Thursday, November 17, morning.
Hana Leslau's apartment in the center of Tel Aviv.
The actress and comedian is about to go to one of the last rehearsals for the show "The Craft of Life" in Bhima, which will air the day after tomorrow (Thursday), and goes over to say hello to her dog, Ocho.
"At 9:20 I intend to run back to the gym. I approach my dog and say to him: 'Come say hello, mom is going to work.' He lay with his eyes open, I thought he was awake. He lay as if he was resting. But he didn't come. I said To him, 'Come on, say hello'. Ocho is an old dog, 15 years old. Although he is handsome, he looks really good, but he is already old. I approach him and see that he is dead," she says.
"In the play 'The Craft of Life', my character, Liviba Popoch, says to her husband Yona: 'What would you care, Yona, to live a little longer'. So I say to my dog: 'What would you care, live a little longer, and die next week? I've had such a busy week!'" says Leslau, "and that's how joy and sadness mingled. It's a part of life. But he lived a good life, 15 years, he was a good person, my dog, a real soul. He died like a righteous man, in his sleep."
The loss of Leslaw really came in a busy week.
Tonight (Tuesday) she will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from AM - the Union of Israeli Artists - for the year 2017;
Tomorrow you will appear in the second part of the program "The winning kitchen VIP" of Keshet 12;
And two days later, as mentioned, the show "The Craft of Life" will be performed on the stage.
And we haven't talked yet about the acclaimed series "Who's heard of Hava and Naveh" by yes starring that aired last month, and about her stand-up show that will be back on New Year's Eve.
You once said you don't know how to cry,
And that even at your father's funeral you didn't cry.
Has it changed since then?
Did you cry over the death of your dog?
"It didn't change. And I didn't cry. When something like this happens, I become a soldier in the field. I'm very operative at a moment like this. I called the vet to find out what to do. I had to run back, and of course I wouldn't leave a body at home. They gave me the phone of a private company, Adam He comes, takes it, puts it in a bag and buries it. We will also be put in a bag. But a slightly bigger bag. On the first day I pushed, I ran to the rehearsal in the Bhima, then I ran to find an outfit for the AMI ceremony.
And it wasn't until the next day that I lost my token, and I mourned."
"My dog died like a righteous man, in his sleep."
Hana Leslau (Photo: Maged Gozni)
So you didn't cry and yet you felt sad.
How much of this sadness is related to the fact that you have chosen to live alone and without a partner for about 25 years, and have actually only lived with your dog.
"A dog is not a partner. It's a friend. It's better than a husband. It's unconditional love. It wags its tail every time you go and come back. But everything is good. Life goes on. You know, I'm the daughter of Holocaust survivors, so I have a different attitude For everything."
The relationship with the felt is a topic that is extensively dealt with in the play "The Work of Life" by Hanoch Levin.
Yona Popoch (Yigal Naor) wakes up one night next to his wife Laviba (Hanna Laslau and Miki Kam, alternately) and decides he is fed up with his life.
He turns his wife out of bed, abuses her and threatens to leave her, thinking that there is a more beautiful life elsewhere, but also realizing that this life is not meant for him.
The show was directed by Moshe Kaptan and also stars Dov Reiser.
What are your starting points with the character you play in "The Craft of Life", Leviba, and to what extent did you find similarities between your relationships with your ex-partners - to Levin's texts about being alone versus being in a relationship?
"When building a role, you need to have a storehouse of things you've experienced to take from it to the stage, and I have somewhere to take it from. It's easier for me to cry on stage than in life. Every married couple will find themselves in these texts, especially couples who have lived together for many years. There is nothing to do, the reality You gnaw at every romance. And there are fights. And there are situations like in a play where sometimes he wants to go and I beg for my soul not to go, and sometimes I tell him - then go, if that's what you want. I was once married, I know that. They asked me why I got divorced , and I answered, 'Because I got married.' I go through this life without a hug. Well, the hug from the crowd is also a hug."
In the 70th year of her life, Hana Leslau is definitely getting a hug from the audience as well as the industry.
Tonight, as mentioned, she will be awarded a prize for Ami's Lifetime Achievement for the year 2018, in a ceremony that will be held at the Petach Tikva Culture Hall.
One of the other winners is Mickey Kam, and this is another link in a long chain of intersections in the careers of the two entertainment legends.
At the beginning of their journey, they were members of the Theater Girls Quartet.
Later they played together in "Givat Halfon does not answer".
In the previous decade, they shared the role of Mrs. Thenardier in "The Wretched of Life", as of this week, as mentioned, they again share a role in "The Craft of Life", and here they are also sharing in the evening ceremony.
