Greek actress Katerina Lehou, who lit the Olympic Flame playing the role of an ancient High Priestess at the birthplace of the Games in April. [Photo/Xinhua]

ATHENS -- The curtain of the Rio 2016 Olympics will open on Friday with the Olympic cauldron being lit by the sacred flame gathered in Greece. Greek actress Katerina Lehou who lit the Olympic Flame playing the role of an ancient High Priestess at the birthplace of the Games in April, talked to Xinhua about the substance of the Olympic Games, what the Flame symbolizes and the messages she wishes to convey to the world.

Lehou will be in Rio on Aug 5, along with the Lighting ceremony's choreographer Artemis Ignatiou, invited by the International Olympic Committee.

Before packing her luggage, she talked about the special "journey" she has started over the past two years with her involvement in the Olympic movement.

"Journey" is the word she has picked for her four year term as a High Priestess since she took over in 2014 ahead of the Nanjing Youth Games, she explained.

She feels that this is something more than just another role. It has a metaphysical dimension. She feels she travels further each time she plays the part lighting the Flame. She feels the burden, the honor and the joy of becoming the medium to awaken consciousness so that people may remember and embrace again the Olympic ideals of Truce, acceptance, peaceful coexistence at times of war conflicts and racism.

"If I can remind all these things with my presence and this action it is much deeper and significant than moving someone during a play which lasts two hours. It has philosophical extensions, metaphysics extensions which theater plays we are presenting not always have," she said.

"It has a very special weight. And it is one of the things that make me feel proud of being Greek today. And this is also important," she stressed.

In the first beginning, Lehou did not have a burning desire of taking up the role. But once the Hellenic Olympic Committee made the proposal she realized that this was a journey in life that she wanted to make. Not all Greek actresses are suitable for the post. The criteria are strict.

"I think that they select us based on our personalities, so the issue is how I will manage to add the part of my personality in the Lighting ceremony. That is why I am a little bit older, I have taken my own personal course, I am not a young girl which is starting now, I have lived 30 years working. I think that all these are playing a part in the selection process," she explained.

In her first Lighting ceremony at the Panathinaic stadium in Athens she got emotional and could not understand where this feeling comes from. At the ancient stadium of Olympia the emotions multiplied.