Sandra Hüller talks to The Hollywood Reporter about her early career, being referred to as the "Queen of Cannes" and the importance of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00 I never found anything as fulfilling and thrilling
00:04 and anything that would make me this happy
00:09 and would make me feel this alive.
00:11 I was interested in music, that was all.
00:13 And so when this acting thing started,
00:16 I felt this is what I want to do.
00:18 It's just, it was very simple.
00:19 (gentle music)
00:23 (gentle music)
00:26 Requiem was my first film and I still remember
00:38 and it kind of set the tone for every work that came after
00:41 because it was such a good model
00:43 for how film work could be going.
00:46 It was very non-hierarchical
00:50 and the whole crew and everybody was really close.
00:52 We had very little time, very little money,
00:55 but the sense of how we felt protected all the time
01:00 so that nothing could really go wrong
01:01 and nothing could hurt us.
01:03 - At least one publication called you the Queen of Cannes.
01:08 - It's always two sides of the blade
01:12 because of course it's great to be recognized
01:14 for what you do.
01:16 It's, yeah, it's really, really nice
01:18 for the ego and everything.
01:20 But secondly, I didn't read all these things
01:23 because it just make me nervous
01:24 because expectations are so high
01:27 and I would never feel like I could do it
01:31 as good as people would expect me to do it.
01:33 So it was a bit of a, I don't know.
01:36 It's not something that you wish for
01:41 to play a fascist woman or a person.
01:46 It's something that I had refused till that point.
01:49 And what convinced me was basically really
01:52 the work with Jonathan and his thoughts
01:54 and his attempt to not take away all the doubts
01:59 but work with them and working with Christian Friedl.
02:04 There were, yeah, there were different reasons
02:07 than playing a hus.
02:09 Yes, I do feel a big responsibility as a German
02:15 to not be silent about it
02:17 and also not to be silent about it today,
02:19 about the developments in the world today,
02:22 to point them out and to fight them.
02:24 Well, I think I fell in love with characters
02:30 in the first place.
02:31 I really, really loved them.
02:32 And that didn't work in this case.
02:36 So I had to find something else.
02:38 But normally I'm thinking about it.
02:39 It's like when you're in love,
02:40 you think about the person all the time.
02:42 What would they do now?
02:44 What would they think now?
02:46 How does that feel?
02:47 And then when you go more into detail,
02:49 when you work with the script
02:51 and you try and find out what would be a good way
02:55 to say these things that are in the first place
02:57 maybe something that you never thought of before
03:00 or something that never came close to you before.
03:03 It's a very tender, silent thing.
03:08 It's a mix between decisions that I make consciously
03:12 and things that just happen to me.
03:15 I think that I'm more funny by accident.
03:21 I'm more funny when things go wrong.
03:23 When I really try to do something and it just doesn't work.
03:26 Like the funny out of desperation.
03:30 That's the thing that I can do.
03:32 But I cannot do any punchline at all.
03:35 It's like when I know the end of the joke,
03:38 I'm kind of out of the, I don't know, I'm bored.
03:42 I think it's really important to stand up
03:46 for what you think is the right thing.
03:49 I think it's important that people can pay their rent.
03:53 That's the least thing that we must do with our jobs.
03:56 And I think what really, really amazes me
04:00 of what I don't think if it's possible in Germany,
04:03 the unity of my fellow actors in America
04:08 is something that I wouldn't have expected.
04:11 It's something really, really strong
04:13 and I can give all my respect to it.
04:16 When I watch videos of fellow actors from America,
04:21 of course I see that it's a very different work.
04:25 Because when they talk about it,
04:27 it's a lot more preparation.
04:29 There is a lot more technique.
04:30 All these things that I love to leave to coincidence
04:35 or to the moment or whatever.
04:38 Like going to set and see what happens.
04:40 But yeah, I think it's very different from European acting.
04:45 I think for me, success means that I can go on working
04:52 in my job and don't have to fear
04:56 that people's fantasies are fading.
05:00 That's that.
05:01 I think that's all.
05:02 (gentle music)
05:05 (gentle music)