Filip Łobodziński and Henryk Gołębiewski met over half a century ago on the set of the film “Abel, Your Brother”. For both of them it was their first meeting with the camera and… with each other. Even though they played together in two more TV series – “Podróże za dziennikem się” and “Stawiam na Tolka Banana” – it is “Abel” that they have the greatest sentiment for, because their boyhood friendship began with this production.
The two greatest child stars of Polish cinema of the 1970s do not hide the fact that their paths crossed very rarely in their adult lives. After “Tolek Banana”, in which they starred as teenagers, they did not see each other for over 20 years. In 1995, when Stanisław Jędryka was making a documentary about the fate of the main characters from his series, they met, but… the old chemistry between them was gone. Only a few years later they “discovered” each other again – after the premiere of the film “Edi” in 2002 with a brilliant role by Gołębiewski, Filip, who was then an associate of “Przekrój”, asked Henryk for an interview.
“I was a little afraid of this meeting because I didn't know if we would have any agreement at all, because our paths had completely diverged,” Łobodziński confessed in an interview with “Viva!”.
“But this closeness survived. Poldek and Duduś were together and stayed together,” added Gołębiewski.
Filip and Henryk do not hide the fact that they have a lot in common, because they come from different backgrounds and grew up in completely different families (one is an only child, the other has eight siblings), but they have a lot in common. They joke that even in their childhood years they were two poles of a magnet, but they did not repel each other.
It turns out, as they admitted in their latest joint interview, that they have been observing each other all their lives and really know a lot about each other.
Few people know that both Filip and Henryk struggled with cancer years ago and, fortunately, both managed to beat it.
“Mine appeared near my eye. I don't have half of my eyebrows. But I didn't take chemotherapy, only radiation. I said to myself: 'Heniek, if others get out of this, you will too',” Gołębiewski recalls in “Vivy!”
“They operated on my cancer, cut it out, cleaned it up and that's it. Now I get checked every month. And I hope that maybe it won't come back,” says Łobodziński.
Both stars of “Journey for One Smile” know what… misfortune is. Henryk lived on the edge for many years and struggled with an addiction that almost destroyed him. Filip survived the illness and death of his beloved daughter.
“I haven't been drinking for over five years,” Gołębiewski confessed in the latest interview, adding that fate had not spared him.
“I lost my daughter. But I don't want to talk about it anymore, it still costs me a lot,” says Łobodziński.
An interesting fact is that both actors of “Abel”, “Journey for One Smile” and “Stawiam na Tolek Banana” were killed quite recently.
“Two weeks ago, a video was released on YouTube, where it was written that Filip Łobodziński passed away at the age of 65,” the journalist confirmed in an interview with “Viva!”.
“And I was even given the date of the funeral and the place of the grave at the military cemetery. My wife received condolences when people called,” admitted the actor who played the role of Ziutek Szaniawski from the series “Pawnshop. Życie pod zastaw”.
Filip and Henryk remember their childhood and early youth with great sentiment. They can talk for hours about the adventures they experienced while traveling through Poland with the “Journey for One Smile” team. And what is their life like today?
“I have a daughter, I have a wife, I play in the theater, in films, people stop me on the street and say I'm fine. There's always a lot to do in life. I'm not afraid of boredom,” says Gołębiewski.
“My dreams are coming true,” he says.
Łobodziński can also boast of a successful professional career and a successful relationship.
“With Maja, whom I have known since high school, it is a really successful relationship. We have common passions. Homeless cats, dogs,” he told the “Vivy!” journalist.
“I don't know if I would be someone different if I hadn't played in this film (“Journey for One Smile” – editor's note). It could have turned out differently,” he added.