“The character of Robespierre is particularly close to my heart, so when Wajda offered me the part seven years ago, I read the play and thought that I didn’t want it, not only…not because it was a difficult part but I simply believed that it was not a part for me. I passed through a certain stage after which I understood this character, meaning that, if I am playing him today, I wanted to play this role in a film anyway. I can very well understand the tragedy of this character. I believe that Robespierre is a tragic character because this man – and that’s how I try to play him in the movie – I’m not playing some dumb politician who wants to achieve some stupid goal. I’m attempting to portray a man who is especially virtuous, and that’s how Robespierre was. I’m trying to play an upright man, a man of deep faith, a fair man, who proceeds in a direct manner until the end. Who at some point begins to understand that tragedy is unavoidable. The combination of these two things: his personal tragedy, in my view, sacrificing his life for a cause. On the other hand, he knew right away that when the terror begins, the end will come. There will be no more talk about the ideals that he believed in.”
— Wojciech Pszoniak, the actor who played Robespierre in Danton. In Wajda’s Danton - Making of Danton [1983]