He knows what he wants and – equally important – he knows what he doesn't want. This year, he graduated from the Acting Department at the Łódź Film School, and he has already made several really successful film appearances. He could be seen in productions such as “Brothers”, “Splinter”, “No one will sleep in the forest tonight”, “Pitbull”, “Mother's Day” Whether “The Jesters”which are pre-premiere shown on Cinema on the Border in Cieszyn. Sebastian Dela he boldly entered Polish cinema. Follow his career, because it's really worth it.
We managed to talk during the Cinema on the Border.
Anna Kempys, Interia: You are a young actor and you have already produced over 20 different productions – films, series, student etudes. A lot of.
Sebastian Dela: – So much?
Are any of these movies or series particularly close to you?
– I always fondly recall the film “Braty” by Marcin Filipowicz, made at the Munk Studio with Jerzy Kapuściński. A wonderful adventure, lots of heart. Everyone made their debut – Marcin with his full-length film, the three of us (Dela, Hubert Miłkowski and Marta Stalmierska – ed.) in major roles. Each of us cared. I felt that everyone was playing for the same goal, because everyone was fighting for their film, not to survive the next 12 hours on the set. I definitely come back fondly to the movie “Braty”.
You don't shy away from TV series, although some young actors at the beginning of their careers don't always want to play in them.
– Sure, everyone would like to act in films, but there are also premium series. I don't romanticize this profession. For me it's a profession – I love it, I love what I do and it's always a passion, but I have to make a living from something. It's a job like any other. Of course, it would be wonderful to do only great things, artistic cinema that will travel to festivals, will be awarded, and will be appreciated. But you have to be able to afford it. I strive for this. Someday I would like to say: this is yes and this is no, I would like this and I don't have to. But this is probably not the moment yet. I treat everything as an experience.
In 2023, you graduated from the film school in Łódź.
– I only officially defended myself this year.
“Blazny” by Gabriela Muskała, which is shown at the Kino na Granicy festival, is your diploma film of the year. How do you remember working on the set?
– Very good. This is a project that I cannot distance myself from. Usually, after some time, I gain some distance from the projects I do, but here I couldn't, because I was doing it with my beloved year, with whom we got along great. There is a statement in the film – my friend Klaudia Koścista says that she is afraid that these four years of school were the best years of her life. Every time she says it, I totally relate to it.
– The job was wonderful because it was with people I love. Gabrysia, who directed it, is a wonderful actress and that helped her in directing. She knew what an actor needed and how to guide us to achieve the intended goal, but with respect for the other person. We were partners while working. I didn't feel a professor-student relationship for a moment, and that's what made it a wonderful job.
Speaking of Film School, could you name the best and worst moments at school?
– This is a very tricky question because these moments change over time.
Do you look at it differently in hindsight?
– Exactly! This perspective gives a broader view. I used to think that the worst thing that happened to me at school was the resit exam I had in “contemporary scenes”. Then I thought that I was a little wronged, that it was unfair, that my world was falling apart and that this was the worst moment. As time goes by, I notice that I learned a lot. A bit of shock therapy, but I took a lot from it for the future. I also know what it was for. Whether I agree with this, I don't know, but I look at it completely differently now. I couldn't choose the best and worst moments, there were so many of them – it was a rollercoaster.
People describe you as “young, promising”, but also as “characterful, a tracksuit guy”. You play quite a few such heroes.
– I think I could play something else, at least I'd like to. It's a bit like this in this industry that people who should be endowed with above-average imagination are, unfortunately, not always willing to take risks.. If I proved myself as a bald, rather arrogant and aggressive guy, why don't we try something else. If someone has proven himself in such a role once, he will prove himself again. However, I hope that I will get the opportunity to show a different side of myself.
You appeared in two films by Patryk Vega.
– Working with Patryk went very smoothly. It was always clear what he expected and what he was aiming for. I absolutely cannot complain about this cooperation. I think he gave me a big chance.
I found an interview online from 2020 in which you said: “What I like about my job is that every day I can be someone other than Sebastian Dela.”
– I definitely still sign this. It's a wonderful job, always different, always different in some way. And these lives of others! I would like to be a lawyer for a while, but it takes work and dedication, and here I can pretend that I am one. Sometimes consultations with real lawyers are organized and then I can get to grips with it all – it's great. You can live several lives in one life.
