In less than a decade Hannah Herzsprung has become the most exciting actress in German cinema. After her breakthrough role as a murderer in Four Minutes she had supporting parts in the Oscar nominated The Baader Meinhof Complex and the Oscar winning The Reader, and she continued choosing projects that showcase her diversity. 2014 gave us her most wondrous performance to date in Dominik Graf’s sweeping Beloved Sisters, a Jules and Jim-like biopic in which she plays Caroline von Beultwitz, the lover of poet Friedrich Schiller (Florian Stetter) who happened to be married to her sister Charlotte (Henriette Confurius). Herzsprung’s Caroline was a delightful combination of earthiness, estoicisim and unending passion, and rightfully earned her some of the best reviews of her career.
In 2015 she starred in Baran bo Odar’s Who Am I - No System is Safe in which she plays a supporting part which has her in a world of hackers and internet conspiracies, a world that could not be farther from that of Caroline von Beultwitz if it tried, and yet the actress disappears into both parts with equal commitment. Hannah was in New York City during the Kino Film Festival where she promoted Odar’s cyber-thriller. We had the opportunity to sit down with her and discuss her work, how she discovered she wanted to act, and what’s next for her.
Just a few years ago we saw the issue of how the German Chancellor feared her phone had been tapped by Americans, and it seems like everyone in the world is losing their anonymity and privacy. When you signed up to do Who Am I - No System is Safe were you thinking about the importance of the subject matter?
Yes that’s true, it’s interesting because if you ask people if they are afraid, me included, I’m not really afraid because otherwise I would go crazy. If you accept using these new technologies and accept all the positive things, of course there are also negatives, but if you try to behave (laughs) and are careful you’ll be alright. Are we really ever safe in the world? One of the reasons why I loved the script so much is because it explains really well what’s going on in the world. The author said he wanted his mother to understand, because this world is hard to understand.
That’s funny but also true because sometimes people from older generations seem scared of technology. Have you drawn the line at any point with technology? Do you wish we went back to non-smart phones?
(Laughs) The thing is that this new way of communication opened so many doors, so I don’t miss the old. Of course sometimes I think when I was younger, I mean I’m not that old, but in school we had to read books and now you can find anything instantly. I guess what I really miss is that back then you could concentrate more on what you wanted to do because nowadays everything goes by so fast. I’m a person that sits down and concentrates, I like sitting and reading paper books.
I think The Silence is terrific and when I saw Who Am I which is tonally so different…
The Silence is such an amazing movie!
It’s so creepy!
I know and the subject is so creepy, but I was amazed because the way he showed the subject felt like the only way you could represent it.
How is Baran as a director with actors? I got a feeling that he’s the kind of filmmaker who stays away and lets you do your thing, without overdirecting.
No, he’s really good. He’s a watcher, he sees everything and he makes you feel safe and secure which gives you the freedom to do so much, because you know when it’s too much he’ll say something, but on the other hand he prepares everything so well and casts his characters so well that he already knows what he’ll get.
You’ve been working with some of the greatest European filmmakers like Baran, Uli Edel, Dominik Graf...and you keep being called the new “it girl” in so many articles. Is that strange?
(Laughs) I’m just really proud of the movies I was able to do. It all started ten years ago when I did my first real movie which was seen and was out there, and then people wanted to work with me and I got all these great offers with these great people you mentioned. If you had told me when I was little that I would work with them I wouldn’t have believed it, I love this job, it’s the best in the world and I’m so happy and grateful to get the opportunity to play this range of characters. I’m really, really grateful (knocks on wood), I’ve been lucky.
Your father is a famous actor and your mom is a fashion designer, but I read that it wasn’t until you were a teenager that you realized what your father did for work and that before that you had never thought of wanting to do anything related to theatre or film.
Not really, I was so young, we had a really nice house in the countryside and they asked us if they could shoot a movie there, and my father was away most of the time working in different cities and whenever he came back he didn’t share his work with us because for him it was important to be daddy and take care of us. He wanted to know how we were and how people were treating us, he’s such a great dad and all he cared about was us. But then they shot this movie in our house and I saw a ten year old girl who was the lead actress and I thought it was so cool. The girl lived in my room and I thought I could do that too, so my mom said “ask your dad”, but he said “no way, you need to finish school, I love that industry but it’s really crazy and you should study something first and then decide if you want to act”. I’m thankful he did that because it is a tough industry. I actually went to my first audition without telling my parents (laughs) but they kept insisting I finished school first and if I wanted to act, I could do both but never quit my education.
