It all began the Polish Bieszczady Mountains, where the temperature would drop to –27°C, and ended under the palm trees of California, in the company of A-list names constituting a large part of the Hollywood food chain. “It was a challenging experience, but I don’t regret it, because I met a lot of interesting people, filled with freedom, imagination, remarkable ways of thinking,” Joanna Kulig tells me as she recalls the Oscar promotion campaign of Cold War in Los Angeles.

Following the success of Paweł Pawlikowski’s picture, the actor’s career swiftly gained momentum. Across the Atlantic, she became a critics’ favourite overnight, joined an American agency that brings together the most coveted names in the industry, and was subsequently cast in The Eddy, a miniseries partly directed by Damien Chazelle, known for his La La Land and Whiplash. Everything was unfolding with meteoric speed, while her life was once again turned upside down by the arrival of her baby boy, Jan. Shortly before the premiere of the miniseries at the International Berlin Film Festival, Mateusz Demski asked Joanna Kulig about finding balance amid an intense professional life, as well as about jazz, which sits deep inside the Polish actor.

Mateusz Demski: There is no other way around it, I just have to ask you about jazz first. How did you come about such a passion?

Joanna Kulig: Music has always been present in my family. My grandma sang beautifully, knew a lot of folk songs, and at the same time at home we would listen to the radio a lot, including jazz programmes broadcast by Dwójka [channel two of the Polish Radio broadcaster, dedicated to classical music, culture and the arts – ed. note]. In my childhood, I often visited Krynica-Zdrój,