Anna Próchniak x OVERDUE: ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ is a story of resilient love

Open­ing image: Jump­suit Yves Saint Lau­rent neck­lace Loren Stew­art rings vin­tage

Words Leelou Reboh

Star­ring in Sky’s adap­ta­tion of The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz, Anna Próch­ni­ak reflects on the respon­si­bil­i­ty and emo­tion­al toll of por­tray­ing Gita.

When Anna Próch­ni­ak was approached to por­tray Gita in Sky’s series adap­ta­tion of Heather Morris’s best-sell­ing nov­el The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz, the young Pol­ish actress couldn’t pass up. ‘I feel lucky as an actress because those types of projects don’t come by very often’, she explains to OVERDUE. Through­out six episodes, the show tells the poignant love sto­ry of Gita and Lale Sokolov (Jon­ah Hauer-King), the man tasked with tat­too­ing the pris­on­er ID num­bers at the con­cen­tra­tion camp of Auschwitz. Find­ing strength in the moments they share togeth­er in secret, the uncon­di­tion­al love they bear for one anoth­er becomes the ulti­mate act of rebel­lion in a place where all hope seems lost. In her depic­tion of Gita, Próch­ni­ak becomes a sym­bol of end­less resilience. ‘We can always choose love over hate’, she says. 

In times of hard­ship, The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz reminds us of the pow­er of love, and that it will always be our best option.

What made The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz dif­fer­ent from the oth­er projects you worked on? 

I read the book when it was first pub­lished and it imme­di­ate­ly became a best­seller. I com­plete­ly under­stood why. It’s such an impor­tant sto­ry. It’s extra­or­di­nary and tru­ly inspir­ing. The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz had a huge bud­get, with a cast and cre­atives from all around the world. We were able to work with the amaz­ing Tali Shalom Ezer who direct­ed all six episodes of the show. Hans Zim­mer and Kara Talve were also involved, and they cre­at­ed an amaz­ing score for the show. So I’d say that what made this project dif­fer­ent for me was main­ly the scale — it was just huge!

How would you describe the over­all atmos­phere of the series? 

As I said, this is such an impor­tant sto­ry to tell, not only in terms of the sub­ject mat­ter but also because of the fact that it gives a glim­mer of hope. It was def­i­nite­ly chal­leng­ing and daunt­ing at times because it’s a heart-wrench­ing sto­ry. It tells the sto­ry of two brave souls who find love and hope with­in each oth­er, and this is what sus­tains them in the dark­est of places. Through­out the series, we were always look­ing for the bal­ance between hope and the heav­i­ness of the top­ics the show delves into.

What ini­tial­ly drew you to this role then? 

I love get­ting a script that chal­lenges me and get­ting the oppor­tu­ni­ty to play a char­ac­ter that makes me step out of my com­fort zone. Gita is def­i­nite­ly one of those char­ac­ters. I’ve loved the sto­ry ever since I first read the book by Heather Mor­ris, and I thought that Gita was such an incred­i­ble per­son. She’s so mul­ti­di­men­sion­al and com­plex. She’s strong and resilient, but at the same time, she’s vul­ner­a­ble and frag­ile. Her char­ac­ter is so com­pas­sion­ate and kind, and com­mit­ted to help­ing oth­ers, even when she finds her­self in these dread­ful sit­u­a­tions. To me, she’s also extreme­ly brave, because her deci­sion to give love and receive it is her per­son­al act of defi­ance in this hor­ri­ble place.

You being Pol­ish, I sup­pose film­ing the series was a deeply per­son­al expe­ri­ence. What were the emo­tion­al impli­ca­tions for you to inter­pret a role that is so close­ly relat­ed to your country’s and per­haps also per­son­al past?

I think it’s so impor­tant to keep telling sto­ries like this one. I’ve been to Auschwitz, and some of the oth­er camps and it’s a huge part of the Pol­ish edu­ca­tion sys­tem. Going there was an upset­ting and unset­tling expe­ri­ence, that can­not be described in words. Once you go there you won’t ever be able to for­get it but it is cru­cial to spread aware­ness about the Holo­caust. I would have been naive not to think that it would be very chal­leng­ing and dif­fi­cult. It’s so impor­tant to respect the sto­ries of Holo­caust sur­vivors and this is just one of many incred­i­ble ones. We have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to make sure peo­ple will under­stand the nature of a place like Auschwitz. It’s so brave of Lale Sokolov to have shared his sto­ry with the world and to face the ghosts of his past. We have to accept it and respect it.

You were talk­ing about the huge respon­si­bil­i­ty of tak­ing on such a role. How did you pre­pare for it both men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly to con­nect to your char­ac­ter in the most authen­tic way?