Watching Beloved Sisters you seemed to be so at home in outdoor scenes and I thought it made sense after I found out you’d spent most of your childhood in the country. As an actress did you find it easier to slip into the part of Caroline because you felt familiar with her surroundings?
Of course, all your experiences in life help you create your characters, you have to get your feelings and emotions from somewhere. I also had a sister like Caroline, even though I was the younger one as opposed to the movie, but knowing how a younger sister behaved helped me. Everything in your life is a gift you can use to create your characters, then there’s also Dominik who is an amazing director for actors. If you ask in Germany to any actor they all want to work with him, they all say whatever Dominik asks just say yes, just do it. Working with him is the most amazing experience, so I was obviously very excited.
One of my favorite things about Caroline is that she’s very independent and “modern” in a way, but you’re not playing her using anachronistic behavior. You kept yourself to the behavior of the time and gave her a timeless soul.
I know what you mean, reviews in Germany were amazing and they kept mentioning the modern elements of the movie. It’s also a beautiful love story, even though it’s a menage a trois, I feel like the emotions Dominik showed were very moving. We were also using old German, which can be very theatrical and “too much”, but Dominik made us work on getting the melody of the sentences right, so it felt like we were saying something “real”.
Were you intimidated at all by the idea of playing a historical character?
Oh my god yes! At times I was scared, in a good way of course, it felt a little bit like preparing for a big theatre role which I’ve never done. Dominik was so helpful during the preparation, I knew he chose me because he saw something in me which he knew I’d bring to Caroline. I think being nervous is a good sign too, because the first shooting days are so exciting, you get to meet all the people, try on the costumes, get used to the settings, it always takes a little time to get into the character.
What’s Dominik like during the shoot?
He hardly rehearses, rehearsals were about reading the lines and getting the right melody on the sentences. Then we went to the set and he needs to concentrate a lot, so it was the quietest set I have ever been in. He shoots the first takes because otherwise he’s scared he’ll miss the magic moments, which I thought was very interesting. He would tell me “this is your room, this is where you’ll come from”, he prepares everything in advance and of course the screenplay was greatly written, you read it and you knew what you had to do. But we never rehearsed scenes, he just shot from the beginning. I’m starting a film in May and we were rehearsing and had a great moment and the director went “damn it, why wasn’t I shooting this?”, so I get why Dominik does it.
What have you discovered about yourself when you watch your films?
I don’t always like watching myself, but I do like to see how the movies look. When the cameras are on I forget about myself, I don’t think anymore, thinking is what happens before, but the moment we shoot it’s all about the character. When I watch the films I’m realizing what happened and have thoughts like “really? This is all you can see? I was feeling so much more during that moment” (laughs).
In Beloved Sisters particularly I kept thinking how much you reminded me of Romy Schneider. Would you be interested in playing her? Have people approached you about this?
Oh thank you, that’s such a great compliment. Yes, but there’s already a great movie about her, a great colleague Jessica Schwarz played her already. Romy had such charisma and I think you can’t play that (laughs), what she brought to the screen and what she gave the audience is just so, I don’t know, she just had it. There are so many movies she was in and so many documentaries that make me think I’m fine with that, so I take it as a big compliment when people say I remind them of her, because I love her, but it would be too big a thing to play her.
What other actresses inspire you?
Meryl Streep, what she does with her characters and how different she is can be amazing. I really love Marion Cotillard, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman because when I saw Leon we were the same age and I grew up watching her, so I always felt close to her. But there are so many, I could sit here with you all day talking about actresses! I love Jennifer Lawrence, what she did in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, she is so real and so there, I love watching her.
What are you working on next?
It’s really great cause I’m working with Chris Kraus, the director with whom I did my first film, Four Minutes, and it’s really sad because he only does movies every four years (laughs) so I have to tell him to do more films because I love working with him and his scripts are great. The lead in our film is Adèle Haenel who is a great up and coming French actress and I’m so excited to work with her. We’re also working with Lars Eidinger who was also in Hell another movie I made, he’s a great theatre actor, did a great Hamlet.
It’s so sad that there so many films we never get to see because of distribution.
Even in Germany though, there are movies that people put their hearts into and they don’t get seen. You’re lucky to get a part and then you need to be lucky to have your film seen as well. I think that the new media is helpful to get your movies out there as well, things like self promotion are so important, because there are so many amazing films from all over the world and they really need to be seen by as many people as possible.
Beloved Sisters is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. For more information on the Kino Film Festival visit their official site.
