february-2011

INTERVIEW:
ANNA MARIA MÜHE
At only 25, German actress Anna Maria Mühe is already a fi lm
veteran. Her latest movie, In der Welt habt ihr Angst, is set for
general release on 3 March
Anna Maria Mühe may
be the daughter of the
actors Ulrich Mühe
and Jenny Gröllmann, but
these days she’s famous in her
own right. GW met up with her
in Berlin’s Cosmo Hotel to talk
88—GW
about her new fi lm.
In In der Welt habt ihr Angst,
you play a drug addict. How did
you prepare for the role?
I watched a lot of fi lms about
heroin use, everything from
Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo
(Christiane F) to Candy with
Heath Ledger. The book by the
Spiegel editor Jörg Böckem (Let
Me Survive the Night), who was a
heroin addict, is also really well
written and blunt and honest.
This kind of relentlessness was
a really important part of
preparing for the role.
You basically portray heroin
withdrawal for 90 minutes.
That must have been a huge
physical and mental challenge.
Yes, the most important thing
is having everything explained
to you very precisely. Starting
with really banal stuff like how
to use a syringe, to the feeling
you get when the drugs enter
your body and start working.
I’m very precise about that kind
of thing. I’m not a method actor
– that would be diffi cult with
this subject matter anyway
– but in Berlin there’s an
organisation called Synanon,
which helps drug addicts get
vocational training. They were
very helpful and open.
The director Hans Geißendörfer
said both protagonists had to
lose weight for their roles. Your
co-star Max von Thun lost 14kg.
What about you?
14kg? The show-off ! I’m going to
call him right now. What an
exaggeration! No, we were
actually very thin, we looked
I N T E R V I E W
really rough. I managed eight
kilos, but I can’t do more than
that. I’m 1.60m and I was already
only around 46kg. You have to
survive the fi lming, after all!
How long did you shoot for?
12-14 hours a day, for six weeks
and it was really demanding.
But the feeling of being hungry
helped make that non-feeling of
withdrawal more physical, and
I was able to use that. I was
always tired and cold, and I felt
like I was on the verge of a cold
the whole time.
That sounds like hard work
The worst thing was, I had to
diet for the role while we were
fi lming in Austria. It’s the worst
place in the world to go on a diet.
I wasn’t supposed to eat carbs for
three months and I love pasta.
Geißendörfer described you as
a thoroughbred actress. What’s
your response?
How lovely! I’m happy to hear
that, especially from him.
He also said that the fi lm isn’t
about drugs but rather love.
Who was your fi rst love?
Oh, fi rst love – those are big
words. No idea. You probably
only realise later, in retrospect.
Are you in love?
No comment!
But you’ve got such a lovely
laugh...
Then write that then!