In Slovakia, the conflict between the artistic community and the Ministry of Culture has been going on for the third year. Many artists criticize the head of the department, Martina Šimkovičová, and her general secretary, Lukáš Machala, for their incompetence or destruction of the fragile support system. However, a certain part of society criticizes actors and singers that they should not get involved in politics, to which v responded Ady Hajdu (62).
“It should be remembered that which actors have achieved what. Ronald Reagan laid down communism. Those who made the revolution, of course, were students, but the actors put their faces there to create freedom here. I tell those people that even a peasant can comment on politics, and so can an actor. That’s the same position. I am also a citizen,” explained his view on the matter.
The popular actor further appealed to people who send artists to shovel or document goods to take a moment to look around and realize that art is all around them and someone has to make it. “Let them hang their pictures, they don’t listen to the radio or record, they don’t watch TV, they don’t read books. And what will they be left with? Nothing will be left of them. Just animals that are just surviving.” he added.
“We have art all around us and we have artists who need to express themselves. Because that is also our country. We pay taxes here and then they steal those taxes. So we have to comment on the fact that when someone steals what we hand over here, I think that is our civic duty. To speak out about what is wrong. There is a politician in the theater. There are also entertaining shows, but it is always a criticism of something, including that citizen. That’s why we laugh at them. Because that’s who we are,” concluded Hajdu.
Vladimír Hajdu was born on August 5, 1963 in Bratislava. In 1987, he graduated in acting at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava, later he was on a six-month internship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Madrid.
He already demonstrated his talent in the VŠMU theater during his studieswhere he played, for example, in the productions Lost Letter, Verná nevera or Talenty a ctitelia. Subsequently, he joined the Children’s and Youth Theater in Trnava, where he performed between 1987 and 1990. In the Trnava theater, the audience could see him, for example, in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Cromeling’s Passion as Ice or the play Mayakovsky’s Theme, which was awarded as the play of the year in 1988.
Thanks to his superb performances, he came to the attention of the audience and seamlessly transitioned to the professional scene. He very quickly established himself on the theater scene as a multi-faceted actor with a strong sense of the absurd, a grotesque laugh and a sarcastic characterization of the everyday. He is an actor with a strong individuality.
Since 1990, he has been a member of the Astorka – Korzo’90 theater. For example, he played in the productions Armageddon na Grbe, Les, Matka, Stories from the Vienna Forest, Shop na Korze, Murder with an ax in St. Petersburg, Cyrano, Cabaret, Cherry Orchard, Flying Snow, The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am, Auditor or in the game Thank you for killing me! For the character of Valmont in the Kvarteto production, he won the Dosky 2001 award for the best male acting performance. He also performs at Studio L+S in the performances Meno, My good friend and Illusionists.
His film debut was Kára full of pain (1985). A year later, Ady Hajda made his first film with director Miloslav Luther, who entrusted him with the main role in the three-part television film Boy in Arms (1985 – 1986). In 1989, he played again in Luther’s film – Chodník cze Dunaj. The film won the Monegasque Red Cross Award in 1990 at the Monte Carlo International Television Film Festival.
Hajdu also appeared in series such as Silvanovci (1996), Office in the Rose Garden (2007), Second Breath (2011), Chlapi neplačú (2013), Kolabs (2015), Tajné životy (2017), Once Upon a Time (2022). He also acted in many TV shows such as Partička or Milujem Slovensko. He lent his voice as a dubber to many well-known foreign actors, including John Cusack, Edward Norton, Eddie Murphy or Hugh Grant. Ady Hajdu is married and has two children. In his spare time, apart from his family, he mainly plays golf.