For me, it’s always essen­tial to cre­ate a com­pre­hen­sive back­sto­ry for the char­ac­ter and, in this case, play­ing a real per­son. It’s a great respon­si­bil­i­ty and it’s very scary. I did a lot of research: I watched a lot of doc­u­men­taries, and read a lot of books… I worked with a cul­tur­al and his­tor­i­cal con­sul­tant. I talked with the author Heather Mor­ris about her rela­tion­ship with Lale and his mem­o­ries of his wife. I watched Gita’s tes­ti­mo­ny and those of many oth­er sur­vivors — dozens of them, because when I start­ed watch­ing I just couldn’t stop. It was so extreme­ly emo­tion­al and intense. t felt very inti­mate to be able to watch how they changed when they were remem­ber­ing the events from the camps. It’s so mov­ing because you start to grasp that you’re look­ing at a real per­son on the screen. You see the real emo­tions they had sup­pressed for a long time.  It was a les­son on human­i­ty and an expe­ri­ence that tru­ly changed my life.

That sounds extreme­ly chal­leng­ing. How did you cope with all of that?

I feel very priv­i­leged as an actor because those types of projects don’t come by very often. Gita was an incred­i­ble char­ac­ter to por­tray. Despite how chal­leng­ing it was at times, I felt safe because we worked in a con­trolled envi­ron­ment. I felt sup­port­ed by my direc­tor and my co-stars. We would check on each other’s well-being and be present as much as pos­si­ble. I think that when I work, I’m extreme­ly focused and I need to stay immersed in the mind­set of the sub­ject and my char­ac­ter, so there weren’t a lot of moments of relief. I real­ly need­ed this safe place to work with Tali. I felt ready to explore the dark­ness of the sto­ry, but I couldn’t have done it with­out her and Jonah’s support.

How long did film­ing take? How many months did you live in that mindset?

It last­ed five months. 

That’s quite a while. 

Yes. It was a long peri­od of time… But it was a col­lec­tive effort. We knew we were in this togeth­er, and that we were here for a rea­son. We just want­ed to pay the sto­ry jus­tice and tell the sto­ry as authen­ti­cal­ly as pos­si­ble. It just felt right. We just real­ly want­ed to give the char­ac­ters all of our ten­der­ness, love, and compassion. 

How did you find moments of hope with­in your char­ac­ter’s sto­ry and through­out film­ing as well?

I think that bal­ance is impor­tant. All those stolen moments Lale and Gita share are the most pre­cious moments, for them but also for the audi­ence. They’re moments of light with­in all this dark­ness we were — and the audi­ence will be — immersed in. They’re what makes this sto­ry so spe­cial. It’s beau­ti­ful because their rela­tion­ship is so pure and authen­tic, like them.

How did you find that switch when you were act­ing, to let hope and light­ness in the story?

It was very organ­ic. I could real­ly relate to it because I immersed myself ful­ly in the sto­ry. So I was look­ing for that glim­mer of hope, and now I com­plete­ly under­stand why they chose love to sur­vive. That’s how I found relief in this process actu­al­ly, those stolen moments between Lale and Gita…

Has their fam­i­ly already been able to watch the series?

We met Lale and Gita’s son, Gary. We spent some of the press week with him and that was the most incred­i­ble and emo­tion­al week. He’s very hap­py about the show and that his par­ents’ sto­ry is being adapt­ed to the screen. It was the most amaz­ing thing to get his bless­ing, and to hear from him that he’s proud of it… And also for him to see his ‘par­ents’ on screen, you could see how much he relates to it. Meet­ing him in per­son and being able to sim­ply hug him felt like the per­fect closure.

Can you share any mem­o­rable moments from the set?

There was a moment in pre­pro­duc­tion when we first decid­ed to shave my head. Our make-up and hair design­er Frances Houn­som asked me whether I want­ed to cut my hair step-by-step, but I decid­ed to just go for it. Look­ing at myself in the mir­ror, with­out hair and in my cos­tume, with the tat­too on my arm, was very emotional.

What would you like your char­ac­ter to be remem­bered by? 

Her com­pas­sion, and her will­ing­ness to help oth­ers even in the cir­cum­stances she found her­self in.

Through­out our con­ver­sa­tion, you have men­tioned that it is impor­tant for you to feel chal­lenged in your work. Is that one of the rea­sons why you fell into acting?

As a child, I spent a lot of time in my head and had a strong imag­i­na­tion. I think the ini­tial chal­lenge was com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the out­side world, and I was look­ing for a way to express myself and con­nect with oth­ers. I think act­ing and danc­ing helped me find my voice.

Before The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz, what was the most chal­leng­ing project you’d been a part of?

