EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis). The 1995 interview of Irene Papas on MEGA Channel, with Nikos Hatzinikolaou as interviewer and Freddy Germanos assisting, stands as a rare and historic television document. At a time when she had already achieved international acclaim and left an indelible mark on world theatre and cinema, Papas speaks with honesty, reflection, and passion about art, Greece, politics, exile, and human dignity.
The conversation moves far beyond the boundaries of a conventional interview and becomes a profound personal testimony. With her distinctive voice—spare, poetic, and uncompromising—Irene Papas sheds light on the values that shaped her life and career, revealing a personality who was never merely an actress, but an active intellectual presence of her time. This encounter retains its power and relevance to this day, reminding us of the enduring force of the spoken word when it is born of truth and deep conscience.
THE FIRST TWO SHORT PARTS OF THE VIDEO – WHERE IRENE PAPPAS TALKS ABOUT FEMALE BEAUTY – COME WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. THE FULL INTERVIEW THAT FOLLOWS IS ONLY IN GREEK
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I won’t say if Irene Papas was a good actress or not. I will keep my opinion for myself. But I will remind her past in EPON and EAM-ELAS, that she chose to completely erase it from her biographies… She also kept secret her marriage to Aris Velouhiotis in 1944, after she got pregnant… And I will focus on the fact that in 1945 she abandoned their daughter to a random family… In 2004 her daughter went to court asking for a DNA test and that simple thing it was refused to her! Irene Papas kept ignoring her own daughter, actually rejecting her own past…
Here follows the marriage certificate that was found in the municipality of Ypati / Lamia:
https://andistasi.gr/article.php?display=212