We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karolina Kwaśniak a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Karolina, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I associate keeping my creativity alive with self-care. When it comes to artistic practice I get inspired by going to the movie theater to watch films on a big screen (one of my favourite movie theaters is Vista in Hollywood!), watching TV shows, visiting museums, reading Polish poetry, collaging or doing yoga and meditating. I also love walking around the city, taking the public transport, going to the park and just observing people – their interactions, their relationships. I often make a story in my mind about them and try to figure out why I’m overhearing this particular conversation or why someone is happy or sad in this exact moment. I find it incredibly fueling to just observe the world around me, look at life that’s happening right before my eyes, and notice small things that give me joy.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m an actress working professionally in the field of theater and film, both in the States and in Europe. Some of my latest productions are: an opera-theater piece “Umbra” that premiered in March 2025 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica or a couple of short films that are still in postproduction e.g. “Life Support” directed by J. Tolbert or “Madman’s Diary” directed by M. Li. An upcoming theater production I will act in is “Raja Oedipus” and it will have its premiere on the 1st Gamelan Festival in Los Angeles in June 2025.
I love acting, because it challenges me to be bold and vulnerable, and gives me freedom to express myself. I find it extremely special that as a performing artist I get to create worlds and characters that are hopefully relatable and complex. That’s what I aim for in my practice. Additionally, I have so many opportunities to meet and work with inspiring, creative and kind people and learn from them. I think collaboration is an aspect of this work that can sometimes be challenging, but overall is incredibly rewarding, beautiful and inspiring.
Movement work is another aspect of being an actress that I find exciting and very fruitful. I choreograph movement scores and hopefully one day I will create a whole movement piece and put it up on stage or film. Additionally, I’m a trained opera singer and I have voice over experience. I love working with voice, because it allows me further growth and expands my abilities as an actress, and honestly is just so much fun!
I find acting incredibly versatile and am thankful for it, because it allows me to grow in so many ways, to be a better human being, to love myslef and others and shed a light on the complexities of humanity and the world we live in.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The first one that comes to my mind is a quality that was very present in the moment when I finally decided to focus solely on my professional acting career. It was a mix of determination, not caring so much about the outcome, but rather enjoying the fact that I decided to take a path I wanted to take. To relish in the fact that it was only my individual decision and I was in control of it. That I was fully in sync with myself and just going for what I wanted.
The second one was accepting the process of my artistic growth and allowing myself to make mistakes. With that I was able to give myself fully to the craft and open myself up to failure, accepting it as natural part of growth.
The third one was redefining what success means to me.
For folks who are early in their journey I would just advise to stay true to themselves, not be afraid of change and going for what they want. Also opening themselves up to a possibility that their artistic fulfillment might be found somewhere they don’t expect.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
Reflecting on my work and my career path. Asking myself questions: “What kind of actress do you want to be? What stories do you want to be a part of? What is important to you?” and then making a conscious choice to pursue the things I’m interested in and to find collaborators and fellow artists who share similar interests. To keep on finding courage to stay true to myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.karolinakwasniak.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karo_kwasniak/
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