Joanna Kulig

Joanna Kulig — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

1998–2018: Career beginnings and stardom in Poland

In 1998, Kulig won an episode of the Polish television talent show A Chance for Success by performing Grzegorz Turnau's song "Między ciszą a ciszą". As a result, she advanced to the show's annual final, in which she came third. Turnau later invited her to sing with him on his 2002 album Nawet. Kulig also participated in season two of the Polish television talent show Idol in 2002. She was eliminated in the semi-finals.

In 2006, while still in drama school, she made her stage debut as Hermia in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Helena Modrzejewska National Old Theatre in Kraków. In 2007, she starred in Grzegorz Pacek's drama Wednesday, Thursday Morning, which marked her film debut and earned her the Polish Film Festival award for Best Debut. She followed this with the titular role in the 2008 television play Doktor Halina. Kulig later admitted that seeing herself in the play on television convinced her to return to acting as she quit briefly. She said: "When I was trying to convince myself that it was over and I quit as it was not for me, Doktor Halina came on TV. I was impressed. I was sitting watching this performance and thought: 'Gosh, I'm really not that bad!'". Her performance caught the attention of director Paweł Pawlikowski, and he invited her to audition for the lead role in his film Ida. Although deemed unfit for the part, she impressed Pawlikowski who became determined to work with her on another project. While making his 2011 psychological thriller The Woman in the Fifth, he created a role that was not originally in the script specifically for her. In the film, set in Paris, she portrayed Ania, a Polish barmaid who falls in love with the protagonist American writer Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke). In 2011, Kulig was also partnered with Juliette Binoche for Małgorzata Szumowska's drama Elles, similarly set in Paris, in which she played Alicja, a Polish economics student who moonlights as a prostitute. She learned to speak French for both parts. While the films premiered to a mixed reception, Kulig's performance in the latter received praise. Kevin Jagernauth of IndieWire opined that she "has the potential to be breakout star boasting a strong screen presence and an undeniable beauty". She won Best Supporting Actress at the Polish Academy Awards and Polish Film Festival. Aside from these two projects, 2011 saw Kulig appear in the war drama Remembrance, in which she performed in German. She also starred in the 2011 Polish comedies: Los numeros, Million Dollars and Dance Marathon. She earned a Golden Duck nomination for Best Actress for her performances in the last two.

Kulig received her second Polish Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Jacek Borcuch's drama Lasting, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was described by The Hollywood Reporter as "fine-tuned on every level". Later that year, she appeared in Pawlikowski's Academy Award-winning drama Ida, and in Eun-jin Pang's film Way Back Home. Initially considered to play the title character in the former, she was instead cast in a smaller role of a nightclub singer. Kulig also had a small part in the 2013 blockbuster Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which required her to wear prosthetics. In preparation for the English-speaking role, she worked with dialect coach Andrew Jack. In 2014, Kulig was cast in a leading role on the Polish sitcom Don't Worry About Me, starring as Iga in its first nine seasons until 2018. She next starred in the romantic comedies Sophie Seeks Seven (2014) and Warsaw by Night (2015), and in the commercially successful films Disco Polo (2015) and Pitbull: Tough Women (2016). Disco Polo, directed by her husband Maciej Bochniak, saw her in the role of a disco polo star Gensonina. In Pitbull: Tough Women, Poland's highest-grossing film of 2016 and the seventh highest-grossing Polish film of all time, Kulig played a policewoman Zuza. She also portrayed Sister Irena in Anne Fontaine's critically acclaimed 2016 World War II drama The Innocents inspired by the true story of Polish Catholic nuns who became pregnant from rape by Soviet soldiers stationed near their convent.

2018–2024: International recognition

Kulig's international breakthrough came in 2018 when she starred in Pawlikowski's historical drama film Cold War. The film marked their third collaboration, which prompted Pawlikowski to call her his "muse". The part of Zula, a woman in post-war Poland who joins a folk music touring group, was once again written by Pawlikowski with her in mind. Kulig was drawn to the role as it required her to sing and dance, allowing her to showcase her talents; she trained with a folk group for half a year in preparation for the part. In the film, she notably performs the traditional Polish folk song "Dwa serduszka" ("Two Hearts"), termed by Vulture as "the movie's unofficial theme song". Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote that she "delivers a star-making performance of astonishing range and depth", and Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle stated that "she takes the role of a lifetime between her teeth, chomps on it, pounds it into the ground and never lets go for a second." According to Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, "in a fair world ... Kulig would not only be a serious contender for a best actress nom, but would quickly become an in-demand actress in Hollywood, too." Kulig received the Best Actress Award at the 31st European Film Awards, and the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. That same year, she played local priest's pregnant girlfriend in Wojciech Smarzowski's film Clergy, which went on to become the highest-grossing Polish film of all time. Due to its themes of child abuse, corruption and alcoholism in the Catholic Church in Poland, the film caused controversy especially among right-wing groups in the largely Catholic country and led to a nationwide debate about the role of the church in the Polish society. In 2019, she was cast in the recurring role of Johanna, titular character's mother, in Amazon Studios series Hanna.

Kulig starred as Polish jazz singer Maja in Damien Chazelle's 2020 Netflix musical drama series The Eddy. The character was originally intended to be American, but after meeting with Chazelle the part was rewritten for her. In 2021, Kulig was cast as the lead in TVN thriller series Spider's Web playing a spider behaviour specialist trying to unravel the mystery of the death of her mother and sister. She served as one of the jurors of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. That year, she had a starring role opposite Gilles Lellouche in the action thriller Kompromat, directed by Jérôme Salle. Her part was French- and Russian-speaking, and she worked with dialect coaches in preparation for it. The film was released to mixed reception, and of Kulig's role Paste's Andy Crump wrote: "Diminishing the shine of an actress as luminous as Kulig is an impressive feat, but she's left darkened as Lellouche's object of desire, unable to perform beyond the single dimension given to her."

In 2023, Kulig appeared in Rebecca Miller's romantic comedy She Came to Me alongside Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei and Brian d'Arcy James. She was Miller's first choice for the role of a Polish immigrant Magdalena as she regards her "the greatest Polish actress, I know". Despite the mixed reception of the film, Kate Erbland of IndieWire found Kulig's performance "heartbreaking", and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter thought that "only Kulig ... registers as a compassionate presence grounded in a modicum of truth." Kulig next starred as a wife of a man transitioning to a woman in socially conservative Poland in Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert's drama Woman Of..., which premiered at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival to critical acclaim. The role earned her a nomination for the Polish Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Kulig also had a supporting role in Michael Keaton's 2023 noir thriller Knox Goes Away, and made a guest appearance in Apple TV+ 2024 miniseries Masters of the Air set during World War II. Reviewing the former, Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood said that "she makes an impression as Knox's faithful lover". In Masters of the Air, she played a Polish war widow who crosses paths with Major John "Bucky" Egan (Callum Turner) during his stay in London; a fan of director Cary Joji Fukunaga, she accepted the role as she wanted to work with him.