Klaudia Dudová responds to Czech article about back rent: "I wanted to help my family"

In response to an article entitled "Award-winning star of the film ‘The Way Out’ owes back rent" ("Oceněná hvězda filmu Cesta ven dluží na nájemném") published by the Czech news server iDNES.cz and on the front page of the print edition of the daily Mladá fronta DNES under the headline "Star Romani actress never paid for apartment" ("Romská herecká hvězda neplatila za byt") on 1 April 2015, as well as in response to many related media stories, the production team of the film "The Way Out" has published the following response from Klaudia Dudová:  "Well, basically ‘The Way Out’ is seeping into my personal life and the character of Žaneta is stalking me. I wanted to help my family, so I arranged an apartment for them, because I know how to communicate with people, I’m not dark-skinned and many people do not see me as a typical Romani woman. The fact that I was in the film might have played a role, too, but I got the apartment before I received those awards, they just gave it to me. When I signed the lease, the landlord knew that I would not be living there, but that my Mom and her new boyfriend would be. It’s true that they have not paid the rent. When I found that out, I did my best to get them to pay up. They promised to, but they haven’t. So then I didn’t know what to say to my Mom and what to say to the owner, who has the right to his rent. I offered to pay for my Mom and her boyfriend, in three installments, but the landlord rejected that offer, he wants it all at once or nothing. I don’t know why he wouldn’t take the money in three installments and preferred to call the media. Maybe it’s because, as he told me, he thinks I did not deserve to win the Czech Lion award and now I’m getting my comeuppance. I am very sorry that articles are once again making the rounds about how badly Romani people behave and that once again people are able to tar us all with the same brush," Dudová said.  

"We are expressing our extreme dissatisfaction over the way in which this daily, which considers itself a serious newspaper, published this sensationalist article without bothering to verify the information beforehand, an article that supports racist stereotypes that are entrenched in part of Czech society. A legal representative will be contacting the owner of the apartment soon in order to bring this entire ‘scandal’ to an end. We express our full support for Klaudia and we look forward to working with her in future," write the director of the film "The Way Out", Petr Václav, and the film’s producers Karel Chvojka, Miloš Lochman and Jan Macola.

Zbyšek Studecký, the owner of the apartment in question, claims he never received an offer from Dudová to pay the debt off in installments.