At one time, there was almost no Hungarian film without him, and he played in so many different cinemas that we got to know a thousand different faces of him - from the rebellious young adult to the stumbling half-note to men trying to get by in the storms of history.
"You don't always have to be an actor. Only when it has a serious meaning, it has an uplifting, festive power," said Károly Eperjes in an interview with Inforádio on his 65th birthday when asked if he often says no to invitations.
"Depends. Due to certain resignations, they didn't even try very hard, because they might think that the attitude that I really look at what I'm doing is arrogant."
The interview also talked about the temptations in his acting career.
“For a long time, I couldn't process success well, and many actors may not handle it well. The pleasures of comfort or pleasure take over and then one derails. […]
I even believed that you can't play a drug addict unless you try it. I was at the gates of hell twice, he told me not to go any further.
Some people prayed for me very well. If I do not then deeply repent and find the real doctor for this overworked state of life, then a person will not be able to fix himself."
You don't have to try everything
Despite the fact that at one time he thought that if he played a drug addict as an actor, he should try this too, he already said in the interview that the actor does not have to experience everything.
"It would be a big problem, because then there would be no other way to play Shakespeare's great dramas except by trying to kill. You can build from many things, but a life of experience is not a wise life, because it experiences good and bad. The contemplative life is the higher order life, because it observes good and bad, but only wants to experience good. And if something bad happens to him, he tries to fix it."
In the wake of passing time
Asked if he was concerned about the passing of time, he said: “Just because I can't run as fast anymore. [...] The astonishing thing is that people see much more, much more wisely, but they can no longer put so much energy behind it. We have to face this, and no matter what we do, the end result is getting closer.
I haven't retired yet, and I don't even want to retire. I don't want to retire as long as I can go on stage, make films, and have performances.
But the moment may come when I will have to raise my hat and say that yes, Szamóca, retirement is on its way. But I don't feel it yet."
Károly Eperjes continues his career as the artistic director of the Hungarian Theater in Pest.
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Featured image: ATTILA OF POLY - ORIGO
