Greek actor Dimitris Papanikolaou has spoken about love, freedom, and his fears for the younger generation in an interview with the supplement Nisides and journalist Eva Nikolaidou, given on the occasion of his artistic collaboration with Tamila Koulieva this summer.
On the subject of love, Papanikolaou described it as a tremendous force that drives a person to become the best version of themselves. While acknowledging the common view that romantic love fades into something quieter over time, he said he believed renewal was possible through surprise and sustained effort, and that love was worth the work.
He was more uncertain when the conversation turned to freedom. Papanikolaou said he struggles to locate where freedom actually exists, either in society or in his own life. The closest he could come to an answer was the moment of artistic creation, when a person is seized by inspiration or a burst of creative energy. Outside that moment, he said, he could not see where he himself was free.
The actor spoke with particular emotion about war and its effect on children. His older daughter, a recent school-leaver living in Greece, has been unable to sleep for twenty days because of fear stirred by the image of war, he said, adding that she feels the conflict is close. He described a recurring dream in which the Acropolis no longer exists. She grew up in the Petralona neighbourhood, he explained, and the Acropolis is the first thing she sees when she steps outside. It is, he said, only a small step from going out and seeing nothing at all.
Papanikolaou closed by returning to art, describing the ability of a moving work to unsettle another person as a crack of light he could still see.