"Look, in the 'craft of life' the choice was mine," Leslau clarifies, "I asked to have a double, because there are other things I do, like my solo presentation. I asked Miki to share it with me, and I'm very happy about that. She does too More things. I'll do the first shows."
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"The hug from the audience is also a hug."
Hana Leslau (Photo: Mika Gurovitz)
In addition to you and Miki Kam, another graduate of the film "Givat Halfon", Nitza Shaul will also receive the AM award tonight. In an interview in 2010 you said that on independence days when "Halfon" is always broadcast on television, you hide at home. Does this still happen?
" Every independence day they project it.
In 2010 I was much fuller.
So I hid, because after they screen it again, they turn to me and say: 'Wow, Hanna Laslow, how come you used to be thin on TV, what happened?'
Since I lost weight, there are fewer such reactions."
Which of the directors you worked with was the most annoying - Uri Zohar? Assi Dayan? Someone else?
"Asi no. Uri Zohar was a wild man. But in the movie 'Save the Lifeguard' he already started putting on tefillin. The late Zhenya (Yevgeni Aryeh) was a huge director at the Gesher Theater - and a crazy one.
It was a Gulag regime there, they didn't give breaks.
In other theaters in Israel, they work for 10 minutes and then an hour break.
The bridge works for hours and you have a 15 minute break.
I said to him: Zhenya, did they even give a break at the Red Cross?
He said: NO BREAK.
Gulag regime - but they put on amazing shows."
Between the awarding of the Emmy Award for starring in the premiere of "The Craft of Life", Leslau's winning week includes an appearance in the second round of "The VIP Winning Kitchen" on Arc 12. After Ricky Gal and Jordan Shoham won the first round, Leslau will compete With her best friend, restaurant critic Niv Gilboa, and they will compete against Moshe Detz and his son Yoad, Shai Avivi and his wife Michal, Yigal Guetta and his daughter Simcha, and Tal Talmon and Liran Strauber.
The judges will remain Haim Cohen and Ruthie Brodo.
"Even in the food program they will hear my big mouth," says Leslau.
"I say what I think. Do you know how many hours Testimonies filmed? I say the truth there, what I think, in a funny way, not in a serious way like Ricky Gal. I don't talk like I'm criticizing Michelin food."
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Lifetime.
Hana Leslau as Clara at the television awards ceremony (photo: Maged Gozni)
There is a rumor in the industry that there was a conflict between you and your friend Niv Gilboa.
Is the rumor true?
"Yes, there was. But no conflict. These are stressful hours. It's 18 hours of filming. And I was already going crazy. I said, how much time can you waste on a piece of food? This is not Spinoza, this is not an analysis of a play by Hanoch Levin. They talk and take pictures from this angle and from that angle about A piece of food. So at Testimonies I got upset. They said they don't take pictures. They probably took pictures. I got upset and opened my pants. How much talk can you grind on each dish? They talked and talked for hours, so I said: Enough! Enough!! How much is possible?! I went crazy. It's crazy, I don't know if I'll do a reality show again."
You once said about food: "Drugs are hard to get. Food is easy. Food is also a kind of drug."
"That's right, it's a drug, mainly sugars. When I was in the '12 steps' group, before I lost weight, they said that drugs are hard to get but food is easy, and that food is a kind of drug that you are constantly tempted with on TV, in books and more."
One of the peaks of Laszlo's career is her winning the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 for her role in the film "Free Zone" directed by Amos Gitai in which she starred alongside Natalie Portman.
"You know, the same year I won the Cannes Film Festival - I didn't win with the film in Israel. There is no prophet in his city."
You didn't prepare a speech for a possible win at the ceremony.
"Indeed, I didn't. I'm Polish, so I said to myself - until I have the award in my hand, I won't believe that I received it. At that time, it was the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust. My mother was still alive then. She had cancer and a few months later she died. On of the ceremony, I asked Amos if I could mention the Holocaust in the speech. He told me - this is your moment, you can say whatever you want. So I decided to incorporate it. I went on stage. Rafe Fiennes gave me the award. I said: 'I share I share the award with my mother, who is a holocaust survivor from Auschwitz, and with all the survivors of the holocaust who are still alive. I also share the award with all the victims on both sides: the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's time we sit down and solve the problems between us.' exciting".
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"Reality is a symbol of every romance."
Hana Leslau Vigal Naor in the play "The Craft of Life" at the Bhima Theater (Photo: Redi Rubinstein)
Oddly enough, after your prestigious super win at Cannes, the offers for you for roles in Israeli cinema did not increase particularly.
"It's true. It's an important award. Filmmakers consider this award even more than the Oscar. There weren't many offers from films. But it's all good. Look, at this age I have to write a script to get a role."
