Czarnik also played the titular role in Gyubal Wahazar based on Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, directed by Paweł Świątek, and gave an excellence performance in Nie-boska Komedia: Wszystko Powiem Bogu! (The Undivine Comedy: I will tell God Everything) directed by Monika Strzępka. Czarnik frequently co-operates with Strzępka: he also appeared in Triumf Woli and K.
In December 2017 Czarnik joined the team of TR Warszawa. He appeared in Inni ludzie (Other People) directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, based on Dorota Masłowska. He also appeared in Jan Klata’s Debt (based on the academic book Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber). The performance was shown in Nowy Proxima Theatre in Kraków (premiere: September 2019), two years later than was originally planned. Klata and the actors started working on the piece back in 2017, but in the meantime Klata ceased to be the director of Stary Theatre. In a gesture of solidarity, many actors, including Czarnik, stopped working at the theatre.
In December 2018 Czarnik directed What’s Eating Gilbert Grape – the diploma of acting students of the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków.
Film
Czarnik is predominantly a theatre actor, but he has also created remarkable roles on the silver screen. He played the main role in It Looks Pretty From A Distance directed by Wilhelm Sasnal, one of Poland’s most famous contemporary painters, and Anna Sasnal. In 2015 he appeared in a supporting role in the Hungarian production The Son of Saul directed by László Nemes – a film that took the Oscars and the Cannes festival by storm. He also played the supporting role in Tomasz Wasilewski’s United States of Love.
Czarnik’s co-operation with Nemes went so well that the Hungarian director decided to cast the Polish actor in his subsequent full feature, the film Sunset. Czarnik played Sándor, the brother of the main character. Interestingly enough, at first Czarnik was supposed to speak Hungarian in the film. As he disclosed in an interview for the Polish edition of Vogue:
At first I was just trying to parrot the language. I wouldn’t even know what the verb in each sentence was[…] My good ear for music helped a lot. With time I started to use the language more consciously. However, I’m still unable to have a normal conversation in the language, so I can’t really improvise in it. László claims I sound like a 19th-century Hungarian!
Eventually, Czarnik’s character’s voice was dubbed. In an interview for Co Jest Grane 24 the actor said:
When I was preparing for the role – which, well, might seem absurd after you’ve watched the film! – I read over 5,000 pages about the history of Hungary. Precisely speaking, I strongly recommend two books – 'Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat' by Paul Lendvai and 'Budapest 1900: A Historical Portrait of a City and Its Culture' by John Lukacs.
The actor also starred in Wojciech Smarzowski’s The Clergy, Kinga Dębska’s Zabawa, zabawa, Plan B, Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones, Michał Rosa’s Piłsudski, and Jacek Bromski’s Solid Gold.
Originally written in Polish by Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora, Dec 2011, translated and updated by NS Nov 2019.