I am often cast in projects requir­ing high emo­tion­al inten­si­ty and I’d already done sev­er­al things relat­ed to World War II, but prob­a­bly the most demand­ing were the Pol­ish film War­saw 44 direct­ed by Jan Komasa, and The Inno­cents by the French direc­tor Anne Fontaine. In the for­mer, I played the role of a young under­ground resis­tance fight­er dur­ing the War­saw Upris­ing — it was a large-scale war pro­duc­tion about young peo­ple who tried to lib­er­ate War­saw from Nazi con­trol in 1944 and a tru­ly har­row­ing sto­ry of a love tri­an­gle, deeply root­ed in Pol­ish his­to­ry. In the lat­ter, I played a young preg­nant nun who was sex­u­al­ly abused by Russ­ian sol­diers dur­ing the war. In both cas­es, I had to work through very dif­fi­cult emo­tions and be will­ing to explore dif­fer­ent — some­times very dark — dimen­sions of human nature in order to hon­est­ly tell these sto­ries. But I was for­tu­nate to work with bril­liant direc­tors who guid­ed me through these projects.

I under­stand you have a back­ground in bal­let and con­tem­po­rary dance. How has your dance back­ground helped you as an actress?

Danc­ing has always been the most organ­ic way to express myself ever since I can remem­ber — I think that’s such an amaz­ing base for an actor! For me, it’s not about chore­og­ra­phy, or even the move­ment itself, but rather about the pres­ence and emo­tion­al acces­si­bil­i­ty through the body. I think I’m sim­ply look­ing for the source of emo­tion, not only in the knowl­edge I have about the char­ac­ter, their back­ground or the back­sto­ry I have built but also in the strong phys­i­cal response. My approach to act­ing has always been very intu­itive and instinct-dri­ven. My dance back­ground may have been the rea­son for that.

What are some lessons you’ve learned from your dance back­ground that you can apply to your cur­rent act­ing career?

Bal­let school taught me dis­ci­pline, work­ing with a part­ner and with my own body aware­ness. When you’re a dancer, not only do you need to be dis­ci­plined in the stu­dio but out­side of it as well; it comes to eat­ing right and work­ing out. It helped me a lot I went to dra­ma school and start­ed work­ing on film sets. Danc­ing also taught me many life lessons: I learned that when you go to a com­pe­ti­tion, there will always be some­one more expe­ri­enced than you, old­er than you, younger than you, fit­ter than you, pret­ti­er than you and so on. You have to learn to accept who you are as a per­son and as an artist, and learn that it is fine to be where you are in your per­son­al jour­ney. At the end of the day you’re doing the best you can. Gain­ing this knowl­edge at a young age made it eas­i­er for me to accept the rejec­tion that a young actor expe­ri­ences at every turn. I’m not say­ing it did­n’t hurt me but it taught me not to blame myself for fail­ures, to move on and try again. It’s not about mas­tery or per­fec­tion. It’s about a process, a journey. 

Going back to the pho­to­shoot with OVERDUE, you seem to be very much at ease in front of the cam­era. What is your thought process when you’re shoot­ing? How sim­i­lar is your approach to being pho­tographed com­pared to being filmed for a movie or series?

I think it’s real­ly the same! In both cas­es, it is impor­tant for me to feel ground­ed and present. Here and now. 

What was your favourite piece that you were styled in that day?

I liked the jump­suit from Yves Saint Lau­rent.

If I bumped into you in the street, what can I expect to spot you in?

I always want to feel com­fort­able and cozy, almost like I’m hid­ing in the clothes. So I would prob­a­bly be wear­ing a good pair of jeans and maybe a nice silk shirt because I real­ly like how it feels on my skin. It would also prob­a­bly be vin­tage because I love vin­tage clothes and I’m real­ly good at find­ing good finds.

What’s your favourite vin­tage brand?

I don’t think I have one actu­al­ly! I like to think about fash­ion more in terms of the items, not the brands. I think per­son­al style in fash­ion is about com­bin­ing dif­fer­ent ele­ments, items and pieces in a way that trans­forms them into some­thing new and unique. That’s why I think it’s cool to use vin­tage pieces! I love the way Schi­a­par­el­li’s designs play with unusu­al fab­rics, huge jew­ellery and sur­re­al­is­tic acces­sories. There’s always some­thing unex­pect­ed and bizarre in these designs — refresh­ing and imag­i­na­tive. In my opin­ion, these are great exam­ples of how fash­ion meets art and is art in general.

Absolute­ly, Schi­a­par­el­li is the best of both worlds! My last ques­tion for you is, what mes­sage do you wish view­ers to take away from the series, espe­cial­ly in today’s world? 

I believe that the ulti­mate mes­sage of The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz is that we can always choose love over hate. It’s eas­i­er for hatred to arise because love requires com­mit­ment and sac­ri­fice. It is the great­est pow­er we have as humans, and it’s our choice to make — so we need to act on it wisely.

Many thanks to Anna Próch­ni­ak for her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and open­ness through­out our con­ver­sa­tion. Watch The Tat­tooist of Auschwitz on Sky from May 2nd.

Tal­ent Anna Próch­ni­ak
Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Andrew Kim­ber
Styl­ist Adele Cany
Make-up Maho Moriya­ma
Hair Yui Oza­ki
Stu­dio & Retouch­ing Kim­ber Stu­dio
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