Actress has jitters over Mrs Walesa role

Krystyna Janda as Danuta Walesa: photo - Teatr Wybrzeze/ Adam Klosinski

“I'm not sure how she will take it,” Janda told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) ahead of Thursday's premiere of Danuta W., a biopic of the former first lady.

Danuta Walesa is due to attend Thursday's premiere at the Wybrzezie Theatre in the Walesas' home city of Gdansk.

However, the actress has said that the role is one of the most emotionally draining of her life.

“This role goes a little bit beyond the requirements of the profession, and my primary concern is not to burst into tears on stage,” she revealed.

The two-and-a-half hour drama, based on Danuta Walesa's recent autobiography Dreams and Secrets (Marzenia i tajemnice), is a one-woman show, adapted by Janda herself.

“I took a long time over this adaptation, but not because I didn't know how to go about it,” she said.

“I weighed up every word,” she revealed.

“After all, this is a story with the president in the background and the history of this country. Names are dropped alongside the details of certain extreme situations.”

Krystyna Janda is however no stranger to the Solidarity trade union that propelled its leader Lech Walesa – and by his unsuspecting wife – to fame.

She played leading roles in film-maker Andrzej Wajda's award-winning movies Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981), landmark films for the pro-democracy movement in communist Poland.

Andrzej Wajda has himself recently completed filming a biopic of Lech Walesa, with Robert Wieckiewicz (In Darkness) playing the Solidarity leader, and Agnieszka Grochowska as Danuta Walesa. (nh)