You won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, now you are acting in a play written by Hanoch Levin Bahima and many more wonderful achievements as a serious and good actress.
And yet among the general public you are still recognized more as an entertainer than as an actress.
Does it bother you?
And do you define yourself more as a comedian or an actress?
"I define myself as both. It's like asking me which of your children do you like more. Even in the movie 'Free Zone', which was not a comedic role, I brought comedic elements of myself in improvisation in the filming. And for me it's perfectly fine if you see me more as a comedian. I Comedian. I am involved in comedy-drama. Usually great comedians, sorry for the lack of modesty, are also good dramatic actors."
Zvika Pick, who was your partner, died last month Av.
What moments do you remember from your relationship?
Dodo Topaz and now Zvika.
It's getting closer to me."
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"Great comedians are also good dramatic actors."
Leslau in "Who Heard of a Farm and a Nava" (Photo: Avishag Shaar Yeshav)
First of all just health.
In June you will celebrate your 70th birthday. You once said that as a child you didn't celebrate birthdays.
"I didn't celebrate birthdays as a child. I came from a religious home, and religious people don't celebrate birthdays. But they did celebrate my Bat Mitzvah. My father invited 200 people to a Bat Mitzvah, but they were mostly Holocaust survivors. Even now I don't make an issue of my birthday."
The honoree's 70th birthday together with receiving the AM award tonight reminded me of the fight you had with the late uncle Dotan over the skit about the AM retirement home. Tell us about it.
"It started when both his uncle and I were told to write a skit about Ami's nursing home, because Ami at that time, which included Ily Gorlitsky and Shashi Keshet, collected funds for a nursing home, they said they bought a plot of land in Evan Yehuda. I don't know where they went These funds. I don't know any trace of this thing. So they told both me and his uncle to write a text on the subject. His uncle did his segment on TV with Rivka Michaeli, they chose my segment for AM's evening.
His uncle took it very hard.
He showed his segment, I showed mine, and on TV they thought my segment was better.
And there was a trial at AM. The rest is history. But I wasn't angry with him. Later he was the head of AM, and before his death we participated together in the show 'The Congress of Funny Women' with Odia Koren, Osnat Vyshinsky.
The last rehearsal was at my house in Herzliya Pituach.
We went outside, he said he was very tired, and asked me: 'You didn't come to see my solo show, little demon.'
I told him ok, I'll see.
Then he went on vacation in Turkey and fell into cardiac arrest.
It was very unfortunate."
Your character Leviba says to Jonah in "The Work of Life": "We still have to grow old together, I forgot. All the hard, arduous work, the work of old age and wear and tear, the day-to-day work of despair, the diseases, the dwindling strength, and the fear - oh the fear of death that creeps in the nights The long ones without sleep - it's not fair that you leave everything on my shoulders, I don't have the strength on my own."
How afraid of death are you?
"I'm not there yet. They say that 70 is the new 50. You can also see from the work crop that I'm really a very active and working person who is in demand and sought after. So I'm not yet in the job of getting old and worn out. I have no fear. My mother told me not to be afraid at all My whole approach is to be afraid at all, and that's a good thing. They say that the fear of death is like death. He who is afraid - dies dozens of times in his life. He who is not afraid - comes, takes it, and that's it. I don't think about death. I don't have time to think about death either." .
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"How many talks you can grind on each dish".
Leslau and Niv Gilboa in the photo shoot for the program "The Winning Kitchen VIP" (Photo: Eran Levy, Keshet 12)
"I don't hide my age," Laslow adds.
"Young people start dating me, and I tell them: 'Do you know how old I am? 70 years old! Who wants to sleep with his grandmother?' My sweet, you are my son's age."
She also starred in the comedy series "Nebsu", which was recently resurrected on Netflix, and was in the top ten most watched series for more than a month.
And this after Network 13 previously abused the placements of the series and buried it.
"True, the network really abused the series. The network treated the series like a cork, they pushed it where they had a hole, between reality and reality. They damaged the viewing habits. The network killed the series. Now on Netflix, since the series came on, it exploded. Boom."
And another series that has received a wave of renewed appreciation is "Our Song", in which you played alongside Ninet and Ren Denker.
There has been a nostalgic wave on social media in recent years.
"It's not just nostalgia. There is a new generation that now sees 'our song.' are good".
There are now a lot of unifications of bands and bands in Israeli music.
Which series or movie that you participated in would you like to see a comeback in a sequel or remake?
Givat Halfon 2?
A seventh season for "The Golden Girls"?
"Cabbage Head" revival?
Something else?
