I was born on September 14, 1983. in Belgrade, more precisely on Topčider Hill. I lived there until the second year, and then I moved to Banovo Brdo. As a kid, I had to have one sport to practice and another extracurricular activity. And that was acting. No one had the ambition to become an actor, nor did I show it, it was only important that I had something to get me off the street. The closest to my house was the acting studio run by Bata Paskaljević and Ružica Sokić. However, Šilja, who ran the Šumadija Cultural Center, taught us the most lessons. That's where I took my first acting steps.
I was in that group for a year, and when it broke up, I heard from my aunt about an audition at Radio Belgrade, with Mika Aleksić. I was in the fifth grade. I came completely unprepared, I knew the song "Obsession" by the Beat Street group, and I learned another recitation. However, I managed to enrol and stayed there until the Academy.

Those who joined the group later have no idea what it was like when we were at Radio Belgrade. It was a state institution, so Mika was much more dangerous there and our classes were completely different. We didn't have classical acting, we didn't prepare plays. In fact, Mika taught us to become human there. He talked to us like adults. Those were very interesting stories, and we had extremely interesting homework. For example, one of them was to describe in detail all the roofs of the buildings we see on the way home. Well, then people too. It so opens and awakens. Of course, Mika called me names and sent me to wash. After I started wearing braces, he called me even more names, he called me Limeni. That broke all my complexes for the future.

It's a strange feeling. You go to class, you don't feel like it, but you go anyway. I would literally do anything not to go to class, and when it's over, I can't wait for the next one. Oh, and the parents were afraid of Mika! Everyone hid when they were waiting for us, because Mika forbade them to pick us up as if we were babies in kindergarten. We have all made strategies for where we are. From the beginning, I was in a group with Peter Benčin, in that younger one, which started earlier. When we outgrew it at one point, Mika started telling us that it was time to move to an older group that included Vuk Kostić, Katarina Radivojević and others, but we didn't want to. Here we were the "champions", the main ones, and we never moved to the older group. After the bombing, the group at Radio Belgrade ceased to exist, and a private studio was opened where we also had lessons with Bilje Mašić, and then Kalina Kovačević, Borka Tomović, Nada Macanković came... I also earned my first money from acting with Mika. Everyone who needed children for a recording or a performance came to the group. So, in the eighth grade, I got a role in a series about computers. I bought the most expensive roller skates at the time.

Survival in a group

When I think of the first success, I think of Mika again. Any survival in the group is a great success. There were various rules. If you are late three times - bye. If you don't do your homework - bye. If you don't read the book - goodbye again. If you are fooling yourself - again. If you're bad at school, the same. I couldn't always follow all those rules, and every time I stayed in the group was a great success. Because, in addition to home and street upbringing, I consider Mika's upbringing the most important. That determined my path. I have no idea what I would have done if I hadn't been there, although we weren't strictly acting. That made me conscious and determined.

Mika does not prepare the whole group for admission, because he believes that he can prepare everyone to be good for that one time and enroll. And whether he is for it or not, will only be revealed later, and he did not want to make such a mistake. Of course, whoever wanted it, he prepared it. It was very traumatic for me too, but not because of his rudeness. He told us that at home we have parents and family who tell us that we are the most beautiful and the smartest and that he is there to tell us what is wrong. I also needed someone who didn't know me to tell me if I was up for it or not for my confidence. So I left the group before the admission. At first, I went to work on my own, and then for the last ten days I went to Vladan Gajović. He really helped me a lot. He even changed my monologue. I worked with Mika for a long time as Anđelka from "Miracle in Šargan", and there I had a small block. And I was still young and unsure of myself, and when you hear what's wrong with you... Vladan Gajović refreshed my self-confidence and I'm very grateful to him for that. I didn't prepare brilliantly, but I was natural. I mixed up the names of the writers, and the songs, I was in a mess. But what they recognized, and that's what Ana Đorđević, who watched the reception, told me, is my naturalness. It turns out that it doesn't matter how long you prepare.

This is my team

I have the best memories from college. It flew by so quickly, that in the fourth year, we were all shocked that it was over. Even though you're there all day, the time is very full, so it's all interesting. It's a great feeling - class, people you're with all day, problems, solving problems... You really make friends for life there. Then you make colleagues, and then you make real friends, your team.

