GFQ 2-2007 - german films

“At the time, I set myself a personal test: if it all goes well, then that’s
what I will do, that will be my profession,” Nina says. “Fortunately, it
went really well and so I continued acting and singing until I decided
during high-school to start applying for a place at one of the drama
schools.”
Hoss was accepted by the famous Hochschule fuer Schauspielkunst
“Ernst Busch” – where she studied at the same time as Yella co-star
Devid Striesow – and praises the “very good personal training and the
fact that I had a voice coach who was specially working with me
rath er than doing this in a group. The studies were predominantly
geared to acting on the stage, and film really only became aware of
me by chance.”
“The teaching approach was a bit like Stella Adler,” Nina explains.
“You learn from out of a situation and put yourself into a character.
You aim to preserve an openess about the relationship of the character
to the space he or she is in and to the other figures.”
The first brush with cinema came before Nina had even made the
move from her home town of Stuttgart to Berlin to start her studies
at “Ernst Busch”: Joseph Vilsmaier was looking for a lead actress for
his next feature And Nobody Weeps For Me and was given her
name by an acting friend. Nina was in her final year at school, but
Vilsmaier liked what he saw and cast her shortly before the film went
before the camera.
Her performance in Vilsmaier’s film was subsequently seen by producer
Bernd Eichinger who was preparing his directorial debut with a
remake of A Girl Called Rosemarie as part of SAT.1’s “German
Classics”. Screen tests were made – just a month into her studies at
acting school – and the rest is, as they say, history.
Nina’s lead role as Rosemarie catapulted into the headlines and subsequently
the hearts of audiences in cinemas and theater alike, winning
the Golden Camera of the HÖRZU listings magazine, the German
Video Prize, and the Golden Lion for her performance. But despite
many tempting offers for film and TV work, she resolutely stayed on
the course at “Ernst Busch” to complete her studies. “I wanted to be
on the stage and also enjoy being a student, something you don’t
always have a chance to do,” Nina says.
As her subsequent career shows, she has been able to combine work -
ing for theater and film: “I am not afraid of the stage,” she explains. “I
was helped by the fact that I come from a theater family and had good
advisors and an agent to support me.”
On her graduation from drama school, she became a member of the
company at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater on the invitation of Thomas
Langhoff where she stayed for two years before trying her luck with
freelance status (she has become a permanent member of the company
again since 2005). Nevertheless, she often returned as a guest to
appear at the Deutsches Theater in productions by such directors as
Michael Thalheimer (Emilia Galotti, Einsame Menschen) or Barbara
Frey (Minna von Barnhelm). In March of this year, she received the
Gertrud Eysoldt Ring, one of the most respected acting awards in the
German speaking area, for her interpretation of Eurypides’ Medea in
Frey’s production.
“I have also been able to coordinate my theater engagements with
roles for the cinema projects,” Nina observes. “The theater is like a
home away from home for me because it gives me a continuity to
work with interesting people again and again. The combination of
stage and cinema is good for me – I would really miss it if one of them
was gone because I find that my work in films is something I can use
for my roles on the stage.”
Her regular collaborations with certain theater directors is reflected
in her work for the cinema with the now long-standing working
partner ship with Christian Petzold: she first worked with him on
Something to Remind Me in 2001 and followed this a year later
with Wolfsburg, both performances winning her one of the covet -
ed Adolf Grimme Awards, and was then cast in the title role of
Petzold’s 2007 Berlinale competition film Yella.
“Christian has a similar approach to me: he revolves around the story
and the figure and gives me such a freedom,” Nina explains. “I like the
way that he talks about the plot and the characters – he never be -
comes concrete. I don’t like it when a director tells you in detail how
you should play a scene. A good director should give you space and
their confidence in your ability. The work with Christian is all about
give and take.”
“When I am making a decision about which role to accept, I look to
see if I feel the story is coherent and the figure is interesting for me,”
Nina continues. “And I also think about the other people involved in
the project. In fact, there are so many different factors that lead to this
decision.”
Nina Hoss has often been said to have almost magical qualities in the
way she can slip from one character into another, but she finds it hard
to identify that one film role which was a particular challenge. “Every
film and character is a challenge in its own way. I always have the feel -
ing that each role brings you a little further and that it is an ongoing
process,” she suggests. In her theater work, though, she has no problem
naming the role which was a real challenge for her as an actress:
the award-winning performance as Medea.
Winning the Silver Bear in February is sure to have put Nina’s name on
to the radar of many international producers who were perhaps not
so aware of her work, although she did become known to a wider
international audience after the Toronto premiere of Hermine
Huntgeburth’s The White Masai in 2005.
With genuine modesty, the young actress says that she doesn’t want
to get too caught up in the excitement generated at the Berlinale and
prefers to let things take their course. While she is “very satisfied”
with what is now possible in German cinema and the success of the
films on an international level, Nina wouldn’t be averse to taking on
roles in international productions.
A start will be made this month [May] with Marie Noelle and Peter
Sehr’s German-French-Spanish co-production Die Frau des
Anarchisten where she will be required to speak her lines in
French, playing opposite such internationally respected colleagues as
Laura Morante and Jean-Marc Barr. Then, in June, she will follow this
with the lead role in Max Faerberboeck’s Anonyma, to be shot in
Berlin and in St. Petersburg, with Russian actors. “I think it is enriching
for me to act in another language because you get to become
acquainted with other cultures, languages and people,” Nina suggests.
“One gets to see different ways of acting and other approaches to the
characters, and that’s what I like about this greater openness in
European cinema!”
Nina Hoss spoke with Martin Blaney
german films quarterly actress’ portrait
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