"Look, things like the 'Golden Girls' series can be found online. And people watch it over and over again, each episode stands on its own. If Uri Gross writes a sequel to 'Our Song' - then maybe. But not a person who looks back. I'm going forward, forward . I don't find room for comebacks. When 'It's It' got together at first it seemed pathetic to me. At the time they were more kicking and biting."
Unfortunately, you will no longer be able to reunite with J.
"True. I once met Kobi Oz and he told me that I was one of the pioneers in that in the song 'Marioma' the Ashkenazim embraced the Mizrachi singer."
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"there is no prophet in his city".
Hanna Leslau, Natalie Portman and Amos Gitai during the filming of the movie "Free Zone" (Photo: Creative Commons)
In the series "Who has heard of Hava and Nava" your character lives with a sense of being missed.
Did you also have feelings of missing out on something?
"I took Nava's feeling of missing and regret from other things in my personal life - in my case, I took missing the family from my life, I was not able to keep an entire family of father-mother-children. Karma is a beach. That's how it happened."
Your character's big mouth, Nava, complicated her.
Where did your big mouth get you into?
"Yes, of course it got complicated. But over the years you also learn from constructive criticism. I saw the phrase somewhere: 'Criticism builds walls in the heart.' The truth is sometimes, and you don't always have to tell the truth. Once I went with Miki Kam on a trip to Greece, at the port I was holding Miki's camera, and a guard accused me of stealing her camera. I tried to explain to him that she let me keep it. So I told him, 'Jump me' They took me to the police, and then a trial in which I came out vindicated. The judge was the one who later became the state auditor, the late Micha Lindenstrauss."
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"Fortunately, I cross generations."
Leslau (Photo: Avi Waldman)
After the governmental upheaval, are you worried about where the country is going?
"You don't understand. It's unbelievable where we are. It's a hallucination, a bad hallucination, a bad hallucination, that the boys from the hills are criminals in senior positions. My father used to say about it in Yiddish: 'This is how we look.'"
"People say 'I will leave the country'. What does it mean to leave? This is my place, this is my language, this is my country, which I love," she says.
"The stage is our escapism, it's a form of escape. I don't want drama in my life, I just want drama on stage."
What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you on stage?
And is it the moment when you accidentally dropped your skirt and in the middle of a performance you're left with underwear?
"It happened when we performed together," she laughs.
"I did a segment where Miki stood up the singer and I'm the pianist apologizing that she's even alive. I entered the stage, accidentally my skirt fell and I was left with my underwear. And I immediately closed."
"I almost never blacked out on stage. But it happened to me maybe only once, when I did Clara in a solo show, where you are completely alone on stage and there is no one to help you. There is only the pianist Chaim next to me on stage. I say about The stage: 'And they say that...' and then you get stuck on these words, 'They say that...'. And trying to improvise on the verb they say: 'And they say that... well, then they say... they say...' Then I said to the audience: 'I don't know what I'm saying now! ". Haim the pianist threw some sentence at me that didn't help me that much. I told him, Haim, it doesn't help me. That's how I blacked out. In the end it came back to me."
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"I don't want drama in my life, I just want drama on stage."
Leslau (Photo: Mika Gorovitz)
What would Hannah Leslau, the AM awardee, say to Hannah Leslau of the beginning?
"I would say to my beginning self: keep believing in yourself.
I always believed in myself.
My parents, my brothers - didn't believe in me.
My father told me: actress, actress, what will you do for a living?
Because actors were then people who lived from hand to mouth.
In my stand-up I say that only during the Corona period do I realize that my father was right.
Along the way there were many moments where I could have broken down.
So I would say to myself: keep believing in yourself.
And keep loving life.
The truth is that I left with a lot of confidence and love.
My father used to say in Yiddish: 'You are the most beautiful, the best and the smartest'.
You go out with it in life and it's a tremendous strength.
Everything starts there, in childhood."
And if you've already quoted a Yiddish proverb, do you have a nice saying for dessert for your 70th birthday?
"My father used to sing me a song (she sings in Yiddish and then translates): 'What happened was and won't come back/ the years pass and the hair turns gray/ you put on make-up, get ready and make yourself beautiful/ and no one notices it except you.' I asked my father: why You're singing this to me?! I didn't understand then, why sing to me when no one pays attention to you. So in my case they pay attention to me, but less than once already."
Hana Leslaw will stage the stand-up evening "Who's afraid of Camp Leslaw?"
On December 31 at the Soldier's House in Tel Aviv, on January 6 at the Herzliya Performing Arts Hall, on February 3 at the Kfar Saba Cultural Hall, and on February 4 at the Bat Yam Cultural Hall
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