– A wonderful meeting was the series “Go ahead, brother” (dir. Maciej Pieprzyca – ed.), which will appear on Netflix this year and tells, among other things, about a group of anti-terrorists. For this project, for four months, together with four other guys, we trained with Grom, with former operators of the Grom military unit. We also had physical preparations with stuntmen. It was something amazing and I probably wouldn't have experienced it if it weren't for acting.
So an action movie is OK, but a romantic comedy, a great love story?
– I would like to and how! But I'm not considered for such roles. A great love story? Yes, I would like to play a person unhappily in love. I have already said several times that if I could dream of a role, it would be a romantic chess player.
Why a romantic chess player? Do you play chess?
– I play a little, although Jan Krzysztof Duda plays chess, I try and I like it very much.
So you probably liked “The Queen's Gambit”?
– It was wonderful and Anya Taylor-Joye is wonderful! A great series and our compatriot in one of the roles – Marcin Dorociński.
Do you have any acting inspirations?
– A lot.
Some people don't want to talk about it.
– I don't have a thing where when I approach a role I think, for example, how Tom Hardy or Leonardo DiCaprio or Cillian Murphy would do it. I am a believer in a little bit of everyone. There used to be a master system at the film school, and one year twenty of the same people would come out of there. I find it best to take a little from one professor and a little from another. It's the same with acting ideals.
And which professor gave me the most?
– I wouldn't like to point it out, because it's difficult to name what it came from. I take something intuitively, but call it… And what is acting? My wonderful professor, Piotr Krukowski, whom I greet warmly, said that if someone told him what acting was, he would no longer want to live. I agree with this, some things happen intuitively.
We are at the Kino na Granicy festival. Do you think there should be any boundaries in cinema?
– This is again a trick question, because everything here boils down to some philosophical debate. Where does my freedom end and someone else's begin? Should you censor an artist? Is everything available to show? Should there be limits? I think everyone should decide this in their own conscience. It may be that if something is not a boundary crossing for me, it will be for someone else. This question is difficult to answer.
And what are the limits for you as an actor?
– Yes, of course, but it is difficult only at the very beginning. I'm learning more and more that you have to respect yourself all the time so that at the end of the day you can look each other in the eye and not look away. You have to set your boundaries, although everyone may have them somewhere else. Everyone comes from a different home, grew up in a different environment, had different things surrounding them and building them during the most important years of their lives. The most important thing is not to do something just because it's necessary, because maybe it will help. I don't think you can compromise on yourself.
What are you looking for in the cinema as a viewer?
– It's so trivial, but emotional, something that moves me. Recently I have felt that access to information is becoming more and more desensitizing to me. Less and less things move me, less and less surprise and surprise me, and more and more terrify me. When I'm sitting watching a movie and I feel that warmth inside my chest, that's what I'm looking for, that's the moment of real emotions that cinema evokes.
It's not trivial at all, real emotions are not trivial.
– Yes, but they are very difficult and increasingly difficult to achieve. It's also about not being intrusive, not trying to evoke emotions.
What do you think about actors' activity on social media? Do you draw a line here that not everything is for sale?
– That's true. Of course, I share information about a project to thank people, for example. It is appreciated that you mention it on your social media. But I value my privacy. For me, my dream would be for the viewer to come to the cinema, watch the film, decide whether he likes it or not, but then completely forget about me.
If someone is an actor, it doesn't mean that he has to sell his whole self. Everyone has the right to privacy, but the world is different.
– Exactly. This is, of course, a pipe dream, but it would be an ideal situation, right? Social media is already a tool that can decide something and help with something. I don't feel it, I don't know how to deal with it and I don't think I want to. I don't criticize it if someone has such an idea, but I still believe that it can be done differently.
You and theater – are you on the same page?
– We are on track and I hope that something will happen this year, but I don't want to jinx it.
What are your film and TV series plans? What can you talk about?
– I have been working on one production since November of that year. It's a series and I guess that's all I can say. I'm waiting for the premiere of the film “There Will Be No Other End” directed by Monika Majorek. This is her feature-length debut with Agata Kulesza, Maja Pankiewicz and Bartek Topa – a family drama about unresolved trauma. It's a different kind of cinema that I haven't experienced before. I remember this gentleman very well.
Favorite Polish film?
– There will be some, but I love “Psy”. Brutal cinema, but this music, these frames, these texts, this atmosphere. Atmosphere is also what I look for in cinema.
Me in 10 years?
– I have no idea, I want to surprise myself, I will let myself be surprised.
The 26th Kino na Granicy Film Festival takes place on May 1-5, 2024 in Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn. All details on the festival website. INTERIA is the media patron of the festival.