see it that way?

When she told me, I responded that she was crazy and that she definitely wasn’t. Let Dan just apologize for not taking it. But she was smart about it. She told me: ok but you just read it and then you decide. After all, I read everything that anyone offers me…

I’ll never forget the moment I got into it. I was sitting in my favorite cafe where I go to work. I had two or three hours off from the children, after a long time, I started, and then it came. I had a really big psychosomatic reaction to what I read. To the text itself.

What should I imagine under that?

Basically, I almost got laid in that cafe. I didn’t like the story at all. But I didn’t give up. I called my mom and told her: hey, there’s a movie here, but I’m not good at it at all, and I can’t do it with kids.

My mother replied that these topics are also important, that if I keep avoiding them like this now, I will never shoot them again. She told me that these dives are exactly what I love about acting and that I can’t avoid it forever, that I’m making excuses for the kids.

Then I called my manager Míša, described the same thing to her as to my mother, and she responded: well, this is you too, even with your reaction. Her sentence caught my attention. I realized that I live on a sunny cloud, that I am happy, that I have a beautiful family, but at the same time there is something else in me. In addition, I have always enjoyed the role challenges offered by the Alcoholic Notebook.

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So you said yes to Dan Svátka.

It still took a while. We first agreed at a family council, with friends, that maybe it’s time for me to take the role, that I’m an actress, that it’s time to remember that this is my job too. I agreed with Maty (husband – note ed.), who took time off for the entire filming period, with his mom, with my mom, how to handle everything when I’m not at home.

There was a long preparation. Of course, as part of the implementation of our plans, it turned out that it won’t be quite as easy as I imagined, but I dare to say that the worst is behind us, and I’m terribly happy that I went to the movie, Diary of an Alcoholic. I feel that it really refreshed me personally, that I needed something similar.

I have read Ms. Duffk’s books. I know about you that you adjust your scripts to suit you. How much did you edit this one?

Editing scripts, easy. (laughter)… In this case, I tried to shed light on the story, which is very internal, dark. I think that even if you are at the bottom, you will come across little things, beads, that you can be happy about. I tried to base my role on them. On joy, find humor there. From disgust to beauty. Fortunately, Dan Svátek saw it the same way…

We all know that alcohol is a problem, but also that it is good, and for a long time. In the Notebook, we try to show the border where it already represents a threat, a danger. For a long time you believe that you are fine, that you can handle everything. You are hurting everyone. Because with alcohol usually comes a lie. If you fall into addiction, you lie to yourself, you lie to others. And those lies are completely personal. That’s why I took the role in such a way that my character almost believes that nothing is happening until the end.

It happens, which not only the surroundings but also the body, the physical part of it, which is leaving, reveal to her. But her mind goes elsewhere for a long time… Which, in short, can be another reason why I took the role. It’s complicated enough.

You’ve been filming for weeks. How much alcohol did you drink during that time?

Maybe half a beer? I had a drink from my colleague Mila König. I definitely don’t have an appetite for alcohol, and we’ve been shooting this in varying degrees for the third month.

Tell me… Books end well. Mrs. Duff has her addiction under control. Will the movie turn out well?

I can confirm that Mrs. Duff looks great, I met her recently. We left the ending of the film very open. It’s up to the viewer to take it all in. But I think it ends realistically.