Slovak actress Anna Šišková (65) she grew up in Vrátná dolina together with four brothers. Her father wanted her to become a lawyer, but she started acting in a volunteer theater group while still studying at the Púchov grammar school. Even though she wanted to become an actress since she was a child, she eventually graduated from the Faculty of Education in Trnava. In session revealed why one of her brothers did not get to the University of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava.
“I received a paper saying that I was not accepted. I went to the study department, I couldn’t think of it. I filed an appeal saying why wasn’t I accepted? What did I do wrong? The lady secretly showed me the paper that was written on it. And it was written there – not recommended, bad personnel profile,” said Šišková and continued.
“That was exactly the year my brother went abroad illegally. He studied dentistry in Olomouc, and there was a secret underground Catholic church there. They had mass there and somehow they got him out. He was running through Yugoslavia at that time, he was almost shot. He went to the Vatican and studied to become a priest there. Then they put all of that in my report, I don’t know how it got there…” concluded the popular actress.
But while studying in Trnava she went to the local theater and got to know the actors, she wanted to be on stage, but she lacked professional experience. She wanted to get them first in the theater in Spišská Nová Ves, but she did not pass the casting. They gave her the opportunity at the Jonáš Záborský Theater in Prešov (1980-1981). She got her acting basics from visiting film director Ivan Balaďa and from older colleagues.
From Prešov, she went to the Trnava Theater for Children and Youth (today’s Ján Palárik Theater in Trnava), where she began with the role of Shakespeare’s Juliet. She met and worked with director and later husband Juraj Nvot and Blah Uhlár in the Trnava theater.
She became a member of the Bratislava scene Astorka – Korzo ’90 in 1991. She demonstrated her acting talent in, for example, the theater plays Armageddon na Grbe, Ujo Váňa, Obchod na korze, Priatelky, Platonov, or Love in Crimea. In 2001 and 2003, she won theater awards of the season – DOSKY for her acting creations.
She experienced her film premiere at the age of 18. Stanislav Párnický cast her in his film Professor’s Daughter (1981). In the 80s of the last century, she also played, for example, in Dušan Hanák’s film Quiet Joy and in 1990 in the film Dávajte si zozor!, directed by Jozef Slovák and Jozef Heriban.
She came to the attention of Czech audiences after the offer of director Jan Hřebejk to star in his film We have to help. For the role of Mária Čížková in this film, she won the Czech Lion for the best female performance in a leading role. The film was also nominated for an Oscar. Among others, her filmography consists of the films Krajinka, Kruté radosti, Konečná stationa, or Špina, directed by her daughter Tereza Nvotová.
She also starred in many series such as Airport, Place in Life, Hot Blood, Secret Lives or Sisters. In 2017, she won for the character of Mária Horváthová in the series Tajné životy II. the jury’s creative premium at the awarding of national awards for the best audiovisual works of Igric.
In Anna Šišková’s family, the art of cooking is passed down from generation to generation. Her grandmother cooked in Terchová for the priest and the teacher and was an accomplished cook. The actress turned these skills and knowledge into a book about cooking. Anna Šišková was married twice and has two daughters. Musician and actress Dorota Nvotová and film director and also actress Tereza Nvotová.
