The Artist of the Nation celebrates his 75th birthday today, who also comments on Viktor Orbán.
I would like the whole world to end all wars with immediate effect, because there is no point in bloodshed - emphasized Gábor Reviczky, the Hungarian actor who was awarded the title of Artist of the Nation and won the Kossuth and Jászai Mari Prizes, who celebrates his 75th birthday today. In an interview with hirado.hu, Gábor Reviczky talked about his love for acting and nature, his fight with cancer, and as an ambassador for fishing, he also revealed what he would like to do if he could catch the miraculous goldfish.
- With your artistic achievements, you entered your name among the greatest already in your youth, but less is said about the fact that you are also the ambassador of hunting, fishing and Hungarian forests.
– Hunting has three ambassadors, Gyula Bodrogi, Gábor Koncz and me, fishing has twelve, and I am the only ambassador for Hungarian forests. I have been connected to nature since I was very young, I was born in Tatabánya, at that time everyone was very poor, they couldn't buy us toys, we had to rely on our own imagination. Every day we went up to the turul bird and the big vertigo. The Által river flowed nearby, which was still an unregulated river at the time. Even today, I still don't want to believe that I went fishing alone in fifty-three at the age of four, my son didn't even think of such a thing at that age, even though we already lived here on the banks of the Little Danube - said Reviczky about his passion.
The actor told us which fish is his favorite and how to make a really good fish soup.
"My favorite is the Tisza catfish. Every November, if I can afford it, my friend Pisti and I go to Tiszaderzs for a week and catch the Christmas catfish, but it has to be cleaned a lot, you even feel sorry for the parts that have to be cut out of it. Pisti always makes a stock, most recently he made it from the trunk and head of a 20- and 30-kilogram catfish. I brought the stock home and added the raw slices at home. It turned out amazingly delicious! Many people say that you can't make fish sauce without carp. Of course!”
His work links him to the capital, yet the artist does not live in Budapest.
"If I wasn't an actor, I wouldn't even go near the city. With movies, of course, we are out in nature, but in the field of theater, the Budapest institutions represent a serious standard. Although the situation is getting worse here as well, because the director's theaters do not allow the actor to move forward and develop. They think just the opposite! Actors should look for roles in which they are happy, they should be able to bathe in the role, I think this is what theater is about, and not about the director's self-realization".
Most actors have a dream role, but Gábor Reviczky differs from the majority in this too.
"I never wanted roles. This is a big mistake of the actors, because even if they experience this, in their great longing they get, for example, Hamlet - because that's what they usually want - it usually ends in failure, they will be bad at it. But one person succeeded: Gyuri Cserhalmi, Tyutyu, when we played in Debrecen, he was Hamlet, and I was Claudius".
He also testified about his acting profession: "Before me, there were no actors in the Reviczky family, but there were many musicians. It was already decided in primary school. In the seventh grade, we performed a fairy tale play for the eighth graders, which was based on the usual scheme, the youngest of the three brothers could win the hand of the queen. We didn't live up to the queen, we stepped down and left the stage. The changing room was at least sixty meters away, the attendant ran after us to go back, because they were still applauding. This was the decisive moment, I felt that I had to move in this direction".
“I always bow modestly, unlike many colleagues who celebrate themselves as if they created life on earth. There was also an actor who brought purchased spectators to the premiere, who threw flowers on the stage that the actor had bought," the artist said about the workshop secrets.
Reviczky never hid his illness either, and now a country is pushing him to defeat cancer like a gladiator. He also confessed openly about the beginning of the troubles:
"I was not aware of my illness. I was hooked overnight. They sent me for an MRI, a plain CT, a bone isotope test, I didn't want chemotherapy, because prostate cancer can be cured with pills. At that time, I still knew that there was no metastasis, the MRI had already said that there were problems, and then I went for the PET CT, even the blind can see on those plates how many types of cancer I have. I had green spots on three of my ribs, cervical lymph node cancer, lymph node cancer around the prostate, and bone cancer at the base of my spine. There is nothing more horrible than bone cancer, I don't want to die screaming, I accepted the chemo. The first three were like a vitamin injection. I was a little sick during the fourth and fifth, and after the sixth I became sick like never before. I couldn't drive a car, I passed out on the terrace".
On how he overcame it all, Reviczky said: “Arkagyi Petrov believes that the only way to connect with the creator is in person. He was cured of several types of cancer with the help of the creator. Now I want to read your book that teaches you how to connect with the creator. His followers in Hungary are already trying to grow teeth, but the Chinese have also dealt with this".
The actor did not hide his opinion on public issues either, he also said that he sees the current situation in our country:
"We have to hold on! Hungary now has an extremely talented prime minister, Viktor Orbán. It's useless for anyone to write anything.
There is no doubt that there are small distortions, enriched circles of friends, but the state is finally buying back the companies squandered by the socialists to foreigners, so that even in the event of a change of government, the national wealth cannot fall into foreign hands, because they only exploit people. They create nothing. At that time, the brick factory in Győr was also bought by an Austrian company just so that it could sell its own products, so that it would not be a competitor. And then the brick factory had to be closed."
Finally, he also answered what he would wish for if he caught the miraculous goldfish: "I would wish for the whole world to end all wars with immediate effect, because there is no point in bloodshed."
You can read the entire interview Híradó.hu
Cover image: Anita Altorjai, CEO of Duna Médiaszolgáltató Nonprofit Zrt., hands over the Karinthy ring to Gábor Reviczky
Source: MTI/Attila Kovács