When I got my first engagement, and when I was recognized for the first time on the street, I can't say that I was surprised, surprised or confused, everything came naturally to me somehow. The first thing I did was the series "Mixed Marriage". Older colleagues warned me about the potential of such a series in terms of great popularity. Many of them had done a lot in the theater until then, and no one recognized them, and after two recorded episodes they became I don't know how popular. After all, it was my first job, so I was not surprised by its popularity. After that, every subsequent job went to the account of the "Mixed Marriage".

And who am I?

Now I'm kind of forced to go upstream, because I really don't like this new wave of "modern" theater, which proclaims itself to be modern, and condemns everything that is classical theater. I know it's not good to go upstream, that's what the professor told us at the university, but I'm not spineless. In principle, I am quite confused, because it seems to me that the way of acting itself has changed now. You don't have to change your voice for a character anymore... Mrgud Radovanović told me his impressions of how different it is when he listens to Miša Janketić on the public address system when he's on stage, and to us young people, which seemed to him like a conversation from the buffet. Now it breaks, whether to be natural or not. I'm from a newer generation, so I think naturalness is what makes the audience trust me. Or, as Pele says, when someone comments "You're good, but somehow you're still you..." - well of course it's me, it should be me, me representing that character. Now I think a lot about whether this naturalness is a shortcoming or a quality. When you look at an older actor, whatever he says you have to believe him, because he has that look, he has experience, and a young man's look is kind of all over the place. Also, I could never be just a contractor, I also like to create when I'm making a role.

Acting with red eyes

I don't prepare the roles in a geeky way, with a pile of books or something, somehow it all comes to me naturally, spontaneously. I simply think about the character, about the plot, it all somehow fits together in rehearsals. The only example of it taking a very long time is the movie "Haircut", but that's all due to circumstances, because we were filming for more than two years, and in the meantime, all kinds of things happened among the fans, so every day I had the opportunity to come back again. on that character of Relja. I also found "Mandragola" interesting, and the Dog in "Blue Bird"... However, the only moment of catharsis I experienced was in "The Great Drama". Such is the theme of the play, it simply touches me as a human being. After that last scene, my hands are really shaking, my eyes are red. Before, I was embarrassed when others talked about how they couldn't calm down after a certain role, and, well, in the end, I experienced that too. It meant a lot to me because I was already starting to worry, wondering if I should be acting if I couldn't experience it. I mean, if my range is to say something in a natural way, so can a tennis player or a model.

The biggest support in my work is my parents and friends, and even every criticism is a kind of support. But I have had an agreement with Vuk Kostić for a long time to support each other in that sense, to slap each other and raise awareness. We are constantly questioning what is right and what is not. From Buha, I like working with Borka and Katarina the most because we are classics, I like with Raš Vujović and Nemanja Oliverić because we have a similar recognition of humour between the lines, with Denda because he makes me laugh and brightens up every reading rehearsal. I would also like to have a team of my own who have similar views on art. I also wish there was a union to protect us from the employers. That all quality people unite and protect each other. I wouldn't deal with it in a political sense, but I would like it to exist.

Let's have fun

When I want to rest, there is music, every day, and a seasonal board. It's my number one valve. And without music I can't imagine life, there are some songs that I have to hear every day. As far as going out is concerned, I can have a good time everywhere, both at house parties and at folk clubs. I can even have a good time at some rock banter, even though I don't cook it. I like to sit down, I have my own space, and I don't like to push and buzz in ten places. The only place where I like crowds is Plastik.

Warmly recommend

I recommend the play "The Boy Who Promises", the role of Miloš Vlalukin is great. And I can recommend almost every play by Ana Tomović. Then "The Magician" by Stevan Koprivica and Milan Karadžić, if there is a guest appearance in Belgrade. I recommend the movie "Elizabeth - Golden Age" and "Metak". From books, they are "Dnevnik Šonjavka", which made me laugh a lot, and "Memories" by Milutin Milanković, as well as anything by Orwell. Music that always drives me well is "Free Masons", by Des Dillinger, and "Zone B", by Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nina Badrić.