Lena Góra's Guide to Leaning Into Your Masculinity

Words: Gina Tonic | Guide: Lena Góra

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Lena Góra has been on the scene for a while - she’s worked as a model, a writer, director and actor and grew up in one of the most creatively stimulating homes in Poland, the daughter of artist Sławomir Góra and the face of the Polish post-punk movement Ela Wyczyńska. She has a nuanced understanding of the industry, from big budget productions to indie projects and has mastered using the space to analyse her own inner mechanisms.

We speak the day before the New York premiere of Erupcja, the Warsaw based picture that’s picking up press for its unpolished aesthetic, the collaborative nature of the script writing (that often took place as a group the evening before a scene shoot) and the first acting role of budding actress Charli xcx. 

Lena’s character Nel plays lead alongside Charli’s Bethany, a young woman who visits Poland with a boyfriend she knows is set to propose to her. In an effort to blow up the relationship, she hits the tiles with old friend - possibly old flame - Nel. The narrative is deliberately vague about their relationship and Lena confirms this was done on purpose. As we Zoom, Lena tracks how Nel, her life experiences and other roles have helped her to lean into her masculinity.

Recognise Your Masculine Inspirations

Joy Division was called Warsaw before they were called Joy Division, because the post punk scene of Poland in the 80s was so huge and important and my mom was at the forefront of it. She was the youngest of nine and would and she had this sense of fashion that nobody else in her family did. They were a really poor family and she would wear her older brother's oversized suits - men’s suits - and made it into a fashion statement that then became a really big fashion trend in Poland too. I did a movie about my mom where I played my mom. The film's called Imago. I wore these masculine, male, oversized suits, and yet, I'm a woman and singing crazy, weird, post punk music on stage.

When I was literally playing my mom, I felt this 100% blurred line between masculinity and feminine that she embodied. I was so lucky to have been given that from her at an early age.

Check What’s Blocking You From Being Masculine

You just have to check what the fuck is blocking you. If you can't be yourself, that's so scary. Start to really recognise that. It happened to me where, whenever I'm around people I talk a ton, which was me trying to show that I'm having fun, but I was so tired. I was an introvert pretending to be an extrovert and it was killing me, and that wasn't authentic. 

Then I started to think, why am I performing this? What is the trauma in me that is making me pretend I'm something else? At your core name that, see that, recognise that and fucking be done with it. And try to discipline yourself on not doing that anymore. 

And if people are not gonna like you for being an authentic, true self, then that's great, because you wind up around people that you were meant to be around. It's just about falling in love with yourself and really honouring you and not blocking it, because that's what makes people non authentic. So that's the only way.

Avoid Stereotypes

I’ve had roles that could have been played very male gaze-y. Like in Eastern Gate for example, that could classically be written and played as a hot spy chick, who’s wearing PVC outfits, and she's a little dumb and sexy. 

But I was like, “No, I think she's autistic and I think she's a mathematical genius.” So that's how I've created this woman character, which isn't just a woman character, it's just a character who's played by who's a woman. I really build those characters like that and I think that's really the important part, because it's never really given to you and you have to actively create a new way to talk about women in order to participate in these conversations.

Blend The Lines

Straight male masculinity is such a weird thing right now, and in Erupcja we didn't want to really pinpoint that in a too obvious way because we're asking questions and presenting ideas rather than telling you what we think about anything. But for me it is repeatedly tilting back to that masculinity vs femininity edge.

Because back in the day, we would have a movie about a chick getting married, getting into a guy, and then she's like, “I remember that dude that I had the best time with in Warsaw” and then they will go and have a good time. Which is why I don't think this is a lesbian story or a queer story, per se, we just wrote a story. We wrote our own characters. And I really want to tap into something that really interests me right now, which is a neither feminine nor masculine woman, beyond that black and white, the same as me. You know, I’ve been with women in my life. I’ve been with men in my life. But I'm not masculine, nor am I feminine. I'm really realising that that space in between is something that really interests me.