Tihomir Stanić, the actor who chose freedom

Tihomir Stanic He has played more than 130 roles on the boards that mean life, just as many on the small and big screens, he has learned that applause is a convention, although one in particular means something to him, that freedom is immeasurable, and that a person should be looking to the future, because we cannot influence events from the past.

In conversation with an art historian, Kristina Radović, the celebrated actor spoke about acting, himself, and the man as part of the thirteenth session of the "Imaginarium" panel, and was, as people are used to - sincere, spontaneous, expansive, and charming. And the audience rewarded his uniqueness with applause, not conventional, but heartfelt.

Responding to a question from the program editor at the "Zahumlje" Public Institution and author of "Imaginarium", Kristina Radović, about what a painting is for him, Stanić said that it is a selected or presented frame that we have framed, and that he notices that images from the past are appearing to him more and more often and that only in images does he subconsciously remember important details from the past.

He talked about Diana Budisavljević and his desire to make a film about her, which doesn't mean he won't someday.

“Diana Budisavljević, who is her distant relative, made a documentary film called ‘Diary of Diana Budisavljević’, in which I also participated. Later, the film ‘Gift from Jasenovac’ was made. I gave everything I had been working on to some of my friends. They used some of it. Now it’s Lordan Zafranovic "I have made and am finishing a film about Jasenovac, so I didn't manage to make what I had planned, but that's completely irrelevant. Since what was in my script was somehow thrown away, and I gave it away, so when you give something of yours, and someone throws it away and you find it, it's yours again... Maybe, if I live, I'll make my own film," said Stanić.

The image that often comes to his mind is Brueghel “The Fall of Icarus”, which says a lot about the way he wanted to make a film about Diana Budisavljević, but also about his experience of his life and career.

Although theater is his realm, because it is where he is in direct contact with the audience, by coincidence he now works a lot in television and film. This has brought him widespread popularity, which, as he said, pleases him.

He has a special connection to Nikšić, not only because his mother is from the village of Morakovo in Župa, from Dragnić, so he used his arrival in Nikšić to visit the students of the "Dušan Bojović" school in Župa, but also because of the Actor's Festival and the help he received when he was in an almost hopeless situation.

"For my birthday, November 17, 1995, I quit my job at Atelje 212. I had no chance of surviving - no apartment, my wife still studying, a small daughter, but I decided to treat myself to freedom for my birthday, since I already had nothing."

He did the play “Detinjarije” and after 11 performances in Belgrade, in front of an almost empty auditorium, he arrived in Nikšić, at the Actor's Festival and won three awards: audience, jury and critics. And then, a year and 12 days after the premiere, he did not play the play in an empty hall: due to a cashier's mistake, 512 tickets were sold, out of 383 seats, because the cashier sold tickets for both the small and large stages.

"Those awards, and another award I received at the Gardoš festival, gave me some confidence and then I accepted the invitation I had previously to return to Atelje 212 with that play. Now I was not in a situation where someone was doing me a favor, it was an award-winning play. If I had given up on those 11 performances without an audience, that play would not exist, and it is still alive, I would not exist either, i.e. I would have lost faith. I know that it is the best thing I have done, but if I had stopped, I would have lost faith in it. This is proof that perseverance in something you believe in truly pays off. It came back to me in the best possible way. Nikšić helped me survive those difficult years, when I was without a job, alone against everyone in the theater," said Stanić, adding that he always followed his intuition and that time has shown that he was never wrong.

He believes that the problem is the general indolence and decay, in society in general, that we are used to "anything goes, that anything is possible", and that it doesn't matter if something is not entirely true, if procedures are bypassed. This is why, says the actor, director, screenwriter, producer, many things collapse.

His favorite role is a future one, one that he has yet to play, because, as he pointed out, that's the only way his job makes sense.

"I've seen many actors who are slaves to their past successes and have never played anything since. And I've also met great actors who had no relationship with it, but only looked to the future. I realized that if society, not just an actor or an artist, understood that there is no point in the past, that there are only different interpretations, because events from the past cannot be influenced, and that what we can influence is this now and this future, by doing or not doing, that this is what we must be interested in, so that we can be better off."

He tries, as he emphasized, to look at the performances from his professor's perspective. Dejan Mijač, because he knew, like Ivo Andrić, to "get to the core, to penetrate beyond the surface, and find the truth", but also to stick to the lesson learned that the partner on the stage is always right, because only then can he honestly respond to what is offered.

"When a person closes himself off in his prejudices and goes his own way, it leads to ruin - in all relationships. If we started from the fact that the other side might be right, we would find a way to resolve the conflict," says the actor, who celebrated when he received his first negative review because it freed him from the fear that everything had to be done perfectly.

The monodrama he performs with throughout the former Yugoslavia, as well as abroad, is "The Bridge on the Drina", which he decided on by chance, at the suggestion of the then director of the Banski Dvor Cultural Center. Vide Grandić.

"The series 'Nobel Prize Winner' created a lot of interest in that play and now I don't have to do anything without it to act, as much as there is interest. Actors who have stopped acting in the theater don't know if they are affecting the audience anymore, they lose their significance and play some insignificant roles, because they don't check the effect. That's why theater is good, because it always checks you."

Stanić believes that art is more powerful than reality, and he requires students to read Andrić's "Conversation with Goya," because he believes that all wisdom is summed up there.

Applause from Sterijino Pozorje for an unforgettable moment

Although he knows that applause is a convention, an agreement, and that attention and concentration are a greater reward than applause, he remembers one applause in particular. Back in 1983, he jumped into the play “Gloria”, based on the text by Ranko Marinković, and he had only seven days to prepare the role. The premiere was at the closing of Sterijino Pozorje, in honor of the awarded actors, and he was so nervous that not only did he make a mistake, he wanted to run off the stage twice, but he didn’t even hear the applause.

"I messed up everything. The hall is full, 970 seats, and everyone gets applause, all 40-50 extras, but not me. At least that's what I thought. And at one point I see that everyone on stage, including Svetlana Bojković, is looking at me and clapping. Suddenly I heard everyone clapping, I got a standing ovation. Everyone in the audience knew that I had 'jumped in' and prepared the show in seven days, and all my mistakes were forgiven. I got the biggest applause of my life, but I didn't hear it because of stage fright."

That was the last time, he says, he entered the main entrance. After that, he chose the side entrance as his entrance to the theater. And he, although he doesn't want to admit it, was the main man on stage. Just as he was then, so is he today, and the applause, the sincere and well-deserved one, has lasted for more than four decades.