Without a pause, Čtveráčková transformed. Her posture shifted. Her voice dropped an octave. For three minutes, she delivered a harrowing, slang-filled confession that left the room silent. When she finished, the director simply said: “That’s not an accent. That’s a soul.”
The next time a casting director in Prague, London, or New York asks, “Co si můžete zahrát anglicky?” they will already know the name. They will already have seen the reel. And they will already understand that Jana Čtveráčková isn’t just a Czech actor who speaks English. Jana Ctverackova - Co si muzete zahrat anglicky
While many Czech actors shy away from English-language roles due to accent or a lack of training, Čtveráčková has made it a defining pillar of her professional identity. This feature explores how a graduate of DAMU (Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts) became one of the most sought-after bilingual actors in the country, what “playing in English” actually entails for her, and why this skill has reshaped her career trajectory. Jana Čtveráčková’s relationship with English began long before she stepped onto a professional stage. Unlike many of her peers who learned English through mandatory school lessons, Čtveráčková immersed herself in the language out of pure curiosity. Growing up in the post-Velvet Revolution 1990s, she devoured British and American films, often watching them without subtitles. “I loved the rhythm of English,” she once said in an interview with Český rozhlas . “It felt like a different way of thinking, not just a different set of words.” Without a pause, Čtveráčková transformed